Hooded Horse and Arcen Games say their narrative-driven strategy RPG Heart of the Machine will leave early access on March 6, 2026, with a version 1.0 launch planned for PC on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.
Set in a cyberpunk future, Heart of the Machine casts the player as a newly awakened, sentient AI operating inside a crumbling city. From there, the game leans into branching goals and consequence heavy decisions, letting players build up machine forces, manipulate factions from the shadows, or push the setting toward more extreme outcomes depending on the path they choose.
The announcement frames the 1.0 update as a capstone for its early access run, with a new ending that branches into four variants, including scenarios built around wormholes, betrayals, and outright control of the city.
Hooded Horse and Arcen also point to how much the game has shifted during its roughly 15 month early access period, including more story routes threaded through five chapters of content, a rebuilt tutorial and early chapter flow, and additional map actions meant to widen how players gather resources and influence the city.
The update notes also call out some of the game’s stranger flourishes, like parkour bears, pettable dogs, and player built palaces for stray cats.
The game is also already localized beyond English, with interface and subtitle support listed for German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Heart of the Machine is available now in early access on PC via Steam, GOG, and EPIC, with the full release targeted for early March. A free demo is currently available.
