Engine of Sin is a new entry in the as-yet-unnamed genre of hybrid simulator / horror games popularized by 2022’s Iron Lung: games where the player pilots a terrifyingly complex vehicle, contending with industrial controls spread across multiple stations while trying to survive an even worse outside threat. The new game, by two-person team Swimming Scorpions, puts the player in the command deck of a walking war engine – a cross between a Pacific Rim Jäger and a Warhammer 40k Titan. Game designer and programmer Maciej Machowicz was happy to talk with Wargamer about the game’s development, what players can expect, and why he’s so damn obsessed with Mecha.
In Engine of Sin, the player is the sole surviving crew member of a machine that should, by all rights, be operated more like a battle-ship. This iron monster was built to fight kaiju, and that’s part of what you’re doing – but as Machowicz says, “A single human body and mind is simply not enough to properly operate such a massive war engine”. “The feeling of being alone inside the giant machine, overwhelmed by its many systems while Kaijus are creeping outside, is central to the Engine of Sin core concept”.
I already have stress dreams about not being able to operate complex machinery, so that already sounds like a horror game to me – but there’s another strand of horror. You don’t call a vehicle ‘Engine of Sin’ without it being at least a little bit cursed.
Throughout the campaign you will unlock more of the machine, discover what happened to the crew, and if doing that while fighting off Kaiju is too challenging, “there is a solution: replacing biological limitations with the sturdiness of metal, injecting data spikes directly, and making bargains with the machine itself”, says Machowicz. “The real question is where the player draws the line between becoming more effective and cutting themselves off from their humanity.”
If you’re familiar with Warhammer 40k’s Titans, and the risks of sinking too deeply into the Mind Interface Unit with a Titan’s Machine Spirit, you’re not imagining the parallels – Machowicz is a massive fan of tabletop gaming, with armies for Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, Horus Heresy, and several skirmish games including Kill Team, Fallout Factions, Batman, and Infinity. “I even have my own small skirmish tabletop system in the works – maybe it will be completed and published someday”, he says.
“My first idea for Engine of Sin sparked when I was playing Adeptus Titanicus (2018 edition) – easily one of the best games GW has ever released”, he recalls. “I’ve always been drawn to the ‘bigger-than-it-should-be’ weapons in tabletop wargames – I started playing Star Wars Armada just to put on the table the Onager-class Star Destroyer”, he says, “and in AT, the Warlord Titan with twin Belicosa Volcano Cannons delivered exactly that feeling”. “But there was more than just raw destruction”, he adds. “Maneuvering unwieldy war machines, managing big command terminals for the units, Titans blowing up when you overcharged the reactor – it is the experience that I want to translate into video game form”.
Machowicz was a mecha fan before he discovered Warhammer, starting with the Megazord in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers – from there he went onto MechWarrior 2 on PC and his first ever tabletop wargame, Battletech. “If I had to say what makes mech media so compelling, it’s the mix of heavy machinery – ‘tank porn’ if you will – and stories that push both the pilot’s will and the mech capability to their limits”, he muses, “not to mention the obvious one: epic battles!” His recommendation for anyone wanting more of that flavor is “Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans; probably the strongest story in the franchise, great mecha designs, and while the animation isn’t always top-tier, the rest more than makes up for it”.
Machowicz says his “taste was formed in the late ’90s”, so “Doom, Quake II, and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division were the games I pointed to when discussing the game’s art direction” with art director Marius Krzywicki, and “the obvious tabletop inspirations are the vast Warhammer 40,000 universe, Trench Crusade, and Warzone”. Krzywicki “had to turn those ideas into a cohesive visual style by mixing Roman defensive architecture, dieselpunk, and early medieval manuscript illustrations”, and “he also drew inspiration from the works of Adrian Smith, Gerald Brom, and the recently departed John Blanche” to create something with “an oppressive, grimdark feel, but also a touch of nostalgia for the ’90s”.
There’s no release date for Engine of Sin, but you can wishlist the game on Steam if you’re interested. There’s an emerging genre of Iron Lung-inspired sims-with-sinister-stories – a genre-in-waiting that includes in-development games PVKK, Ironclad, and Carcass Clad – and it still doesn’t have a name. Machowicz says “I’ve started calling them ‘Iron Lung orphans’ and ‘cockpit horror'”, but “I think coming up with the term is ultimately the job of the players and the press”. I’m stumped, so if you’ve got a smart idea, come and share it in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
