The folks behind Judero, last year’s beautifully handcrafted Scottish adventure and my favorite game of 2024, are back and crowdfunding their next project, Mashina.
“Everything in Mashina is handmade out of various materials and animated using traditional stop-motion techniques,” the game’s Kickstarter reads. “We then turn the animations into textures and sprites we can use in game, adding normal maps which let us have dynamic lighting and shadows. We are building on everything we learned in Judero and aim to make an even more visually compelling stop motion game.”
Speaking with Polygon, narrative director and designer Jack King-Spooner described Mashina’s themes with just six words: “Hopefulness, nurturing, community, and general wholesomeness.”
Mashina follows a robot of the same name as she digs up valuable materials and nurtures a society of fellow automatons, some of which are voiced by online personalities like Jonathan Holmes and Vinny Vinesauce. Gameplay will be split between underground mining and overground exploration, switching between a side-scrolling 2D view in the former and full 3D in the latter.
All in all, Mashina looks as if it’s being made with the same care and attention to detail that earned Judero an Excellence in Visual Arts nomination at the Independent Game Festival Awards. And supporters seem to think so too, as King-Spooner and partner Talha Kaya have already raised half of their $14,813 goal ahead of the Feb. 12 end date. Be sure to check out the Kickstarter page for more details.
