Most party games are already perfectly capable of destroying friendships without throwing rifles, minefields and fatal workplace machinery into the equation.
Machine Party has decided to add them anyway.
The violent multiplayer collection from Buckshot Roulette creator Mike Klubnika and co-developer GDeavid will launch for PC through Steam on 30 July 2026, publisher Oro Interactive has announced.
Designed for two to four players, Machine Party takes familiar party-game ideas and feeds them through Klubnika’s particular brand of grimy industrial horror. There are 15 minigames in total, and losing them does not appear to result in anything as merciful as missing out on a few points.
Friendly competition is officially dead
Machine Party throws its unfortunate test subjects into a series of increasingly ridiculous life-or-death challenges.
One game has players desperately shovelling down peas against the clock. Another lets someone take shots at friends attempting to escape. Elsewhere, players must sprint up an endless escalator while something deadly closes in behind them.
The exact rules may change from one round to the next, but the central lesson seems fairly consistent: trusting your friends is probably a mistake.
Players can compete, cooperate or betray each other depending on the situation, although even working together does not guarantee everyone will leave in one piece. Some games favour quick reactions, while others lean more heavily on decision-making, deception and knowing exactly when to throw someone else under the nearest industrial machine.
Less waiting, more surviving
Machine Party is not aiming to recreate the full board-game structure found in something like Mario Party.
Klubnika has previously explained that the team deliberately reduced dialogue, transitions and other downtime commonly found in minigame collections. Instead, the focus is on moving quickly from one deadly challenge to the next with very little standing around between rounds.
That sounds like a sensible choice for a game built around panic, screaming and watching your mates fail catastrophically. The less time everyone has to calm down and think rationally, the better.
Players will be able to run through the full collection of minigames or jump directly into their favourites, making it suitable for longer sessions or a few quick rounds when everyone only has time to damage one friendship.
Welcome back to the Klubnika universe
Machine Party is set within the same broader universe as Klubnika’s previous work, which should mean a few recognisable details for people familiar with Buckshot Roulette, s.p.l.i.t. and the developer’s other unsettling industrial experiments.
The Steam page promises plenty of opportunities to sabotage friends, alongside customisable test subjects and what it delicately describes as “frequent gory outcomes” for anyone who loses.
Those test subjects can at least be dressed for the occasion, with customisable outfits allowing players to look their best before being crushed, shot or otherwise removed from the competition.
Composer Alex Peipman is providing the industrial soundtrack, which should fit neatly alongside the game’s machinery, bleak facilities and general sense that none of this has passed even the most relaxed health and safety inspection.
More than 150,000 people are already waiting
According to Oro Interactive, Machine Party has passed 150,000 Steam wishlists since being revealed during April’s Triple-i Initiative showcase.
That is a healthy amount of interest for something that looks quite deliberately unpleasant, although Klubnika’s involvement will undoubtedly be doing plenty to draw attention. Buckshot Roulette proved there is a sizeable audience for tightly designed multiplayer games where simple rules, tense decisions and sudden violence all feed into each other.
Machine Party appears to be stretching that same appeal across a much wider collection of challenges.
The game will launch for €7.99 or $7.99, with a 15% discount available at release. A UK price has not yet been confirmed.
It will also support a broad range of languages at launch, including French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Brazilian Portuguese and several Spanish and Chinese options.
Our take on Machine Party
There are plenty of party games about ruining friendships, but not many appear quite this committed to making that destruction literal.
Machine Party looks as though it understands the appeal of a good multiplayer minigame: simple rules, quick rounds and enough opportunities for betrayal that nobody leaves the evening entirely happy with one another.
The lack of board-game padding could be its smartest decision. Moving directly from eating peas to dodging trains and assembling firearms should maintain the frantic energy far better than making everyone watch lengthy animations between rounds.
Whether all 15 games prove equally entertaining remains to be seen, but the combination of Klubnika’s oppressive style and GDeavid’s experience with small, focused projects makes this one worth watching.
Machine Party launches through Steam on 30 July 2026.
Bring three friends.
Preferably ones you are not too attached to.
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