This is the very first post about Aeon Wars, a game taking place in the Maschinen Crisis universe. If you haven’t heard of it or can’t find anything online, it is because the stories haven’t been published yet as this post is being written. The stories are set in a hard sci-fi universe 400 years from today. They take place on Leng, a habitable moon where humans, robots (aeons) and their merger (centaurs) make up civilizations at war for dominance of the moon. The game Aeon Wars is set at the onset of what will be known as the 3rd Aeon War where the planetary government of Earth, Pax Terra, sends its first military expedition to bring peace to Leng, at grips with a low tension war between the human centric Nesuvan Empire and the Robotayo, a rebellion in support of aeon rights. Their arrival triggers the 3rd Aeon War with the rebellion turning into an all out conflict.
When we started concepting the visuals for this game, we wanted it to reflect the hard sci-fi nature without going into a “clean” look like Star Trek or Ex Machina. Diesel punk was an option and even a starting point for the Nesuvan faction, yet we wanted to push it more towards the esthetics of The Expanse. Above is one the early concepts of the M1 mekatron, a single crew light mech, where we think we have that mix, hard sci-fi with a dash of diesel punk. There is so much more to design and it has been fun learning how to do so knowing that the models will be both in a video game and a tabletop. This pushed us to design for 3D printers and optimize for game engines. We hope you will enjoy fielding these miniatures and play out your own moment in the Aeon Wars.