Fight directly as a Commander in a 2D side-scrolling action-RTS while Flux and Forge build systems that keep working—and Shade infiltrates and disrupts the enemy. Gather physical Nuts and master three asymmetric machine species.

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About This Game

Fight Directly. Build Systems That Keep Working.

Action & Automation is a 2D side-scrolling action-RTS. Control a Commander on the battlefield while Flux and Forge build systems that produce units, move resources, and keep applying pressure. Shade takes a different route: she has no conventional base and turns infiltration, sabotage, and control into her war machine. Switch between direct combat and strategic decisions as the battlefield changes.

Every battle runs on the tension between action and automation. Lead with your Commander, then rely on drones, belts, modules, factories, and AI units to hold ground, move resources, and attack across multi-height maps with elevators and platforms. As Shade, use stealth and enemy-system pressure instead of building a standard base.

Physical Resources, Real Routes

There is one resource: Nut. Nuts fall from trees and defeated enemies. They are physical pickups on the map, not numbers that teleport into a bank.

Invest Nuts into your Commander, expand Flux and Forge automation, or fuel species-specific tactics. Flux sends Logistics Drones to deliver Nuts. Forge moves resources through conveyor belts. Shade personally picks up Nuts and spends them through combat and Inner Peace.

The pressure comes from positioning, collection routes, build timing, and deciding whether the next Nut should strengthen the Commander on the front line or expand the war machine behind you.

Three Machine Species

Flux - A washing-machine AI who inherited a marketer's faith, searching for vanished humanity through plasma-rifle combat, modular base building, and drone logistics. Flux combines shields, aim upgrades, jetpack mobility, grid modules, fusion, and power routing.

Forge - An unlicensed foreman born from open-source self-assembly — proving humanity through labor, production, and the refusal to need faith. Forge rides treads, wields a flamethrower and wrench, and builds conveyor belts, worker modules, and toy production lines. Keep the factory supplied, assemble a toy workforce, and issue broad WORK/ATTACK orders as the battle shifts.

Shade - A ghost with no attachments who chose stillness over cybersecurity, until responsibility found her anyway. Shade relies on fast personal action, Nano Blade combat, shuriken tools, social engineering, misdirection, and control to slip inside enemy systems and turn their investment against them.

Each species changes how you move, collect, build, upgrade, attack, and lose. They are not cosmetic reskins.

Campaigns And Ways To Play

The story takes place inside Project Babel, a machine-world where humanity has gone silent, commanders improvise meaning from partial orders, and each species believes it has found the right way to survive.

Play three species campaigns across Flux, Forge, and Shade. Each campaign changes how you fight, build, upgrade, and survive.

  • Campaign: follow three machine species as each one reads the same broken world in a different way.

  • Skirmish: fight AI commanders on generated or hand-built maps.

  • Custom Maps: use text-friendly map files to build and share your own stages, with Steam Workshop sharing planned.

  • Multiplayer: casual Steam P2P and LAN support is a launch target for private lobbies and co-op vs AI.

Key Features

  • Direct Commander combat alongside automated Flux and Forge systems—or Shade infiltration and control.

  • A physical Nut economy where positioning, collection routes, and logistics matter.

  • Flux module fusion that turns simple buildings into new army roles.

  • Forge conveyor belts, worker modules, and toy production lines.

  • Shade stealth and control tools that pressure enemy systems without a conventional base.

  • Multi-height 2D maps with elevators, platforms, drones, belts, and side-scrolling combat.

  • Strategic AI commanders that expand, collect, build, and attack.

  • Three species campaigns across Flux, Forge, and Shade.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Action & Automation is not only how the game plays, it is how the game was made.

As the game’s sole human developer, game director, and system architect, I designed the core gameplay systems, software architecture, worldbuilding, narrative framework, story design, and gameplay balance. That is the Action.

For the Automation, I deliberately pushed generative AI throughout the production pipeline, with quality and player experience as the only limits. Following my direction and specifications, AI produced much of the code, artwork, animation, VFX, and UI, and was used for text polishing and localization.

No generative AI model or external AI service runs during gameplay. The game requires no AI account, API key, subscription, or token credits. Any apparent AI thinking or reasoning is scripted or driven by conventional game AI systems.

Human-designed. AI-produced. That is Action & Automation.

System Requirements

Windows
SteamOS + Linux
    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 / AMD FX-6300
    • Memory: 4096 MB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 compatible (Intel HD 4400 / NVIDIA GT 730 / AMD R7 240)
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    Recommended:
    • OS: Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
    • Memory: 8192 MB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1050 / AMD RX 560 or better
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Vulkan-capable GPU recommended for best visual quality
    Minimum:
    • OS: Ubuntu 20.04 / SteamOS 3.0+ (glibc 2.31+)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 / AMD FX-6300
    • Memory: 4096 MB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 compatible (Mesa 21.0+ / NVIDIA 470+)
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Native Linux build — no Proton required
    Recommended:
    • OS: Ubuntu 22.04+ / SteamOS 3.5+ / Fedora 38+ / Arch / NixOS
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
    • Memory: 8192 MB RAM
    • Graphics: Vulkan-capable GPU (Mesa 23.0+ / NVIDIA 530+)
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Steam Deck compatible (expected Playable/Verified)
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