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Press release:
TORONTO, ON – September 21, 2026. What happens if you take the worlds of Mad Max, Twisted Metal and Interstate ’76, drop a player into them and ask who they become out there? Indie developer Hakim Elayday started there and kept going. Two and a half years later, Mad Metal is out now on Steam, a vehicle combat shooter that gives players one hell of an explosive joyride.

While most auto-combat shooter games ask how hard you can hit, Mad Metal asks what you want gone. Dead Aim slows time mid-chase, and a fight becomes a choice rather than a contest. Take the fuel tank, and the explosion finishes the job for you. Take a wheel, and the car that was hunting you a second ago slides into whatever is closest. The enemy is built the same way you are, so the thing bearing down on you has a tank and a wheel and a driver too, and it is closing while you decide which one you want gone.

You don’t have to do it alone, and there are multiple game modes to experience. Extraction drops two players into escalating waves that end in a boss fight and an airlift that only arrives if they reach the zone; open-world invasion puts you in a stranger’s game where the only real decision is the one you make on arrival, and deathmatch strips it back to a 1v1 with nothing to work out at all. Ranked and unranked MMR matches players of similar skill, so the fight is as casual or as serious as you want it.

Driving all of it is the campaign: eight voiced and narrated missions that follow Jack through an America where the machines no longer kill people, converting them instead into something built to inherit what is left. His wife is already gone, his daughter is still out there, and the further he goes looking, the harder the story gets on him about what he is turning into.

The soundtrack is paying attention the whole way, shifting as the car takes damage. It was produced with Scarlet Moon’s Jayson Napolitano and features singer/songwriter Stefani Keogh alongside musicians Frank van ‘t Ende and Idem Grey.

KEY FEATURES

DISMANTLE ENEMY VEHICLES WITH DEAD AIM by slowing time and targeting individual components, taking off a fuel tank, a wheel or a door rather than wearing down the whole car.
DRIVE THROUGH A NARRATED CAMPAIGN Take the wheel and fight your way through an America where the machines abduct rather than kill, in search of a daughter they have already taken.
SURVIVE EXTRACTION IN CO-OP against escalating waves that end in a boss fight and an airlift that only arrives if you reach the zone.
INVADE ANOTHER PLAYER’S OPEN WORLD and decide on arrival whether to turn up as friend or foe.
FIGHT 1V1 DEATHMATCHES with ranked and unranked MMR matching players of similar skill for casual or competitive play.
BUILD THE CAR YOU WANT from nine base vehicles and more than eighty attachments, each altering how the vehicle sounds and handles, with a full Create Your Own Car builder and mid-run augments that push a build somewhere unplanned.
PLAY ON STEAM DECK with full gamepad support.

Mad Metal is for anyone who grew up on car chases and demolition derbies, anyone who likes a shooter that rewards a good decision over a fast trigger, and anyone who just wants a genuinely good time behind the wheel. It is available now on Steam for $14.99, with a 20% launch discount. Players can find all the ways to play on the indie.io store.

ABOUT MAD MECHS INC.
Headquartered in Canada, Mad Mechs is an indie game development studio with a passion for reimagining and modernizing old-school action games. The core team works with professionals from around the globe to help bring their creative visions to life. Their debut title, Mad Metal, is currently in development.

ABOUT INDIE.IO
indie.io is a games publisher dedicated to bringing exceptional independent games to players worldwide. With a portfolio spanning a wide range of genres, indie.io partners with developers to provide the support, resources, and expertise needed to bring creative visions to life. Developers self-publishing their own games can also use the indie.io Tools Storefront, with marketing and development tools. For more information, visit indie.io.