Comic-Con International San Diego’s programming schedule is listing a “Dark Machine: The Game and Anime” panel for Saturday, July 27.

Code Geass director Goro Taniguchi, Macross artist Hidetaka Tenjin, and Dark Machine creator Keiichi Yano will be at the panel to “discuss the process of simultaneously developing the original game and anime Dark Machine.” The panel will also show the world premiere of an anime pilot for the project.

The staff stated in a white paper about the game that the anime will be available for TV and streaming. The anime will have its own unique world setting, which will include Dark Machine being a popular gaming metaverse, and will take place “in the not too distant future.” The anime will also feature ex-Production I.G staff, although the white paper did not list any other names. The anime is planned for global distribution.

The Dark Machine game was announced on February 9, and is a web3 game featuring blockchain technology and NFTs. The game will be available for PC, with iOS and Android versions to follow after launch.

The game’s staff describe the story:

The year is 2079.

Humankind is living in an energy bubble after Dr. Robert Palmer discovered the Palmer crystal to give humankind all of the energy it would ever need and more. Unfortunately, not all of humankind has benefited from this hyper energy source and underground battles for this energy have developed at a global scale. The factory robots that have been helping to cultivate this energy of the future have been transformed to fighting mechs by these undergrounds and they are fighting for huge stakes.

However, dark energy is said to reside in small quantities in the Palmer crystal. The use of hyper AI technologies was used in an attempt to harness this dark energy and use it for battle advantages. It is currently unclear whether this dark energy can be controlled by mechs…

Taniguchi is the creative producer on the game, and Tenjin is the chief mechanical designer. Yuya Saito is the game director and Koji Hakuta is the producer. The game is a 7-versus-7 mech third-person shooting game. The game’s X/Twitter account has posted several gameplay footage videos.

The darkness calls…

Will you answer? ⚙️ pic.twitter.com/LAdlEGxmew

— Dark Machine (@DarkMachineGame) April 26, 2024

Master your Mech and lay siege upon the battlefield in this all new 7v7 shooter. ⚙️

Think you have what it takes? pic.twitter.com/czMLUHvcoF

— Dark Machine (@DarkMachineGame) May 7, 2024

The staff have raised more than US$8.7 million from more than 6,000 investors including Tencent, web3 game platform Immutable, and blockchain company Sui. The staff are developing the game with Unreal Engine 5. The game will feature the blockchain-based in-game currency MACHINA ($MXNA), and will also feature NFT asset ownership and an NFT marketplace for direct sales and peer-to-peer exchanges. Players will still be able to install and play the game without having to purchase any NFTs, and will also get free NFTs to start playing the game. Decentralized tournaments will be integral to the gameplay.

Tenjin is an illustrator and mechanical artist whose works include Macross Zero, Aquarion, Noein – to your other self, Hellsing Ultimate, and Macross Frontier. He also drafted mechanical art for the Gundam and Space Battleship Yamato franchises.

Taniguchi has also directed such anime as Planetes, Maria the Virgin Witch, Active Raid, One Piece Film Red, s-CRY-ed, revisions, ID-0, Infinite Ryvius, and Estab-Life: Revengers’ Road, among others.

Sources: Comic-Con schedule, Dark Machine game’s website and X/Twitter account, Dark Machine white paper on Meta-X