Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2018
MachiaVillain
Developer Wild Factor
Machiavillain is an evil mansion management and strategy game, inspired by Dungeon Keeper, Prison Architect and all the horror movie clichés! Build your own manor, raise your monsters, set up your traps, and exterminate your victims. But to gain reputation you'll have to slay by the horror movie rules! From the Steam store page
179 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest May 15, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
49
Mixed
86 positive · 90 negative
95% range 42–56%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 86 | 90 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
532 of 810 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 179 · most liked firstI thought there was way more to this game, and I don't see an early access sign...so I'm extremely disapointed. The game is VERY barebones, there's plenty of bugs, and it takes a long time to even really do the little bit you can. The timing feels very off...like you get humans very often, and you need to for food, but you get very very little done in the meantime...very grindy. Concept and art are good, but there are plenty of gameplay flaws that kill the fun. I hope to see improvements. I do…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game abandoned by the dev.. had great potential, but it's just left unfinished..
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got it on sale, paid about $2. That was.... a fair price for what you get. Don't buy it at full price. Buggy and empty. AMAZING concept, great intro story, I wanted to fall in love with this - but eh, there isn't anything to fall in love with. It's not really all that fleshed out. What IS done is GREAT but there just isn't much to the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In MachiaVillain you play the manager of a mansion of horror where the goal is attracting victims to your den, slaughter them and make up a menu for your minions to survive. It sounds great and every player who experienced Dungeon Keeper wants MachiaVillain to be successful, but the reality is that this is very close to another Cash Grab game. The game is poorly developed to the point where the buggy behavior of its denizens is hilarious. First contact with MachiaVillain is a very harsh one.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like building games, always have. They take me back to the nostalgia of the 1990's Bullfrog Studios games like Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper. In present times we have plenty of building/management games to choose from, such as Prison Architect, RimWorld, and Oxygen Not Included. There's been some flops too, like Clockwork Empires. MachiaVillain at this writing can be sorted squarely in the middle. It does not have the depth of Oxygen Not Included, it does not have the polish of Prison…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is good and all. Its idea and such. Here's the thing. It says as a released version. Unfortunately, it isn't. It's very much in early access.. update is slow, very slow. Devs don't listen to its playerbase. I don't think it's a bug, coz a bug in a code works "somewhat". In this game functions don't really work! Their way of thinking is like this. "Meh, this'll do" or somewhere along the line. In example.. 1.Battery's don't work, it doesn't really store electricity as intended.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →RimWorld or Prison Architect in a haunted house, with a goofy, intentionally janky Klei-like art style. A neat little idea, but sadly one that doesn't really go anywhere. You start off with a vacant plot of land and a few minions; a skeleton, a few zombies; that sort of thing. As you play, you unlock new minion types, most of whom eat meat. This is a problem because meat is one of four food resources (meat, brains, blood and bones) that you acquire in roughly equal quantity from the victims…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tons of potential. But the game's development is pretty much dead. Currently. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. It's buggy and the content is very limited.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This has the potential to be a very good game. My biggest problem is that it takes so long to be able to do anything in the game. The fun part of the game is making elaborate traps for the civilians but to be able to get to that point you have to grind for literally hours. I think the developers need to go back and look at rebalancing the numbers a bit. You barely have any time to work on your mansion between waves of civilians but you need the food so skipping a day doesn't work as well. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No updates for years now, I suppose it's safe to say that the project is dead. As a big fan of DF-kind of games, it's really a huge disappointment for me to see such a promising thing being abandoned halfway done. I hope to be proven wrong someday, but as of february 2022 the game has very little content to discover and play with and not developed or updated since may 2020.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do not buy, the developers have abandoned the game. Still very much in early access. Abandonware type deal.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to love this game, but sadly, it feels like the developers never really got around to fully fleshing out the game. It is interesting and complete, but there is a clear lack of completeness. Once you get the first few rooms of your evil mansion set up it becomes a routine of maintaining the house until you can get a group of victims.... I mean villagers, to visit and quickly exterminate them. Afterwards you clean up and repeat. There never seemed to be much more, which ended up…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awesome idea, but sandbox game without "the sand" (content) is just a constricting wooden frame. Seems abandoned with no updates or DLCs in recent months. Buyer beware.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do not purchase this game. It is abandoned by the developers and filled to the brim with bugs that have riddled the game into a state that is nigh unplayable. It is a shame too, because the game had an interesting concept but there was not enough follow through.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was abandoned and was not close to being finished do nit get it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is buggy and no longer supported or receiving updates. Which is a shame as the idea and theme is very unique
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's now been two and a half years without an update, so I think it's safe to say this game has been abandoned by its developer. It's a fun game, but most of the content can be found in just a couple hours. Not worth the price and fairly limited replayability. Had great promise, but still has bugs that will apparently never get fixed. Really sad, but please save your money.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks like the devs have disappeared. The game had promise, now its just a cash grab.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An unifnished game that should have been labeled as early access, but never was.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game saves break.. can't not play sometimes because the saves keep breaking. Basically if you want to play for a long period of time don't save. If you do save same the game there is a 90% chance the save will break and when you load up there - the walls are missing that you've built - no rocks on the map at all - minion bar is completely gone - everything is froze this has been an on going thing for several months for several people. Game is unfinished and seemly this is an ongoing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game had so much potential but unfortunately its half done and abandoned.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →unfortunately some portions of the game are broken and there's not been an update in about two years. I wish another review I'd read had mentioned this, so buyer beware! A lot of the game looks really cool and runs well, but it's marred when you can't progress in research or other issues prevent you from playing the game as intended.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are several major bugs the developer seems to have no intention of fixing. Firstly, "Hidden Doors" supposed to be used only by your minions do not function as intended. Instead, they're simply the lowest priority door for pathfinding. They will not entrap your victims. Similarly, pathfinding for 'locked' doors is broken as well. Under many cicumstances victims will just walk right through them. Secondly, if you get a victim to 20 entertainment, they will phone home and lower your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A nice idea combining games like Rimworld and Dungeon Keeper but fall short because of a lack of depth and somewhat minor but annoying bugs. The last patch was one year ago and AI still tend to break sometimes and a minion will be standing there for a bit instead of doing a task, training dummies stop working pretty much after one use after loading a save, they tend to prioritise resources by when it felt on the floor and not how close it is unless in storage but storage is taking a lot of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. Hands down adore it. It's fun, challenging and far from boring. I've been playing it for longer than I've owned it myself, via friend's steam and honestly it's probably one of my favourite games of the management / strategy type I've ever had a pleasure of playing. I've gotten more than one friend to play it and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. HOWEVER. I do have one big problem however that I'm getting fed up with. Loading saved files nearly always seems to result in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i really, really, really want to like this game? its phenomenal in terms of aesthetic and premise, but there's a lot of minor, annoying bugs that seem to give a sense of a lack of QA. In basic terms, this is a colony simulator akin to Rimworld or Prison Architect, but what separates MachiaVillain from a lot of genuinely great sims of its like is quality of life. There's no easy way to get rid of rotten food, leading to a symphony of vomit noises, the person tracking seems to be off, and,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The updates to this game is slow, the price is awful it should at least be $15 or even sadly $10 since it's still early access. I can see this ending up in early access hell just because it doesn't seem like the devs are really trying to push out updates to make this game better. it can get a good 2 hours and you pretty much beat the game if you figure it out with ease. It's very easy understanding game and it has a somthing other's don't have which is actually managing a haunted house! It'll…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game has been completely abandoned, A damn shame, Game still has alot of game breaking bugs aswell /:
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ABANDONED!!! Pity; it was fun to play with a great concept, but left to rot for reasons unknown. DO NOT BUY!!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game appears to be abandoned. Was fun for a while, but not much content for a "finished" game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I adore this game, I really do, and it has so much potential. But I'm going to be honest - this is one of those games you get super discounted from a steam sale. It's a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but I don't think there's enough content for full price. If one day they decide to pick this game back up and update it, which I doubt, then maybe. Otherwise, if you want to try it don't bother unless it's heavily discounted. I want to say I recommend this game, but I have to say no.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Neat game, interesting theme that feels like DungeonKeeper having a baby with Rimworld. Sadly though, the lack of content and long term motivation is making it fall behind both of it's spiritual parents. Was okay for a sale but not worth full priced.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has potential to be a great game, its concept is unique and the artwork is amazing. But sadly, one of the devs were sick and suddenly the development stops without any warning whatsoever, not to mention the gameplay is still shallow and game breaking bugs are still there. I hope for the best in the future for the devs, but at this point the game doesn't suit the price tag.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept itself is good. A management game with lots of dark humor, and a nice visual style. However the game is so plagued with bugs that you spend most of your time either restarting your save game or starting a new game which is disappointing because this game could have so much potential. i wish i hadn't brought it, and i wont waste your money and time on this game until at least most of the simple bugs are sorted out, like villains getting stuck in one spot, running back and forth for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just another game that had potential but has been abandoned long before it was complete. Last update was 3 years ago. Don't buy this game. :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This wonderful game is plagued with game-ruining bugs. One such bug is corrupt saves. Hours and hours of game progress can be lost and you have to go back to a save that isn't glitched out. Devs are not very commutative either.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you are thinking of buying this game, please know that it has the worst minion AI I've ever seen. Minions perform jobs in marking order, not proximity. This severely punishes planning ahead as it will cause your minions to walk all over the map. for example: marking an area of trees to be cut down will cause the minion to chop down the first tree that was selected, no matter if it stands next to it or on the other side of the map next to a tree you marked later. and this affects building,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved the idea of the game. It was not a great buy for me. There were a lot of bugs, not great explanations. Also I was always running out of food or supplies. Humans seemed to be coming all the time. Could never get a head. Game was in turn infuriating.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game, while it does have a certain amount of initial charm, is frustratingly unplayable. Basic elements are not explained, completely unintuitive, and often flat-out don't work. There is no concept of polish or finesse and it will leave you regretting the hours you spent trying to figure it out. A disappointment and regret.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ok fun in the first few hours after that, its a bloody frustrating bug fest ... as if coded by amateurs most importantly, after so long without any sigh of fix, they started this charity stuff.... Freaking Meatbags is nice though
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New review after Plague update: Gave it another shot now after the plague update (and a lot improved) and was hoping it could be fixed enough and unfortunately its still not good enough. The game just have too many issues to truely enjoy. You will not lose your enjoyment because of you or intention of the game. But by the game doing something stupid. over and over and over. Its a fight against annoying mechanics and the game itself instead of enjoying the core of the game. Making me so sad.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept itself is very good. A management game with lots of dark humor, a good presentation, and a nice visual style. However the game is so plagued with bugs that you spend most of your time finding a way arround the bugs, instead of actually having fun. Still, you put up with the bugs and play. Then suddenly you have to start over again because your saved game became corrupted (due to yet another bug) and you lost all your progress. There goes 10, 20, XX, hours of your time down the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →⣿⣿⡻⠿⣳⠸⢿⡇⢇⣿⡧⢹⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⡐⣯⠁ ⠄⠄ ⠟⣛⣽⡳⠼⠄⠈⣷⡾⣥⣱⠃⠣⣿⣿⣿⣯⣭⠽⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣟⢢⠏⠄ ⠄ ⢠⡿⠶⣮⣝⣿⠄⠄⠈⡥⢭⣥⠅⢌⣽⣿⣻⢶⣭⡿⠿⠜⢿⣿⣿⡿⠁⠄⠄ ⠄⣼⣧⠤⢌⣭⡇⠄⠄⠄⠭⠭⠭⠯⠴⣚⣉⣛⡢⠭⠵⢶⣾⣦⡍⠁⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⠄⣿⣷⣯⣭⡷⠄⠄⢀⣀⠩⠍⢉⣛⣛⠫⢏⣈⣭⣥⣶⣶⣦⣭⣛⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⢀⣿⣿⣿⡿⠃⢀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣎⢩⠌⣡⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠄⠄⠄ ⢸⡿⢟⣽⠎⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⠄⠄ ⣰⠯⣾⢅⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠄ ⢰⣄⡉⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠄ ⢯⣌⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄ ⢸⣇⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄ ⢸⣟⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄ ⠈⢹⡧⣿⣸⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠗⣈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠄ ⠄⠘⢷⡳⣾⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⢀⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄ ⠄⠄⠈⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄ ⠄⠄⠄⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄⠄
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game has so much potential, once I started I couldn't stop. sadly there is not enough content. wish the devs were still working on this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →games ok but devs seem to have abandoned it ages ago. its a bit buggy and attacks from heroes or other villains do not scale so you can easily just overwhelm them once you get 6 or so characters. you can change the priority of your minions to some extent, but it doesnt really allow for micromanaging. characters not assigned to eat will still just eat sometimes which is a bit annoying when i specifically dont want the free zombie minions from turning a human to eat. some of my minions assigned…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its nice and all and I really like the universe of the game. But gameplay wise it comes short. It ressembles Oxygen Not Included in many ways, except that it is worse in every way imaginable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is slow, like you're going to spend hours upon hours setting up a mansion that'll get crushed within moments because the game suddenly throws ten heros at you. There are cheats though I suggest avoiding this game completely as it's a time waste and is going to be an easy mode by player involved grind with a very sudden end.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the idea of the game, but I find the game to be unplayable. Having been released for quite awhile it still is full of bugs with your mobs wandering around unable to properly path to their jobs or eating normal food, but somehow still getting food poisoning even though the food is fresh.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No. not at this price. it feels like its got the bases of a good game but lacking any kind of polish. nothing feels that good. you cant even micro your vampires to stay out of sunlight. just plant a task and hope it dosnt involve them going outside
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →20+ years after Dungeon Keeper, nobody has managed to come up with a worthy successor. This one is nothing to look at to begin with, yet offers nothing that would make up for it. Can't even provide a passable interface. Instead it's all busywork, grind, and figuring out how-tos. Feels like fighting with spreadsheets. Might be the worst attempt at the genre so far.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another unfinished game full of gamebreaking bugs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, devs gave up on a promising game. If they are still working on updates just know they are practically meaningless. Look at the past updates and know they don't truly give a ♥♥♥♥, they only want to make more money when they are getting low I am assuming. What a lazy excuse of a team or developer. Wish I would of never bought this ♥♥♥♥. Grabbed during early access and even after full release it was still practically in the same state of early access. Be ashamed of yourself or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. So sad the devs kinnda left it to die.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a great casual game, its mechanics are enough to not get boring but to not overwhelm you either. Reminds me a lot of Evil Genius with the premise of killing good guys in mazes of corridors of traps. I really recommend it if you like resource management and trying to find efficient working layouts for your minions. Its a very fast game, you can probably do everything there is to do in about 12 hours or so. The rest is just perfecting the best of kill rooms. For achievements, killing 50…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look's Like they Abandoned The game been no updates for a long time i would stay away from it ! Wish i could get my refund back , but been to long
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just love playing as the "misunderstood" bad guys! Build your House of Horrors, with trap rooms and ambush spots and then lure those unsuspecting humans to their doom. Fun management game! Now with the Electrocution update, you get even more options! Can't wait to see how I can pimp my mansion next!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →unfinished game, devs have left it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Watched the trailer, looked at the screens, thought what the hell. I bought it, played it - it's really crazy. I'll keep playing)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →MachiaVillain is a horror/monster themed colony simulation game where you run an evil villain's lair full of monster minions like zombies and mummies. Keep your minions alive and fed, build out your evil lair and keep resources flowing in through your nefarious schemes. It's a solid concept with welcome depth in strategy gameplay that worked well for many other similar games in the genre, but MachiaVillain has a few big problems. The chief of these problems is, despite not being in Early…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed this game. its like a simplified Rimworld where you build this colony of monsters and you have to lure victims so that your colony can eat and what not and you can progress in the story. You will get attacked by either human heroes, spiders and or monsters. I did enjoy the universe, the art style and the humor. The tech tree could have been better, and the combat was not that fulfilling, also it does get annoying having to stop everything you are doing to kill victims everyday.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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