Hello, friends!

As we promised, here we are with your Christmas present — our new and considerably improved demo-version of Ash Of Gods: The Way.

We’ve done a great deal of work during these two months to carry out the changes we were talking about in the posts DEMO FEEDBACK and NEW CINEMATICS. Regretfully, cinematics won’t be in the new demo, but you’ll be able to assess the rest — fixed balance in the qualification rounds, completely redesigned challenger battles, amended UI and many other functions. And we really want to listen to your opinion.



We’re really happy to have such a great and caring community, and we want to sincerely thank you for cool feedback, comments and likes — all these things motivate us a lot and help us make our game better.

Pay attention! The demo is available on the page of the game:



We hope you’ll enjoy our new demo, and we want to know what you liked and what you didn’t like. So share your experience in Steam discussions, join our Discord channel and be sure to add our game to the wishlist.

We wish you good holidays and to have as many reasons to be happy and as many good games as possible in the new year.

Hello, friends!

Today it's Friday, and we decided to cut talking about different mechanics and fights with the news about important changes — this time in cinematics.

If you have already tried our demo, you know that the intro and the cutscenes in the game differ considerably from its visual style. And of course they lose significantly to the videos from the original project.



So why did we focus on those rough sketches?

The thing is that a good video at the level of Redemption would be worth to us as a quarter of the whole game — in the form that was planned. That’s why — because of our budget restrictions — we had to focus on this variant.



Nevertheless, as we started changing our approach to the game and making it more difficult, we understood that the difference between the videos and the level of the project stands out more and more, and players only proved it with their feedback.



That’s why we decided to try and fix the situation and create new videos for the game with help of our amazing artists — and are ready to share first achievements.



In spite of the fact that in new cinematics there won’t be as many movements as there were in old versions, the result, however, must surpass them by far thanks to accurately structured composition, a brand new level of detailing and a thorough work with colour.



The characters began looking much more naturally. Distorted proportions, very rough strokes, wooden mimic — it’s all in the past. We paid a lot of attention to face expressions so that we could transfer emotions as accurately as possible. That’s how, for example, new Quinna Rosette looks at old Fill. Run, Forest, run!



A great deal of work was done on the surroundings. The old videos were concentrated firstly on the characters and their actions, that’s why the cutscenes weren’t so satisfying with detailing and looked quite meagre. We tried to fix it in new cutscenes.



It’s a laborious job, and of course we have to spend a considerable amount of time to finish everything. However, we’re sure that the result is worth it.



In the ready videos motion effects will be used to make scenes more lively and visually interesting — but we will keep them till the next updates.



That was the way our cinematics have passed — from rough sketches to arts that are complicated and much more suitable for the style of the game. This happened largely thanks to your responses, and it’s vitally important for us to get some feedback from you. Please write your comments about your attitude to this upgrade, if you like what you see or not. We are very grateful for any comments and want to express our gratitude to our compassionate community.

We wish everybody a merry Christmas and we will be sure to come back before the end of the year with a present — a new demo-version. There won’t be any new cinematics in it but we will keep you updated about our progress. So be sure to follow us and don’t forget to add our game to wishlist.

Hey, guys!

It’s time for us to tell you about a new battle, and this Friday we’re going to speak about one of adjutant Mirina’s qualifications. It’s the fight during which you will have to confront a deadly unit, and you will need to protect your commander from him.




This time we’re not attacked by a bandit horde which we were talking about in the previous post — there is only one fighter on the battlefield in the beginning of the fight. But he is worth the whole army.



He isn’t called the Punisher for nothing — if he gets to our commander, he’ll destroy him with a single attack. It’s pretty hard to kill this unit, but he can be held back. So the main thing is to find the right tactics.



The main goal remains the same — to destroy the enemy’s commander. But this is also not easy — he has considerably more health points than ours. Besides, he has quite a nasty surprise — a very powerful spell.




We’re still testing challenger battles because they turned out to be incredibly difficult due to the large quantity of deserters in the enemy’s deck — their teamwork with the Punisher almost guarantees failure if you’re not lucky with your cards. We don’t like it. Besides, in the enemy's deck there are three stunning spells able to break any tactics. That’s why we decided to remove bandits from the battle and replace them with Berkana’s fighters. You can assess the result in our new demo.



A special condition for the win doesn’t allow you to use rangers — in this case the victory won’t be counted.




While we’re trying to work out the perfect balance in the challenger battles, we would like to mention difficulties we had faced during the development of its original version.

To create the Punisher we had to make a lot of efforts and go through numerous iterations. The main aim was to create a mighty and dangerous unit who is hard to confront but is possible to block. That’s why the Punisher has plenty of health points, almost unbreakable protection and poison resistance.



We've been experimenting with the Punisher’s strength for a long time so that the player had both enough problems with him and enough time to deal with other units allocating the resources properly. Besides, we increased the health of the hostile commander to make attack strengthening as important as the protection of the unit who holds the Punisher back.

You can fight the punisher and his tough commander in our new demo. Until then follow the news, subscribe to our page and add the game to your wishlist.

Hello, friends!

We go on introducing the mechanics of Ash Of Gods: The Way. The previous post was dedicated to the mechanics of duels. Now we’re going to tell you about the fight with Adjutant Dofus where you will have to confront the bunch of bandits.




The first thing we see starting the fight is a narrow battlefield 3x7 ot the other side of which there is a hostile commander. We have to get to him through the bunch of bandits, who had occupied most of the territory.



Our first task is to pick up fighters who can stand against the onslaught of the outlaws. You should consider that while we can only choose one fighter at a time, the army of bandits slowly comes closer and closer at full force. Yet in the qualification mode the enemy’s commander can’t summon new units — but he has a complete arsenal of dirty tricks among his cards of support.



In the beginning of the fight the enemy’s team has quite low attack and health points numbers. But among the bandits there are those who die and thus strengthen the rest of the fighters. That’s why the best way is not to kill but to block these bandits, not letting them get to your commander.



Like any battle, the bunch of bandits can be won through finding the right key that will help you cope easily with the seemingly unbeatable crowd. But in this fight there are a lot of opportunities to find your own solutions.


In more difficult challenger battles we decided to make it harder in various areas. First, there are more fighters whose death makes others stronger — and it’s harder to hold them back.



Secondly, in this fight your opponent has a deck of characters, so there are more and more enemies in the battlefield with each round which leaves less space for maneuvers.



And finally, the main thing is the new condition of win which is having at least three of your warriors alive when the enemy’s commander dies. Assuming that you have a standard deck of ten characters, you have to be very careful — it’s not a situation where you can easily afford to lose a fighter.




It was very important for us to make this fight interesting and difficult enough for a player and not to turn it into a thoughtless deathmatch. Luckily we found a balance quite fast, varying the number of units whose death strengthens their teammates. Whereas there is only one unit in qualification mode, there are three of them in the challenger battles which turns even the weakest bandit into a dangerous and serious opponent.



A new version of this fight will be available in our new demo — press the «FOLLOW» button in Steam not to miss this news and the information about other mechanics and fights. And be sure to add us to wishlist.

Hello, friends!

As you know, the main idea of Ash Of Gods: The Way is constantly changing tactical fights, and we developed original mechanics, scripts and rules for each one. And I’d like to tell you about some of them. I’m going to start with the mechanics of duels — one of the most unusual in the game.


In most fights the main character appears in the battlefield, on the other side of which his enemy is standing. In this case, the victory depends on how well you combine dropdown cards and how you use the benefits of the battlefield which can be different in size, shape, presence or absence of obstacles.



However, the duel is something really different — every character has an individual fight.

The first thing you notice is the unique battlefield. Each leader picks three of his combatants who fight one-to-one. You can see who you’re going to confront beforehand and make your choice accordingly.

You have to choose your fighters with the utmost care — some characters, who are irreplaceable in other fights, will be of no use in the duel, and their abilities (for example, the monk healing the fighter in front of him) will make no sense. On the contrary, the buffs that cover all the battlefield — like the increase of the attack by the warlock when he first appears — will be really handy. You should consider that the characters can’t move or change places. The replacement of the character is also impossible — the only way out is to win or to die.



After the evaluation of enemy’s units and the choice of worthy opponents you can use the cards of support. Your opponent is the first one to do it, so the situation can change dramatically. To fix the situation you can play up to two cards of support per turn. That means that at least one of your combatants doesn’t get any support, but you also can hold the cards or use both for one fighter.



After the end of the turn the duels start. The player’s fighters have an advantage of the first strike. If it becomes deadly for the enemy, the duel is considered won, and the enemy’s leader gets damage. If the player’s unit dies, the damage goes to his leader. When the duel is over, each dead fighter is replaced by the new one, and the duels with no winner go on. In the qualification round it’s enough to win four fights (and not to lose three times) to get your victory.




The next thing worth telling is how the duel changes in the challenger battles which are harder.

As you can remember, there are special conditions to win in this mode, some new mechanics can be added, and some old ones can be changed. They don’t only increase the difficulty but make each fight unique and challenging. There is more information about it in our latest update.



The main feature of more complex duels is that now it’s your opponent who has the advantage of the first strike. Besides, now you have to win six duels, but you can fail only once.


When we were creating this fight we faced some problems, so we talked a lot to players and studied the feedback for the demo trying to find an optimal solution.

Randomness has become one of the greatest problems in the duel mode. By default in the beginning of the general fight you start with three cards of characters and three cards of support. But in the duel mode this mechanic doesn’t let you choose the characters, and the result of the duel mainly depends on the luck of getting the starting hand. That’s why especially for the duel mode we’ve increased the number of the cards you get in the beginning of the fight. Now you can choose from five cards in each deck.



Besides, we've also added the mechanics that lets you replace any card — but only one — before the battle to reduce the influence of randomness and dependence on the starting hand. So that this replacement wasn’t for nothing, we’ve added a condition according to which a new card ALWAYS differs from the replaced one. This lets the player avoid getting an identical card if there is the same one in the deck.

One more problem is an unusual sequence of actions. In the beginning we wanted to make duels where the result would be calculated after the fightback. But this would lead to the situation when the dead character struck back, and it was quite confusing for the players and made it more difficult to understand what was happening in the battlefield. So we finally decided to return the standard sequence of actions, giving the player an advantage in simpler fights — and taking it away in harder ones.

An updated version of the duel will be available in the new demo which we are planning to release by the Winter sales. And for now add our game to the wishlist and press the «FOLLOW» button to get the updates about the news, because we are planning to go on telling you interesting facts about the game and its mechanics.



Thanks for your interest and support,
A.

Hey, folks!

As you know, we released a reworked demo version of The Way a month and a half ago, and I reckon it is time to sum everything up, to discuss your feedback, to share what we are doing with it right now and to tell you more about the game overall.



First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has played the game and shared their thoughts with us. To be frank, sometimes developers spend so much time in their games, and it is hard to recognize an issue or a flaw even if you face it every day. And that's where the community steps in, reviewing your ideas with a fresh eye and providing a clear message about what works alright and what doesn't. You are a really big part of the development process, and we are very grateful for your time and consideration. You are making our game way better than we could do that alone. Thank you so much for that.


Well, I believe it is worth mentioning that there was a vertical slice of The Way in the beginning of this year, a completely different game focused on gameplay with a simple generic story to follow. It was all about regular fights against different opponents with different decks. The reviews were very positive, and The Way even won 'Best PC Game' award on IndieCup but we also knew that some of you weren't that happy about the game.



We do understand that a great deal of players want us to make a sequel to the original Redemption game while we are making a completely different game of a different genre in the Ash of Gods universe. Your feedback changed that. You want us to create interesting characters, to tell stories with moral choices and dire consequences—and we decided to answer that call. We have spent a lot of time reworking the game to make it more complex and more interesting in terms of gameplay and story. And the last demo we published is the result of that hard work.



This extra work is a huge risk for us, to be honest—we never planned those changes, the budget of the game is very limited and we definitely need more money to complete the game. But we wanted to make something you guys will love, and if the game succeeds there's a chance we can make you happy with Ash of Gods 2.




First of all, we've managed to make almost every battle unique adding new mechanics and scripts. We wanted to challenge players, constantly changing rules to create a kind of a puzzle. No more simple fights on the same battlefield with 3 lines. You should be flexible and inventive to end up victorious.



These battles are also justified with the main story. It is not as big and as complex as Redemption's, of course, due to obvious limitations of our budget and time and the game's genre, but we did our best to make it fun both for the fans of the original game and the new players. There are a few familiar characters in the game, some lore, references to Redemption events and more.



We also created a story for every tournament with moral choices and different outcomes. The first tournament is pretty simple though and mostly focused on exposition and explanation of rules and mechanics, so there are only 3 different and rather simple endings. The second one has 6 possible endings based both on the player's skill and choices, the third one has around 8 and I believe it is safe to say that the game itself has a minimum of 7 different finales at the moment but I guess the true number is somewhat like 14-ish. Of course, there are side quests—and some of them can affect the main story.



Another thing worth mentioning is art. In the vertical slice most of the visuals were placeholders from Redemption with a few roughly drawn characters.



We've completely reworked all characters and animated them even better than we did in Redemption (added more movements and breathing).


We've also created about 60 battlefields...



3 tournament backgrounds...



and 4 places for camp where you can talk to NPCs.



We wanted to create new battle characters as well but a studio and actors are required to do that, and it was impossible due to COVID-19, so we are stuck with Redemption's units. It is also a certainly costly venture which requires a lot of time, and we desperately need this time and money to rework the game.

Now, back to the demo. Of course, we didn't manage to do everything we wanted in time, there are obvious flaws like the lack of balance and some important features are missing but the goal of the release was to learn more about your experience—what you did and didn't like, is there any big issues we overlooked or some ideas which work different than we expected. That was really useful for us. We gathered enough feedback to make the game better, and now it is time to share what we are doing with it.




The very first reported issue of the demo was expectedly rough UX. We were aware about the problem, and we are doing our best to make the UX curve as smooth as possible. The qualification round is expected to be pretty simple and enjoyable now but challenging enough to be interesting at this point.



Challenger battles are way more complex. We do not like the idea of simple hard mode fights where you are playing the same battles but against a stronger deck. The idea was to make them unique but understandable, adding additional mechanics, scripts and rules to the original fights, changing the size and the shape of battlefields to make a new challenge. Thus, the qualification round is the place where you can test your strategies and experiment as long as you want, a sneak peek of the real battles, while the challenger battles are the real test.



Since we are talking about challenger battles, another issue is attempts. The idea was to make an additional challenge for a player and also to add more tension and drama to the narrative, to make a difference between an okay-ish and truly outstanding performance which will impact the result of the tournament. I would like to thank fluxit, https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007643928 and volvovics for the thorough feedback on that matter. We realized that this feature is not just a limitation but also a punishment—you are feeling uncomfortable and pressured and won't get the reward if you didn't manage to win the fight for a limited number of attempts.



Yet, we needed this feature to determine how good a player was performing. That's why we've changed the original idea. Attempts now are actually the best result of the battle of other tournament challengers. If you beat or repeat it, you get a small bonus in gold and more glory. If you don't, you are still getting the main reward when you finally win the fight. Also, we increased the amount of attempts for every fight to make this challenge a bit more fair.

Another problem is a bit of randomness which affects the experience in some fights which could be much easier if you had the right characters to do the job. Of course, we can't completely fix that because it will totally kill the replayability and challenge of the game but we decided to allow changing one of your cards in the beginning of the fight. Also, at some fights you have a bigger starting hand compared to the standard of three cards for each deck.



We also reworked some of the battles to make them more understandable and less random. Thus, we removed 'an unpleasant surprise' thing where you lose all your characters once you placed someone on the battlefield, and changed the mechanics of 'the duels' fight (thanks, alpasy).



We updated the descriptions of battles to give more information for a player about the fight, thanks to DeadlyDan's feedback. We also added an option to discuss the fight with your mentors to get valuable advice and ability to quickly choose one of your saved decks.



Speaking of changes in UI, we are completely reworking deck management at the moment as well as some other important parts, and also adding new things we need like, for example, a merchant UI.



There are a great deal of other changes: we added drag-n-drop mechanics to the deck manager, changed the map, added an option to remove the card's animation to play faster (thanks to devxx), and reverted the scroll for zooming out the battlefield. Also, we are reworking the tutorials and changing the flow of the game to make the experience even better, to show a player some tips he can use later, reworking card upgrades to make them more interesting, reworking in-game cinematics and more.



Of course, some of these things are a work in progress yet. But once we finish this, make sure we will update the demo to learn more about your experience once again.



Meanwhile, I'd like to thank you once again for being such a great community. My special thanks to the folks from Discord (найк, Ratnik_RUS, KoPLLIyH, res7less) who provided a lot of feedback. You can also join our Discord to share your opinion there or to talk to us, we are always happy to do that.

Please, follow us on Steam, add the game to your wishlist—and we will do our best to make something you guys will enjoy.

Cheers,
A.

Hey folks!

We are here to show you another version of Ash of Gods: The Way, a demo for Indie Cup Celebration 2021.



As you may know, we released a demo for Steam Next Festival this summer. We gathered a lot of positive reviews, even won a few awards like Best PC Game on IndieCup and Excellence in Visual Art on DevGamm Spring 2021. But we also carefully reviewed the feedback we gathered on these events as well as publishers', streamers' and players' feedback from private testing and decided to change the concept a bit to improve it. Thus, the game significantly changed since, and this demo will show you the new version of The Way.



The new idea behind the game is tactical combats with constantly changing rules for every fight. Now every encounter is a puzzle with original mechanics, scripts, battlefields of different shapes and sizes and, sometimes, very nasty and unexpected surprises. It is not a simple card battler anymore but a deep and entertaining game where you should adapt your strategy and change it on the go to end up victorious.



Another big change is more focus on storytelling. Every tournament is not just a simple bunch of fights now but a small story with a few different outcomes depending on player's success on the battlefields and his choices in dialogues.



The new demo is a bit rough around the edges, it doesn't offer a flawless experience, it lacks a few important things yet and its balance is probably not perfect, but we want to share it with you to get an early feedback which is very important for us.

Please, join our Discord to tell us what you think about the demo or post your feedback to Steam forums. We are really appreciate it. Thank you.

Our friends at Lost Pilgrims have just launched Vagrus - The Riven Realms into full release here on Steam.

Vagrus is a turn-based, open-world, dark fantasy RPG. The game moves out of Early Access with well over a hundred hours of playable content . Vagrus and its haunting world were born from decades of tabletop RPG campaigns played by the founders of Lost Pilgrims, which adds vastly to the game’s unique atmosphere and the richness of its setting.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/909660/Vagrus__The_Riven_Realms


Vagrus is an award-winning roleplaying game with a narrative focus, open-world exploration, and strong elements of strategy. The player takes the role of a vagrus - a caravan leader who strives to survive in a strange and dangerous dark fantasy world by leading a traveling company on all kinds of ventures.

• A DARK REALM
  A vast realm is yours to explore, filled with unique locations, strange factions, lurking dangers, and a slew of characters you can interact with.
  
  
  
• BRANCHING NARRATIVE
  A large selection of longer and shorter stories make up the game’s narrative in the form of events and quests. The choices you make in these can significantly affect the characters and the world around you.
  
  
  
• TURN-BASED COMBAT
  Take part in turn-based, tactical combat that involves your characters and a large variety of enemies, both humanoid and monstrous. Use a range of character skills and abilities to succeed. Fight against outlaws and monsters commanding your whole traveling company in pitched battles for resources.
  
  
  
• RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
  Most journeys have to be planned and prepared for carefully, lest they end in disaster. Manage your supplies, cargo, and crew effectively to survive. Take on contracts and follow rumors or trade opportunities.
  
  
  
• UNIQUE COMPANIONS
  A wide variety of companions can work for you in versatile caravan roles, such as scoutmaster, guard captain, treasure hunter, or beast handler. Each companion comes with unique combat skills, background stories, and personal quest lines that can upgrade them further when you complete them.
  
  
  
• POWERFUL FACTIONS
  Ally yourself with mighty factions that shape the Riven Realms with their influence on commerce, brutal wars, and constant scheming. From prosperous Trading Houses to criminal syndicates and religious organizations, these groups offer powerful rewards and boons to those loyal to their cause. But take heed - befriending a faction will more than likely antagonize others.
  

A special Centurion Edition of Vagrus released alongside the full game. This special edition includes the base game, the original soundtrack, and the Patronage Pack at a special launch price during launch week. Those who already own the base game can also purchase the DLCs individually.

Try your hand at Vagrus to see if you can make profit while surviving in the wastelands!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/909660/Vagrus__The_Riven_Realms/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

If you are interested in getting a glimpse of Vagrus, check it out here.

Hey folks!

Steam Summer Sale is here, and we are glad to announce 65% OFF Ash of Gods: Redemption, both the original and Deluxe version with a beautiful soundtrack from Adam Skorupa, The Witcher's composer, and our nicely composed digital artbook.

Have a nice Summer, everyone!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/691690/Ash_of_Gods_Redemption/

Hey folks!

The demo for Ash of Gods: The Way is finally available for everyone on the store page.

Ash of Gods: The Way is a single-player story-driven tactical game with constantly changing rules for every fight. Original mechanics and scripts, battlefields of different shapes and size, six factions with two unique decks for each of them—adjust to the circumstances to be victorious.

Keep in mind, that's still work in progress, there are a lot of placeholders and other small issues in the game. We are also experimenting with fights, mechanics and balance, so a lot of that will be reworked on the release. Please, share your feedback via our Steam forums or join Discord community.

We are also going to make a stream for Steam Next Festival to show you The Way as well as to highlight the game to other Steam players. Join us on Monday, June 21th, 10 am Pacific to take a sneak peek at the demo or try it for yourself.