Astral Ascent, a 2D platformer rogue-lite on PC and consoles with four worlds to escape, if you can beat the Zodiacs, 12 mighty bosses!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
2024 Roadmap + incoming update!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 07:25:03 AM
Hello everyone!
Today we celebrate our 1 month anniversary since the 1.0 release 🎉
We are still overwhelmed by all the positive feedback we receive, thanks so much for that!
This reception motivated us to keep improving Astral Ascent so we decided to publish our 2024 Roadmap that was influenced by the answers we received from a poll we made on our Discord server.
The Roadmap can still change but will remain similar to this. But before all this new content we would like to focus a bit more on what is coming up next week, on December 21st - the Damage Meter Update!
A new Damage Meter system so you will know exactly what deals what damage at anytime.
Full Japanese Voice-Over, "anime roguelite" is becoming real
Translation of the game in PT/BR
10 new exploration rooms per worlds
A mini dragon in first Intro Room giving an Aura choice right away to orient your build (Zim-Zim upgrade)
Possibility to reset Telluric Ruins spells with Sun Pieces
A lot of debug and balancing
Complete damage meter menu
Small damage overlay of either global damage / current room damage or turned off.
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We think this system is something very interesting to implement for people enjoying making builds. We are having tons of fun playing with it to see what is making damage and how synergies/builds work together but of course this is also going to show what is too weak or too strong so you can expect a lot of balancing to happen after this update!
We are reading all your feedback about the game, we saw a lot of feedback about lisibility and we improved a lot of things regarding it (including a new option to turn off the damage numbers) and the difficulty to create coherent builds (we added some elements above but we have also added one more gambit altar at the Merchant for example)
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For physical editions, we will try to send the surveys from Backerkit as soon as possible with an estimated delivery by Limited Run Games for end of Q1 2024 or early Q2 2024.
Thanks a lot and have a fantastic day!
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Astral Ascent 1.0 is out now on PC / PS4 / PS5 / Switch! 🔥
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 07:56:49 AM
1.0 is out now!
After 4.5 years of work with 18 months of Early Access, we are very proud to share with you all the 1.0 version of Astral Ascent! We gave our very best during the whole development and you witnessed the evolution of the game that changed so much from Kickstarter demo to 1.0!
We truly hope you will enjoy this version as much as we did (we play the game a lot as we are having so much fun on it!) and be sure we will do updates on the game and we would love to do many of them, the more success the game will have the more we will do so fingers crossed!
We also want to take this opportunity to tell you once more how important was all your support during the Early Access, it gave us a lot of motivation and inspiration, thanks for that <3
You can see below the Launch Trailer to celebrate the Release on PC / PS4 / PS5 and Nintendo Switch!
If you were already playing the game on Early Access, the 1.0 comes with a lot of changes! More than 1000 lines of change to read in our 1.0 Patch Notes.
The Master
You will finally be able to face The Master, a final confrontation to escape from the astral prison! We do not want to spoil anything about it but there is a lot about this final boss, it took us as much time as the 3 other Zodiacs combined.
Beating The Master will also lead you to the 17 different Endings of the game!
Aries
Aries is super friendly but she will not hold her attacks on you!
Cancer
Cancer is the leader of the Orphnées family, he fights with a bird named Basileus.
Gemini
Gemini are special, expect an intense fight facing multiple threats!
Star Guardians - Monoceros and Sculptor
Monoceros and Sculptor are joining Pegasus, Lupus, Draco and Hydra as minibosses you can encounter during your escape attempts!
We think it's important for these Fights to not feel too repetitive. You can only face 3 of them maximum per escape attempt. They hit hard but we want you to pick these fights only if you feel comfortable during your run!
Monoceros is based on ice attacks!
Sculptor creates weapons to attack you!
Animated Cinematic
We now have a traditional cinematic introduction when launching the game, giving a mood and first impression we absolutely love. The animations of Tokkun Studio fit perfectly the music of Dale North for an epic introduction to the Astral Ascent universe.
Reworked Introduction and Tutorial
We think the game introduction was not exposing the story and universe enough, we have created a new introduction cinematic!
It is also an introduction to Ayla who did not have a proper pixel-art cinematic yet, it comes with a complete change of Ayla personality and backstory!
For the tutorial itself, we thought the previous one was too static and frustrating because we created a game focused on aerial movement and the tutorial was forcing you to not move much. The new tutorial gives you a total control over your movements from the very start now!
Event Horizon
You will not be automatically killed when accessing the Event Horizon (5th world), instead you will have many elements to prepare before the final confrontation!
Mid-run Saves
This might be the most requested features from the 18 months of Early Access, everytime the icon below appears, you can open your options and safely quit to main menu and resume later.
Combined to Steam cloud you can even do a run on your PC and continue your run on your Steamdeck for example!
Maximum level you can reach per escape attempt is 12, once level 8 reached you have 4 perks for your Signature spell and 4 for your Basic attacks but now each level above level 8 allows you to replace one perk to optimize your build even more at the end of your runs.
Stats Window
It was not easy to know how your current build is impacting your base stats, now you will be able to see the stats anytime when opening your inventory or all the time by activating an option in the Gameplay menu.
Itinerant Peddlers
We have made the itinerant peddlers much more interesting. As the spells did not have much and no gambits on them, in late-game it felt not right to pick new spells.
Now prices are much more varied and spells can have gambits on them, impacting their prices up to 2000+ Quartz a spell. You can also find and buy astral Gambits there making Quartz currency much more interesting that it was!
We have also changed the altars to see the elements of spells and the rarity of gambits for a better lisibility.
Storytelling Elements
Narration has been extended and reworked a lot, there is a lot of changed dialogs and many new types of dialogues. For example you can now have self conversations on benches and heroes talk to each others.
Most Memory Fragment have been modified too to give a more complete story of every characters.
Co-op icons
We have given a lot of attention to co-op, one example is these icons that have been requested a lot by the community! But there is many other changes making the co-op experience more enjoyable!
Digital Rewards
For Digital Rewards, you should have already received everything. If you don't, please follow the steps in #kickstarter-rewards channel on our Discord Server. The Reward list is -
Digital Copy for Steam (available for everyone who pre-ordered a physical edition)
Digital Copy for Console (PS4/PS5/Switch)
Digital OST (Steam Key)
Digital Artbook (Steam Key)
Digital Dark Devotion (Steam Key)
Get your Discord role
If you have any questions about that or require help, either post a message in the #support channel of the Discord server (community has answers to a lot of already asked questions) or send an email at [email protected], we will do our best to support you even if we will probably be very busy today.
It gets asked a lot so, for Artbook, the way to open it is installing Astral Ascent on Steam and unlock Artbook DLC -> then right click on Astral Ascent in your library -> properties -> explore local files -> there will be an Astral Ascent Artbook pdf.
Physical Rewards
All physical rewards are planned for Q1 2024, you will get a survey before shipping to select the platform you want and update your shipping address.
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Wishing you the best time in the game and thanks again for making this possible <3
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
1.0 Patch Notes, Digital Rewards and Artbook sneak peek!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Nov 09, 2023 at 10:22:22 AM
Hello everyone!
There is only 5 days left before Astral Ascent 1.0 releases on PC/Consoles!
As release day should be a pretty busy day, we decided to release the 1.0 patch notes today so anyone wanting to dive into the release content can take time to do so. It is so large (more than 1000 lines) that we needed 2 complete Steam updates to have enough space for it!
This is by far our biggest content release for the game (we definitively forgot some of the changes) and we hope you like everything we have been working on for this 1.0! We would like to thank once again everyone from the community who took time to report bugs and make suggestions, so many elements have been changed thanks to that, thanks a lot! ✨
DIGITAL REWARDS
I am taking this opportunity to let you know that we have emailed more than 2300 of you about their digital rewards (everyone who does not have a digital copy to select), if you did not receive an email you can check your spam box or ask for help in the support channel from our Discord server or through Kickstarter, we are contacting anyone having troubles and we are doing our very best to deliver every rewards before next tuesday.
Here is a small FAQ about digital rewards -
Can I switch my steam key with a console key?
Sadly no!
I activated the Artbook DLC but I don't find it, where is it?
The Digital Artbook will be visible at Steam game folder as followed - right click on Astral Ascent on Steam -> browse local files -> "Astral Ascent Artbook.pdf", it will be live on November 14th at 5PM CET / 8 AM PST
How can I get my rewards without using Discord?
We have created a Kickstarter Bot that distributes automatically the Digital Rewards on our Discord server to save us time. Some of you said they would prefer not use Discord if possible, we tried to find an alternative but could not. If you do not want to use Discord, you can send a private message to us on Kickstarter or an email specifying the email address you used during the Kickstarter campaign at contact@hibernian-workshop and we will send your rewards directly but if you have the possibility of using Discord it would be very appreciated as handling manually each case takes us time.
How do I use the Kickstarter bot?
Starting from the beginning, if you react to the message in #kickstarter-rewards the bot will automatically send you a private message (you must allow non-friends to send you messages in this server). It will ask you to verify your email. Once email verification has been sent (double-check spam folder), you click a button in the bot provides to input your email verification code. After that, you can receive your rewards.
I reacted to the message in #kickstarter-rewards, but received no message from the bot. How do I get the helper to DM me?
Change your Privacy Settings in this server to allow direct messages (Unsure if they need to re-react to the post in #kickstarter-rewards)
Where is my 5th character free DLC key?
5th character DLC is planned in 2024, we have some updates in mind to release before.
Why are my console codes not working?
Console codes will be working once game goes live on November 14th, 5PM CET /8 AM PST.
How can I change my name in the credits?
The Kickstarter Assistant on Discord has a button for you to change it as many times as you want but tomorrow is the last day to do that. Also please note that the changes will only appear after first post-launch update.
Artbook Sneak Peek
Finally, here is a sneak peek of the Astral Ascent Artbook we just finished, available very soon!
Have a fantastic evening, 5 days left!
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Get your Digital Rewards!
over 2 years ago
– Sun, Nov 05, 2023 at 11:39:23 PM
Hello everyone!
It is time to claim your Digital Rewards!
We are getting very close to the 1.0 release (November 14th) and today we are starting to deliver the Digital Rewards of Astral Ascent Kickstarter campaign.
Here is the list of digital rewards you can claim:
💾 Digital Copy for Console (PS4/PS5/Switch)
📀Digital OST (Steam Key)
📘Digital Artbook (Steam Key)
⚔️Digital Dark Devotion (Steam Key)
🌱 Get your Discord role
⭐️Change your **name in the Credits**, *this option is limited in time to 11/10/2023 and changes will be only applied in first updates of Astral Ascent post-launch, for now it uses the names of your Kickstarter account*.
📱HD Wallpapers.
To claim your rewards you will need to go to our Discord Server, there you will have a #kickstarter-rewards channel and you simply have to follow steps there to claim your digital rewards!
- Console keys will only be working from November 14th, 2023 5PM CET / 8AM PST
- Steam Keys will not have 1.0 content until November 14th, 2023 5PM CET / 8AM PST
- If you pre-ordered a physical copy, you are eligible to get a free digital copy for Steam (this cannot be another platform), physical copies by Limited Run Games are still planned to be sent Q1 2024 (a survey will be sent at this moment for shipping address & shipping costs)
- If keys are out of stock for a platform, you will receive the key as soon as it's back in stock, it can take up to a few days so we recommend claiming your rewards when possible if you want to play on day 1! This should mainly be a concern for Switch keys, as we have to pay them individually we have to re-order small quantities many times.
- Digital Artbook is a Steam DLC, you access it by accessing your local files on Steam, there will be a PDF file in there with the artbook, it will only appear from November 14th, 2023 5PM CET / 8AM PST
- Digital OST is a Steam Key, once activated it can be listened on Steam directly, there is a HD version (.wav) in local files as Steam requires a smaller (.mp3) to be the default version
We really hope you will enjoy your rewards and thanks again for supporting us!
Additionally, later today you will have a surprise release from us on the IGN youtube channel, here is a sneak peek -
Have a fantastic day!
Louis
Final Release Date Announcement 🔥
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 08:03:55 AM
Astral Ascent Final Release is coming on November 14th, 2023 (PS4/PS5/Switch/Steam)
We have been working on it for months alongside regular updates and here is what you can expect from this final version -
The Master final boss fight
3 New Zodiacs: Aries, Cancer & Gemini, including Zodiac Spells, Challenges & Summons
17unique endings
Completely reworked tutorial
Newintroduction cinematic
Mid-run saves at start of each room
Traditional cinematic when launching the game
Players stats window
Reworkedand extended narration for all characters, including new narration places like heroes self-dicussions, heroes to heroes discussions, new dialogs with various characters and Memory Library stories final version
Fully voiced dialogs including some characters fully re-voiced like Ayla
2 new Star Guardians : Sculptor & Monoceros
New Musics including orchestral records and featuring of vocalist Emi Evans
Countless polishes, balances & bug-fixes! (more than 400 tasks done on our side)
As you can see, we have invested all our incomes from the Early Access directly into the game to make it the best possible game we could do which means we are going to release with close to no marketing budget and we are counting on you to spread the word about the game!
The more success the game will have, the more updates we will make and we have so many ideas already!
Slight game price adjustment
We did not change game price since its Early Access release but the game is so much bigger than initially planned and we have adjusted the price slightly.
Physical Copies Shipments
We have discussed with our partner Limited Run Games about the physical copies shipments, their philosophy is that the physical games should have as much of the updates as possible when distributed so they would like us to have the first updates released before shipments.
Therefore, shipments of physical copies is still planned for Q1 2024. Same thing happened for Sea of Stars release and we are going to do as they did: delivering a Steam key to everyone who pre-ordered a physical copy! You will receive a code soon!
Have an excellent day and thank you so much for your support!
