Astral Ascent News

We have a release date for the World 3 update named "The Coral Archipelago Update", this release date is in September 2022, which means we are only a few weeks away from releasing a game changer update for Astral Ascent.
We know this update has been very long to release but we added much more than we anticipated to the game.

A world update is supposed to contain -

• A new playable character (Octave for this one that comes with 11 unique spells)
  
• A new world to explore (+ 8 new enemies and 4 level design elements)
  
• 2 new Zodiacs + their challenges and summons
  
• World 4 Zodiac blocking your path
  

In addition to that we added -

• Zodiacs Spells system (it means 7 of them already)
  
• Reworked some existing Zodiac summons
  
• Sun & Moon new room type
  
• New mini-boss - Draco (whose fighting style might remind you of someone!)
  
• Kinship System & Echoes Room, you can have up to 4 friends to summon by your side from a total of 15 possible summons (Zim-Zim, Oloon, Ikki, Ordan, the Heroes and much more)
  
• Pantheon room accessible for those who paid an ingame statue of themselves (with or without their pets)
  
• Andromeda's bar interior with new friendship system with the Zodiacs that will make chosing your constellation meaningful (this is not final yet but close to what we had in mind)
  
• Major synergy rework that will make your runs much more interesting with many new or reworked auras, gambits, effects
  
• One more complicated and very requested element is still unannounced ✨
  

But that's not all as we have also improved so many small details all around, from small UI improvement, to enemies AI and balancing, about everything has been closely looked and observed to be improved (even the Credits screen has been reworked!), at least we did our very best given the small team that we are.

That being said, there is one major element for this update that we took the decision to postpone. It is the New Exporter named "Chowdren" version. The game is already playable on this version but there is many small elements that are not as polished as they are on the regular version. It is really sad for us to delay this version as it changes about everything -

• Game is running incredibly faster
  
• Many crashes are solved
  
• Remote Play Together sound problem should be solved too
  
• Loading times are feeling inexistant (as you can see on below video)
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

But Astral Ascent is a massive project and it takes time for our partner to solve all the small issues and we currently do not know when exactly this new version will be ready and instead of keep delaying the world 3 update we decided to delay the Chowdren version and make it live as soon as it will be as good as the main version of the game so you can expect a small update between world 3 and world 4 updates with this optimized version and hopefully some more exciting elements (we already have some ideas). Our goal is to avoid impacting too much the world 4 release period that should take less time for the world 3 one.

Rest assured that our porting partner is doing an incredible job and the project could not be in better hands, new version will be worth the wait!


Continuing with the new effects and synergies that we created for this update, we added a final touch - The Affinity System. This system will give you a way to make you spells even stronger by having certains type of gambits on it corresponding to the element of the spell.
When you equip a gambit on a spell with an elemental affinity that is the same as the gambit, the spell will gain an increased percentage of bonus damage dealt on hit.

Spell with fire affinity + fire gambits

However even if that is very clear that Magma Comets have a fire affinity, some spells do not seem to match a specific affinity like the Spirit Sword below, but don't worry! These spells are considered to have a neutral affinity, instead of having no affinity they actually have an affinity with every gambits but with a lesser increased bonus damage percentage.
To make things more open we have decided to make specific spells like Fireballs to be randomly neutral and for some spells like Ayla's shuriken to randomly have any affinity type. We think that is yet another very exciting change to the synergy system as it creates even more strategy when equiping spells & gambits.

Spell with neutral affinity + any gambit


Expect new challenges to come with this update! 2 new challenges made for Scorpio & Pisces, the new Zodiacs. Even if Scorpio is really mean, he would be a very powerful ally to have by your side to escape the Garden!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


The new kinship system is finally done! Your friends from The Garden will now be able to help you in your journey. You can find exclusive "Echoes" in the Echoes Room that will grant you an unique ability related to one of your friends. Enjoy some of those new summons effects!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Ikki can save you once per world!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Ordan will give a piece of her mind to the Zodiacs you will face.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Other heroes like Kiran will also come to your help!


With all the polish going on, we took time to redo some of the older visual effects of the game to make them look even cooler and cleaner than before. Have a glimpse!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We have very excited to release the update, see you in September!

Don't forget our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to speak with the community and give us feedbacks on the game!



Hardworking team

Have a nice week!
-The Hibernian Workshop Team

[h3]We're happy to announce that we are part of the Tiny Teams Festival! ✨[/h3]

For this special occasion, Astral Ascent will be played on Yogcast's channel on August 7!
As good news never comes alone, you can get Astral Ascent on Steam with a 10% discount from August 1 to 8!




https://store.steampowered.com/app/1280930/Astral_Ascent/

This entire month has been dedicated to finishing all the ongoing features. This is a very ambitious update that we are working on, here are some recent news about it.

[h2]New Effects, Gambits and Auras: the Synergy rework🔥[/h2]
We were not entirely satisfied with the Gambits, Effects and Auras that we had in the game. We knew the system was very interesting but when creating builds we felt it always lacked - Synergy.

What we call Synergy is the possible combinaisons between the different playable elements that you can find in the game - Spells, Gambits, Auras, Effects.

We had the feeling that very few synergies existed and it was mainly about multi-hit spells and mono-hit spells. After a lot of design talks, we improved the system and made many changes to improve it and make it more central to the game progression.

- First, we removed many of the Auras and Gambits that were not very interesting to play with, for example the ones dealing more damages if enemy health is full or depending of number of effects affecting the enemies.

- Second, we added several new unique effects to create more synergies opportunities between your spells, auras and gambits! What we call Effects are elements negatively affecting enemies, we have also reworked the way Effects stacks are displayed above enemies as you can see below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


We also added some new summons that will trigger Effects, here are some for you to enjoy!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


A feeling that we had in game for a while was the feeling of not really choosing your build regarding the gambits you equip on your spell, here are some balancing changes according to this.
Spells will now always come with at least 2 gambit slot available minimum.
Gambit slot unlocker cost has been reduced from 200 to 75 quartz to be a lot more affordable.

- Finally we also reworked all the Gambits icons and Aura icons to have a more distinct personality and be much more clearer.

Some of the new gambits icons

Some of the new Auras Icons


[h2]The coral archieplago progress 🏝️[/h2]
The coral archipelago content is now complete! All the new enemies have been done and will now enter polish phase. Here's a quick tease of what you'll be facing in the world.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Dale has also came through this month with the new great theme of the 3rd world, enjoy a glimpse!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Andromeda's bar interior progress 🍹[/h2]
Now that the bar interior is open, you will be able to meet the zodiac there in a more peaceful context, discussing with them and if you're lucky they might even consider joining you in battle!

Taurus agrees to help you!

A Jukebox is also available inside for you to enjoy the game ost!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Elites visual rework 💀[/h2]
Another system that got a visual rework are the elites enemies. They now have an all new color palette applied to them to really feel like different enemies! We also reworked the UI to have icons above their head instead of a text for a better visibility.

Elite Wooden Guardian

[h2]Finally a small gameplay glimpse of Octave 🎯[/h2]
Keeping you updated with Octave, here's a small gameplay clip of some possible combos between his spells, enjoy!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


We are entering a critical phase for the next update, for now we prefer to not give a precise release date for this update as we do not want to compromise on quality.

Don't forget our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to speak with the community and give us feedbacks on the game!


Don't forget our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to speak with the community and give us feedbacks on the game!


Hard working team
Have a great day and week!

-The Hibernian Workshop Team

Dear Astral Ascent players,

We're happy to announce our first community event on our Discord server! Check out the #octave-thoughts channel if you want to participate.

Suggest what you imagine Octave is thinking about and vote for your favorite line. The 2 most popular suggestions will be implemented in the game in the next major update!



Who is Octave? He is a confident boy. A bit arrogant, he's not very cautious about his word and he doesn't let people push him around. Octave broke into the garden to avenge his mother.
Octave will be the third character playable, you'll be able to fight with him in the next major update.

Happy to report this month the team has made huge progress on all the new content for the next update and soon all that will be left to do is polish and playtest! ✨

So, without further ado, here is our progress report -



The next world is here! The islands are waiting for you to cross them and meet the marine fauna! But be careful, this world is the home of the dangerous Noble Zodiacs, fierce enemies that will never allow you to pass without an intense fight!

The coral archipelago


The Pantheon is a new place accessible from the main hub of the game. When used, the floating orb will teleport you into a place where we immortalized some of our backers as golden statues.

You can access the pantheon from the village

The Pantheon

We initially wanted to have these statues randomly spawning at the merchant's room but this way anyone can witness them directly from the main hub. If you also want to have a statue of yourself (it can be with your pet) and your name appears when standing next to the statue, you can still order it on our Backerkit store.



We also have great news regarding the Ayla figure (also available on the Backerkit store), Limited Run Games manufacturer produced an example version that suits our vision and we really love it - we hope you will like it as much as we do!




A completely new system has been added to the game, the kinship system!

In your runs, you will now have access to a new special room inside wich you'll get a new kind of item: the souvenirs.

Souvenirs will grant you the power of one (or more) of your friend(s) from the Garden! Each character has their own unique power that will surely help you through your journey!

The intent of this system was to make the characters you meet and love a bigger part of your escape attempts and feel a deeper connection to them when they join your adventure!


Work in progress room

If your health is low, Zim-Zim will come to your help!

Look forward to getting the souvenir as they will surely prove useful in your quest.

Octave combo attack


Another accomplishment from this month was the rework of several of our Zodiac summons!

Most of the old summon either didn't fit the zodiac or were lacking in juice! So we decided to rework most of them to become truly impressive attacks!

Virgo new summon

But that's not all we also made summons for the next two A
Zodiacs of the Coral Archipelago, enjoy a sneak peek!

Scorpio summon


We added a new kind of spell to the game, the Zodiac spells! They'll give you the ability to use some of the zodiacs signature attacks as your own.

Don't expect to find them like others spells! They will only be accessible in a special place, but we'll let you find out for yourselves.

Capricorn zodiac spell

The door to the interior of the Andromeda's bar is now open, in here you'll be able to meet the zodiacs and talk with them in a peaceful environment.

Get insight about the world by the mouth of your enemies, learn more about them and if you're lucky, they might even join you directly in your journey!

Interior of Andromeda's bar


We also did something for our lovely discord community. New Astral Ascent emotes have been added to the server for you to express yourself there or on any other place if you have Discord Nitro!


We hope you'll enjoy them as much as we do!


This month has been a great month of progress and we cannot wait to let you play with all of this new content!



Don't forget our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to speak with the community and give us feedbacks on the game!


Hard working team
Have a great day and week!

-The Hibernian Workshop Team