Ash of Gods: The Way News

Hello friends!

We are stoked to announce that, as part of the #TurnBasedFest event, our brand new demo is now available to play! Experience what we’ve been working on over the past half a year since the last demo. Several changes have been made based on player feedback, so we’re eager to hear what you think.


[h3]Watch the new trailer here:[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h3]Main features to try out in the demo:[/h3]

• Play through the tutorial and the first tournament of the game. Prove your worth and abilities to your king!
  
• Try out two different decks: Your trusty Berkanan deck and the ever devious Bandit deck!
  
• Three difficulty settings! The pesky difficulty bug has been fixed, so you’ll now be able to pick a difficulty level before starting the game. Normal mode is generally recommended for most players. More interested in the story than the gameplay? Story mode is for you. Want to explore every nook and cranny of the combat? Challenge yourself with Hard mode!
  

[h3]You can download the demo on the Ash of Gods: The Way store page![/h3]




Want to give feedback on the demo or discuss something with the developers? Join our Discord!

Did you like the demo and want to explore more of the Ash of Gods universe? The first game in the series, Ash of Gods: Redemption, is now on sale!

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


Want to stay up-to-date on Ash of Gods: The Way? Follow our page and wishlist the game! It greatly helps us with getting the game out there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293460/Ash_of_Gods_The_Way/

While many battles introduce new mechanics to change up how the battle plays out, sometimes it’s the location that seriously changes the game.

So how about an old, narrow and probably extremely unsafe bridge? Obviously, the best place for a battle!*

*AurumDust is not liable for any workplace accidents due to neglected bridge repairs, proceed at own risk.


[h2]ON A NARROW BRIDGE[/h2]



The bridge itself proves to be a challenge on its own; you’ll have to improvise, adapt and overcome its narrow size. You only have two rows to place your units, so you have no choice but to face your foe head-on. The Commanders also stand a lot closer to each other, with the enemy Commander standing one cell closer to the middle than you. He’ll have new units on the front quicker than you will!

Your foe’s support deck only consists of charms. His units will be fully protected from damage for one hit. After that initial hit though, it’s as if they never had an item to begin with. Use your smarts to play around these charms, and your opponent may have been better off bringing a little more diversity to the fight!

Want the extra reward? Complete this challenge without using any spell cards. Stock up on equipable support items before you go!


[h2]AN EXTRA CHALLENGE[/h2]



To crank up the difficulty, your enemy gets a way stronger character deck to use. Be prepared to face large numbers of Berkana’s finest! You’re also not allowed to bring any ‘Shooter’ type characters; leave your Rangers at home and bring an extra Crusher or two.

Managed to break through the elites and slay the enemy Commander? You get a Spear of the Victor card for your victory, giving any character you hand it to one extra attack point and the ability to retaliate an attack from any opponent in range.



Piqued your interest? You’ll be able to play a demo of Ash of Gods: The Way on December 8th! Follow the game on Steam to get notified of new developments, and wishlist the game to support us!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293460/Ash_of_Gods_The_Way/

Hello friends!

We’re beyond excited to let you know that next week, as part of the #TurnBasedFest event here on Steam, a brand new demo will be available for you to play!

We’ve been hard at work this past half year, implementing changes and improvements based on the feedback we got on our last demo. We’ll explore these changes in-depth next week, but here’s what we’ve been working on:

[h3]A new and improved main menu has been added. We’re really happy with how it looks now![/h3]



[h3]Lots of rebalancing. We fixed a few things for classic mode and reworked both story and hard mode. The latter is still a work in progress, but we hope these changes will result in an improved player experience.[/h3]



[h3]We made numerous improvements to the story you can experience in the demo.[/h3] This includes improvements to the tutorial and story from slightly later in the game that have been moved forward to make the demo more interesting. The story and dialogue in The Way has been reworked as a whole, though you won’t see much of this in the demo.



If you’d like to discuss something with us or give feedback on the demo, join our Discord!

We also released a (new) dedicated subreddit for the Ash of Gods franchise! You’ll be able to discuss all the Ash of Gods games with others in the community, give feedback, share your thoughts & fan content and help each other out if you run into trouble. All official announcements will also be posted there! Find it here: r/Ash_of_Gods

Want to stay up-to-date here on Steam? Follow the Ash of Gods: The Way Steam page to get all developments directly in your Steam library. While you're there, consider wishlisting the game! It helps us out a ton with getting the game out there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293460/Ash_of_Gods_The_Way/

See you next week!

We’re glad to be back! It’s been a while, so we’d love to remind you of some of the mechanics you can expect to come across in The Way’s full release version.


[h2]NO COMMANDERS[/h2]

Before you can challenge the tournament’s champion, you’ll have to get through Adjutant Mirina. Her battle is a little bit different than you’re used to; this battle doesn’t feature Commanders on either side. To win, you need to eliminate all ten of the enemy’s units before they eliminate yours!



Additionally, there’s a border in the center of the battlefield. This border cannot be crossed by either party. Your units will meet in the middle, and that’s where the battle will be decided.

Adjutant Mirina’s deck consists of a combination of strong melee characters and stellar support units. She’ll attempt to make a sturdy front line to keep your units busy, while keeping her support safe from harm’s way. To come out victorious, you can try to break through their front line with sheer power, or try to snipe out her support units to weaken their melee units. If you want full points and the bonus card for this fight, you’ll need to do this with six units or less.


[h2]AN EXTRA CHALLENGE[/h2]



If the normal battle wasn’t enough for you, you can choose to challenge Adjutant Mirina again on a higher difficulty. This won’t go unrewarded either, as there’s a special support card up for grabs!

At the start of the battle, you’ll immediately notice some big changes. First off, there’s a Guardian on the enemy’s side of the field, equipped with a Veteran’s Ring. He’s supported by a Monk, ready to utilize his healing powers.

Secondly, walls have been placed on the far reaches of the border. This will help bolster the enemy’s defenses, as it’ll be easier for Adjutant Mirina to make a full front line. However, I do wonder if you’ll somehow be able to turn this disadvantage in your favor?



Finally, you can only use three units to clear this battle. Your choice of combatants will decide your fate; will you come out victorious?


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293460/Ash_of_Gods_The_Way/

Hello, friends.

We’ve been very, very busy working on The Way. We know there hasn’t been any news about the game for quite a while, but we’re about to change that. You’ll hear from us a lot more from now on, both here on Steam and on our other social media channels. Additionally, you’ll soon be able to play a new demo. Your feedback will be invaluable in finalizing the game for release!

We didn’t forget about our promise though! We still want to go over the finalized results of the last demo and the changes we made accordingly. So, without further ado, let’s dive right into it.


[h2]Overall[/h2]



Overall, we’re very happy with the feedback the demo got, especially considering the issues that were introduced in this demo. For starters, all new players were locked to story mode due to a bug. As this difficulty level was designed for people who are only interested in the story, it made the fights very easy and quick to complete. There was no real need for tactical gameplay, and a lot of people reported this issue in the feedback form. It should be fixed for the next demo!

Additionally, in an earlier demo of The Way, many felt we were too generous with the amount of gameplay it offered. Players could comfortably spend fourteen hours in the demo, which is a considerable portion of the game. We decided to shorten the demo based on this feedback, but missed the mark again. People reported they were speeding through the demo in a matter of hours, especially given the fact that the game was stuck in story mode for many. We made some more changes, so let us know whether or not this feels right with the upcoming new version.


[h2]Tutorial[/h2]



As this game has quite a unique battle system, the tutorial is an important portion of the game to get right. We need to find a balance between explaining all the systems the player can interact with and the time it takes to get into the actual game. Some of the feedback indicated that the tutorial dragged on too much, so we decided to divide the tutorial into multiple stages. This will gradually introduce the player to new mechanics as they appear. The dialogue has also been shortened to get you into the fight quicker. We’re looking forward to seeing how all of you like the new tutorial!


[h2]Story[/h2]



The story of The Way was generally received positively, but reception is noticeably weaker than the overall feedback. Players feel the story of The Way isn’t up to par with Redemption. This is something we understand, but we’d also like to reiterate that The Way is intended to be a very different experience than Redemption. While the story took center stage in the latter, The Way is a lot more focused on gameplay and features a simple story to carry the player forwards. However, thanks to your feedback, we considerably changed the story’s design: we added more dialogue and branching paths based on your interactions with the characters you’ll meet on your journey. This will make the game a lot less linear and more tailored to who you are or want to be as a person.

Currently, each tournament in the game has its own story and several endings depending on how well you perform on the battlefield. The Way features many different endings; it’s about five times bigger than Redemption. Now, you won’t get to experience all this in the upcoming demo. The Way is still a gameplay-focused experience, and most of the early dialogue will focus on explaining the rules and gameplay mechanics. We did move some dialogue and story you’d previously experience later on in the game forward to make the demo more interesting. This way you’ll get a taste of things to come, but you’ll only truly get to know the setting and its people later on in the story.


[h2]Dialogue[/h2]



Regrettably, what we can do with the dialogue is limited by the simple yet inconvenient program we decided to use. This program was ideal for what we originally intended to do, but with the changes we made and the many branching paths we added, the limitations became very apparent. It’s simply not suited for the more complicated and extensive dialogue we’ve added since the last demo.



Nevertheless, we heard your feedback loud and clear and are committed to make the story the best it can be. You’ll have more meaningful and interesting interactions with the people you meet on your journey. Furthermore, there was a clear difference between how well the Russian and English dialogue was received. We are continuing our work to improve the English translation to get it up to par with the Russian version. Please, continue providing your feedback on this matter.

To conclude everything, we want to thank all of you for your feedback on our demos. It has truly been invaluable to us in the development of The Way. We would love to have you back for our next demo, so keep an eye out for our announcement on that soon! Look forward to a new main menu, story & dialogue improvements, (working) difficulty modes and more.

That’s all for now! Again, you’ll hear a lot more from us in the months to come. We’ll update you on when the new demo will be available to play.

[h3]In the meantime, drop by our Discord to discuss The Way and add the game to your wishlist! It really helps us out a ton.[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293460/Ash_of_Gods_The_Way/

Thank you for your feedback, we’ll talk to you soon!