Indie Game Spotlight: Ashen
This week’s Indie Game Spotlight is Ashen, an action RPG with stamina-based combat and passive multiplayer. You are a wanderer in search of a place to call home, in a world shrouded by darkness. However, when the Ashen suddenly and violently awakens, flooding the world with new light, it is up to you to uncover the secrets it has unveiled.
We were able to talk with the whole team behind the project, A44, about how Ashen plans to build on a community and the concepts behind their games’ aesthetics. Ready to jump in?
What were some inspirations behind the game?
We have drawn inspiration from all forms of media, experiences, and locations. Ashen is the game we, as developers, truly wanted to make, and that means it needs to be a culmination of all experiences from our lives. There are a bunch of games we love which we have drawn inspiration from, but equally books, films and of course, New Zealand’s vibrant culture, gorgeous landscapes, and rich history.
How is New Zealand incorporated into the game’s environments?
Ashen has both direct and indirect influences from New Zealand. A lot of the team are born and raised here so we can’t help but infuse aspects of our country into the world. Much like the world of Ashen, New Zealand is beautiful but also rugged and holds a certain mystery to it that we love to capture.
Why did the team decide to make the characters faceless?
One of the core pillars of Ashen is building relationships through the passive multiplayer system. We didn’t want players to have any preconceived notions about the player you were traveling with, we wanted everyone to form a bond. Early on in development, we had the crazy idea to try and wipe the faces for both artistic reasons, and to test out how people played with each other, and what we found was pretty stark in the differences. So as well as being iconic, it actually fed directly into a core aspect of Ashen.
The visuals in Ashen are stunning! How did the team come up with the aesthetic?
It took a long time and never really fully stopped evolving. Most of the groundwork was done early on in the first couple of years when the team was very small. A44 was started by two ex-Weta artists, so art was obviously our early strength, and so we leaned heavily into it, developing a style that was distinct and beautiful, but also propped up our game pillars.
How does the passive multiplayer aspect create a sense of community?
We wanted to create positive, memorable experiences for people with our multiplayer. The feeling of fleeting but rewarding adventures with someone you will probably never connect to again, let alone ever meet in a real capacity, adds to the already mysterious world, yet doesn’t diminish the feeling of having achieved something great with each other. It creates a truly unique moment you can share with another wanderer.
What are some interesting stories that you’ve heard from players?
We love reading the stories of people struggling with an area until they connected to someone which they have an epic adventure with. Whether it’s people on Reddit trying to find someone they had a moment with, or people sharing their experiences on Twitter, it’s all amazingly rewarding to us, and exactly what we wanted to create.
We know, we know. You can’t wait to play. Ashen can be purchased on Xbox One or in the Epic Games store now!
