AoT Studios

Hello, Wastelanders! Can you smell that? Roasted iguana? Gecko soup? Close, but not enough. We’ve got something else cooking. Here’s what we are planning for Ashes of Tomorrow between now and December: Phase I: World and progression • Footprints and tire tracks will mark your path through the wasteland. • We will rework sandstorms, visibility during them and how buildings shelter you. • You will earn attribute points as you level up. Phase II: Weapons and construction • New firearms will cover pistols, shotguns, rifles and automatic weapons. • Explosives will give you another way to handle a fight. • Firefights will gain muzzle flashes, bullet impacts, spent casings and shells. • We will expand settlement construction with new buildings types. Phase III: Economy and research • Residents will take jobs, haul resources and use shared storage to meet their needs. • You will manage production chains and unlock new options through research. • Connected utilities will work alongside repair, cleaning and maintenance jobs. • You will assign resident squads to patrol and defend your settlement. Phase IV: World expansion and factions • The playable area will grow to nine times the size of the current demo. • New factions will have their own quests, faction reputations and choices that affect the region. • New enemy types will bring new threats to the wasteland. • You will establish outposts and trade routes to move supplies between locations. Phase V: Visuals and performance • We will rework terrain elevation, floors, sand mounds and dunes. • We will improve performance and stability as the world and its systems grow. We have decided to move the Steam wishlist launch date so the store page can arrive alongside a demo everyone can play. October remains possible, but it may be later. We will announce the date once it’s confirmed. Keep watching our progress every week, with new gameplay footage arriving and a closer look at each part of the roadmap. #Indie #GameDev

Gm Wastelanders! It's been a while and we have been cooking a lot. So, what are we bringing for you today? Footprints and tire tracks now trace your journey. And the sandstorms affect more realistically your visibility, while buildings offer shelter. #IndieGame #GameDev

What keeps you coming back to post-apocalyptic RPGs?

“Some call me the Geezer because they lack imagination.” Meet Elias, a mechanic you can recruit in Ashes of Tomorrow. You freed him from the raiders. Would you take him with you? Pre-alpha gameplay. #RPG #Indie

The wasteland has a new home. Our rebuilt Ashes of Tomorrow website is live now! Explore the world, watch pre-alpha gameplay, and join forces in the post-apo world. ashesoftomorrow.com/ #indiegame #gamedev

Hello Wastelanders! We’ve been working hard recently to get our game demo ready for launching our Steam wishlist! And we wanted to let you know, that 99.9% we are ready for that. What have we been working on over the past two weeks? TL;DR Changelog: • Added full voice-overs for in-game dialogue. • Completed a full audio pass, added several new soundtrack tracks and 30+ new in-game sounds. • Significantly reworked the game’s UI (check out the screenshots for cool film grain effects, analogue CRT TV effects, and more). • Introduced a new game intro. • Fixed dozens of in game bugs and improved (polished) multiple game systems Enjoy the video! #indie #gamedev

Hello Wastelanders! Today we want to show you how squad management currently works in Ashes of Tomorrow. You begin alone. Elias the Geezer can become your first follower after you cut him free from the raiders. Recruiting him is your decision, and the consequences of that encounter remain part of the story. Up to four active companions can travel alongside player character. Each follower has their own health, stamina, hunger, thirst, carrying capacity, inventory and equipment. Through the Trade Gear screen, you can move weapons, ammunition, food, water and other supplies between inventories. You decide what each person carries and which weapon they equip. You can also converse with them and some conversations are a part of the ongoing quests. Management also happens directly in the world. You can tell the companions to follow, wait where they are or return to the base. Each person can be set to passive or combat stance. Passive companions stay out of fights. Those set to combat engage nearby threats using the gear you gave them. Elias is only the beginning. Three survivors later arrive at Hollow Pines as persistent settlers. They can remain at the outpost, serve as guards or join you on the road. Who would you take beyond the gates, and who would you leave to defend Hollow Pines? #CRPG #IndieGameDev

Gm, Wastelanders! Did you know that we are currently working on bringing vehicles to Ashes of Tomorrow? Yes, that's right! The video below gives you a look at the dedicated tool we built to test them before they enter the game world. Vehicles are being developed with functional lighting, collision, durability, and fuel systems, and the first of them will be included in the game demo. Don't forget to join our Discord: discord.com/invite/YdepHffvW… #IndieDev #RPG

GM Wastelanders! It has been a while since our last progress report and yes, the demo is coming sooner than you think! Since June, the vertical-slice location has been populated and its core systems have begun working together. Exploration, combat, companions, quests, construction, weather and persistent consequences are now forming one connected survival Strategy-RPG experience. Ashes of Tomorrow has officially reached V. 0.0027 and it is our largest update yet. CHANGELOG ADDED: • The complete boot-to-game journey has been upgraded with improved loading, a new intro movie, the opening story milestone and contextual tutorials for movement, interaction, stealth, crafting and combat. • Dynamic sandstorms now change visibility, movement and NPC perception. Wind carries sand across the world, building persistent drifts and ripples on roads, terrain, vegetation, vehicles and exposed objects. Sand accumulation can be removed in local radius by players / NPCs actions. Wind system with various wind intensity has been introduced alongway, with vegetation, cables and above mentioned sand accumulation being influenced by it. • Buildings provide real shelter, while vegetation and utility cables react to the weather outside. We have introduced the utility cables into the game as the foundation of the future electricity system • The raider-base storyline is now a complete multi-outcome encounter with patrols, stealth, dialogue, persuasion, combat and betrayal. • Elias the Geezer is our first full companion, with recruitable follow, stay and home commands, combat stances, equipment, trading and persistent consequences. The party foundation supports up to four survivors. • Break the Bandits Base, the Hollow Pines reveal and the first settler arrival are now live. Three persistent survivors are selected from 20 authored personas, travel into the outpost, receive accommodation and can become followers or settlement guards. • The first outpost can now be claimed and managed through its Garage workbench. The new settlement system includes residents, physical storage and free-placement construction with terrain, collision and resource checks. • We have introduced the settlement construction system. Ten initial buildable entries include shelter, storage, barricades, paths, fences, gates, a well and Guard Positions staffed by actual residents. • The first authored settlement defense with a quest is now implemented: 30 seconds to prepare, three timed waves approaching from two routes, settlers and assigned guards joining the fight, and Vask returning for the final confrontation. • New world pickups, dedicated inventory artwork and real-time 3D item previews have been introduced. Inventory can grow while weight and stamina penalties still matter. Corpses now retain loot, use directional final poses and blood pools, and decompose over time. We also introduced inventory exchange system for interactions with companions, containers and not only. • Save persistence now covers expanded quest states, encounters, companions, settlers, construction, inventories, storms, sand accumulation and utility-cable repairs. UPDATED: • The starting region received a major world-dressing pass with more natural vegetation, dryland terrain variation, road wear and windblown detail, while all gameplay-critical geometry was preserved. • Raider and companion AI now share improved perception, patrol, pursuit, tactical movement, cover, melee, ranged combat, negotiation, retreat, death and persistent state. Combat uses real blockers, authored hit shapes and correctly timed physical contact. • Display scaling, fullscreen support, brightness, zoom, dialogue and inventory presentation have been unified. Player, companion, storage, NPC and corpse inventories now share clearer scrolling, transfer and equipped-item behaviour. • World editing, NPC routing, rendering, terrain, sand, shadows and other demanding systems received substantial performance work to keep the growing world responsive. FIXED: • NPCs no longer detect or shoot through real walls; melee requires actual contact at the correct animation moment; and completed walls, fences and closed doors function as hard cover. • Fixed numerous interaction, corpse-looting, blood-pool, door, storage, workbench and long-session input failures, including cases where visible contact did not match the logical world position. • Resolved major storm, shelter, cable, construction, raider-withdrawal and settler-arrival problems, including route deadlocks, premature dialogue and structures trapping the player. Ashes of Tomorrow remains PRE-ALPHA, and we are keeping that label honest. The vehicle repair and refuelling quest and the final Happy Trails departure are the next coming pieces of this vertical slice. Once these are done, what remains are the final polishes of the vertical slice before the demo is ready. Video related - a preview of how now AoT looks like during the in-game sessions. We continue building. Until the next update! #IndieDev #PostApocalyptic

GM, everyone! It has been a while, and we know we have been a bit quiet. We chose to focus on building behind the scenes. The game demo is coming sooner than you think. More updates in the coming days!

GM Wastelanders, A little sneak peek at our new loading screens. Why did we introduce them? After a major round of game performance optimization, we decided this was the right moment to introduce loading screens both at game boot-up and before the start of an in-game session. Changelog: • Added new in-game graphics settings • Added two loading screens • Significantly optimized game performance • Introduced a new cinematic-quality intro sequence that plays before the in-game session starts Attached is a preview of one of the loading screens, which appears after the player finishes character creation.

Gm Survivors! The Wasteland never sleeps. And neither do we. It has been a while since our last update, and during that time we have shipped tons of new content. Details below: CHANGELOG ADDED: • Starting location is now fully complete. • New landmarks: ruined village library, big garage, small garage, car scrapyard, and an extended railway area. • All 20 chooseable starting characters are now fully animated. We will cover them in a dedicated video. • Added new roads and more vegetation across the map. • First version of the combat system introduced. Players can now fight unarmed with fists, or use melee and ranged weapons. • First melee and ranged weapons are now fully equippable. To use weapons, players must assign them from the inventory view to quickslots. • First NPCs introduced. Right now, there are 7 types of raiders and 1 settler type. They are already fully animated, with AI behaviours currently under implementation. • Faction zone ownership introduced. UPDATED: • Default in-game zoom updated. Maximum zoom-in is now approximately 36% closer. • Running speed animation and offset reduced by approximately 20%. FIXED: • Multiple object collision issues. • Minor stability improvements and fixes. Until the next update! #IndieDev #GameDev

Hello Wastelanders, Thursday is here, and it is time for a dev update. We are still polishing the starting location, but this week also brings something more... We are introducing choosable player characters! Right now, each character we are adding comes with 20+ animations, including sitting, walking, running, crawling, jumping, melee combat, shooting, and more interaction states that will support actual gameplay instead of just looking good on screen. Let the video speak for itself. Our development continues. #Indie #GameDev

Sometimes silence means something is being forged in the dark. 👀

Gm Wastelanders! Saturday is not a day off in the wastelands. Here comes another report from us: First, we have finalized around 80% of the starting location. During this pass, we expanded the floor system with 12 more floor types, added 7 new smart wall building system prefabs, introduced new environmental prefabs, and made several smaller in-game tweaks to make the area feel more readable and vertical slice alike material. Just watch the video and see how the place is slowly turning into a real piece of the wasteland. Second, what are our next nearest priorities? Apart from finishing the starting location, we are now focusing on introducing a fully playable player character with the full animation scope we need for proper gameplay. Walking, running, crouching, melee fighting, shooting, crawling, jumping, climbing, ladder climbing, interacting with objects, and more. Once the playable character is properly in place, we will move toward introducing NPCs into the game, both neutral characters and enemies. Step by step, AoT is becoming more than a map. More wasteland reports incoming soon. #gamedev #indie

THE ROAD TO SEPTEMBER We are entering the next major stage of development for Ashes of Tomorrow. Between now and our public reveal, the work is split into five clear phases. The goal is simple: move from a promising internal build into the first playable Pre-Alpha slice that actually feels like a game, not just a systems test. Phase 01 [In Progress]: World Foundation. Our starting location is being finalized: the suburbs of a destroyed city. Building systems are now being introduced, including walls, doors, windows, floors, and roofs. The first playable characters are also entering the build. Phase 02 [Next Up]: Core Systems. This is where the combat, settlement management, construction, dialogue, and trading systems will be introduced. These are the four pillars that will make the vertical slice playable end-to-end. Phase 03 [Planned]: Populating the wasteland. Neutral NPCs and enemy types will start entering the world, making the suburbs feel inhabited, dangerous, and alive. Phase 04 [Planned]: Vertical Slice Phases 01 through 03 converge into the first playable Pre-Alpha slice. This is the point where Ashes of Tomorrow should stop feeling like separate systems and start feeling like one coherent experience. In Phase 04 we will focus on both polishing and extending the players experience from the vertical slice. Phase 05 [Planned]: Steam Wishlist Live By September, our goal is to have the Steam wishlist page live, the Kickstarter campaign prepared with early supporter packages, and a full Alpha development roadmap released with clear KPIs. Community targets for this stage are: 400+ newsletter subscribers 800+ followers on X 200+ members on Discord The old world has fallen. But the time has come to rebuild it together. Don't forget to join our Discord Server: discord.com/invite/YdepHffvW…

Gm Wastelanders! Time for another dev update. Last time, through a small sneak peek, we showed you what we have been working on. Now we can finally confirm that these additions have landed in-game: 24 new lootable prefabs, including drawers, medical cabinets, toolkits and more. A decal system, with the first 10 decals already implemented and removable through settlement building. Vegetation, including bushes, grass and dead trees. But that is not all. We have also reworked physics. Objects are now properly stackable, and falling objects behave much more naturally. What’s next for us? Constructing new houses and buildings in this starting location. This is our highest priority right now. After that, we will replace the current temporary debugging square with a real animated player character.

Gm everyone, We are definitely cooking up something good. Here’s a small teaser of what’s being implemented: 1. New lootable prefabs, including drawers, medical cabinets, toolkits, and more 2. A decal system, with some decals removable through settlement building 3. Vegetation, including bushes, grass, dead trees, and more, already present in the system, but not visible and not added yet in this world fragment of the sneak peek. What do you think about the newest additions?