A project brought together by the original creators of RimWorld’s “Combat Extended” mod, Ascent of Ashes combines elements of colony sims, base builders and strategy survival games in a brutal and wholly unique experience with the goal of creating a fresh take on the colony sim genre. Being built from the ground up, players can expect a unique experience that places emphasis on exploration, tight balance and strategic gameplay. 

Ascent of Ashes thrusts players into a dystopian world where the remnants of humanity are attempting to pick themselves back up and build a new home in a hostile, alien environment.  Players will find themselves immersed in a land where its inhabitants are constantly at war with one another. Mastering the game’s real-time-with-pause combat will be the key to survival. Additionally, a detailed hit simulation and health system will force players to be very strategic — even a non-lethal hit could render a survivor unable to continue.

After a hugely cataclysmic event, Ascent of Ashes plunges players into an alien world inhabited by the last remaining survivors of human civilization along with dangerous, unknown beasts and creatures. Players must protect themselves from these alien forces as well as raiders and other environmental hazards. Recruit survivors, each with their own motivations, and work together to create a new home on what would otherwise be an entirely inhospitable planet.

In between the more hectic moments, players will focus on building up the new homestead for Earth’s remaining survivors. Each survivor has their own unique personality and motivations and it will be up to you to decide who to bring along on your missions. Gather your group to explore varied biomes and points of interest, traverse the land using restored vehicles and bring back important resources to help further advance your growing civilization. Be wary as you explore because Ascent of Ashes features challenging and dynamic opponents with varying degrees of intelligence. A small band of raiders will fight much differently from a group of well-trained soldiers.

Originally planned for November 15, 2023, developer Vivid Storm Interactive and publisher Camlann Games announced that the Ascent of Ashes Early Access launch  has been delayed until Q1 2024.

"Vivid Storm Interactive has been hard at work addressing feedback from the preview build and – in the interest of listening to the community – has decided to delay the Early Access release to Q1 2024. This decision was not made lightly, but is intended so that the team can deliver the best product possible. The team is overwhelmed with the support received during Next Fest and will be working hard over the next few months to ensure the community feels heard."

“We’ve had challenges with Unity that will take some time as we port over to a new system,” says Max Hermann, Lead Developer and Owner of Vivid Storm Interactive “We originally planned on porting Ascent of Ashes to the Godot engine after the Early Access release, but following community feedback, we realized we should rather make the transition sooner. This will give us time to work on fixing features, as we focus on polishing the core gameplay is a priority for us.”

“After the polish and stability fixes, we are committed to releasing a steady stream of content updates as outlined in our roadmap to 1.0. With the help of your feedback, we understand that there are several key features that players have requested, such as a more in-depth tutorial and UI text scaling, that will be implemented as well,” Hermann says.

Key Features:

• Build a New Home: Gather resources to build up a base for your survivors. Farm crops, tame alien beasts and fortify your home against any intruders.
• Engage in Real-Time-with-Pause Combat: Participate in deep tactical combat where even non-lethal hits can render a survivor unable to go on. Use the game’s real-time-with-pause combat to plan and strategize.
• Drive Restored Vehicles: Traveling on foot isn’t always an option. Restore and drive vehicles to get around this dangerous, post-apocalyptic world.
• Meet Diverse Survivors: Each survivor players encounter have their own unique motivations and personality. Recruit those you see fit and keep them safe, happy and motivated.
• Explore the Post-Apocalyptic World: The world of Ascent of Ashes is procedurally generated and made up of multiple biomes and points of interest. Cautiously explore and uncover the many secrets the world holds.
• Intelligent Enemies: It's not enough to just have an in-depth combat system with a variety of mechanics. You also need opponents capable of using those mechanics to challenge you. Enemies will possess varying degrees of intelligence. Taking on a disorganized band of raiders will play very differently from fighting a squad of well-trained Remnant soldiers.
• Combining the deep simulation of classic post-apocalyptical survival titles with the tactical challenge of classic real time and turn-based gems, the original creators of RimWorld's heralded Combat Extended mod present a fresh take on the colony sim genre that emphasizes exploration, tight balance and strategic gameplay.
• Day One Mod Support: Ascent of Ashes has been made from the ground up to make it easily extendable. The game is being developed for modders, by modders. 

Ascent of Ashes is coming to PC (Steam) in Q4 2023.