Sands of Aura 
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A new season, a new deal!Mar 13, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/d17c92ed82a402bdfb9b00cd06f219f127997db3.jpg If you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so as we are part of the Steam Spring Sale! Catch the game on sale from March 13th through the 20th. Make sure to check out other great indie games on sale during the Spring Sale to add them to your collection.Sands of Aura is part of Freedom Games Publisher Sale!Apr 15, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHi everyone - if you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so. The game will be 40% off from April 15th through the 22nd! Make sure to check out Freedom Games Publisher Sale page to pick up some awesome indie games at great prices. Whether you like to play alone or with friends, there are some great deals you won't want to miss out on! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1119840/Sands_of_Aura/Explore Sands of Aura in 8 New LanguagesFeb 2, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights! We're thrilled to announce that Sands of Aura is now available in 8 new languages German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, & Simplified Chinese. Thank you for your patience as we worked diligently to bring support for these languages! The wait is finally over! In addition to this extensive localization, our latest patch introduces quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. A big shoutout to our amazing community for providing valuable feedback and helping us identify and address these issues. Your support helps make Sands of Aura the best version of itself. Explore all the details in our latest patch notes below. 1.01.23 - Patch Notes QOL Improvements Reduced Maveths Earth Drain health lost per tentacle. Reworked Bright Talisman, you should now have normal lantern light at all times and even brighter lantern light while holding the block. Added SFX when proccing the dual wield haste effect. Made improvements to where loot is dropped from enemies and chests. Delayed the invulnerability period for the Spearman Ferrum when they do a jump attack so they can still take damage until they've fully jumped away. Made adjustments to the Hashara Princess's behavior to reduce the chances that she jumps off of the boss arena. Added ground indicators on players when the Hashara Elite is about to execute an aerial attack on them Normalized damage and charge duration across all fighting styles for charge attacks so that charge attacks feel consistently powerful and effects that proc from charge attacks aren't more or less powerful for different fighting styles. Added new VFX and SFX for charge attacks. Improved players' hit reaction when being hit while blocking to give more feedback. Added the ability to instantly turn toward the direction of input at the beginning of a dodge attack allowing actions like quickly dodging forward and attacking backward. Added a delay to when the damage starts and reduced the knockback force for the Feral Ferrum whirlwind attack. Re-worked dagger head effect to now increase damage done by DOT effects. Enabled sprint toggle functionality. The player no longer needs to hold the sprint button to continue to sprint. Updated the location of the storage chest by the Starspire Refuge forge so it better lines up with the upgraded forges. Added option to disable camera shakes. Added option to inverse the camera pitch controls. Increased the size of the text for the large option and expanded the UI elements further to accommodate the change. Added a time played to the save file to help tell which save is which. ( Old saves will start at 0:00 but any new time played will add to it). Bug Fixes Fixed various crash bugs and crash on exit bugs. Fixed bug causing Battletrance effect to proc even when an attack is blocked. Fixed bug causing VFX for frost block to remain on screen if your block was consumed by the Ferrum Sentinels Silence AOE. Fixed bug causing heal to occur when exiting a menu if it was bound...Hotfix Patch 1.01.10Dec 22, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsPatch Notes Fixed an unaccounted for state at The Colossus of Radiance. Fixed issue that’s would cause vertical camera rotation to lock during “A Natural Effect”. Fixed toggle option for sprint/dodge key binding being inverted. Fixed toggle option for large text mode being inverted and being applied to the wrong text. Added a separate queue system for activating spellblade while performing other actions allowing a smoother flow of using spellblade during combat. Fixed bug causing Spellsword armor effect to sometimes grant spellblade charges but not activate them. Rebalanced Alaira's damage in Hard Mode, it was unintentionally too high. Increased damage values for spellblades across the original 20 levels Added 20 more levels to spellblade to allow players to invest more into spellblade style builds Greatly increased damage bonus given by spellblade runes and increased max bonus to 300% Fixed edge case where existing saves could have hard mode only enemies in normal mode by returning to a previously visited island Hardmode Update & Winter Holiday Sale!Dec 20, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights! From our team to you, we wish you a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! In celebration of the festivities, our team has worked hard to develop our new feature: Hard Mode (previously described as New Game+). We are proud to announce that this feature is officially live. Hard Mode is Here! Sands of Aura will also be available for a discount between Dec 21st, 2023 - January 4th, 2024! New update, a holiday sale, it is certainly a time for cheers! We also wanted to take this moment to provide a quick update on Localization. We are still working on providing translations for Sands of Aura as soon as possible. Our current target is in the middle of Q1 of 2024, as we begin quality testing at the start of the New Year! We will continue to update you as we can. We appreciate your patience during this time as we work to provide you with a quality experience in the language of your choice. What is Hard Mode? Once players have completed the game in normal mode you will be given the option of continuing your save file in Hard Mode. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/ba8cde53c03f95ef883984b79a6204a616b09f72.png Here are some things that players can look forward to when continuing their journey into Hardmode. Players will retain all their equipment, talismans, and crafting knowledge but the rest of the world will reset All enemies will be scaled up to provide a challenge for a player with high-level gear Enemy placements and compositions have been adjusted all around the world Resources will be more plentiful allowing you to try new builds and playstyles more easily New achievements will be available for defeating bosses and completing the game in Hard Mode Along with this new feature we have also taken significant strides to improve clarity in quest dialogues, quality of life changes, and fixing issues we may have missed along the way. You can read all about our update in the patch notes below! Version 1.01.09 Patch Notes General A new mode has been added to the game to provide an extra challenge for the toughest of Remnant Knights. Added achievements for defeating each boss in Hard Mode as well as completing the game in Hard Mode Updated the Heavy Attack and Parry tutorials to match the current functionality in game Added a Weapon Swap tutorial Felker will now warn you when you reach the edges of the playable world Added 2 Bells to the Pillar of Entropy. Fixed issue that could cause enemies that are supposed to die in cutscenes to survive and awkwardly stand around afterwards. Fixed an issue that would cause Galina and Mellie to spawn on top of each other at the shop in Starspire Refuge. Fixed issue that would cause one-shotting the festival statue to give you the lowest reward tier, rather than the highest. Fixed issue that prevented the Flare Forge storm's kill volume from triggering under certain conditions. Fixed issue that caused the Flare Forge storm VFX to remain active if you fast traveled from within the storm. Adjusted player position after...Sands of Aura OST Release! & A Mini-Update from DevsNov 14, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights! We have heard countless praises for the music heard throughout Sands of Aura, and we have a surprise for you today! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/c5e9463700237f80d507bb3cbc823f6674372fef.png Today, we are pleased to announce the release of the Sands of Aura Original Soundtrack composed by our very own, Eduardo Lopez! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393300/Sands_of_Aura_Soundtrack/ Along with the release of the OST, we have a mini-development update from the team behind Sands of Aura! Localization We are still in the process of translating Sands of Aura for you. Here are the expected languages that will be supported in a future update: Spanish French German Brazilin Portuguese Russian Simplified Chinese Japanese Korean We have yet to determine a release date for the localization but we promise you we are doing everything within our control to get this update out as soon as possible! New Game+ The development team has worked on a plan to release our version of a New Game+. It is currently in the early stages of testing, and we want to ensure it performs as intended. In the early stages, the design (subject to change) is as follows: Upon completing the story of Sands of Aura, players would have the ability to convert their save file to begin their New Game+ playthrough. In New Game+, players will be able to retain: Glint Any Armor and Weapon in their inventory and on their character Any Talismans and Tailsman slots unlocked Any Codexes and Pommels unlocked Spellbook and levels unlocked The content will be balanced around the notion that players have high-level gear. Certain enemies will be replaced to present more of a challenge when traversing the islands, enemies and bosses will have their stats adjusted, and item drops will be scaled up as well. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we are excited for our players to take on these new challenges and explore new choices. We look forward to releasing this feature in late Q4 2023 or early Q1 2024. The team at Chashu Entertainment is extremely excited to get these new features and updates out to you as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime, please join our Discord and follow us on our Socials for additional updates later. And if you haven't already, please leave us a Review on Steam to let us know what you thought! Thank you for playing! - Chashu EntertainmentPatch 1.00.50Nov 11, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsPatch 1.00.50 Change Log Fixed rare issue that could cause characters to disappear on islands if player died while they have a non bell rest point. Fixed rare issue that could cause loot drops to fail to drop any items. Fixed bug causing Blade Dancer talisman to not work. Fixed issue that would cause Furn to not accept the Modest Black Book under certain conditions. Fixed missing shadows on players weapon handles. Fixed bug causing health bar to not update correctly when player has a damage shield and they are adding to its health. Fixed bug causing health bar not to start at proper value when player is using Wilgrams Whiskey effect. Fixed bug not allowing player to upgrade spellblade when they have the exact required glint. Fixed description of the one handed stabbing fighting style. Fixed description of the Stalwart talisman. Fixed description of Ferrum weapon head codex. Fixed bug causing human NPC's not to deposit loot directly into players inventory if they died from falling out of bounds. Patch 1.00.49 & What's Next...Nov 4, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights! For the past week, we have been on cloud nine with the support and love Sands of Aura has been receiving. Thank you so much! We just have so much gratitude for you all. We were on and maintained our position on the exclusive “New & Trending” list on Steam because of your support! We have seen an explosion of activity in our Discord and Steam Discussions. There was a massive spike in active players and reviews! All of this just made our hearts feel so full. Thank you all so, so much! While Sands of Aura is considered fully released, it does not mean our work is done. The Dev team is actively paying attention to all of the suggestions, feedback, reviews, discussions, bug reports, and just the overall passion during this past week. And we will continue doing more of the same. So while we won’t be able to address every single comment, we are actively working on everything our small team can tackle in the most timely manner possible! We thank you for your patience during our maintenance and updates. Today we are updating the game to Version 1.00.49. This patch includes numerous fixes, updates, and suggestions made by you, the players. We are listening, so please join the Discord to let us know what you think, and if you haven't already please consider leaving us a Review on Steam! It greatly helps a small indie studio, like ourselves, and it helps us improve the game for you. So what’s next? Localization We have mentioned this in the Version 1.0 Release announcement and our Discord, and we want to address this again. Chashu Entertainment is actively working on a future localization update. While we regret the fact that we were unable to provide localization in Version 1.0, it is a feature we want to provide for our players. More details on a localization release date will be provided once we can. Thank you for your patience while we work to improve Sands of Aura for you! New Game+ The team has heard a significant demand for this feature, and it is a feature the development team wants as well! We have begun planning and developing a New Game+ system that the team believes you will be excited about! There is a significant amount of work and testing involved to ensure this system works as intended and that it will be a fun experience for our players. For now, we will hold the details on this feature a little closer to heart, but we are excited to implement New Game+ soon! Original Soundtrack and Digital Artbook There has been such massive support and love for the music in Sands of Aura. We are pleased to announce that we are creating a Sands of Aura OST that will be available on Steam! We are also working on compiling a Digital Artbook! More details and dates on both of these products will be available when we can provide them. The team at Chashu Entertainment is extremely excited to get these new features and updates out to you as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime, please join our Discord and follow us on our Socials for additional...Patch 1.00.48 HotfixOct 30, 2023 - Community Announcements1.00.48 Change Log Fixed instances of collision the player could get stuck on at The Cinderhold Removed damage area from forges in Starspire Refuge so players don't die while forging. Fixed collision at Radix Stronghold that allowed player to walk onto the sand ocean. Disabled ability for new stacks of echo bells to be stored in storage chest. Fixed rare crash that could occur when executing a special attack Moved the Main menu button to the bottom of the options in the player options menu to help with visibility Removed the toggle boat sailing options in gameplay as the boat no longer works in the way where that option does anything. Added an Unlimited frame rate option to the graphic menu Updated how the keybind menu closes, in a certain situation the graphics for changed keybinds would not update properly depending on how you exited the menu Removed an issue that would keep the Tutorial journal on screen Fixed an issue that would make the menu wheel enabled and not greyed out at times when it should not have been possible. Fixed a bug that could cause UI elements to get stuck on the screen after dying. Fixed issue that could cause the quest "Sigils of the Forsaken Gods" to become blocked when triggering events in a certain order. Fixed issue causing the quest "Sigils of the Forsaken Gods" to not show the correct quest step before one of the final bosses. Added missing VFX to melgom teleport attack Fixed floor collision in area of Colossus of Radiance that was getting player stuck in falling state. Fixed issue causing player to get stuck on Resonance bell in Starspire Cavern Patch 1.00.47 HotfixOct 28, 2023 - Community Announcements1.00.47 Change log Fixed crashes occuring when trying to add/remove runes from armor. Fixed crash occuring when using non QWERTY input devices. Fixed crash that could occur when loading into an island. Sands of Aura, out today, is a Soulslike RPG with Wind Waker-style open world sailingOct 27, 2023 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunIf you love The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker but wish it had more blood, death and inclement weather in it, consider Sands of Aura. Released out of early access today, this is a top-down fantasy action-RPG set in a swirling, post-apocalyptic world in which you build up a town and sail between island dungeons in a sandship. The sandship, or rather, "grainwake" sailing sees you bouncing merrily from dunes as vast, ominous structures loom out of the haze. The combat takes some inspiration from the Souls games, but the top-down perspective makes it feel like a classic arcade action title. Boss battles involve dodging or parrying colourful streaks, waves and clusters of projectiles. The developers, 12-person Chashu Entertainment, say it's a difficult experience. It looks it. Read more Sands of Aura - Version 1.0 Available Now!Oct 27, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights! The long-awaited day is here! Version 1.0 is OFFICIALLY LIVE! It has been such an incredible journey to get here, one that we will never forget. The end of one journey marks the beginning of the next. This time... we hope you, the curious on-looker, take the next step and join us on our first steps in Full Release. And to those who have been together with us in Early Access, don't get off the ship yet! We're off on a new journey and you're coming along with us! If you haven't already got your ticket to Talamhel, take advantage of our limited-time 40% off Launch Discount! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/fdccdfa2b55d3ad409d74ae69ac9aa270e96be44.gif Being a small indie team with an enormous passion for the development of Sands of Aura, we hope you enjoy the experience we have crafted for you. If you would like to help us, you can do so by: Spreading the word - share our game with friends, families, and favorite streamers or influencers! Write a Steam Review - Once you have spent some time in Version 1.0, please consider leaving us a review. Reviews help our game get discovered by other players on Steam! It also lets us know what your thoughts are. Social Media - Share our news on socials, and use the #SandsofAura to help get our game out there! There is no pressure! Either way, we are genuinely thankful to have you here with us as we set sail and begin our adventures in Version 1.0! We also want to take this moment to provide an update on Localization. Chashu Entertainment is in active development for localization to bring the different languages to Sands of Aura with high-quality translations! We will not rest until it is perfect! More details will be provided when we can, until then, we ask for your patience. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/f9d5f84668adebfd8bc48ef5114f508fad56c917.gif And a moment for our community, without you, the growth of Sands of Aura would not have been possible. You have helped us create the best game we could and we are eternally grateful for your support. Thank you! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/3b9890d53c09e5d1a2dd8d3b6ddc73d8141db303.png A message to you, from our team Michael Shistik, Creative Director“We set out to make a game we wanted to play, and in doing so, we made something bigger than what any of us thought possible. I think we are surprised at what our small team was capable of making. I hope our passion and ideas come through for what we made!" Some tips: Upgrade your gear. Defense is strong! John Sadler, Lead Programmer“I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of the game, it's been a long journey!” Cassidy Phan, Animator & Character Artist“The most fulfilling part of working on Sands of Aura has been hearing the excitement from our Discord community. It really feels like what we have created mattered to some people.” Dylan Erickson, UI/UX Programmer“The fans of our game make the long hours and hard work worth the effort. Especially to those that have been around from the beginning to see how much the g...The Journey to 1.0 - 1 More Day!!Oct 26, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWelcome back Knights-To-Be! Wow, can you believe it? Just one more day remains. The day that determines the fate of Talamhel's begins tomorrow. A milestone day for us at Chashu Entertainment. We absolutely can not wait for you all to finally experience Sands of Aura as version 1.0! Sands of Aura - Version 1.0 officially releases tomorrow: October 27, 2023 11 AM CDT | 12 PM EDT | 9 AM PDT | 4 PM GMT! While we continue counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds till release let us resume our journey together as we remember our second and final year in early access. Year TwoAt the start of the second year, early access did not feel much different than at the end of the first. We had just released the Citadel of Steel update, began to analyze the feedback, and planned for the next update to incorporate the feedback. This became our development flow after our first major update, the Twin Thorn. It was going to be more of the same for our next one, the Rotted Throne. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/1ff0717cf8979980900eb42c8558b38eb9dc0ebd.png We knew going into the second year it was going to be a little different. We were much more confident, our workflow improved and we strengthened our design principles. We had figured out a system that worked for our team. We got better at what we were doing. As exemplified during our time designing the fight mechanics for the Harshari Princess. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/4cba0ffb227a4ddd2664fe9492bd36f1e09cb7be.png Joking, aside, the one thing that did not change though, was our constant drive to improve combat. The feedback that attributes our combat as floaty never truly stopped. It was a constant reminder that perfecting combat was not simple. Without the feedback and discussions from our players, we would never have been able to move forward. It was during our development of the Rotted Throne patch that we made a breakthrough. Ah, my shadow!At this point, we have made numerous changes to combat that moved us in the right direction, but it never quite came together. We added more visual effects, more audio effects, screen shakes, flashes, and added impact on hits. Each of these little improvements pushed combat away from floaty, just not far enough. So we continued iterating, reviewing, and gathering feedback. It was after trying all the possible solutions that we finally landed on one thing we have yet to adjust, shadows. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/fdcad831399e71572518e3b854fcf5de7f22d312.gif We came across this revelation by chance as we were developing and testing Black Rot Chasm, the featured level for this next update. The design of this level was dark and filled with mood lighting that required special placements of light sources. While our player character was moving around the level and fighting enemies, we thought we made a breakthrough in combat! It felt solid. It was only through more testing that we realized it was the lighting and shadows that made a significant difference. The player character ha...The Journey to 1.0 - 2 More DaysOct 25, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWelcome back Knights-To-Be,Can you believe it? Our early access journey is coming to a close in just two days! TWO DAYS! It has been a ride filled with peaks and valleys, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We have learned so much and faced challenges that have tempered our souls. And we relive those harsh lessons as we dive further into early access. Floaty in Early AccessGiven that Sands of Aura is the first title we have released as an early access title, there were a lot of lessons to learn for our studio. The first was that unfiltered feedback and critiques are a valuable source of inspiration, reflection, and motivation. We received a small number of reviews during the first few months of early access, and we analyzed each one. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/937ef7f546285cc71d9b63ecdb8a0745de8d4d4f.png The type of reviews we received ranged from heartwarming to confusion. We had some who commented on the beauty of what we were trying to create and would appreciate Sands of Aura for its potential. We also had some that were brutally honest but provided excellent feedback for us to work with. We had other reviews that questioned our passion for games or as people. And then we had comments that simply didn’t agree with the lack of oddly specific and niche features. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/33f042b5c8a491593a900400087626e219187f49.pngThis picture represents the mental images that we had when seeing the reviews for Sands of Aura. It certainly impacted our views on reviews and the effect it would have on us and Sands of Aura. Many of these reviews served to help us identify issues that were vague, such as combat. Often, we would read similar reviews regarding a particular mechanic, and a buzzword appeared frequently. That word would be ‘floaty,’ used to describe combat. This word has eluded us in its meaning for the entirety of development! The problem was that this word seemed to represent a feeling, and subjective feelings can be hard to decipher. Even within the team, the definition of a ‘floaty’ combat varied from person to person. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/56b43bf96c2e0b7ad74878d2cf4d93f162218d40.png We attempted to solve this in many ways, such as implementing more visual and audio feedback, adjusting the speed of combat, adjusting shadows, making things larger or smaller, and many others. None of this moved away from getting more reviews of ‘floaty combat.’ {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/a25ad7f6a1ae450bd3e2ecd1ca76b97e9fb723bd.png However, we did notice that we were receiving them less over time, and every change did improve the perception of combat. At the very least, we were moving in the correct direction. We just haven’t found land yet. We knew we needed to keep working on it. Parallel AccessThe second lesson learned early on was that we needed to develop new content and work on released content in parallel. It meant we needed to evolve our development structure to accommodate this change. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/231e45307d0a9ac...The Journey to 1.0 - 3 More DaysOct 24, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWelcome back Knights-To-Be,With the day of 1.0 just three days out, our minds are filled not only with excitement but with anticipation of just how much we will learn from this experience. Each of our subsequent releases, be it a prototype, a playable demo, or our Early Access release, has taught us so much about ourselves and Sands of Aura. We’re eagerly looking forward to what 1.0 has to teach us as well. With that in mind, I’d like to recount some of our previous releases and reflect on what those experiences taught us. A knock at the door…. Not only did Sands of Aura generate interest among players at the Steam Winter Game Festival, it also captured the interest of several publishers! There was a lot we learned during this process and a lot of outstanding people that we met—many of whom we’ve kept in touch with despite deciding not to work together. We learned more about what Sands of Aura is and isn't during those months than we did during development. It was an eye-opening experience. But after months of meetings, of pitches, of important considerations regarding Sand of Aura’s future, we ultimately elected to partner with our current publisher, Freedom Games. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/d51073724348f6b88d9f8711b705a0c3fd33ba91.png Freedom at the time was a brand new indie publisher who had yet to announce themselves. They were like us, new and brimming with excitement. Not only did they align with our vision for Sands of Aura, but they had a passion for their role in the industry that attracted us to them. Our new partners had been hard at work preparing for a little show called E3. It was also the first year that E3 and many other game shows were conducted digitally due to the pandemic. During this E3, our publisher was able to get us set up with some memorable one-on-one interviews with members of the press to give our little game a try. Trailer shown at E3. For the next couple of months, we participated in a few more shows and spoke with the press at each of those events. It was an exciting time of the year for us as we were able to gauge interests and talk about Sands of Aura for the first time, publicly. At the same time, during the summer of 2021, we finally received an update on our Epic MegaGrant submission in February 2020. They have approved our submission for Sands of Aura to be part of their program! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/992b3ffdd28ee246c2db972788bfb5ae259fa784.png We were elated, everything seemed to fall our way. We have received a wonderful reception at the Winter Steam Game Festival, we have secured a partnership with a publisher, we have been accepted as a MegaGrant Recipient, and our roadmap to Early Access was progressing smoothly. Early Access Launches! By the close of summer 2021, our team of nine had grown to a team of twenty. While the additional help brought several advantages, it also was a challenging experience learning to manage a team of nearly double our original size. Despite that, and despite us havin...The Journey to 1.0 - 4 More DaysOct 23, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWelcome back Knights-To-Be, As we come to day four of our countdown to version 1.0, we hope you’re beginning to feel the excitement. To distract ourselves and in an attempt to make the time go just a little bit faster, we’d like to continue regaling you with the tale of our development journey. Epic Megagrants…With a new year (2019) came a new GDC and this time we were coming in with realistic goals and realistic expectations. Our purpose was not to show anyone our project but rather to learn from other developers and connect with them. It had also been about 6 months since we’d all last saw each other in person, so this conference quickly became part reunion and part research. After spending a year analyzing our own failings, we had begun to recognize the weaknesses in our craft. With these in mind, we attended a variety of specific talks, interesting round tables, inspiring meetings, really anything that could be related to the areas of development we needed to improve. The goal was to learn as much as we could and to keep an eye out for any opportunities that would allow us to level up further. It was at this particular GDC that Epic announced a new commitment to their program, the Epic Megagrant, which was an initiative aimed at providing financial support to projects deemed innovative, creative, and noteworthy. Obviously, they garnered a lot of attention from everyone in the indie community. We knew immediately that Project Terrarium needed to be part of this. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/fdd2af901135baef9aeebee14ca4c00bf800c98b.png After the conference, the planning for our Epic Megagrant submission began immediately. Within a week we had decided on our short term goals and we began development on yet another demo. We had one year. The Name of Sands of Aura… While quickly approaching the one year mark, we realized the name Terrarium was growing stale. It was intimately connected to our early designs, but many of those had been either heavily altered or removed entirely. The game had changed, it had grown. We needed a new name more in line with what our project had become. There were a lot of ideas. There was a lot of brainstorming. But eventually one stood above the rest. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/dfa2aa1a19c8d6322120b04902c411c00627bdbf.png With a new name and a new demo, work began on our first teaser trailer. Looking back on it now, this was the emotional moment our studio realized we were on to something special, and it’s the moment where we got to see just how far we’d come since beginning development in 2017. The first teaser was completed at the end of 2019. You can view it here. But at this point, we finally had something that we were proud to showcase. Something that we believed lived up to our expectations. We submitted Sands of Aura to Epic MegaGrants on February 10th of 2020. Now the challenge was waiting… The Atmosphere of Aura…With morale high and the stress of submission deadlines temporarily lifted, we turned again to analy...The Journey to 1.0 - 5 More DaysOct 22, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWelcome back Knights-To-Be, With just five more days until version 1.0, the challenge going forward is keeping both our nerves and our excitement in check. We’re horrified at the thought of our game not living up to our expectations, to our players’ expectations. This is a feeling we’ve had since very early in the development of Sands of Aura and one we would like to reflect upon a bit. The first demo…GDC or the Game Developers Conference is an annual conference for game developers. It’s an opportunity to network, to meet with others passionate about games, and a chance to showcase your work to fellow developers with the hope of receiving some initial feedback. Our goal was GDC of March 2018. Our demo was to focus on showcasing level and enemy designs, our combat mechanics and the random loot drop rewards. Each of these were to be the main pieces of our game and we were excited to bring them together to show them off. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/6efd88b384feec679aa32c3601e001a536944eb6.png About a month before GDC, we hit a roadblock. Despite our excitement, the pieces of our demo just didn’t fit together right properly. The gameplay loop just wasn’t fun and we needed to figure out why. Our explorations eventually revealed a main culprit: the random loot mechanics. Every weapon and armor drop had randomized attributes such as stats, effects, and extra gem slots. Combat style was randomized as well, so that when a weapon dropped it could result in being a one-handed slashing style, a dual wielding style, etc. Our intent was to use RNG to make loot feel special, to harness the excitement that randomness provides. However, intent and reality often come into conflict. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/a8fee69cb1c8e0eba86787f1544853c1493f50a4.png This system made creating a good build an absolute slog. While we had wanted the RNG elements to complement our combat system, they had done the opposite and forced our encounters to become stale and repetitive rather than thrilling and unique. With this issue being so complex and one so central to the core design, we realized what had to be done. We decided not bring our demo to GDC a month before it arrived. Our demo just wasn’t something we were proud of. Such realizations are hard to face. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/70a823e887b201d181b663d387f23e0aa4ccc8da.png The value of failure…Not only did the collapse of our GDC ambitions reveal weaknesses in our demo, they revealed weaknesses within our studio. Organizational structure, task management, timeline projections, development skills, testing structure, asset pipeline management… All those necessary aspects of game making that often go unconsidered…each of these were subpar for our studio at best. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/9eea2cb8cb9087f799a425f1f268ca14c1814b9d.png In hindsight, this all seems blatantly obvious, but we were young and our studio was composed of recent graduates. With only one title under our belt—a game that began as a student project—like m...The Journey to 1.0 - 6 More DaysOct 21, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights-To-Be, This day, October 21st, 2023, marks the two year anniversary of our Early Access release! It has been an incredible journey for us at Chashu Entertainment and we are eternally grateful you were able to join us along the way. As we inch a day closer to our full release date of October 27th, we cannot help but look back on how far we’ve come. So, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to regale you with the tales of our journey as we await version 1.0. A new beginning…It was the Summer of 2016, Chashu Entertainment has just completed and released our first title to be on steam, Deputy Dangle, a small title that began as a student project. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/3fe276d3a4993248b99c44b2e8cbaffff4d0e7a9.jpg We were happy with what we have accomplished but it was time for us to move on to something different. A new project, something more ambitious, something more challenging, and something that is better suits our style of gaming. At every end there is a new beginning, this was our opportunity to begin anew. When Sands of Aura wasn’t Sands of Aura…{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/508173363be4519a457d00b04e2c5acd93436257.jpg It’s often said that the best part of game development is the beginning, when imagination is abundant and ideas strike like lightning. It’s easy to assume that concepts arrive fully formed, that good ideas are just set in stone from the start. But game design is fluid and often messy, it’s iterative and ever changing. Ideas rise and fall, they’re shaped and discarded only to be picked up again down the line. Chashu Entertainment was only a team of seven back then, but each of us participated wholeheartedly in this creative frenzy. There was an obsessive fever in each member of the team to bring our ideas into reality. As exciting as this was, it isn’t hard to get lost in a maelstrom of brainstorming and creativity. Soon we found ourselves trapped, stuck in a loop of new concepts, new ideas. We needed a way out, a beckon in the storm. We needed Terrarium. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/cba8d0d5df11a9263114f84aec1b1b3a4112d189.jpg The idea was simple. A game about procedurally generated biomes full of life and nature that you could explore and farm. It was enough to get us out of the storm, enough to give us direction, yet after a year of more concentrated prototyping, we were still missing that real eureka moment. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/cc3e57d693104ce67b4425c477e83efdb196b206.jpg We see the light!It was the notion of biomes which evolved into the first conceptualization of the islands. We created our first set: the Player Home, the Red Stone Arch, and Hurwell. Two of these islands still exist today as evolved versions in Sands of Aura. The Player Home became what you know as Tupi’s Grotto, and Hurwell became what’s known as the Ruins of Hurwell. Unfortunately, the Red Stone Arch no longer exists. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/6b9ca9f42a1e2fe2708a321bea5b8c5bacdbab4a.png As things began to take shape, we began looking to...Patch 0.05.01 HotfixOct 15, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWe noticed some issues being reported during the last 24 hours and we (John) had to fix it right away! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/f381caadbfee09545acabd543b78ef72b968ccd1.gif Patch 0.05.01 Hotfix Notes Fixed an issue that caused menu navigation to break when changing DLSS settings. Fixed a crash that could occur when backing out of menu with broken interface navigation. PRE-1.0 Launch UpdateOct 14, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsHello Knights-To-Be! I hope you are all as excited about our recent announcement as we are! But in case you missed it… We are officially launching into Version 1.0 on October 27, 2023! So mark your calendars and sharpen your blades; there is corruption that requires cleansing! To celebrate we are releasing a major update for early access. The last time we updated Sands of Aura was in late March of this year. And since then, the team have been working tirelessly on the new content beyond the Rotted Throne, improving the existing systems, and tackling all of the feedback we have received throughout all of early access. We are calling this update our PRE-1.0 Launch Update, and we are just as excited about players experiencing this update as we are releasing version 1.0. A lot of the improvements and changes we’ve made over the past 6 months can be experienced before the 1.0 launch! So what can you expect with this update? This update will be the LAST time we conduct a save wipe! This means that you can now begin playing Sands of Aura and not worry about losing your progress when Version 1.0 launches later this month! All progress will carry over into Version 1.0. In order to properly do this, players will be able to progress all the way to the end of the “Starspire Festival”. However, upon reaching the end of that event, the main story will be put on hold until full release on October 27th. Every character is now fully voiced! Chashu Entertainment have had the honor to work with very talented Voice Actors to bring our characters and world to life. We are deeply appreciative of their efforts and we can not wait for you to experience their voices of Talamhel! Achievements unlocked! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/181b6a04027cf7166399243c0fd264ce7ea27147.png Who doesn't love being rewarded for your accomplishments with achievements! You can now unlock them as you progress through the game. Tutorial Updated Melgom’s Cavern, our “tutorial” dungeon, has been reworked to provide a better learning experience regarding the basic mechanics of the game. Many of the tutorial screens have been updated to provide better clarity as well. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/f5713275808c17646fc4f3fd2edb81cf9b62848e.jpg A new tutorial guide has been added to the options menu for players to quickly be reminded of certain gameplay mechanics. Visual Cues in Combat {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/1ca000b27df570be6c454115b36374cb9a8261a0.png There are now visual cues on the enemies to indicate when they are parried, unstoppable and hit. We found that these visual cues provided a much more satisfying combat experience. And we hope it helped solve one of our many feedbacks regarding 'combat feel'. Runes can now be upgraded and deconstructed {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/f224bf04690f3c77cd47c1726e769c459bcfa91c.jpg The runes are perhaps one of your most important stat boosts to your gear. Previously players would find excess runes that they don't want and not enough of what they need. This sy...
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