Hello Councilors! Were writing today with some bittersweet news. After many discussions between the team, weve decided to make Court of Ashes free for anybody that wants to own it. You will see this change in the coming weeks, and everyone who already owns the game will continue to own it. This decision is driven by the difficult truth that we no longer have time to maintain the game to the level that our fans deserve and believe that it would be unfair to charge for an experience that we no longer have time to support or guarantee. Court of Ashes was an unexpected journey. Being the first game that my husband and I worked on, we learned quite a bit and had even more fun as we brought our vision into the world. We are making our way into the second year since the game's release, and its been our greatest pleasure in the world to engage with, learn from, and be a part of this small but heartfelt community. If you were ever interested in trying our little game, then there couldn't be a better time grab a copy. Whether you are unlocking alchemical secrets with Brida, making promising trade routes with Armis, or just telling Janpier to take a bath, I hope your experience with the game is a great one. Have fun! The Cratels

Hello Councillors, A few more bugs have trickled down over the past couple of weeks, and our team has been working hard to patch them as they are reported. You may have noticed a few small patches come through these past two weeks, and this post is just to provide a little bit of context to what was updated: [olist]

Hello Councilors! Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback you've provided for Court of Ashes so far! Following comments and private messages from players, we've patched the following issues in our latest build:

• When loading a file after saving and exiting the application, duplicate scenarios would appear which had already been addressed on previous turns.
• When visiting councilors after numerous interactions, the game would sometime crash upon conversation start.

Hello, Councilors! As this message is being written, Court of Ashes is building in the background before packaging and upload to Steam. With it, so too are our own sentiments building. Court of Ashes will be available to play at 6:00am CT. The release of this game doesnt mark the finish line for us, but rather a grand goalpost from which to proceed. There are innumerable features were interested in adding to the game post-release; a few animations, controller support, a number of scenarios, additional scenes, etc. The old quote, Art is never finished, only abandoned, sometimes attributed to da Vinci, sometimes Vasari, and sometimes even others certainly applies to this situation. In short were not done. With that thought in mind, we are delivering what we set out to deliver:

• We offer five distinct characters, each with their own perspective of an overarching story.
• We set out to deliver 60 special scenes unlocked by affinity and actually created 79.
• We wanted around 250 scenarios and, through playtesting and balance, arrived at 238.
• We logged in around 189,000 words and 1.5million characters. This smashed our original goal to make 100k-130k (general novel-length) words of focused content.

Hello, Councilors!

The soundtrack for Court of Ashes remains one of the most pervasive features of the game and it does so for good reason, its wonderful. You may call me biased if youre interested in such frivolous matters as being correct. But then, Im developing a creative work; all things that in the game are those which Im biased towards. It must first be stated that the soundtrack, in its entirety, was composed by Eric Britt of Orchestorm Productions. How exactly we came across Erics work is a mystery lost to the sands of time. What is remembered is his Minute Waltz, the first thing I found when I was shown his Twitter page by C.S. Cratel. As I remember, it was Haydn-inspired and possessed an ominous urgency which I still cannot adequately describe. After retaining Erics services and working through many variations of character, location, and overarching themes, it became evident that there was a magic within the track that lead us to hire him in the first place. In an exceedingly generous gesture, Eric offered up his Minute Waltz, which was re-envisioned into the Gilded Waltz and now serves as the theme for Court of Ashes. Give it a listen. Having captured the style, Eric set about learning more about each council member in the game, internalizing their character, and providing a voice for them accordingly. Bruno, the General of the Armies, whose honor is only outstripped by his pomp and self-image: listen To Brida, the Alchemist Royal, who eccentricities only compound as time goes on: listen Ever-distinct as well are Reginas, Armis, and Janpiers themes whose personalities range from motherly to prissy and aloof respectively. These themes stand in contrast to one another and represent the unique vocation and nature of the cast in Court of Ashes. If this were not enough of a feat by which to laud Eric, the real magic presents when the characters come together. A cornerstone of the Court of Ashes experience resides in the council chamber. The player has to make choices that affect the outcome of a nation at war while attempting to prove their right to rule over whats left. In doing so, not everyone agrees most of the time. As actions are taken which support one of the council members goals, so too will the players affinity with that member grow. As the player grows each bond within the council, so too is the councils theme made whole. The council theme is offered below for consideration. Opening with motifs of Brunos Bound by Honor, the track segues into Reginas chirping and Bridas whimsical strings around 0:35 and those voice sing back and forth before joining together at the bridge around 1:30. Janpier comes in keeping it holy at 2:12, and Armis staccato trumpets complement at 2:36. Then, in what still amazes me, all of the voices sing together at 3:07. Absolute magic. As if it werent laudable enough to create a breadth of sounds which are as distinct as the persons they represent, there should be no shortage of accolades for joining those distinct voices into a homogenous sum greater than its parts. To proudly present my bias again, I love this soundtrack, and not just because its for my game. Its a stellar series of works which describe the nature of their subjects in ways which words fail. Actually, that last part is presumptuous; words may exist which convey these ideas adequately. They are, however, beyond my command and I wrote the characters. As a final note, Ive always been a fan of imagery through sound. Perhaps thats why I was so drawn to Erics work. If you know of an image-provoking piece to share, Im all too anxious to hear it. If not, there are plenty of other noteworthy tracks which are not mine to share at https://soundcloud.com/ericbrittmusic Respectfully yours, Chris Cratel, Cratel Studios

The title today, commonly used to represent a body of text, yields as both the topic and heading of todays log: the volume of writing which has come to be known as Court of Ashes. A volume which spans over 110,000 words and hundreds of pages of dialogue in the main story and affinity scenes alone. Following from this, it is difficult to estimate the number of words in the scenarios, of which there are over 250, but here is one scenario with the outcomes removed for your consideration:

Fallen Priests

Allow the inquisitor to conduct an impartial investigation

Redirect the search

Self-Report

Greetings and welcome. As an introduction antecedes most relationships, let me begin by apologizing for my tardiness in writing to you. Court of Ashes, though announced only two weeks ago, has a storied past reaching all the way back to 2016. The days, evenings, and nights of unwavering devotion needed to bring this project to where it is now may seem like a fine enough excuse for developing in relative silence, but those activities do not subtract from the attention owed to you, the person who will (hopefully) purchase my game. In that spirit of full atonement, let me devote myself as fully to these annotations as I do to the development of my actual game. My game? Whose game? Court of Ashes is being developed and published by Cratel Studios. Folding the development under the auspices of a studio is mostly a formality; Cratel Studios is co-owned by me, Chris Cratel, and my husband, Christian (C.S.) Cratel. If I use the first-person possessive when describing Court of Ashes, it is merely as a token of pride and affection. Pride, not only for what weve created but, for what its taken to create in the first place. As much as Ive committed myself to an introduction, Id sooner like to depart from talking about myself. Approach any deli counter and order bologna on white bread and you will be in possession of the allegorical equivalent of my person. To my husbands credit, he can at least pass for mortadella on rye with a slather of mustard. So, to the (deli) meat of the subject: what is Court of Ashes? Court of Ashes is a narrative-driven adventure. Court of Ashes is a scaled-down nation management sim. Court of Ashes is centered around building rapport and learning to be a good leader. Court of Ashes is filled with over 250 singular and expressive scenarios to solve. Court of Ashes is told through the lens of five distinct playable characters. Court of Ashes is meant to be played multiple times. Court of Ashes is outfitted with 18 separate endings interspliced with multiple sub-endings. Court of Ashes is presented with unlockable outfits, locations, and scenes. Court of Ashes is not a romance story. Court of Ashes is not an epic, open-world RPG requiring hundreds of hours per playthrough. Court of Ashes is not developed with the intention of producing freemium/DLC content (though our artist wants to draw unlockable canine versions of each council member post-release). Court of Ashes is not a 1998 Toyota Corolla, still runs great, $800 OBO. While I could derivate each of these points into ever-increasing lists of what Court of Ashes is an is not, I would much rather take the time to dilate on each of the major features surrounding the project the real whats in it for me proposition behind the idea of you purchasing this game. In the coming installments, I want to talk about the 60 individual affinity scenes, the original soundtrack and symbolism behind the music choices, the branching narrative and 18 base endings, the 250+ scenarios and what a scenario actually consists of, and, most importantly, what weve learned throughout our development to make this game better for you. So, putting to bed the matter of my introduction, let me leave you with a question; who are you? If youve gotten this far, I would be so eager to meet you, reader. Until next time, Chris Cratel