Last month we shared many design updates and a lot of changes all around the place and this month makes no exception: we did it again! And what better way to discover last changes than to discover them yourselves?

Playtests are open!

It is now possible for you to play the game right now through our Playtest versions of the game on Steam. We are making it available for backers and playtesters only (if you are not a backer yet you can pre-order on our Backerkit shop then contact us on our Discord Server) to get your feedback on the new mechanics and how you feel about the game even if it has a lot of work-in-progress elements. For now it is focused on an improved version of our demo but we hope to maintain these Playtests open during the coming months to share with you more content and get your feedback about it.
Embark now for playtests! HOW TO PARTICIPATE First, join our Discord Server. Once you claimed your backer role, you can see #playtests-register channel and get a special playtester role there that gives you access to private #playtests channel where you will be guided and receive a Steam Playtest key.

Iterating is key for rogue-lites!

We are now working on Astral Ascent for more than 2 years and it became clear to us that rogue-lites fun comes from the variety of situations you can find and this variety comes from iterations. We keep improving every aspect of the game and it turns out absolutely great! Most team members are playing the game on their free time because they are loving the how the game evolves so we think we are on the right track. Here is a selection of our recent work: Virgo animations are complete, she will be a very fast boss, be prepared!
Virgo - one of the 12 Zodiacs! We have reworked the hub currency, it is now called "Sun Pieces" as we thought it would be easier to talk about it if it has a name and an unique shape and color. It comes with a new currency named Yalee Tickets for the stylist. As the stylist upgrades are only visuals it felt weird to use the same currency than the one that improves your gameplay. Yalee tickets can be found during your runs!
Debug to test new currencies Stress-test of the reworked version of the freeze effect. It is now slowing down enemies before reaching the 10 stacks to freeze!
Burn effects now set stacks on nearby enemies when exploding and it can become very devastating!
We have also created balloons for merchants as it felt like a perfect way of locomotion in this aerial world (and also because we thought it was cool!).
We did not remember this narrative piece and even our Narrative designer did not remember it writing it but who wants to play Chesskers?
We are on all fronts as we now have all enemies from worlds 4 designed and all enemies from world 3 coded. We think that we will need to work on a lot of different matters once we release the game in early access and we want to deliver frequent updates with new content so it is important to us to start making this content before the early access release.
Concept of world 4 enemy We have created a lot of new effects to add the variety we talked about earlier. Here are 3 of these new effects : [olist]

yalee madness: every spell launched spawns a yalee for a short period of time

transe: spells cost no mana for a short period of time

movespeed: player moves faster for a short period of time [/olist] There is more effects and the most interesting part is of course the combinaison and builds you can create by mixing them!
New work-in-progress elements for The Garden
Papa Yalee new background
This is secret for now! We hope you like these monthly updates! On our side it is always great to look behind and see all the progress that has been made recently. Don't forget about our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to discuss about the game development, Have an excellent day, - The Hibernian Workshop Team