Seven weeks on: what's coming in 1.2

On August 21st I released my first game on Steam. It didn't break anything, and that's fine.

Ashfire Keep shipped as an MVP: bare-bones, with art details still pending and without a lot of the ideas I had in my head. But it did its job — it taught me how releasing a game actually works.

Some context. On July 15th I officially founded Khimea Games, after more than two months of working on the game and learning as I went. Seven weeks have passed since launch, and I spent all of them on a mega-patch for that same game. Along the way I learned a pile of technical and practical things I didn't even know I was missing.

What 1.2 will bring

• Co-op for up to 4 players, online or on the same couch.
• Three new classes: six in total.
• Three new maps, plus La Brecha — an endless mode with a world leaderboard.
• Bosses with their own art, more than 70 events, and an original soundtrack.

On AI

Something I've always wanted to talk about: I use AI. It helps me enormously, but it's still just one more tool. The ideas, the thinking, the improvements and the decisions that took shape over this time come from a person. AI helps bring them into being, but what makes something you create special is that it carries your signature.

What's next

Game design took hold of me more than I expected. I'm still on Ashfire, and I have three more games in the backlog, somewhere between ideas and planning. I know it's a long, demanding road, but I'm glad to be able to keep doing what I always wanted to do: forward, always, doing what you love.

I'm confident this 1.2 is what Ashfire needs to become its best version, and to make people want to play it.

More coming soon.