Aground

Description

Short Description:

Aground is a resource-gathering and crafting game with a story, focused on the theme of Progression. You start the game as a lone survivor from a shipwreck with almost nothing, and build your way up to a thriving settlement and eventually make your way to space and travel between planets.

About:

With Aground, we wanted to try something a little different with the survival genre - we wanted a game that wasn’t an open world, but instead focused on progression and story. As David Maletz, Designer and Programmer for Aground put it: “I want to know why I'm mining or gathering resources - what's it all for?” This brought a breath of fresh air to the genre that players simply loved. We have had over 3 million plays and extraordinarily positive reviews after releasing the game last fall to portals like Armor Games, Kongregate and Newgrounds.

While it has inspiration from games like Minecraft, Starbound and other resource-gathering and crafting games, it actually has more in common with the text-based game A Dark Room. Starting off with literally nothing but the ability to gather wood, the game is designed to constantly surprise the player and make them wonder "what's next?" First mining unlocks, then farming, crafting, trading, sailing to other islands, then power and technology start to develop and eventually you can make your way into space and must deal with the alien threat that caused humanity to crash on this planet in the first place.

This is where the theme of Progression shines - we want the player to feel like they are really progressing and that exciting options are constantly opening up for them. By the end of the game, even though there will be a lot of systems and complexity, since they have built up slowly, the player is able to easily manage all of it.

History

Aground began in May 2017 as a simple idea - could we make a procedural galaxy game done right, in 2D? This took a great turn when we decided to start the player off with nearly nothing and let them work their way up.

We launched the game publicly on October 24th 2017 to sites like Newgrounds, Kongregate and Armor Games. Since then, its popularity has exploded, and with over 3 million plays and tons of player suggestions, we have been slowly updating and refining the game as it moves into space and beyond.

In February 2018 we ran a successful Kickstarter campaign - and subsequently an ongoing crowdfunding campaign - to fund the development of a paid Early Access version of the game with a lot more content.

Features

• Mining - The surface is just the beginning, there is a whole world to explore beneath.
• Building - Build a whole city for you and other survivors, with each structure adding new functionality.
• Crafting - Create powerful weapons and items to support you in your quests.
• Farming - Grow food and other crops to feed your village.
• Exploration - Discover the secrets of the planet you crashed on.
• Story - Unlock cut-scenes and learn about the colorful characters of the world - there are several major story-routes to follow.
• Familiars - Adventure with a trusty side-kick at your side, or even a fire-breathing dragon!