- made 4 zones out of 2 zones, which influence how far you can throw items (0,1,2,3 tiles - the higher, the farer you can throw)
- automatically take a screenshot of gameplay stats after a playthrough
- a 'tiny dagger' added to the start of the game
- borderless fullscreenmode option added
Changes:
- help for character stats and magic refreshed
- later worldmap improved
- camp dialogue improved
- Xuni tutorial improved
- Intro spelling fixed
- random event fixed
- bugfix small visual issue on worldmap
- bugfixed the bugreport ;)
The sounds and music of Aeon of Sands – The Trail
Hello!
Have you ever wondered about what one needs to consider when it comes to video game music? Then let me tell you about our creational journey to the music of Aeon of Sands and check out this blog post.
main theme sample: https://www.aeonofsands.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AoS_main_theme_snippet_mixdown_1.mp3
Considerations and First Ideas
Back then when we started, Florian and me both knew we wanted a rich audio environment for Aeon of Sands, with three constituent parts:
Game audio effects: GUI sounds as well as sounds triggered by players or their opponents
Ambient track: the loopable constant sounds that create the background for the game experience
Musical themes: the loopable melodic tunes that introduce the game, underscore encounters and take you out of the game and back to your room.
Besides, we both wanted all the audio in the game to be very specific, convincing, direct, and most of all, musical.
Given the particular narrative of the game, we also wanted its music to be not at all high fantasy or over-epic.
In fact, the scope of the game story is not a fantasy of macho super-heroics stumping over the lives of a galaxy, or some stuff like that; it’s the story of a clerk, stumbling through things larger than him, and the story becomes broader only when he’s forced to confront his humanity in face of his own survival.
Plus, add a little bit of humor.
game credits - sample: https://www.aeonofsands.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AoS_credits_snippet_mixdown.mp3
Influences
On the other end, we had a few examples in mind, something that came from our roots, like games we loved of the Commodore Amiga era: Perihelion, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, some pieces of Mass Effect for its coherence, and something even from the Commodore SID era as an inspiration.
But we also wanted the bulk of it recorded live using analog tools and instruments, the same I (Marco) did for most of the audio effects.
Fruitful Collaboration
Enter Gabriele Artuso, our musician friend, who has collaborated with us on Aeon of Sands for the last three years.
Gabriele added to the mix - besides his compositive experience - his taste for jazz improvisation and his exhilarating sense of experimentation.
He did most of the real work, to which I added post-production and editing, contributing only a couple of tunes, just because his enthusiasm for this creation work touched me.
The result of this fruitful confrontation is a set of almost forty tracks: tuneful ambient loops and direct groovy main tracks that echo back to John Carpenter’s ‘Eighties.
All of these tracks you’ll be able to listen to in the game!
Additionally, we are in the process of distilling the game’s tracks into a soundtrack to be released further on the road.
Stay tuned on radio Aeon of Sands :)
And besides, if you have not yet done so, please add Aeon of Sands to your Steam wishlist!
Aeon of Sands - preRelease Patchnotes Version 0.9.986
Version 0.9.986
This is a prerelease update.
New Features:
- a visual hint has been added if a dialogue needs to be scrolled down
- consumable goods receive a green glow to make them easier to identify
- you can now configure up to three keys to fire up spells
(still you need to open up the spellchoice first)
- added help menu categories
- note added to tooltips how to read item descriptions
- more dramatic world map presentation in a special situation
- improved the gameplay statistics screen after a complete play through
- some bosses where made a bit stronger
- nice side-effect added to 'tiny-rat' equipment item
Changes:
- fixed a problem with continuous playback of music
- fixed global music volume level for dialogue music
- fixes a bug that caused a crash when writing notes,
if the input was not confirmed with the "enter" button
- fixed a bug that made items temp. unuseable when
moving weapons in party-inventory from one character to the other
- spelling fixes of various dialogues
- costs of 'wooden sword' and 'rusty sword' fixed
- costs of 'flechette pistol' fixed
- tunnel updated for better handling
- readme updated
Aeon of Sands - preRelease Patchnotes Version 0.9.985
Version 0.9.985
This is a prerelease update.
New Features:
new Key configuration menu added to Options
new Help Menu added to Main & Pause Menu
new Gameplay Stats Screen added after a full playthrough
new Savegame system (old savegames can still be loaded!)
new Title music track
new Intro music track
new Credits music track
two new Story Branches opened
Changes:
saveslots updated from 5 to 7 manual savegames
preselected Window Modes
better Fullscreen detection
windowmode default resolution changed from 1280x800 to 1366x768
problematic dialogue at The Pit fixed
dialogue typos edited
credits updated
Options cleaned
Mazes updated
Particles improved
Spelling fixes
balacing of bosses improved
... and a lot of smaller issues fixed
The Desert and You
On the proper ways to address strangers in the desert.
One would assume that there were none, as in a desert, there should be nobody to address. But if you find yourself there, a desert ceases to be deserted, and it unmistakably follows that there should be an etiquette and a protocol to addressing strangers. Because everything goes so much smoother when you have protocols, right?
That is at least what Setrani, the main character in the story of “Aeon of Sands – The Trail” told himself when was ushered out of town and faced the desert for the first time.
Barely before he thought “Let me back in!” and at the same time of “There must be some kind of error!”
There was also the conflicting thought: “No please, I don’t want to die!”; but his habit of trying to be inconspicuous, which he acquired early in his life, won that friendly bid.
Whether the concept of less resistance path would serve him during the course of our story, that’s a matter for another day, but it will serve me now to describe the (probably not) happy encounters a traveler might have in this (really not) merry land.
So welcome to “Strangers in the Distance and You”.
You come from a domed city, a society clustered on the colossal body and limbs of a tree, all covered by a glass dome, sheltering people and vegetation from the brunt of the suns and the cruelty of the winds. You know that there are other cities like yours, by hearsay: you’ve never been to one and you personally know noone who has.
But even if they exist, your city is probably in a state of war with them too, as it is with the desert.
So, even if the chance is very little, those strangers you see there in the distance could be from another city, they could be every little bit as scared of the blinding emptiness around them as you are. Would they set aside their inbred hostility to foreigners, because of this common trait you have? You would, right?
Hah, like you could!
Well… Not easily anyway. Maybe you should listen to your empty belly, though, and let it dictate a protocol to barter some food, while letting them know you still are better than them. Is there a protocol for that?
Of course, they seem to be traveling in a group, while you are alone. However, your moral superiority must surely be evident, even to them!
But now that you are getting closer, you are not so sure that you should think of them as other citizens at all. Those bright colors and… plumes of some bird? They don’t look like proper and respectable townsfolk of a foreign, detested city at all.
Maybe… Are they nomads instead?
Could they be the bandits roaming freely through the desert, in slow migrations? Those who, from time to time, get closer to your town, in raiding parties, attacking the less guarded entrance, robbing what they can in the hovels and plazas nearest to it, taking things and people alike, scavenging for food and for slaves, before making a run for the sands?
Could those approaching be men so unafraid of this terrifying waste, that no badge of honor, true or made up, could sway them from the intention to kill you, capture you and eat you alive, and probably all of the three at the same time?
If they are nomads, you surely better start running. Not that you could outrun a bolt of lighting or the sand storms that a nomad warlock commands. But let’s just hope they have no warlock.
Ahhh… you are raving. It’s probably the heat. You are not used to its full violence.
In fact, let’s not be too hasty: the strangers don’t seem to quicken their pace. Actually, it seems like the distance between you and them has not decreased.
Is that possible at all? This damn creamy hot haze… Making it difficult to judge distances and appearances.
Your stomach closes further. What if they aren’t men at all?
What if they are some creatures just human looking, but not human at all? A bug, walking upright, a sand threader, something you have not seen before! Not that you have seen anything non human before, except the rotten and dried husks of some small animal sold at the markets in town, from the grim and outlandish people who dare travel the surroundings of their city, trapping, hunting.
But you never doubted that they existed, alive and skittering in the deep of the desert.
Therefore, these creatures must be certainly them, running in a frenzy, and getting close to you by the minute!
No… No. Bind your imagination! They cannot be that. Bugs exist. You could even encounter them if you are unlucky, but for sure they are not so calm and upright. All of this doubting is making you sick and feverish. “C’mon then! Come show me what you are made of, you will not have an easy feast of me!”
But then you are ashamed of your sudden outburst. They are still far, but not out of ear! All movement has stopped. They seem frozen in the haze. Precious sweat falls on your eyes and quickly evaporates.
What if they are the worst possible thing imaginable, something of magic and of savagery that you have no name for, not one that you would chance to utter.
Magic. You have magic, everybody has it, it’s common where you come from. It’s natural in this wrecked nature. The only thing that can keep what human life there is on the land.
Sure, your people work with their hands, they tend sheltered farms and manufacture the tools they use. They build their homes, they suspend the bridges between the limbs of the sacred Kinami tree. But to keep the tree alive, to bend its wood and the glass blown in the furnaces to create the dome that guards you… Magic! A natural magic.
But there is a different magic. One so perverted and dangerous that any practitioner would be killed on sight by anybody, from old man to children, in town and outside…
You never saw it, but you heard from one who knew, that a traveler once told him, to have a cousin who was sure to…
What if that ahead is a group of magicians, with their green plumes and brown masks?
What if… What if… You are trembling, feverishly.
That’s it! Surely their magic is already killing you! You try to find your balance, but you cannot but stumble on; wiping your brow from your copious sweat does nothing to help you see. But you are getting closer to them now, they are for sure luring you with a charm! They are getting larger and larger… Monsters! It’s the end! The end…
THUD!
“ARGH! Help! I’m killed! I’m killed!”
But the killing blow doesn’t come, as you wait for it, in a fetal position on the floor, eyes shut and covered from the sting of the evil magic.
“What are you waiting for? I will not beg! (Unless… Would I beg… Would it save my life? I’m an important person you know?)”
But still no answer comes, from cruel lips.
Slowly, you remove one hand from your eyes, and then the other, extending your arms slowly in the space between you and the unknown, your eyes still closed.
You touch a leg. Whoever he is, he’s toying with you. This is undignified!
Shaking, you inhale a lungful of hot air, so that you can face death at least a bit more calmly.
Then you open your eyes, to see the rarest creatures on the land. The brown mask stands there. Scaly and covered with green plumes.
You are looking at the green and brown face of a palm tree.
On December 4, 2018 you’ll be able to walk your own trail in Aeon of Sands!
“Here, have some of my water – says the man under the cowl – you clearly have not packed enough to get here.”
Setrani has no strength to object, and, from his curled position, half buried in the sand, accepts the water skin with a hoarse groan.
“Easy, easy… Careful not to drop it!”
Setrani peers from below at his saviour . A rover, from a city, thankfully, and not a nomad. Or else, he would probably be attached to a slave caravan, by now.
Still, a rover, a man so resilient to walk the desert, scavenging his sustenance and finding items to sell back at a city, is just slightly safer than a nomad, in his view.
Setrani nods at the man, and notices his sack. Only half empty.
“Thank you. Are you… going back?”
The man looks around. “Not yet. You are from Pantella, yes? I think I saw you there.
Did they throw you out to die?”
A surge of pride in Setrani’s chest overcomes his caution – “What? I’ll let you know I’m an important person! I was sent out on a job! Not casted out!”
“Hah! Yes, the sand half burying you seems to disagree.”
The clerk deflates, but refuses to admit that he’s indeed having a terrible time at this mission.
The rover, gently pushing back his sack with his feet, continues – “No, I’ll have to find something more to sell before going to the markets. There’s a mine I visit when my runs are fruitless. But I don’t go there gladly. Too dangerous.”
He gives the clerk a look, calculating. “I could use the company.”
Setrani’s mouth dries up again, considering his options. How is his death more likely today? In the open desert, with the little provisions he has, or following this man he doesn’t know anything about to a, what has he called it? A mine? What’s a mine?
He wishes he had not argued with Harro, the guard that was accompanying him the last few days. At the time, to send him alone to those travelling merchants seemed a good idea…
How could he possibly know they were cannibals?
Besides, the man in front of him is not a nomad, so there is that, even if there’s no guarantee that he would not use him as sandcrawlers’ bait. The idea hits Setrani: what is unthinkable inside a city wall is very possible out here. He’s really new to these outlandish rules, but he’s learning.
And if the rover would act funny, he still could probably run away. Maybe with his provisions…
The man awaits an answer.
What are the clerk’s options? Whatever he chooses, he hardly will be able to retrace his steps, and the night, the very short night is coming, with all the fanged things that live in it.
Setrani must choose.
So you are asking, what is it like to play Aeon of Sands?
Well it’s like this:
You play a character that is as removed from the ambient he’s exploring as a city clerk in a dangerous desert: you know nothing about it and its customs, and you have an urge to survive.
Therefore, you make decisions while not having a clue about the consequences: your only tools to navigate the adventure are your own morals as a compass, and the order of your priorities.
Is it your survival first and then – perhaps – everyone else's?
Is it the greater good above your needs?
Is it an ideal of law and civilisation that guides you, or the knowledge that nature must rightly overcome all men?
Is it an ideal of law and civilisation that guides you, or the knowledge that nature must rightly overcome all men?
Or are you comforted in the idea of a brotherhood of humans, with no distinction between cities and tribes?
Whatever your path, the consequences have little to do with your skills or your statistics, and much to do with your choices, current and previous ones.
It’s more a roleplaying adventure, at its core.
On December 4, 2018 you’ll be able to walk your own trail in Aeon of Sands!
Aeon of Sands - A post-apocalyptic RPG coming December 4, 2018
Aeon of Sands - The Trail is a retro, post-apocalyptic RPG, set in a dangerously pixelated desert world that eats people, and has a taste for city clerks. - Oh, by the way, you are a city clerk. And it's lunch time.
Berlin, Germany - October 17, 2018. Two Bits Kid is proud to announce the release date of its upcoming game Aeon of Sands - The Trail, coming on December 4, 2018 for Windows and MacOS.
Features - Extremely non-linear, replayable story with multiple endings
- Real-time combat
- 20 locations and more than 60 mazes and dungeons to explore
- More than 140 dialogues
- Completely hand-drawn 2.5D environment, 240 hand-drawn illustrations
- Up to 2 other characters can join your party during play
- Each character’s personality influences the outcome of the story, and opens up new paths
Prerelease Press Coverage https://www.rockpapershotgun.de/tag/aeon-of-sands
“Der Dungeon-Crawler Aeon of Sands verspricht einen “Liebesbrief an die klassischen PC- und Amiga-Spiele der Neunziger...“
indieretronews.com “An incredible looking crawler that takes us back to the golden age of grid based crawlers...”
Indiegames.com “Aeon of Sands transplants the classic first-person RPG to the desert ruins of a lost city, brought to life through hand-drawn art and strategic combat.”
