Greetings Lightbringers, and welcome to Empire of Ember!
It’s been a little over two months since Empire of Ember hit Early Access. I’ve had my head down, working hard to solve the most pressing issues that typically follow a release—especially in Early Access. But now that the dust has settled, I’m ready to discuss what you can expect from the game during EA.
As you can see from the description, Empire of Ember is an action-RPG, with real-time strategy and management elements. You begin the game as an Apprentice Lightbringer. The Lightbringers are a caste of wizards so powerful, they’ve risen above common mortals to rule as Lords and Ladies. After your master is murdered defending his vassal city from a goblin assault, you inherit his responsibilities and become the new ruler, despite your obvious lack of experience. You very much want to avenge your master, and at the same time fear there is a more sinister motive behind his death than greed. But you also must govern wisely, rebuild and restore your city to its former prosperity, and lead your troops to war against its enemies.
As of today, the core gameplay mechanics behind these concepts are all in place. You’re free to explore the fantasy world of Domus in a 2D, tile-based campaign map, and venture into procedurally generated dungeons to fight beasts and evil creatures lurking within, and loot their treasures. You can fight in first-person viewpoint using staff, mace and bow, and the magic system has three different trees with dozens of spells for you to learn as you advance and level up your character. There are already more than a dozen main quest missions, and ~80% of them are fully voiced. You can also get side quests from the villages you come across in your adventures.
The core management aspect of the game is also fleshed out and ready to play: you can build up and fully customize your city from a library of over 2,500 assets. Empire of Ember’s powerful design tools allow you to make your stronghold truly unique... and fully destructible! You can upload your city to a shared server, or download other players’ creations and obliterate them (or defend your city against your friends’ armies!) Your economy will require prudent management, as the facilities you build will have an upkeep cost in resources, but they also produce goods you can trade in the market.
And finally, prepare yourself for the real-time strategy battles! You can bring up to 100 troops to the battlefield, representing a wide range of units: melee, ranged, magic users, and even your own newly raised undead. Use Tactical Mode to issue commands, from general orders like “Hold the line” or “Follow me” to grouping your units in custom formations and assigning them to specific points on the battlefield. Keeping in mind that city environments are fully destructible, these battles can be quite spectacular!
That’s where I’m at right now—however, as Empire of Ember is just starting out in Early Access, I have a long road ahead, and I want to be transparent about exactly what you will find in-game. Being a small indie team comes with limitations. The game’s graphics are not the cutting edge tech you can find in triple-A releases. They are functional though, and don’t require a super-powerful machine. But I acknowledge there’s still work to do on improving performance.
Most of the features listed here are still rough around the edges; I’m planning to polish things, but some items will take longer than others. The main concern is the combat system, which still needs work to reach its true potential. But that undertaking isn’t easy or simple; it will take a few more months to get there. There’s also work to be done in improving game balance and adding more content, but let’s leave the details of our short- and mid-term development roadmap for next time.
There’s one very important point I want to make: for Empire of Ember to evolve into the best possible gaming experience, I need YOU. I need your honest feedback to adjust priorities, improve game balance, fine-tune and tweak every feature, and test the game on as many different computers as possible. Empire of Ember is a big game, one that gives players a lot of freedom. It’s impossible for a small team to test everything. Steam Early Access is the best place to do this, and this wonderful community is exactly what’s needed to help Empire of Ember grow in the right direction.
Please join the Discord server, where you can chat with the developers directly, and have a hand in shaping the future of the game. You can also follow the game on Twitter and Reddit, and join the conversation in the official Steam forums, which I visit on a daily basis to gather your feedback and comments.
That’s all for today. I’ll be back next week to give you more details about our roadmap. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy!