Aurora Nova is a Roguelike deckbuilder with light rpg-like elements. Instead of a fantasy world like in the excellent Slay the Spire, Roguebook, Banners of Ruin, or Across the Obelisk (to name a few), Aurora Nova is a scifi, story-driven journey that takes place in the distant future.
Presented by Ex Astra Studios, with incredible, atmospheric music by Yurii Radko (made just for this game)!
Early Demo (Shows a range of examples of story, gameplay, and music)
Links:
Aurora Nova Game Website
Aurora Nova Steam Page (Ready to wishlist!)
Public Game Discord (Invite link)
Aurora Nova YouTube Channel (Gameplay updates and developer commentary)
Singleplayer Campaign
Command between one and three ships in a task force of highly-advanced alien spaceships. Acquire new ship classes with varying abilities and roles that evolve as the game goes on.
Whether it is…
- a heavy hitting ability-caster, like the Riftwalker Class Dreadnaught
- a bastion of armor and weaponry like the Bonethresher Class Battleship
- an overwhelming offensive force like the Swarm Class Carrier
- a reliable multi-role stalwart like the Relentless Class Destroyer
- a defensive ability-caster and healer like the Archangel Class Auxilliary
… you will be a force on the battlefield. But your enemies are numerous and diverse.
There are the vessels of the Galactic Union (GU) to contend with. While less technologically advanced than other factions, the GU has numbers on their side. And they still pack a punch. Expect a variety of vessel types, contributed by dozens of spacefaring species to the GU armada. These ships wield powerful conventional weapons.
There’s the enigmatic Accretions. Known as the “Ancients” to the GU, they are puppet masters leading the galactic community from behind the curtains. Their technology is very advanced, and their weaponry is neither predictable nor conventional. Expect the unexpected, and prepare for the worst.
And finally, there’s the Gigans. A collection of massive space-faring organisms that are the size of space ships. Unknown to most spacefaring species, their existence was only certain to the Accretions - until now. They wield biological weaponry that no conventional armada has designed their ships to withstand and counter.
Assemble your task force. Gather weaponry and abilities through cards. Modify your ship’s capabilities with special technology called Augmentations. React to a changing battlefield with an array of collectible items. Enhance your ship’s attributes to make them stronger and deadlier.
Achieve victory by learning your enemy’s tactics and weaknesses. Turn your enemy factions against one another. Learn what the Accretions are planning. Stop them at all costs.
They learn
Your enemies learn from your tactics over the course of each battle and every playthrough.
For example: If you play several laser-based weapon cards in a row, an enemy with special reflector shields that reflect damage back to you will utilize this ability to counter your tactics.
If you lean on laser weapons over the course of many battles, enemies will learn from this and deploy more ships with hard counters to your strategy in future battles.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Expect the enemy to learn and lead you into a situation that you are not prepared to counter.
Singleplayer Scenarios
Mix and match your task force, cards, augmentations, items, and more against any enemy formation you can think of to create custom battles. Use it to try scenarios that would never happen in single player, or test new strategies, and learn how to do better by planning for future campaign scenarios.
Multiplayer
When you beat a singleplayer playthrough, your progress at the moment of starting the final boss battle - your task force, their stats, collected cards, augmentations, and items - are all saved into a profile. You can then select the profile and challenge other player’s and their winning profiles to a PvP battle.
Story Synopsis
Check out the video for the story synopsis (told as you play through the tutorial).
Notes:
I’m looking for people who want to join the project!