That’s exactly what makes Ashen so intriguing. Certainly not the sort of thing you’d expect from a team of 40 (mostly millennials) in Lower Hutt working on their first game. They’re usually the domain of multi million-dollar megastudios with blockbuster budgets and hundreds of staff based all over the world. These kind of games - particularly those with online multiplayer elements - are difficult to make and notoriously expensive. Ashen’s muted colour palette reflects a world which has only recently been exposed to light after centuries of darkness. It’s no accident that the three biggest releases of the year ( Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man and God of War) have been based around open world sandboxes and with the popularity of first-person shooters dwindling, the free-roaming action RPG is arguably the industry’s most reliable money-spinner. Since Grand Theft Auto 3 revolutionised the industry in 2001, franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher and Far Cry - while wildly different in tone and structure - have become synonymous with the idea of “triple-A” games. The rise of the open world action RPG has coincided almost exactly with the explosion of pop culture and profits that have defined the modern era of video games. Lee Henaghan takes an exclusive look at one of the most ambitious games ever made in New Zealand. It’s already being compared to Dark Souls, Breath of the Wild and Journey, and after five years in the making, Ashen is almost ready for release.
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