About ASA -100% offer

Hi everyone!

If you got ASA for free, please return the favor and consider following me on Twitter @Simon_ASA
Thanks!

As you could probably see if you're following The Icehouse collective on itchio, I've decided to give ASA for free during a week for the itch Summer Sales. Wether you like the game or not, it has been a very difficult decision for me.

ASA was my first game, I made it alone in 2012

during several months of hard work, and it has been recreated in 2015 from scratch. It's almost as if the game was made 2 times, and it required a lot of efforts. Somehow this game is special to me, allowed me to (virtually) meet many great people and friends, and it's the reason I'm still an indie dev today.

I know that the game is not perfect.

It's not one of these great, polished, full 3d exploration games with realistic UE5 graphics where you can walk around the world during hours to complete thousands of quests. And it isn't made of charming handmade illustrations either...

It's an old-school adventure game, originally inspired by the Myst series and my love for scifi movies. I know that many people who didn't know the Myst era are often mistaken by the screenshots: they find them really cool (which I appreciate!) but once they launch the game and discover that it's a kind of 2d slideshow gameplay, they become almost angry lol (which also explains the mixed reviews on Steam). Please don't judge a book at its cover!

It's actually made of prerendered 3d scenes, and yes it's turned into 2d (still pictures) in the game engine... It's a point and click adventure like we had in the 1990s. But it's cool! Otherwise the reference site Adventure Gamers wouldn't have rated it 4/5! See it as a kind of Visual Novel with puzzles if you prefer. There are several fans of the game and the whole Black Cube scifi series around the world, and I'm so happy of it!

So it's an unusual 2d game (regarding 2022 standards), but does it mean it's bad? It depends on you, on your tastes and how much you can dedicate time and dive into a game. I think that

once you're used to that retro gameplay, and if you're not against using your brain to solve puzzles, then you'll really start to enjoy it,

and to understand what it is all about.

ASA is a highly atmospheric game, through the visuals and the music, where you're supposed to take your time, take notes on a sheet of paper to solve the puzzles

based on what you find and see in the world. Sometimes you need to stop playing to find the solution (just like: you're cooking and have that puzzle in mind, and suddenly a light turns on in your head and you know the answer!). I know that being stuck on a puzzle can be frustrating, but they are logical puzzles so there's always a way to find a solution, either by understanding, looking around or learning something. And

when you succeed you're so proud of your detective skills! 

Finishing ASA without using (too much) of an external help such as a walkthrough will give you a true feeling of reward, because you know it was difficult all along, and it took you 10, 15 or eventually 30 hours to beat the game. But it also

comes with a feeling of magic and well being, because the world is varied, the story is quite rich if you take the time to read the diary, the progression is cut by several animated 3d cutscenes, and everything together makes a lot of sense. 

So, yeah, it's far from perfect, it's hard, particularly with the 2022 standards, but I'm sure you can pretty enjoy the adventure with a bit of efforts at the start.

I really hope you will enjoy it!

If you enjoyed the adventure, please take a look at the rest of the Black Cube series. All episodes are independent (you can play them in any order without knowing each other) but each will bring new elements to the whole story of the Terran people, Philip Forté, the Anterrans and the mysterious black cubes... https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/617/The_Black_Cube_series/

Thanks for reading!

Simon