Aurora Nova is a story-driven, scifi, roguelike deck-builder where the player is a member of a highly advanced species struggling to avoid extinction. Upgrade your vessels and their capabilities. Explore the galaxy as you prepare to fight the greatest threat the Milky Way has ever seen.
We are finishing work on the vertical slice demo, which will be available on Itch.io (Aurora Nova) in the coming months!
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)
Aurora Nova
Presented by Ex Astra Studios, with custom music by Yurii Radko!
Aurora Nova is a Roguelike deckbuilder with a hint of rpg 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.
Singleplayer Campaign
Command up to three ships in a task force of highly advanced alien spaceships. Unlock new ship classes with varying abilities and roles that evolve as the game goes on.
Wield ...
... 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 Auxiliary
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.
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 space-faring 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.
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.
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 is saved at the moment of starting the final boss battle. Your task force, their stats, upgrades, 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
You are a Ranokk; part of a very advanced species that was nearly wiped out by a species called the Accretions millions of years ago. Over eons, your species recovered its technology and secretly grew in population. Returning to the stars, the Ranokk thrived once more.
Though always wary of encountering the genocidal Accretions, the Ranokk “Core” leadership decided that it is now finally time to interact with the many other species that formed the Galactic Union.
You will personally lead the military escort accompanying the Ranokk emissaries as they make the momentous journey to the seat of the Galactic Council. The Ranokk will hide no more.
But an insidious force lies at the heart of the Galactic Union, plucking strings and moving pawns from a position of near complete secrecy. A force that the Galactic Union calls the “Ancients”. You will find that these enigmatic creatures know of the Ranokk – and they intend to finish what they started when they heralded the Ranokk apocalypse millions of years ago.
Please feel free to comment and make any suggestions or criticisms that you like. We'd really love to build a community for the game, and we'd love for that community to help drive the game's development going forward!