Most games start as a design document. Aestra started as a message.
@houser can't code. One morning in late September they described the game they wanted, a classic online fantasy RPG, in plain words. An hour later they were playing it. By that evening it was live on Tesana for anyone to play.
Three weeks and 22 releases later, 21,000+ players from 120 countries have tried it. Fifty have reached level 100, and every one of them did it with a single life.
The idea
An RPG that punishes mistakes
Aestra is a fast pixel action RPG. Pick a class, build out your talents and fight your way to level 100 through haunted forests, frozen peaks and volcanic lands. Every zone has a dungeon, and every dungeon has a harder version.
Combat is hands-on: aim, dodge, chain your abilities. Loot drops at random, and a lucky drop can make a build. Getting greedy can end it.
And death is permanent. Lose one fight and a hero you've played for hours is gone. Rare items can bring you back, but don't count on finding one.
The build
Playable in an hour, online in two
@houser built Aestra by describing what they wanted, one message at a time. Tesana turned each one into a new version of the game. Day one went like this:
- StartThe first message
- 1 hourPlayable
- 2 hoursOnline with friends
- LiveOn Tesana that evening
I want to make a Fantasy inspired 2D/2,5D RPG game, We need to find a very unique style I want Hollownight / shovel knight art meets Fantasy, beautiful sprites for our own character and enemies. Open exapsive, extremely detailed world and environments. Level 1-60 tight progression, quests, explorations, professions, items, classic RPG Hud and armor slot, talent tree with impactful choices. Tight combat, huge amount of enemies in certain places and spots. If it's not huge amount of enemies, they're way more powerful. Bosses are very animated and hard. If you die, it's permadeath. certain items can make so you revive, but they are hard and rare and you might find them 2-3 times during a playthrough. There's mounts that unlock at level 25 and flyingmount at level 55, There's dungeons with unique designs and bosses. There's a lot of miscelanous activities and quests that have minigames and fun side things. Towns and main cities should feel extremely alive with huge amount of npc's and enterable buildings. I'm almost thinking a bit Ultima visual style but blended with what i said before.
1 hour to playable77 versions in three weeks
Three weeks later the game was on its 77th version. Along the way it picked up:
- Level 100, up from 60.
- Raids, ending in the final one, Aestra's Dominion.
- Heroic dungeons, a harder take on every dungeon.
- Mounts, sea turtle included.
- Duels and trading between players.
- Phone controls.
- Leaderboards and achievements.
Hosting, the shared online world, leaderboards and achievements all come built into Tesana.
Online play took one message:
Add tesana multiplayer, let me make rooms, up to 32 concurrent and make an endless openroom that's always on and make a character maker that let's you custom make your character to your liking.
The launch
A quiet first week, then Reddit and X
The first week was quiet. Aestra passed 100 players on day 7.
Then came the big update. The first prompt asked for levels 1 to 60. A week in, @houser asked for more:
I am very happy with the game so far. Now it's time to do a big update. … Add a cap up to level 100 with more zones (expand the map even larger)
Level 100 went live a couple of hours later, along with new zones and leaderboards, and the first hero hit it that same day. Word spread on Reddit and X, and Aestra passed 1,000 players on day 11.
Its biggest day came in mid-October, when the shared world grew to hold 64 heroes and someone beat the final raid for the first time.
Players came from 120 countries, led by the US, Brazil and Germany, and almost half of them play on a phone.
Fascinating game, I like the permadeath aspect
@jertsi
Great game 10/10
@rjsiminarian
Love it so far!
@kendo
The results
Players can't put it down
Three weeks in, Aestra had:
- 21,000+ players.
- 1,384 hours played, with plenty of sessions running past an hour.
- 50 heroes at level 100.
- A Fallen board for the level-100 heroes who died for good.
- Dozens of comments, many answered by @houser.
Players aren't just playing, either. They're buying new classes and mounts right in the game.
Death Metal Bard
“Too angry to die. Too loud to bury.”
An undead orc whose bone guitar is also an axe, backed by his own undead band.
Shadowblade
“Dance in the dark. Leave nothing standing.”
A dark elf blade-dancer with a blade in each hand and a shadow that fights on its own.
Skybreaker
“Every gesture a gale. Every step a strike.”
A snow-tiger airbender who fights barehanded and never stands still.
i love this game. but how should I enjoy the game once I reach level 100?
@cowlgh21
this game is cool
@soycookies
I love this game. it is however too compressed. vastness would definitely help
@cyberunagi
I think its bc made of ai but this so good
@yfg
great game, i'm impressed by only playing a few minutes with all different thing I can do. …
@bob31
J'adore , si vous avez besoin de traducteur pour la version 🇫🇷 pensez à moi, je vous aiderais avec plaisir 🤜🤛🏴☠️
@soraf
And the updates keep coming.
