ASH OF WAR™ - Message from CEO

"Let's make it for fun, for ourselves"

- our first words since we started.


Greetings, hope all of you are enjoying your days great.
I wrote this, because I want to share something to you that important for me.

First of all, let me tell you how it all started.
One day, I was playing my console in a known game published by a known company. Game is indie, 2D, about first World War with excellent narrative and art style that made me very sad in the end.
Literally, that game inspired me way too much that I decided to create something own. Yes, I have passion to war histories, because my family was strict addicted to the warfare since I was born.

"Hey, mate! I have something to do!"

- our first step in the idea.


I made a call to my buddy, he is an artist. We discussed the idea wisely and he supported me. We were army of two, first concepts have being created. It helped us to hire some enthusiasts who brought their ideas as well. Concept after concept, level after level, idea after idea we were boiling in our process.

“ASH OF WAR? What do you think?”

- our first thoughts on the project’s name.


Yes, not the ashes as you think. “ASH” sounds badass. We created a local in-game squad’s name “ASH” to avoid questions. Fine, we blindly started to create 2D sprites and characters that fit in the project. At that moment we didn’t have powerful programmer and animator to test our sprites and scenes in Unity3D.

“It looks cool, keep going mate!”

- our first impressions on development process.


Not cool at all. Inspiration went away too unexpectedly. We stuck. There were still no animator and programmer to bring our lifeless sprites to life. Finally, we found 2D animator for our sprite characters. New wave of inspiration for all of us. Okay, few animations on our balance. I was searching deeply for a programmer and I found him!

“We should make an announce on Greenlight!”

- our first mistake was made.


Focused as never before, we created few scenes for a demo to capture some screenshots and trailer. We were so close to show off but just for trailer and screenshots. So, we published, I remember how happy we were like we launched a rocket into the space.

“What is this shit? Trailer describes nothing!”

- our first review on Greenlight.


Like a fall into the wet dirt. No worries, we kept strong but difficulties struck a lot in the development progress. Problems with animations, coding arrived in a wrong time when we were demoralised by reviews. It was all summed up and made a crack in our small team. Programmer and animator left us. Army of two, again.

“Mate, I can’t take it anymore…”

- our first failure.


The process was frozen. Our dreams ruined at all. I supported my buddy artist as much as I could do. Anyway he found a job and same was for me. It seemed like the end for our project. I experienced a very strong kind of depression that changed my life completely.

“Do you think I stopped?”

- our first serious business.


Come back of our history like rise from the ashes. I earned some money while I was working and made a tiny budget for us. We united for “ASH OF WAR” again. Hired new animator, new programmer and sound designer that allowed to us promote the project further. New professional level of development came too. Huge changes impacted us as well. We decided to rework some sprites completely and replace 2D sprite characters to 3D, because it’s cheaper with animations. So, a year of development passed away.

“Sir, we are landing!”

- our first release.


I can’t believe we’ve done this. I wrote this personally from my heart and this message is directed to my team too. My appreciation is borderless. Yes, probably I’m bad organiser in some moments but my goal was to let freedom that all of us brought their ideas into the project. For example, we had tasks and I said like “You are an animator, bring your thoughts how they should act in your opinion. I trust your choice, it’s up to you”. It worked and the only thing I’ve got that our team has talented guys who can understand what to do. The road was extremely difficult especially for me and the artist but in the end our dream came true.
Thank you, all of you.


Sincerely yours,
V.B.

About the Game

Two-Way team appreciates you and launches their first project in ASH OF WAR™ franchise.
Let's begin,

Game was inspired by real events, books and chronicles.

The story about an uneasy journey of one man. You will experience certain situations, those, that could have happened with our parents, children or even a neighbours on just any other war. Through the eyes of our hero you will see his struggle in a modern war, struggle with oneself.

It's all about the war, after a known act of terror. The situation changed for one family, the main character Joe's family.
Joe was a young gamer who was "educated" by videogames about war. As an adult he enlisted with the military and went on to become a medic as part of a support squad in Afghanistan, and became a truly valorous soldier. However the difference between games and reality was insane. Joe became trapped in difficult circumstances that would change his life.

What circumstances? You will see.

Key features of the game:

• Rich story of the Modern War with its own philosophy. Adventure based on real events by some war logs and books*.
  
• Multiple mechanics such as action scenes, hit-in-time, puzzle, labyrinth and etc.
  
• Unique and in the same time realistic level design.
  
• In-game relics which describe additional stories.
  
• Stylish interface and story narration.
  
• Unique handmade animations.
  
• Original Orchestral Soundtrack, composed by known Russian composer Evgeny Prokhorenko.
  
• And many other enjoyable details.

*(inc. Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden)