Ashburrow Demo Out Now: Go Down Alone or With Friends

The Ashburrow demo is live

Under the Goldcrest Hills, the gnolls of the Ashmane Clan hold a warren that goes deeper than anyone who went down to look has come back to say. Today you can go and look for yourself, for free. Ashburrow is a third-person action RPG with a roguelite heart: one life a run, a world that remembers where you fell, and a party of up to six to go back down with you. Play the demo on Steam

What you can do in it

• Walk the whole world. All four connected regions are open: the Goldcrest Hills, the warren beneath them, the snowbound Frostspire Reach and the Rimehold under its glacier. The Cinderwyrm is waiting at the bottom of it all, and at level 8 you can walk right up to it. You have been warned.

• Live one life a run. When your character falls, the run is over. Your gold is banked in full, a headstone marks the spot, and the next character to reach it recovers half of everything the fallen one learned.
• Commit to every swing. Blows sweep an arc in front of you and spend endurance. Break a creature's guard and it staggers; raise your shield inside its wind-up and the blow is turned aside.
• Build something different next time. Start as a Human, Tuskar or Eldrin Champion, Hunter or Magister, then spend banked gold on the upgrade tree to open the Irbis and Bramblin races and the Lightbearer and Grovekeeper classes.
• Look off the road. Eighteen chests are hidden across the world each run, illusory walls and levers guard side chambers, and a creature facing away from you never sees you coming.
• Hold the gate. Twenty gold hires a guard at the town gate. Kill enough of the Ashmane Clan and they muster a column to take it back.

Where the demo stops

• Characters stop at level 8. The full game goes to 25. Eight is about an evening of play.
• 8 of the 37 permanent upgrades can be bought.
• 3 of the 6 roads can begin a run: the town gate, the burrow's mouth and the Great Hall. You can still walk to the other three.

Your gold, your upgrades and every objective you finish carry into the full game. Your character does not: the demo keeps a save of its own.

Take friends down with you

Up to six players, over Steam or LAN by IP address. Your run is open to friends whenever Steam is running: they right-click your name in their friends list and choose Join Game. They can join mid-run with the character they are already playing, are raised to the session's level while they stay, and keep everything they find. One catch: demo and full-game builds cannot see each other, so everyone in the session needs the demo. It is free, so send them the link.

Optional VR

The same game plays in first person on a PC VR headset. Swing your arm to strike, bring your shield up to turn a blow aside, draw a bow with both hands, or make a spell in your palm and throw it. Turn it on under Options, then Headset; the game restarts to switch. It is the newest part of the demo, so if you try it, I especially want to hear how it feels.

What I would most like to know

• Do the first five minutes make the loop clear: die, bank, buy, go again?
• Does combat feel right: the endurance pool, guard breaks, the timed shield?
• Did co-op work, and is six the right size for a group?
• Anything broken. Tell me where you were and what you were doing.

Post it in the discussions here. I read all of it.

Wishlist the full game

If this is your kind of descent, wishlist Ashburrow to hear when the full game launches. Thank you for going down the burrow.