The Year in Review 2024
/2024 has been a big year for Auroch Digital, we’ve had lows, but also highs with a new Studio Director, game launches, announcements, and community activities!
We are a talented group of professionals who absolutely love what we do, and we really love games! We decided the end of the year was a good time to look back and reflect on all of the exciting and positive things that have happened this year.
We have a new Studio Director – Nina Adams!
One of the biggest and best things that happened for our studio this year was Nina Adams being promoted to Studio Director! Nina has been at our studio almost from the very beginning and has helped build Auroch Digital to what it is today. She is passionate about making the games industry a fantastic place to work in which people can thrive and is an incredible leader of our herd – we are lucky to have her. Here’s what Nina had to say about it.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be heading up the wonderful development team at Auroch, and to be its first woman Studio Director,” said Nina. “We’ve got 130 brilliant game developers working on some fantastic projects and I’m looking forward to help bring those games to launch alongside seeking out new opportunities for the studio.”
We launched Wildermyth: Console Edition
On 22nd October, we brought Worldwalker Games’ Wildermyth to new communities on consoles. Wildermyth: Console Edition launched on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. We’ve loved seeing adventurer’s first forays into the Yondering Lands.
That’s not all, though! A physical version of Wildermyth: Console Edition launched in the US on the 9th November, followed by a UK and Europe release on the 26th November. This edition came with the Monster Compendium, a trusty tome packed full of information about the game’s monsters.
Yet to begin your adventure? Read on! Aside from announcing over on PlayStation’s PS Blog, we also prepared 5 handy tips and tricks for anyone starting their adventure on Xbox.
We launched Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Forges Of Corruption
On 18th June this year Malum Caedo returned in Forges Of Corruption, the DLC for our boomer shooter Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. It was released on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch. This DLC brought new levels, new enemies to destroy, new environments to explore, and new weapons for players to complete the purge!
We announced the DLC with a surprise trailer at Warhammer Skulls, which we had a live watch-a-long for in our official Auroch Digital discord. Read more about the activities we ran in our Discord to celebrate the games launch in our Discord section of this article.
We hosted a Q&A over on Reddit to answer players questions about the DLC, and also shared an article from one of our lead artists on the game over on the Xbox Wire blog - Breathing Retro Life into the Cast of Enemies.
We launched Democracy 4: Console Edition
On 5th June this year, we brought the political simulation series, Democracy, to consoles for the first-time ever with Democracy 4: Console Edition! The game launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, with it being backwards-compatible on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S systems. It’s been incredible to see console-based politicians making their mark in power across 10 different countries!
The release of the game came at a perfect time here in the UK, as an election was due to take place the very next month, so players could test out the manifestos of candidates from the various political parties. As the game was created on a custom-built neural network designed to model the opinions, beliefs, thoughts and biases of thousands of virtual citizens, it works very closely to real life!
Looking to get a head start so your time overseeing your chosen country can be as successful as possible? We published a starter blog via Xbox Wire to help you begin your tenure.
We brought you updates on Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life
We are still hard at work on the sequel to Mars Horizon. This year, we have had a whole host of new things to share about Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life!
Back in March, we showcased the game’s Hex-Grid system, which will allow players to fully explore planets and moons as the search for signs of life. We paid a visit to our partners in the University of Edinburgh in May (which we’ll have more content to share early in 2025) as we looked to learn more about astrobiology and incorporate that into Mars Horizon 2. Regarding the University of Edinburgh, Dr Sean McMahon joined members of the development team for a talk at the Steam Festival TactiCon, which provided amazing insight on space exploration in games!
In September, we participated in Steam’s Space Exploration Fest, where we shared a video update on the game from members of the development team, in addition to brand-new gameplay footage. In mid-November, we shared an update to say that the release window will now be 2025. To go alongside this, we also shared the game’s new logo and game art, in addition to new screenshots.
We can’t wait to share even more with you in 2025!
We did loads for Auroch Digital’s Charity Initiatives
Giving back to our community is so important to us as a studio and this year we’ve been able to raise an amazing £2,600 for charity.
In August, several members of the Herd came together to run Tough Mudder in support of The Sunflower Ward and raised an amazing £1,185, meaning we’ve raised a grand total of £6,666 for the ward in total over the years! The ward uses all the funds we raise to buy games and books for the children, including sensory items which help with rehabilitation!
Several members of our senior management team gave up their time to support the Bristol Animal Rescue Centre by creating toys for the injured or abandoned animals that find themselves in the shelter. Shelters can be quite scary as they’re loud and confusing. So, toys are a great distraction and perfect for chewing on! In addition to donating our time, we also donated £500 to BARC!
Last month, our studio took part in Movember (or Moovember as we call it) and raised a further £915 with many members of the Herd supporting a fantastic ‘tache in the name of Men’s Mental Health.
Outside of our own charity efforts, we also collaborated with Whales and Dolphin Conservation for their World Ocean Day Sale and achieved a total of £107,000 raised alongside other studios and publishers that took part. Earlier this year we also donated keys for our game towards the Into Games Bundle 2, which raised an incredible £48,005!
And it’s not just about the money! We also sponsored a cow called Monica as a prize for our annual Christmas quiz, and will be sponsoring a new one this year as well! Dumble Farm helps with conservation and we are proud to support this great cause. The sponsorship money goes towards looking after the herd, which are conservation grazers, as well creating new wetland habitats which provide nesting and feeding groups for birds. 🦢 Furthermore, wetland soil is also a natural carbon sink absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon.
We held our second Moocon - and it was even better than the first!
As a remote-first studio, the majority of our team work remotely across the globe, but every April our herd migrates to Bristol for Moocon, an annual company meetup, and 2024 was no different!
Like the year before it, this year’s Moocon was a three-day conference packed full of talks, workshops, and presentations from our fellow Aurochs. It's an opportunity for us all to spend time together and build even stronger working relationships.
We're already hard at work planning next year's Moocon, but watch the video to get a glimpse behind the curtain of our annual event!
We gave our Discord a make over and revamp
This year we’ve been revamping the Auroch Digital Discord to involve the community more in our existing and upcoming projects!
Earlier this year we’ve hosted a Q&A with the developers of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun and Malum Caedo (Rahul Kohli) himself showed up! There was also an exclusive Discord preview of gameplay for the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Forges of Corruption Expansion ahead of its release.
This month we launched a new levels initiative that rewards our most passionate community members with priority playtest access, giveaways and more. Our UX/UI Director, Alix Briskham, also created some adorable Auroch emotes for our server!
We ran a Steam Festival - Digital Tabletop Fest 4: Roll of the Dice
Digital Tabletop Fest returned to Steam this past March, with Digital Tabletop Fest: Roll of the Dice where a whole host of tabletop games were celebrated! The theme for this year, as the name suggests, focused on games with a central theme of chance.
Digital Tabletop Fest returned to Steam this past March, with Digital Tabletop Fest: Roll of the Dice where a whole host of tabletop games were celebrated! The theme for this year, as the name suggests, focused on games with a central theme of chance.
In addition to over 100 games being showcased and a spotlight on exciting upcoming digital tabletop games, the festival also played host to various panels from renowned developers and publishers. Our panels and content featured representatives from The European Space Agency, Jump Over the Edge (Citizen Sleeper 2), Worldwalker Games (Wildermyth), Stunlock Studios (V Rising), ZA/UM (Disco Elysium), Hooded Horse (Breachway), The Chinese Room (Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2) Monster Couch (Wingspan), Frontier (Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters), Owlcat Games (Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader), Cubicle 7 (Warhammer 40,000: TTRPG), Nevergreen Games (Mori Carta), Ground Shatter (Fights in Tight Spaces), Nomad Games (Fury of Dracula), World of Darkness, and Perfect Random (Sulfur).
Thanks to everyone who contributed, to either the game line-up or content, and made Digital Tabletop Fest: Roll of the Dice such a tremendous event! 🎲
We did amazing work on some incredible Work for hire projects
Did you know? In addition to developing and publishing a variety of great video games, Auroch Digital is also available as a Work-For-Hire studio and this year we wrapped up two huge projects!
We had the incredible opportunity to work with Stunlock Studios to port their Vampire Action-RPG Survival game, V Rising, from PC to PlayStation 5. Our re-design of the UI/UX in the PlayStation 5 version of V Rising was so well received by the developers that they made the decision to incorporate the console version’s UI/UX into the PC version of the game.
This year we also lowered our pirate flags and returned to dry land after two years sailing the seas with Rare, creating hearty cosmetics for Sea of Thieves. Over the two years dedicated to this project, our team at Auroch Digital worked on over 100 different pieces of content for Sea of Thieves, including ship sets, clothing, emotes, pets, and more. Read more about our work on Sea of Thieves in our case study.
Plus, there were plenty more herd activities from Auroch Digital
We are an active studio full of expert Games Developers. We love what we do and we’re keen to share our knowledge and experience to help our peers in the industry, or anyone who is looking to get into games.
These are just some of the articles, interviews, talks and panels that members of the Auroch Digital herd have taken part in this year:
This year we ran our very first Auroch Digital Game Jam! Anyone could join up and they were sorted into teams to try and create a game in a couple of days. We’ll have more news about how this went in the New Year so keep an eye out for that.
Our Studio Director Nina Adams was part of an event called Power Up!! Which empowers the video game industry to be stronger and more inclusive for everyone.
Since Auroch Digital Ltd is a remote first studio, we put a lot of time and energy into ensuring strong working relationships between our developers. One of our producers, John Kennedy, did a focused piece of work around this and wrote up his findings in his mission to increase connection within his team.
One of our lead designers, John O'Donnell gave a lecture to the MSc Games students at ITU Copenhagen on creativity and craft in game development. This talk was designed to help them transform their game pitches into semester projects and the students had lots of questions about professional game development and how to focus on the core of their ideas.
Programmer Siddharth Mishra shared his insights with the bright minds of Vishwakarma Institute Of Technology in Pune. Sid’s talk introduced computer engineering students to the exciting world of game development and programming, and why it makes a great career choice. Sid also shared software best practices that prospective students can take with them in future, regardless of industry.
Our Production Director Peter Willington gave a talk at a local primary school. He showed the children how the games they love playing are created by a diverse group of people with a range of skills - all of which they start learning in school. It was great for the children to see people from a range of backgrounds (many reflected in our school) and open their minds to different career opportunities. Read all about it here!
Tomas Rawlings, our previous Studio Director and now Vice President of Sumo Digital UK, did an interview with Jordan Sorcery around designing Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun and the Nature of Gaming. This interview goes into the culture, behaviours, and perceptions of the video game and tabletop gaming hobbies and industries
Some of our very talented Auroch Digital staff took part in Women in Games event, which aims to share their expertise and experience and to encourage more women to get into games. Find out more here. You can see a clip of one of the panels which our Marketing and Comms Director Jemima Crow spoke in, she talked about how skills are transferrable and shared how her first job as a Zookeeper helps her working in games:
We took part in a joint event between TechExeter and Bristol Games Hub giving talks on porting and games studios from Tomas Rawlings our previous Studio Director and Fraser McCormick, one of our principle Programmers.
We did another joint event between Not Evil Studios and Bristol Games Hub in Plymouth to build connections and expand our networks.
Tech Radar Gaming reached out to us to discuss how we got across taste and smell in our beer brewing simulation game Brewmaster. This is a big challenge facing any cooking (or brewing) simulation game. How do you help with the immersion of tasting and smelling your delicious food and drink without taste and smell in the game. Our lead designer on the game Matt Bone and our Production Director Peter Willington talked about how we approached this challenge and the focus we put on other areas, such as the visuals. In this article you can also read about how other devs approached this problem in their own simulation games.
Our Production Director Peter Willington spoke to Games Developer about how we can predict the future with correct forecasting techniques
See you in 2025!
We told you it was a big year! A lot has happened and we are already so excited for what 2025 holds for our studio. We are working on a lot of amazing projects (some announced, some not) so stick with us next year to see what we do next.
Make sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow us on socials as we have a lot of very exciting things happening in 2025 that we can’t wait to share with you.
The whole herd at Auroch Digital wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🎉