It’s Auroch Digital’s Birthday - We are 13 years old! 🍰

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Auroch Digital Turns 13 years old!🎈

It just seemed like yesterday when we turned ten and were excited over the launch of Mars Horizon and now, we are talking about Mars Horizon 2! Times flies when you are having fun! 

In the past three years, as the world changed, we adapted to the times too. The studio changed to remote first, we’ve massively grown in size, and we were acquired by Sumo Group which has helped us go from strength to strength! 

Keep reading to hear more about what we’ve been up to since our humble beginnings, all the way to now, our 13th birthday. We are also holding a brilliant Birthday Giveaway to celebrate so make sure to enter, details on how towards the end of this blog! 

2010 - 2020 – The early years 🌱 

Aurochs hard at work in the office - 2017

We were founded in 2010, at the time our studio was only two people, Tomas and Debbie Rawlings, and our studio was based out of their home.

We had big dreams, and we started GameTheNews to help bring current news and issues into gaming spaces and create a new way for people to take in world events. We were also a co-founding member of Bristol Games Hub, started to to nurture gamedev talent locally. 

We dabbled in mobile games, then started working on porting mobile onto steam and even made a game with the BBC!  

From the very beginning, we always related our games back to the real world. This can be seen in our first gaming projects through GameTheNews right up to one of our recent games, for example Mars Horizon 2: The Search for life and Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator.

One of the first group photos of the team, visiting Bristol Aquarium to celebrate the launch of megaquarium - 2019

Our small studio slowly kept growing and we kept making games. We moved into an office finally, and then moved offices again as we grew. We also branched out into card games too, as well as making digital games across various platforms.

In 2019, we delved into realm of console porting with Megaquarium. 🐠 Once we started porting, we karp-ed it going! We now do porting work as part of our ‘work for hire’. 

At this point, the team had grown so much, we outgrew our first proper office and we relocated to a slightly bigger one just as lockdown happened. We became a remote studio during the pandemic, thinking it would only be temporary.

We rounded off 2020 with our very first Steam Festival – Digital Tabletop Fest, and we’ve gone on to host many more since then! Get more details on our 2020 in our lovely 2020 round up blog! 🔐 

moooove on over, it’s Auroch Digital’s new logo coming through

2021 – Auroch Digital gets a new look ✨

We started off the year with not one but TWO free Mars Horizon updates while also announcing Brewmaster. 

Summer came and we ported The Colonists over onto consoles (we love those robots) and changed our logo to the amazing Auroch you know and love today.  

In the last part of the year, Auroch Digital was acquired by Sumo Group, who we have an amazing relationship with. By this point our studio had grown to 48 people, and joining Sumo Group allowed our studio to go from strength to strength. We’ve enjoyed having a whole host of talented and experienced colleagues to work with and learn from, from across the Sumo group studios. You can see below what Sumo Group’s CEO Carl Cavers had to say about the acquistition:

“I’m delighted to welcome Tomas and the Auroch Digital team to the Group. Given our increasing focus on Own-IP, we are particularly excited by Auroch Digital’s pipeline of original IP. So, while this is a relatively small acquisition, it is a highly significant one for us strategically.”
— Carl Cavers, CEO of Sumo Group

Steam digita tabletop fest 2021: RPG Edition - 2021

How did we finish of such momentous year? By hosting the second edition of our amazing Steam Digital Tabletop Festival that ran in October, this time with a special focus on Role-Playing games.

Our Steam Festivals are a great way for us to connect and work with other developers who specialist in genres and games that we do. We love showcasing all the best and most exciting games in this space, not only from us but from many other talented developers, studios, and publishers.

The end of year blog for 2021 goes into more detail about everything we got up to! 🌈 

2022 – We keep getting bigger and better 💪🏾

If you asked us to describe 2022 in one word, it would be: sensational 🤩

There was so much happening we pulled it into an easy to digest bullet point list:

🚀 Mars Horizon got a new update  
🐠 Megaquarium DLC Freshwater Frenzy went out on consoles  
💙 We hosted our first SimFest on Steam  
🍺 Brewmaster had a ton of partnerships 
💥We announced Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun - this is steam page but I move it to our page 
🏅 We completed Tough Mudder as a herd and raised over £3,500 for Sunflower Ward at Bristol Children’s hospital. 
🍻 We launched Brewmaster on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch! 

2022 was also the year we decided to go full remote as a studio. We had become a remote studio due to the pandemic, but we thought this might be a temporary change. It turns out we can still make amazing games from the comfort of our own homes. All the staff were surveyed about their preference for where they work, and we loved working from home, so it was decided that we would become a remote first studio. We still have an office where we have meetings and some staff choose to work from there, but most of our staff do their best work from home and we support that.

Want more details on this bumper year? Check out our round up of 2022 blog to learn more about what we got up to. 🥰 

2023 – We are excited for the future 🚀

Our little studio has grown since it’s humble beginnings, the Auroch Digital herd is now around 130 people strong! We remained a remote first studio as this allowed us to hire amazing talent from around the world, but it does mean that some of our staff had only ever seen each other through a computer screen. One wild thought came to mind which was, why not have an Auroch Digital conference gathering everyone from near and far together?   

From this, Moocon was born. This was an internal conference for all Auroch Digital employees to spend time together, learn from each other, do game jams, and have fun together in person. See our Moocon round up video here. We got to share ideas, inspiration, and make even stronger connections with each other. This is what Nina, our Operations Director, had to say about Moocon:

“It’s the first time we’ve all been together, over 100 of us. We’ve got people from India, we’ve got people from Brazil, we’ve got people from all over the country all joined together to actually meet in person, see each other, recognise each other for the first time and collaborate and see how we can move forward and keep making games brilliantly.”
— Nina Adams, Operations Director

However, it wasn’t just other Auroch Digital herd members we wanted to spend more time with, we wanted to get to know our amazing Sumo Group colleagues better too! So shortly after Moocon we all travelled up to Sheffield for SDC, Sumo Developer Conference, which just happened to coincide with Sumo’s 20th anniversary!  

We gave talks, attended work shops, networked, partied but most importantly, connected with others from Sumo Group. Being part of a big collection of gaming studios is amazing as we can share all our knowledge and experience from across the breadth of projects we’ve all worked on, and SDC was the perfect place to do this. We can’t wait for SDC 2024! 

Now during all this, we snuck in a long-awaited announcement from the community, Mars Horizon 2: The search for Life 🌌 

Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life is an authentic space management game where you take on the role of the head of a space agency on your mission to Search for Life. So far we’ve announced that we are Partnering with ESA on the game and also that we are working with Professor Konstantin Batygin, but we have loads more exciting things in store for our Mars Horizon sequel. Keep up to date on all things Mars Horizon 2 by following our newsletter, socials and of course our discord! 

We kept blasting forward in 2023 and we released Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun our first boomer shooter. In glorious boomer shooter style, unleash your devastating Space Marine arsenal as you blast through an explosion of sprites, pixels and blood. Run, jump and charge across huge levels to shoot, shred and slice the worst heretics across the galaxy! This game is a real labour of love from our team, enjoy our launch trailer here.

2023 ain’t over yet 

Even though the leaves are changing colour and its nearly time for clocks to change too, we still have a lot more to do. So far this year we have also; 

⏰ Ported Wobbledogs onto consoles 
⏰ Run Digital Tabletop Fest 3, Blood and Dice 
⏰ Run Simfest alongside Stray Fawn Studio 
⏰ Raised even more money for the Sunflower ward by completing Tough Mudder again

Some of the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun team hold up the key art - 2023

Award Season 🏆 

We don’t like to brag but we are a pretty great studio.  Throughout these 13 years we have got some amazing awards and nominations, and we can’t wait to see what other awards we will achieve together.  

🏆 2014 GI Biz Innovation Award
🏆 2014 Media Innovation Award 
🏆 2017 best place to work in tech SPARKies  
🏆 2019 Nominated for a TIGA award  
🏆 2020 Grads in games  
🏆 2021 2 x Gee Awards for Mars Horizon
🏆 2021 Famistu Gold medal  
🏆 2023 Nominated for 4 Tiga awards 

The people of Auroch Digital 🎠 

One thing we value above all is our people here at Auroch Digital. We love to empower people to use their voice to nurture the next generation of games developers. We could talk for HOURS about this, but we will just link some of the amazing talks, panels, blogs we have done over the years: 📚 

Talks and panels 👀 

Tomas Rawlings giving a talk on sustainability

Blogs, articles, and interviews 📚 

Self care and pets: how auroch digital deals with stress

We also do a bunch of talks in schools and higher education facilities, as well as in person talks at Bristol Unity meet ups and Bristol Unreal meet ups for other developers. Make sure to follow us on socials to see when we are attending these and come by to listen. 

The Auroch Digital podcast 🎤 

Lastly Don’t forget our podcasts which you can find here, which we are 8 seasons deep and have no plans of stopping. We do episodes on all sorts of interesting topics in and around game development, plus plenty of advice on how to get into the industry.  

Auroch Digital’s 13th Birthday giveaway – How to enter! 

Boltgun key art with auroch logo with party streamer and party hat on top. The text says Auroch digital Birthfay Giveaway and the games listed below

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun key art with auroch logo with party streamer and party hat on top. The text says Auroch digital Birthfay Giveaway and the games listed below

Now the bit you have been waiting for, the giveaway! 🎉

To celebrate the fact that our studio is now old enough to have it’s own Steam account, we are doing a giveaway to our loyal Aurochnauts. Enter our giveaway and you could win a digital bundle of a bunch of Auroch Digital games from over the years. 

The Auroch Digital Birthday Bundle prize includes: 

How to enter 

But how do you enter this awesome Auroch Digital birthday giveaway? 🥳 All you need to do is sign up to our official Auroch Digital newsletter. We will be randomly selecting one lucky person, who is signed up to receive our monthly Auroch Digital newsletter, to win the Auroch Digital Birthday Bundle prize as a thank you for supporting us.  

What is the Auroch Digital Newsletter about? 

The Auroch Digital Newsletter comes out around the end of each month and is full of all the latest news about our studio including new game announcements, launches, beta and alpha invites, giveaways, jobs at the studio, as well as loads more exciting news. So by signing up you’ll get to stay up to date with all of our great goings, as well as be in with a chance to win the Auroch Digital Birthday Bundle prize. 

Ts and Cs 

The giveaway closes on 26th October at Midnight so make sure to sign up before then to be in with a chance to win. Please see here the giveaway terms and conditions. You can see the Auroch Digital Privacy Policy here for more info: Auroch Digital Privacy Policy 

The Auroch Digital cow looking happy

🧡Thank you for supporting
Auroch Digital! 🧡

Thank you for supporting our studio through our games, socials, Discord, newsletters, or however else you interact with us. We are working on some amazing announced, and unannounced, games that we know you will absolutely love!

Make sure to stick with us for 2024 to see what we get up to next! 

Timeline Of The Company ⌛

Oh you thought we were done? Me too…

Here is a timeline of all our major events (that we can publicly say) so that you can see how a small indie company like us grows 🌱

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

We’re partnering with ESA for Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life!

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Hello Aurochnauts! We have yet another exciting partnership to announce to you all.

As you may have seen, the European Space Agency (ESA) are at Gamescom this year, which seems like a fitting time to let you all know that we are partnering with them once more for Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life! 

This partnership follows on from our successful collaboration on the first Mars Horizon, where ESA staff provided valuable insight into the planning and operation of missions to Mars, and ESA itself was a playable agency within the game. Players can once again take the reins of ESA within Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life, and ESA's expertise will be used to ensure that all projections into the future involving mankind’s search for extra-terrestrial life are based on likely scientific scenarios and achievable technological progress. 

"It is hard to fully encapsulate the value that working with the European Space Agency brings to us as game developers; there is the expert knowledge, there is the breadth of experience, but also just the general all-round excitement of space exploration that radiates from ESA staff we interact with!" said Dr Tomas Rawlings, Studio Director at Auroch Digital. "We're doing our best to capture all this to make so making what we offer players ever more authentic to our species' ongoing journey to understand our solar system and beyond." 

The European Space Agency is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.  

ESA’s job is to draw up the European space programme and carry it through. ESA's programmes are designed to find out more about Earth, its immediate space environment, our Solar System and the Universe, as well as to develop satellite-based technologies and services, and to promote European industries. ESA also works closely with space organisations outside Europe. 

You can see how we worked with ESA on Mars Horizon here: 

 > Earlier this year we announced our partnership with Professor Konstantin Batygin, which you can read more about here! 

We are going to be working with ESA to make sure we can bring authenticity and real-world science into our sequel to Mars Horizon. As the sequel focuses on The Search for Life, we are excited to talk to them about biosignature detection, sample return, and much more. Their partnership ensures that we can create an authentic game in Mars Horizon 2, as we did with the first! 

Sign up to our Newsletter to be the first to hear about Alphas, Betas, and other news.  

Where to find ESA: 

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Steam Festival Simfest 2023 Begins Today!

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We, alongside our partners at Stray Fawn Studio, are thrilled to announce that Simfest is returning to Steam and is now live on the Steam Store. From 6pm BST today (July 20th) through 6pm BST on July 24th, we will be celebrating the widely varied simulation genre through discounts, demos, and special announcements from several participating titles.

What can you expect from Simfest 2023?

💯 Over 100 titles from real-life sims to building, resource management, driving, farming sims, and everything in between

📣 Announcements from titles such as Human: Fall Flat, The Tenants, Cook, Serve, Delicious, and more!

💸 Discounts for many participating games

🎮 Demos to sample a host of amazing titles

👀 An opportunity to see what’s next in simulation games

➕ And much more!

Simfest debuted in 2022 with Hobby Edition, where we partnered with Steam to run the event. Last year’s event featured a variety of talks and panels, whereas this year’s festival will be focused on highlighting released and upcoming simulation games via the Steam Store. Simfest 2023 is the first time Auroch Digital and Stray Fawn Studio have partnered for an event, having recently ran Digital Tabletop Fest 3: Blood & Dice and Earth Appreciation Festival respectively.

Simfest 2023 takes place on Steam from today (July 20th) through the 24th. The festival is now live, so please check it out on Steam now! For more information, follow @SteamFestivals, @AurochDigital, and @StrayFawnStudio.

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Tips to support your neurodiverse team within the games industry

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The pandemic brought around a lot of change, and those who had previously never considered themselves as neurodiverse were suddenly taken out of their comfort zone and faced with new challenges, new ways of life and a whole lot of time at home with their own brain. This, combined with initiatives like Ukie’s #RaiseTheGame and Safe In Our World’s neurodiversity and mental health campaign have led to neurodiversity becoming a huge topic of conversation in the games industry. 

Hannah Corcoran - Associate Producer

I’m Hannah Corcoran, an Associate Producer at Auroch Digital with a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Psychological Research Methods, I'm a trained Mental Health First Aider and a Neurodiversity Consultant, I also have OCD and ADHD. Neurodiversity has surrounded me my whole life, but it can be a tricky subject to understand. 

Put simply: neurodiversity means the different ways brains can work and how they interpret information – not all humans are the same and not all humans think in identical ways. Just as we all have different interests, skills and motivations, we also all have totally different brains. 

When it comes to the games industry, it’s thought that around one in five people working in the industry are neurodivergent – a higher percentage than in the general UK population. But why is it that so many neurodiverse folks find their way into games? Despite huge numbers, there’s been very little research done to discover the correlation between neurodiversity and games industry careers, but it’s thought that video games as an activity suit neurodivergent brains, so it’s not hard to see how a love for playing them can result in a career. 

So, with lots of neurodiverse brains working in the games industry today, how can managers and studios support their neurodivergent teams? Here, I explain ways employers can put their best foot forward in being neurodiverse aware.

Understanding Neurodiversity 

The best way to help your neurodiverse teams is to understand what is meant by neurodiversity and some of the terms used: 

  • Neurodiversity (noun): The diversity or variation of cognitive functioning in people. 

  • Neurodiverse (adjective): Describes the diversity and variation of cognitive functioning in people. 

  • Neurodivergence (noun): Cognitive functioning which is not considered "typical".  

  • Neurodivergent (adjective): Describes people who have a neurodivergence. 

What does it mean to be neurodiverse?

You might be wondering ‘what does it mean to be neurodiverse?’… well, there isn’t just one way to be. Neurodiversity cannot and is not defined as being one thing – it can include a range of conditions that effect everyone in entirely different ways, including: 

  • Affects behaviour – those with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse. 

  • Affects communication and experience of the world – Autism is a spectrum and everyone with it is completely different in the levels of support they may or may not need.

  • Can affect learning, such as reading and writing, and has differing levels of severity for everyone on the spectrum.  

  • Affects movement and co-ordination, such as fine motor skills like writing and using small objects. 

… and more! It's common to find that neurodivergent individuals may experience more than one of these conditions, known as comorbidity, and it’s important to remember that not everyone may experience them in the same way. 

The best ways you can support your neurodiverse team

Keeping Lines of Communication Open 

Clear and honest communication is the most important way you can support your neurodiverse team… but it’s also the broadest area that will require the most flexibility. 

Starting way back during the interview stage: make it a best practice to explain your company’s approach to supporting neurodiversity without putting any pressure on the candidate to come forward and share. Framing your neurodiversity strategy as part on the onboarding will make it feel like general information and could make dialogue down the line easier.  

If one of your team members tells you about their neurodiversity, it’s important to welcome that with open arms and start to work on how you can create the best, most supportive environment for them. Establish the communication preferences with your team member: how do they best disseminate instruction or direction? What is their preferred way to interject/contribute to a debate or meeting? What tools and processes do they need to best track information? Finding out these things early on means you can best accommodate them in meetings, projects and team events. 

While the responsibility to support neurodiverse staff sits with the employer, there are always going to be limits and it’s good to establish those boundaries early on. Identify with your team a sensible approach to working, take time to understand their ways of working and establish reasonable expectations – such as additional support needed, or extra time for tasks to be completed. 

It’s best not to let undisclosed neurodiversity linger, talking it through openly will help you both understand what support is needed and how your team member can work at their best. Regular check-ins with your team to ensure they’re comfortable and feel safe to raise any issues is key in creating a happier environment for everyone. 

Remember: Employers should not request that their neurodiverse employees provide a medical diagnosis of their neurodiversity - self-diagnosis is both valid and liberatory, as the formal diagnostic process itself is highly flawed. Medical professionals are often ill-informed of the nuances of neurodiversity and for many doctors and therapists, it’s difficult to recognise neurodivergence in anyone who is not a young, white boy thanks to the assessment criteria which does not sufficiently account for gender, race or age. In addition, the diagnosis process usually has an extremely long waiting list and privatised options are very expensive and inaccessible to many.  

We have an office where some of our staff work. where possible, we allow staff to choose the best working environment for them, whether thats remote or office based.

Creating Smooth Processes 

Making games can be messy. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach and it’s not unusual for plans to go awry. Whilst this is something that can’t always be helped, remember that it can be almost impossible for a neurodiverse brain to remain focussed when unsure if task lists or plans for the day are set to go off the rails. With this in mind, avoid getting into the habit of changing your teams’ day-to-day work and try to limit unexpected meetings with little to no notice.  

The games industry loves a curveball and a change of plan can’t always be helped – but if unavoidable disruption does come around, have a plan to work with your team to reassure them that the impact is not something they have control over. 

Be mindful about the way you deliver instruction to your team, too. Not everyone is able to digest and understand a huge wall of text sent in an email, especially if the message doesn’t have deadlines or clear instructions. Work with your team to discover how much detail is enough and address the expected delivery of that work – breaking it down into smaller tasks with deadlines and estimated time-to-complete. Whilst it might not always be possible to cut down on information given, breaking down a copy-dense document and providing a bullet-point summary can help. 

In my experience, a manager taking the time to break down one huge task into bitesize chunks with deadlines and work in progress limits meant that I could be more productive, complete work on time and to a high standard. 

Everything comes back to clear communication – by opening the door to conversation around preferred instruction, everyone will be able to deliver their best work.  

We do team meet ups during big project milestones. Here is the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun team celebrating the launch of the game.

Adapting Policies 

This is the hard bit, I know. I’m incredibly lucky to work for a studio which has neurodiversity awareness as one of its core pillars, but not everyone has the same experience. Some studios don’t have the capacity or understanding to make changes at their core – but here are some small adjustments that might help your neurodiverse teams: 

  • Adjust Your Physical Spaces

Now many studios are welcoming teams back to offices and studios around the world, take the time to consider if your physical space is suitable for your neurodiverse teams. Hotdesking has become a common trend with the return to work but it’s worth considering that for a neurodivergent brain - which likes consistency and familiarity - the idea of a different desk every day might not be the most inviting. Speak to your teams and respect their answers; if they’d prefer a set space in the office, try your best to make it happen. 

I know a lot of people are excited at the premise of having a bustling office space, but someone with neurodiversity is likely to find this very overwhelming – especially if their desk is in a high-traffic area. Consider having an open conversation with your team to find out what their preferences are and then do your best to accommodate… this small consideration will lead to a much more comfortable office environment for all. 

  • Offer Flexible Working 

My ADHD brain does its best work from around 2pm onwards and I was noticing that I was clocking lots of hours in overtime as I was getting into a productive swing around 4pm and not realising the time. Luckily, a quick conversation with my manager enabled me to shift my core hours to later in the day and take a longer lunchbreak, as a result I’m more productive and – most importantly – not working over. These kinds of conversations are invaluable to someone with neurodiversity – a small change can lead to a big impact. 

  • Be Mindful of Meetings 

Nobody likes to receive a calendar invitation to a last-minute meeting with no information or context: so give details in your invitations and try to create space between time of sending the meeting and the time of the call. Also consider how you log the contents of a meeting, by recording all calls your team can easily access and process the information at a later date without the pressure of a live audience.  

We are a remote studio and this has lots of benefits. One of these benefits is allowing our neurodiverse staff to control their own physical working environment.

Educate Yourself! 

Neurodiversity is a huge topic with more information, new findings and updated best practices always on the horizon. Remember: there is no one size fits all and the best thing you can do is keep learning, maintain open communication and be honest. 

If you’d like to continue your learning journey, below are some useful articles and resources: 

 

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is out now - For the Emperor!

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It’s time to Purge the Heretics!

We are very excited to announce that Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is out now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. You can also grab Official Warhammer Boltgun merch on the official Warhammer merchandise store.

We are incredibly proud of this game, a lot of love and passion has gone into making it, and we can’t wait to see it in players’ hands. Thank you to Focus Entertainment and to Games Workshop for working with us to create Boltgun and thank you to Rahul Kohli for being an amazing Malum Caedo.

Watch the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun devs playing the game

Want to see Boltgun in action? We’ve done 2 livestreams starring some of the devs behind the game. Check them out to see us play the game on the hardest difficulty, and talk about why we love Warhammer and how we got into making video games.

  • Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun let's play for Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood and Dice
    In this let’s play, viewers will get an in-depth look at the game’s first two levels as members from the development team face-off in a competition to defeat all enemies in the fastest time on our hardest difficulty - Exterminatus!
    The stream features the game’s Lead Designer, Grant, and Principal Programmer, Sam, as well our host Britt, Auroch Digital’s Content Producer.

  • Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun let's play for the Warhammer Skulls Festival
    Your host Britt is back with another let’s play featuring some more of the Boltgun devs. This time we look at levels three and four of the game. Technical Artist Joseph and Principal Programmer Sam face off whilst they share their favourite enemies, how they got into games, and some top tips for playing.

Why did we want to make Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun?

Working on Boltgun has been a dream for us at Auroch Digital as we have many huge Warhammer fans in our Studio, and we love meeting up to paint models and play games together. 

One of the many Warhammer fans at Auroch Digital is our Studio Director Tomas Rawlings. Read this blog post to learn more about what Warhammer, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, means to Auroch Digital and to hear about our studio’s history with Warhammer. 

We also recently spoke to NME about why there's never been a better time to be a Warhammer fan, and why we feel Boltgun works so well as a game.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun already has some amazing fan art

We are absolutely blown away by the amazing player reaction to Boltgun, we are excitedly sending each other pics and kitbashes we’ve seen from players and fellow Warhammer fans. Please know that it absolutely makes the devs’ day when we see what you’ve created! Here are some of our favourites:

Every enemy in Boltgun painted by Boltguns Lead Designer Grant (@Darrigaz on TwitteR)

Catch up on Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun at Warhammer Skulls 2023

Want to hear more from the amazing Rahul Kohli, voice of Malum Caedo? Catch up with Warhammer Skulls 2023 hosted by Rahul where he talked more about Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun as well as loads of other awesome Warhammer games. Catch up on all the new world premieres and behind-the-scenes looks at some of the biggest and best Warhammer titles around.

Thank you from the Auroch Digital Team! 🤩

Lastly, we want to say a huge thank you from the team to everyone who’s cheered us on, and wishlisted, pre-ordered, bought or played Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun so far. We really appreciate your support. 

If you’ve played the game, please leave us a review as it helps a lot. Please also tag us on socials if you’re streaming the game, posting videos, or just having a great time purging heretics.

FOR THE EMPEROR!

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Jemima Crow

Self Care and Pets: How Auroch Digital deals with Stress

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The month of April is national stress awareness month and national pet month, so what’s better than to highlight how the Auroch team de-stress, featuring their pets. 

Stress awareness month has been held every April since 1992, which has allowed people the opportunity to have open conversations and remove the stigma around stress. Here at Auroch Digital, we regard mental health the same way as physical health. Sick leave is for mental and physical health and appointments for either are permitted during work time. Our staffs well being always comes first. Auroch Digital and Sumo put a lot of time and resource into supporting staff around stress and we all work together to help and support each other.

There are loads of ways to de-stress and our team have shared some of their favourite ways, featuring their pets. 

Lola

Take a rest and smell the flower 💐 

Lola reminds Georgina to take a pause and rest.

“This is Lola! She's my 7 year old adopted American Bulldog (maybe, we still don't know exactly). She loves napping, food puzzles and being fussed by everyone she meets.

Playing and being with Lola is a big reliver of stress for me, she reminds me to slow down and do as she does; Take a rest when you need to; love fully; and sniff the flowers.”
 - Georgina, Associate 3D Animator

Here we have the beautiful Lola.

Taco with a replica taco

Hopping around Alix’s heart is Taco! 🐇 

Taco inspires by maintaining his sassy attitude despite adversity.

“Don't know what I'd do without this boy, he's survived some of the worst conditions rabbits can get and still keeps a sassy attitude, he's an inspiration” 
- Alix, UX/UI Director

Here with have Taco, with his 3D printed doppleganger.

Take a walk on the wild side 👿

They say exercising is good for de-stressing, so Minnie and Matt go for evening walks.

“I walk this beast every evening, which helps clear my head after work (especially helpful when working from home!)” 
- Matt, Principle Designer

Here is Minnie relaxing after work - whether Matt or Minnie was the one doing the actual work we cannot confirm.

Weapon of mass destruction 💢 

“This is Pepper, she's the most loyal companion you could ever want to meet!

She was a rescue from Battersea Dogs, when she was there she would cry when left in the kennels and so they had to keep her under the reception desk! We think she's Lurcher Spaniel cross, AKA a Splurcher!

She's a great stress reliever... all you need to do is grab a ball... she will never stop playing fetch... and I mean never!!! Afterwards just sit on the floor and she will literally sit on you wanting cuddles!

She has the softest velvety ears... and a tail that's a weapon of mass destruction!” 
- John, Producer

Here we have the angelic face of Pepper.

Chasing squirrels 🐿 

Rosie, our marketing extra, is officially part of the team for our mental health.

"Having Rosie to enjoy the outdoors with has been an incredible benefit to my mental health. When there's so much going on, it's such a wonderful feeling to experience the quiet woodlands with my best pal and for us both to have an amazing time. She gets to chase squirrels up trees and I get to unwind. It's a win-win!" 
- Simon, Marketing Manager

Here is Rosie, enjoying the great outdoors (and mud).

The Loveable Duo 💕 

Benji and James are the perfect companions whilst gaming, they bring utter joy to our hearts. 

“My boys love to cuddle up to me while I play games, either on my lap or on my feet.” 
- Ysobel, Associate UI/UX Artist

Here we have Benji and James snuggled up together, hugs are one of the best stress relievers.

The best puppy cuddles  🥰

Even if our pets cannot be with us at all times, when we do get to see them, they can still help us relieve stress, just like Maya. 

“Maya lives with my parents but when I'm visiting and feel stressed taking her for a walk in the woods is a really effective way for me to calm down. Maya adores me so will readily jump into my lap for cuddles, and nothing beats puppy cuddles for destressing (she's 10 but all dogs are puppies!)” 
- Dave, Lead QA Manager

Here we have the lovely Maya, about to jump up for cuddles, we are sure of it

 

Love comes in all sizes 🐹

Maddie the hamster gives us plenty of moments to break up our day and boosts of endorphins.

“My pet is Maddie the hamster, and I usually relieve stress by preparing food for her, watching her eat and go about her day. It is calming to watch her run on her wheel and gently petting her.  I also enjoy painting with watercolours as it puts me away from the PC and makes me slow down.” 
- Daniela, Senior Programmer

Here we see Maddie resting up before another run on the wheel. 

Auroch’s Official mascot 🐶

If you haven’t heard about Coco, then meet our Official Company Mascot! She’s the tiny sausage dog with the giant personality.

"Coco is such a sweetheart, and loves snoozing on my lap whilst I play games. I am lucky enough to dogsit Coco when Nina (our operations Director and Coco’s owner) is jetting off to important meetings around the world. Spending time with Coco does wonders for my mental health, she really helps me disconnect from work and relax.

She’s also great for getting me out and moving early in the morning, very important as I work from home and its good to get that morning exercise and fresh air."
- Jemima, Marketing and Comms Director

Here is Coco lounging on the sofa, her favourite place.

Cassie

Why is a dog like a writing desk? 📝

Cassie reminds us it’s important to have hobbies separate from work, not easy when you work in games!

“For stress relief, aside from playing with Cassie I usually write short or longer stories depending on my mood”
 - Caleb, Associate QA tester

Here is Cassie, thinking about the next story she’s gonna ghostwrite for Caleb.

We’ve got loads more amazing pets owned by members of Auroch Digital, enjoy this gallery of the wonderful animals that bring us joy and help keep our stress levels down 🥰

More great stress management tips for those without pets

Not everyone at Auroch Digital is a pet person! For those of us without pets here are some other ways we manage our stress:

Let’s watch a movie 🙈

Soothing music or scary movies, Sounds like Gemini behaviour to us…
”I actually like to listen to calming film scores and chill out in a bit of nature... Or watch horror films” - Shuvojit, Principal Concept Artist

Travelling heals the soul 🧳

Work on passion projects, take time for religion and spirituality, and travel the world.

"I find working on my hobby game dev projects in the evenings/weekends helps destress me. But also purely recreational things, like playing videogames or watching films. Also walking. Religion/spirituality is quite important to me, so I'm sure those practices help with managing my stress levels too. Since remote work became a thing I've found changing my environment from time to time really helps (spent several weeks in Turkey last year, & a week in Gibraltar last month).”
- Luth, programmer

Pet Owner at Heart 💜

If you are a pet owner, remember to share the love and send pics of them to your non-pet owning friends

“I'm a pet owner at heart, but don’t have any currently and learning to de-stress without them has taken some time! But, I've found going to the gym and lifting very heavy weights is helpful on the days I feel energised, and on those when my mental health is in the pits I find comfort in familiar video games like Hollow Knight and The Sims. I'm also very lucky to have friends who send me pics and videos of their pets, and they bring me an unprecedented amount of joy each time”
 - Jess, Business Development Associate

Age is just a number 👀

Make sure to spread your holidays throughout the year, and enjoy some hobbies away from screens - especially important for people who work at PCs all day.

”I make sure to take a lot of breaks and spread my holidays through out the year so I don't burn out and prevent stress in the first place. At the end of the day though, I'll just play some multiplayer games and socialize as much as I can so it sort of "distracts" me if I feel stressed. I know someone who builds Lego after work and after trying it myself I would definitely recommend for unwinding as well, there is no age limit!”
 - Migle, Character Artist

Pump it! 🏋🏾‍♂️

Exercise is great for mind and body, and can warm you up for a great gaming session online with friends.

“I find exercise a great way to destress - Nothing like an arms and chest workout to release some tension plus playing valorant with the herd after work!”
 - Toby, Producer

Team socialising at wargaming day at the office

‘Me time’ 🤭

Be very aware of your work/life balance, and be sure to get “me time” doing the things that help you recharge.

“For me preventing or dealing with stress means keeping a good work/life balance. I prioritize getting enough 'me time', which would include socializing and exercising. Sometimes it's necessary to force ones self to slow down, I occasionally book my evening out to spend it doing lightweight and therapeutic. I also track my stress levels daily as it can be easy to miss signals your body is giving you.”
 - Joseph, Artist

(Can you spot Coco in this pic at a recent Auroch Digital tabeltop and painting meet up?)

Cooking = Healing 🥗

Cooking can be both creative, exciting, and you end up with delicious food to eat at the end of it. The perfect de-stress. Plus, getting outside with our pets, enjoy some more pet love for the incredible Tikka, seen in our gallery above!

“I like to go for a round of elaborate Asian cooking, using spices in the evenings, and try to get creative with them, trying new recipes and blending them helps so much to focus on something else! Plus, you get to share an awesome meal afterwards, provided everything went well!
My favorite thing, though, is going along with my significant other for a walk with our puppy Tikka and some other dogs and their owners, and marvel at how she's growing into this cute, well balanced puppy, happily frolicking in the spring's tall grass or getting absolutely bodied by another pup twice her size and asking for more. It gives us a reason to go out, breath fresh air, discover new places and meet new people, and most of all, appreciate the time slowly flowing, one walk at a time. ”
 - Sebastien, 3D animator

Resources for stress

Here are some great resources for dealing with stress:

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Remote Working in the Games Industry

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marketing director Jemima, in her at home office with her custom auroch headset

Founded in 2010, Auroch Digital has always been a studio with people at its heart. We’ve grown over time but our goals have always remained the same: to put our people first because happy people make amazing games. 

I’m Jemima Crow and I’m the Marketing and Communications Director here at Auroch Digital. I’ve been with Auroch since 2019 and in that time I’ve seen it grow, develop and evolve into the friendly, culture-first and caring studio it is today. Here, I’ll be sharing insights into how game studios can make remote working suit the needs of their business, their games and their people. Let’s dive in! 

The games industry and remote working 

Like many, we packed up our desks in March of 2020 and waved our colleagues goodbye with arms full of plants, Warhammer figures and PCs. Little did we know then that our office would never be used in quite the same way again…  

When the big ‘call back to office’ started happening later that year (and then again in 2021… and then again later in 2021…), Auroch Studio Director Tomas Rawlings surveyed the company to see if we wanted to return to a bigger office, or if people preferred being remote. The response was staggering: people LOVED working remotely! It gave them more time to spend with their families, more time for the hobbies and activities they loved and – weirdly – allowed them more connectivity with their colleagues. We still have an office in our hometown of Bristol, but for the majority of the Auroch team – working from home is here to stay. 

It hasn’t always been easy, and we were certainly full of questions about the longevity of work from home: Would our studio culture survive? Can we continue collaborate on games? Could we still work together while being apart? The answer to all of this is: Yes. 

What we found was remote working made Auroch Digital stronger than ever: we developed and released our most successful game, we more than tripled in size and now have over 100 people working from all over the UK and beyond with a stronger studio culture and connectivity than ever before.  

Studio director tomas rawlings gives a talk on climate and games

Why Auroch Digital chooses remote working 

Aside from it being the preference of our people, remote working can be an incredibly practical way for game studios to operate.  

Comfortable working for all 

We’re very proud to be a studio which puts the wellbeing of our people first, and remote working is a great way to ensure everyone could work in a comfortable environment. We’re able to support our people to get the kit they need to do their jobs, and they can do it from the comfort of their own homes. Auroch is also a workplace that is very neurodiversity-forward and know that remote working can provide a preferred environment for our neurodiverse colleagues. 

We know that flexible thinking is the best way to create a workplace for everyone and are always looking to improve wherever we can… so the door is always open for any of our people to make suggestions, share ideas or give opinions on how work from home life can be improved. 

Remote working allows our staff to spend more time with loved ones - Rosie is happy her owner Simon works remotely so they can go on walks at lunch

 No commute 

Remember when everyone used to spend their free time driving to and from work? Remote working presents an opportunity to snooze the commute, no more traffic-filled drives, late buses or stressful interactions means our people can start the day with clear, calm mind and be ready to make some video game magic. 

As a studio which is passionate about creating a greener future and protecting our planet, we’re more than happy to support any efforts to lessen carbon emissions, vehicles on the road and journeys made... and remote working does just that! Even for our Bristol based staff some have to travel over an hour to get to our studio, which added up would be a lot of hours spent in cars, on buses and trains. 

 Growing our culture 

The culture at Auroch Digital has always been one of our proudest achievements – we’re a studio packed with creative, RPG fans, game-loving, miniature building, boardgame loving people. Remote working enables us to open our clubs and interest groups wider. Since becoming remote, we now have a Creative Club where people hang out in Discord whilst working on personal projects such as art, music, sculpting and more. We also have monthly online game nights, online RPG campaigns, book club, and digital meet ups for other activities like minis painting. We also have a whole host of channels in our private company discord to share anime recommendations, recipes, cute pet pics and much more. 

 Recruiting top talent 

Remote working allows us to hire people from all over the UK and overseas. With no concerns about long commutes, relocating or being away from home, the available talent pool is made more accessible. We now have people working in 61 cities, 8 countries and 3 continents who come together and work on projects every single day. This fact has also pushed us to continue level up our benefits and offerings to our teams, with no geographical restrictions, people are more likely to be on the lookout for studios who are offering the best package. 

How to stay connected when working remotely 

Undoubtedly the biggest question we had at the start of our remote working journey was how we could keep our team working together from front rooms, dining tables and spare bedrooms across the country. It’s been a process of learning, but here are some great ways to stay connected: 

  • Using Discord and Teams: Arguably, the adoption of Teams/Slack in the workplace has made a huge, positive impact onto the productivity and connectivity of teams all over the world. Being able to be in constant communication reduces the risk of loneliness, working in silos and stops workflow disruptions. Outside of work, we have virtual channels for all of our clubs and interest groups where people can share pictures, stories and advice, and – of course – our Discord where we can game and hang out whenever, from wherever. We also encourage staff to drop into these channels for a chat and cup of tea during work, or to sit in a discord chat together whilst they work. 

  • Virtual Facetime: A huge part of game development of collaboration, and we’re big believers in virtually talking wherever we can. As a manager, I meet with everyone in my team individually every week (where the focus is on them, their experience and how I can improve it), we meet as a team almost daily to talk about projects and our plans and I meet with teams on each of our projects from up and down the country to get the latest updates on our games, see new features and to playtest. We also meet every Thursday as a whole company where Studio Director Tomas and Operations Director Nina talk through what’s new for Auroch, give an update on teams and projects, and share future plans. This is a great way to keep the whole studio connected and remind them that we’re all one big team working towards a common goal: to make awesome games.  

  • IRL Facetime: But Jem! Isn’t Auroch a fully remote studio? Yep, we absolutely are. Everyone has the choice to attend strategy days, project milestones, team meet ups, or whole studio events – meeting up in person isn’t for everyone! We offer these IRL meet-ups to give people the chance to get together, celebrate and share ideas. These IRL meet ups can be work related, where we all gather together to go over a project, or social ones where we meet up to play tabletop games, play football, go on dog walks, or attend expos together. These events give our teams a good opportunity to connect and have fun with their colleagues. 

The Mars Horizon 2 team meet up in the office to build friendships and get to know each other better in person - this helps our remote work as well

Avoiding loneliness when working from home 

While working from home offers so many perks, it can also be a lonely situation if you don’t have the right team around you. Below are some top tips for avoiding loneliness while working remotely: 

  • Hear and see your colleagues: No one likes a calendar packed with meetings but putting in 10 minutes to chat through something can sometimes be much easier than a long thread of emails or Teams messages. It can be easier to communicate, better for clarity on instructions and it can be nice to see a familiar face or hear a familiar voice.  

  • Virtual coffee breaks: Once upon a time, we’d all pile into the office kitchen to make a coffee come 11am… working from home should be no different! Make sure to give yourself time to stand up from your desk, stretch, walk the dog or grab coffee with colleagues. People are able to hop into a call, chat to colleagues for half an hour and then head back to work. We encourage these tea breaks at Auroch, and support this by having our daily crossword we all solve together, as well as other Discord games such as watering our virtual tree. 

  • Team socials: Team socials don’t always have to be studio-wide get togethers in a physical or virtual space. We have a whole bunch of clubs that our people can be as involved in as they want, including the creative club, the book club, the food club, the fitness club, the miniatures and boardgames club, the anime club and more. We also have regular team games available for anyone to hop into, and dedicated gaming club evenings for people to join, game and relax with colleagues. 

  • Casual chat channels: While Teams is great for work, it might not be great for social. Find a platform where people can have casual chat outside of work topics; creating this area means people can have all those ‘chats-while-making-a-tea’ experiences of an office, from home! So if it’s somewhere to talk about the latest episode of The Last of Us, a groan about the weather or a check in on someone’s new puppy – a casual chat zone is a must.  

Coco cam is always popular viewing, shes the official auroch digital mascot

  • Pet-Cams: Ok so this one might be just us, but we also like to have livestreams of office mascot Coco and adorable puppy Tikka available to our teams during work hours. The Auroch team might be able to catch Coco having a snooze in the sun or Tikka having the zoomies… always a great pick me up for the 3pm lull!  

How to be productive while working from home 

It can be difficult to find your workflow when working from home, with housemates, partners, pets and post all vying for our attention. It’s easy to get distracted or fall out of routine when you work remotely, so we’ve chatted to some of our team about their WFH routines and some top tips to find your mojo. 

Matthew Holmes, Associate Producer: “Optimise your morning routine. Act like you’re going to leave the house by waking up early and taking the time to look after yourself and get ready for the day. I found it really helpful to try and incorporate exercise into my daily life, and get of the house as much as possible, and maintain social connections both online and in person. 

Joseph Beacham, Technical Artist: “Be honest and assume the best of others. The same mishaps of office-life still happen at home: technology breaks, power goes out, people get sick and you make mistakes. Whilst the temptation is there to pretend like everything is fine when it isn’t, it’s better to be honest with your team whenever something comes up so they can help, find a fix and support you.” 

Andy Sheppard, Junior Programmer: “Take breaks. Give yourself the time to step away form your PC to make a cup of tea, say hello to family or give your pet scritches. You’d take the same amount of breaks if you were working in an office and it massively helps reduce the risk of burnout.” 

Sébastien Dulong, 3D Animator: “Establish boundaries. It can be very easy to lose work/life balance when working from home, stepping from one room to another is a less distinct end to the day than a 40-minute drive, but find ways to draw a line between work and home. Use different rooms or hardware, have a ‘build up’ and ‘cool down’ routine… whatever you need to make a clear distinction! Also get a dog and hydrate, they help too.” 

Danielle Arkle, Admin Manager: “Find a comfortable workspace. I’ve spent a few work days sat on my sofa while working and it’s damaging to my productivity, my comfort… and my posture! By creating a workspace that serves your wellbeing, you create somewhere that you can deliver great work and sit comfortably. Speak to your studio about getting the right equipment – like chairs and desks – and personalise it to make it yours!” 

Peter Willington, Production Director: “Have a call! It’s really easy to misinterpret someone’s tone or words in an email or Teams message and can be even easier to feel isolated when working remotely. Try, wherever possible, to talk to your team on the phone (cameras optional!) about projects and tasks – it will probably be more efficient, clearer and you might even get a nice conversation out of it!” 

Some of the Auroch Digital herd wave hello from our weekly company wide catch up - its a good time for a laugh and to shout out to team members going the extra mile.

Frequently asked questions about remote working 

Who can work remotely? 

Remote working is usually decided by your company! There may be some circumstances where remote working is granted to an individual due to circumstance, but generally it will be the case that in a remote company, everyone will have the option to work from home. All jobs are different and have different requirements and needs – the games industry is a great place to find a remote-first role to suit your skills, and there are so many departments and disciplines looking for talented team members right now. 

Is remote working good for you? 

Remote working can be what you want it to be! For some, it’s a great opportunity to use the lack of commute to catch up on some sleep, spend more time with families or get in a run before work. It’s important to find a balance between home and work, even if you do both in the same place - there are lots of great resources online packed with tips on how to stay healthy physically, mentally and emotionally when working from home. 

How can I work remotely? 

If you think remote working could benefit your work experience, a great first step is to put together some suggestions of how your role could transition to be WFH: How would it work logistically? What support do you need? How would your role or output be impacted? Not all companies will be open to these conversations, but as mentioned at the start of this blog, lots of places do offer remote working and competitive packages for top talent… like you!  

Remote working allows our staff to have a set up that works best for them. Auroch provides laptops or desktops depending on your preference.

Want to make great games in the comfort of your own home? We want you! The Auroch team is always on the lookout for talented, passionate and kind people to join its team. You can find all current opportunities on the Careers Page. 

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Jemima Crow

Steam Festival Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice Returns to Steam March 23rd-27th 🎲

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We are delighted to announce that Digital Tabletop Fest is back on Steam! From March 23rd at 5pm GMT through March 27th at 6pm BST, we'll be celebrating a variety of tabletop-inspired games and the people who play them. The theme for this year's event is Blood & Dice, which will have a special focus on fantasy, horror, versus, and war games.

What Can You Expect From Blood & Dice?

🎮 Exclusive Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Let's Play from the developers

🍺 Brewing blood red beer in a Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator Let's Play

🚀 Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life developers discuss the sequel while playing the original Mars Horizon

💸 Wide array of discounts on tabletop-inspired titles

 🎉 Celebrating some of the best tabletop-inspired games such as Slay the Spire, Disco Elysium, Terra Invicta & Wildermyth, while highlighting upcoming titles in the genre

🗣 Panels with notable figures from Vampire the Masquerade, The World of Darkness, For the King II, The City of Games, V Rising & more industry experts

Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice is run entirely by Auroch Digital, who partnered with Steam for the previous two festivals. Studio Director at Auroch Digital and Co-Founder of Digital Tabletop Fest, Tom Rawlings, is excited to see the festival return.  

Tom says: “It’s been great to organise the third Digital Tabletop event, and it’s a genre that’s so close to our hearts. To be able to showcase so many tabletop-inspired games, from indie through to AAA, shows us just how varied the tabletop space is for video games. It’s incredible to see different takes on board and card games, as well as other titles that are inspired by tabletop mechanics or IPs. We can’t wait for Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice to begin!” 

Schedule for DTFest: Blood & Dice 📅

We're so excited to host Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice and can't wait for you all to be part of it! 

Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice takes place on Steam from March 23rd – 27th. The page will be live from 5pm GMT on March 23rd and the promotion will end at 6pm BST on March 27th. For more information, follow @SteamFestivals and @AurochDigital. 

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Welcome to Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life! 🚀

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We have lift-off!

The news is out! Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life is coming in 2024. We are so excited to share the development journey with you. To kick things off we’d like to introduce you to Tess, one of the producers on Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life. 

🚀 Hello to all you Martians - waiting patiently on the Horizon! 

I am sorry if you felt neglected, it has been deeply difficult to ignore your pleas for more content and prayers for updates. Instead, I have been biding my time and anticipating the day when I can finally say…  

WE ARE MAKING MARS HORIZON 2!  

A narrative Choice event in Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life

Oh wow, that feels better.  

The team behind Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life are passionate and dedicated and have been researching astrobiology, rocket improvements, orbital mechanics, toon shaders, accessibility… etc. in pre-production for the last year.  

Next, we are heading to Production to knuckle down and deliver the game our fans truly want. We have been listening and we aim to please! We are going further into the future and searching for life- not just on Mars but through our solar system, letting the player play Astro-detective. 

This won't be Mars Horizon 1.5. We are going to take what was great about Mars Horizon 1 and improve upon it, we are aiming for double as good! 

Please enjoy our pre-alpha trailer full of things we are going to build on and refine over this next production process. I am looking forward to saying so much more but for now I will leave you with my cathartic exercise of spilling the space beans! Have them on toast and rest assured there are more courses to come. 

Sending Meteors of love and gratitude to all the Mars Horizon fans that have been with us along the way.

Tess 👩🏻‍🚀

We’ve had some amazing coverage since the announcement of the sequel of our well received Mars Horizon. Take a look at some of the highlights here: 

The Solar System with UI in Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life

Thank you to all the sites and channels that took the time to cover the announcement,
we can’t wait to show you more.  💕

Some of the Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life Team doing their best impressions of rockets

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

How to create an authentic video game

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In 2022 we released Brewmaster – our first-person simulation game about brewing beer. It’s been a success for us as a studio in a number of ways, the most obvious of which is that it’s our game with the highest percentage of positive reviews on Steam to-date, it’s accumulated a great player base in our Discord and we’re pretty happy with its sales. 

The success of the game has been in-part down to how we researched and immersed ourselves in the subject material to deliver an authentic experience to our players. Here, Production Director Peter Willington discusses the research journey of the team and the impact it had on the development of Brewmaster. 

Astronaut Tim Peake sits with an official Xbox On presenter behind some computers filmed from above. T

Astronaut Tim Peake plays Mars horizon - you don’t get more authentic than that

What does authenticity in video games mean?

Authenticity refers to how ‘true to life’ something appears – whether it’s a person being their authentic selves or a piece of media accurately reflecting its real-world inspiration. 

For video games, the word ‘authentic’ is often associated with games that are set in a historical context and research prior to and during the development of that game is to ensure events are correctly presented, personalities are mirrored and environment is reflected. 

However, we’re experts in making games that relate to and deal with real world issues so ensuring our games feel real is hugely important to us. Whether it’s the accuracy of space exploration in Mars Horizon or beer recipes for Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator – we’re always working to create an authentic experience that players can learn from and enjoy playing. 

In-depth research and analysis around a topic have proven to be a successful recipe for true-to-life media for many years, and it can be brilliantly summed up in Ed Catmull’s book, Creativity Inc, in which the co-founder of Pixar, who later become the President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, explains how dining across France influenced Ratatouille’s famous kitchen scenes.  

Some members of the Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator team from Auroch Digital sat down at a table with snacks and beers doing a beer tasting.

Some of the Brewmaster team doing beer tasting.

But this use of the technique in more fantastical works indicates another interesting aspect of research: immersion in a subject matter is also important for games that aren’t realistic. 

The sheer number of Warhammer miniatures on display in our studio video should hopefully indicate that we’re incredibly passionate about all aspects of the Warhammer universes. Consequently, it should be no surprise that diving deep into the lore and history of Warhammer 40,000 to help build out aspects of the setting and story for Boltgun has been both a pleasure and a way to ensure we make the game feel authentic for fans that really know their stuff. 

So how did we do this with Brewmaster it? Let’s begin…

We drank a lot of beers 🍻

One team member drank roughly 500 different beers over the course of Brewmaster, and various members of the team did a number of different tasting sessions throughout the project - we encouraged anyone interested in getting to know beer a bit better to do so, if they felt comfortable. 

Side note: I want to stress at this point that we made it very clear at the beginning of Brewmaster that drinking was by no means a requirement to be on the project, and indeed we had a number of team members who either didn’t change their alcohol consumption, or simply didn’t drink in the first place (and making a video game sure wasn’t going to change this about them). I should also say that those 500 beers were consumed over the course of two and a half years, which equates to roughly one beer every couple of days (on average), well below Drinkaware’s guidelines for low risk drinking. 

With that out the way, why drink beer for research? What can it tell you about making a game? 

First, you really get to know the depth and variety of the craft that’s being represented. Before I started Brewmaster, I kind of thought that all beer was essentially the same, and I know a number of the team shared that feeling – we just didn’t have enough experience with the thing, and that meant we’d brought a lot of assumptions with us that would end up being challenged. I had no idea that beers could taste like mango, or dark chocolate, or bubble gum (!!!), and I had no idea that I could like different styles of beer rather than different brands of beer. 

Second, it forces you to challenge other preconceived ideas about the act of tasting. Sitting down and really considering the drink in front of you turns it into something that’s part of the main event of the evening and not an afterthought that simply accompanies it. You quickly start thinking about whether glassware is important (it generally is!) whether what you’re consuming is good for your health (it’s complicated!) and whether beer being as cold as possible is always best (it rarely is!). 

Third, your mind begins to wander into new areas of thinking. I remember one evening sitting down with a style I’d not tried before – a Belgian Tripel – and suddenly being struck by a bunch of questions: I’ve tried a Dubbel, is the Tripel related? Is it always a higher ABV? If they are related, why is the colour different? Are all beers like this from Belgium? And why does this bottle have a little “Trappist” symbol on it? The answers to all of these, and more, informed huge chunks of the game’s story mode and Brewpedia, and that initial round of inquisitiveness led to yet more questions. You start to realise that drinking craft beer, for some people, is a hobby with so many elements to it - it’s not just an excuse to drink booze. 

14 members of the Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator team from Auroch Digital are standing in the Moor Beer brewing in amongst the canning and fermenting equipment

The Brewmaster: beer Brewing Simulator team take a visit to Moor Beer Brewery, one of our partners for the game.

We got beer qualifications 👩‍🏫

Did you know you can get beer qualifications? I certainly didn’t know when we started, but as part of our research we found that they’re out there, and as part of our pre-production work, we had a bunch of the team do the Certified Beer Server from Cicerone course and exam, figuring that it would be a good way to get to grips with the subject and have a rounded knowledge of beer. 

We learned so much about how beer is made, how it’s presented, and so on, but the key thing this gave us was a universal language to speak with one another. 

Often on creative projects you’ll end up calling the same things different names. Take Mars Horizon as a good example: what do you call the thing that takes a payload into space? Is it a “rocket”? A “shuttle”? A “spaceship”? A “launch vehicle”? This might seem like pedantry, but each of these terms is casually used to mean the same thing when they’re actually different, and anyone who knows a bit about the subject is going to find their incorrect use inauthentic, or just plain wrong. 

So doing the course meant that we stopped referring to the “darkness of” the beer or “how brown” it was, and instead started talking, much more precisely, about SRM values - we’d acquired a standardised set of knowledge so we could more clearly communicate what we were discussing. 

What the qualification also highlighted was how important getting these terms right was, and indicated towards where the limits of knowledge might be for our game. The course told us that there’s a lot of overlap between styles; one person’s Pale Ale is another person’s American Pale Ale. 

We think of a wine sommelier as being a knowledgeable, respected position in the world of food and drink, and a Cicerone is essentially a beer sommelier, so the fact that this level of knowledge exists pointed out to us that our simulation needed to take this stuff seriously, we couldn’t “fake it”, but we also needed to accept that there was dispute over many areas of making beer. 

When you perform a taste test in the game, you’ll notice that you can choose which style you were aiming for, rather than have Brewmaster make the choice for you, and that’s a direct gameplay decision that came out of this research. 

IMAGE GALLERY BELOW: Below is a gallery of images from our lead designer for Brewmaster Matt. He created a recipe, Auroch Digitale, and brewed it start to finish to give himself a better understanding of the brewing process. This was the beer recipe that we then went on to get made by our partner Moor Beer and it actually went on sale and went to streamers.

We explored beer culture 🎪

It’s easy to think of “beer culture” as just a single, stereotypical thing: people, often men, drinking lager, in a bar. And in some instances that is how people engage with beer; it’s no more culturally important to their lives than the taxi ride to where they’re drinking, or the “filthy kebab” they have on their way home. 

And if we’d just assumed that that was universally the case we would have made a very different kind of game in terms of its feel – more laddish, more focused on the results of beer than the process of creating it. 

But that perception of beer being one thing is so far removed from the reality of what beer culture actually is. Simply put, beer culture is as varied and nuanced as the beers themselves. 

And this was reinforced by our research. For example, we attended some beer festivals where high-end beer buffs were on the hunt for the new and the outrageous, and others which were about championing the local industry. We read Kenny Gould’s work of fiction about beer and poured over can art examples to see how artists think of beer as an avenue for creativity. We listened to Prof. Charles Bamforth’s lectures (collected in Brewmaster's Art) to hear about how some see specificity and science as the heart of what matters in beer. Even trips to local pubs reinforced to us that British drinking culture is very important to the fabric of the communities served by them – in many pubs across Britain these spaces are a communal location for anyone and everyone, and that’s not a global phenomenon. 

If you’ve played Brewmaster then you’ll know that a whole bunch of this ended up in our story mode. Each of the characters you meet are embodiments of an aspect of beer culture we found interesting – Mei is the slow food movement, Rosa is beer as social equaliser, Jeff is the lifelong community of dedicated homebrewers that kept craft alive, Pat is beer as an act of creative rebellion, and Kristoff is beer as cultural history. 

Members of Auroch Digital at the Bristol Craft beer Festival. Everyone is sat down each side of a long table, smiling and with beers.

Some of the team attended the Bristol Craft Beer Festival

Applying research to other kinds of games 🎮

It’s easy to see how all of the above could be applied to other games grounded in reality - I’ve already mentioned that Mars Horizon benefitted from this approach as well. 

And we know that this approach is successful at other organisations than just our own. In Ed Catmull’s book Creativity, Inc, the co-founder of Pixar (and later President of Walt Disney Animation Studios) explains the importance of research trips for the authenticity of Ratatouille’s kitchen scenes. 

But this use of the technique in more fantastical works indicates another interesting aspect of research: immersion in a subject matter is also important for games that aren’t realistic. 

The sheer number of Warhammer miniatures on display in our studio video should hopefully indicate that we’re incredibly passionate about all aspects of the Warhammer universes. Consequently, it should be no surprise that diving deep into the lore and history of Warhammer 40,000 to help build out aspects of the setting and story for Boltgun has been both a pleasure and a way to ensure we make the game feel authentic for fans that really know their stuff. 

Coco the sausage dog standing next to a can of Auroch Digitale and wearing a Brewmaster dog sized apron.

Auroch Digitals mascot Coco with the official Brewmaster Beer

How does research impact a game?

I don’t want to end on a downer, but before closing this article out, it’s worth highlighting a challenge that this sort of thing has. 

As a tool for use in creative projects, it’s hard to quantify research’s value directly - i.e. I’m not aware of any way of assigning a £££ value to it. This means that for teams wanting to embrace all the benefits it provides, it’s hard to justify it on a profit and loss spreadsheet to a sceptical audience. 

We know from first-hand experience that it’s valuable, and Auroch’s leadership team deliberately tries to foster a culture of learning and improvement that goes hand-in-hand with this kind of activity, but for organisations that don’t have this culture, it might prove tricky to implement. 

If that’s the kind of environment you find yourself in, one solution is to do as much research as possible without requiring investment from leadership – an artist listening to audiobooks about the subject, while modelling relevant objects, for example – and building out a case that points to any times that research avoided mistakes being made (saving money), or customers voiced their appreciation of a knowledge of subject material (improved quality). 

Conclusion: research is great, give it a go! 

I hope this article was useful and demonstrates why Auroch thinks immersion within a subject matter can be useful when making creative products. If our approach to this area of our work sounds interesting to you, check out our jobs page to see the roles we’re currently hiring for. 

An in game beer in Brewmater: Beer Brewing Simulator

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Peter Willington