A great game if you just wanna sit around and not do anything too taxing for the brain. The game isn't overly complicated and is easy to pick up and play. There isn't a lot of neat features at the moment but updates have been fairly consistant. Despite this lack of content the game is rather entertaining and as I mentioned before, it is a great way to kill some time. I am looking forward to future updates including multiplayer (which at this time can only be done locally or using himachi). Also the addition of new items and features would be amazing. The game itself is pretty well put together. Time for some icing if you ask me.

i like the game. and despite its glitches think the idea is really good and will be watching it very closely. kind of wish more of this kind of game existed.

So I was pretty bored one afternoon browsing through the steam game list, looking for something decent and RPGish... and then I found this diamond, concealed among hordes of other games.

So the game had me create a character to play with, I created a cute catgirl hunter. Thinking, I am going to go to the woods and hunt wild animals and... do whatever I should do in this game to earn a living. And I ended up playing as a wheat farmer, with a windmill and a bakery, swimming in money and hiring mercenaries to take out adjacent villages, as close to a king as it gets.

That being said, the game is very interesting. It consists of playing a character among many other computer controlled equals. So it is to be expected that the beauty of this game is it's great AI, which really gives the world a life of its own.

What surprised me the most is that the AI characters are extremely clever. The game world is chaotic, with barren lands, having to work the land with magic to get raw resources, having to process those very resources to come with something useful all of this while having to defend against monsters and other villages and even making sure that they have sufficient resurrection spots to come back to life if they are killed. Most other game AIs would be a little dumb for such a challenge, but this game has the Albert Einsteins of game AI, they are surprisingly capable of coping and indeed thriving in their chaotic virtual world, and remarkably, build a thriving town given enough time.

And funnily enough, as so often happens with something that appears highly intelligent (thinking of dolphins here), a strange bond starts to develop with these simulated characters. I was distressed when an enemy villager in horseback was picking off some of my village's weakest and poorest members (without horses or armor).

The villagers are very helpful, defending when under attack, or even raiding the foreign village when they are well armed. Most of the time though, they go about their lives: farming, building their houses, building furnaces, generally speaking teching up their village and living within it, doing whatever they think is best for them and the village. I was building a tower to protect my windmill and left some stone lying about for that end, all of a sudden I had some 3 villagers helping me finish it, it was heart warmingly funny and awesome, then it was hillarious when an army of undead monsters died for good trying to invade my farm.

It kind of takes me back to my early MMO playing days, harvesting, smithing and going out for some PVP kills. Except these are all AIs, and it is very satisfying to live and act in a world populated by these remarkable AIs, basically it offers near infinite game content with intelligent opponents.

Goodness, I truly loved it, and it is not every day that I find a game worth reviewing. I love playing among AI characters, and the smarter they are, the better I find these AI sandbox games to be. It's like creating your own world where you can do whatever you like.

Aurora Dusk is a game that seamlessly blends the survival/crafting, RPG, colony sim and tower defense genres into an interesting and highly customizable package. How does it do this ? At its heart, Aurora Dusk is a harvesting/crafting survival game. Overlaying this is a vast RPG leveling system that increases the efficiency and power of every skill through use. This tremendously eases the grind of harvesting and building by speeding up these tasks as you increase those skills. Even better your character's progress remains persistent between all campaign missions and custom games. The colony sim part comes in the shape of your character (or characters, since you can control multiple characters simultaneously) sharing the world with AI colonists who help construct the workshops, defenses and support buildings you'll need to survive the tower defense aspect of the game, which consists of timed waves of enemies that attack from a random direction and increase in size and difficulty with each successive wave.

But while Aurora Dusk shines with all of these elements, what truly makes it a stand out title is its commitment to customization. From the extensive options available in designing custom games or the easy to modify text documents that allow you to adjust any aspect of the gameplay, Aurora Dusk is all about player freedom.

Speaking of custom games, they are truly the gem of this title. While the campaign is engaging and an excellent tutorial it can become punishingly hard while your character is lower level. In fact, the enemies seem to have been balanced for a mid-level character, a wise decision that gives the game a longer lifespan and makes leveling up more rewarding. The custom games are a welcome addition, boasting an assortment of options to make the games as easy or difficult as you desire, with the added bonus of playing multiple characters at the same time (all of which carry over their level and skill progress to other custom games). A simple HUD element allows you to switch between characters on the fly mid-game and to turn artificial intelligence on or off for any characters you're not playing.

Of course the artificial intelligence needs to be good for a title of this nature to work and, fortunately, it's excellent. While the early campaign missions limit your AI companions in order to maintain the tutorial pace, in the Skirmish and Custom Survival Game modes they have no such restrictions. Motivated and helpful, the colonists seem to balance accomplishing their own objectives (such as constructing a worshop so they can upgrade their weapon or building a golem to protect the settlement) with assisting you in your own projects. It may be they are simply programmed to work on any unfinished construction project in the settlement, but it's incredibly rewarding when you come up short on resources building a much-needed defense and colonists step up to finish it as the enemy wave approaches. As a sidenote, early defensive towers are a bit too expensive (especially given the short amount of time you have before the first wave hits) but tower prices, like everything, can be easily modified in the game files. Or (if playing a custom game) you can simply increase the time before the first wave hits in the game setup options.

Aurora Dusk features three game modes: the Campaign Story Missions, Custom Survival Games and Skirmish. Skirmish allows you to compete against other AI-controlled towns with the goal of destroying them. Given the game's unique death/resurrection system that requires limited-use buildings in order to bring a player or AI colonist back to life, this gives Skirmish mode an enjoyable strategic element. Custom Survival Games allow you to build a colony by yourself or with as many AI companions as you choose and tailor every aspect of the game to your taste. The Campaign missions start off gently and teach you the basics well, before turning a corner into a challenging difficulty.

Each of the technological ages you progress through in the course of a game, from Stone Age to Modern, feel distinct and a game unto themselves. Your character can be equipped with armor and weapons of every era, allowing you to be a heavily armored sword and shield warrior, an agile archer, fireball-hurling wizard, or a kevlar-clad soldier dual-wielding pistols. Or any combination of those and more.

Technically speaking, the game runs smoothly and I haven't encountered any bugs or crashes in my 10+ hours of play (mostly offline). The in-game visuals are cheerful and colorful, the cutscene characters charming and distinct. The music tracks are enjoyable and synched with the events of the colony, with upbeat music during combat and soothing music during the lull between waves. Most importantly, the game feels complete and lovingly crafted. From the artwork to the game design, this is the product of a one-man studio and it's impressive to see such a solid, finished game from a single individual.

Perhaps the best, and most appreciated, feature of Aurora Dusk is that there is a robust free demo available on Steam that allows you to experience most of the key features before buying. I would highly recommend purchasing the full version, as it is easily worth twice the asking price and the additional features are must-haves if you enjoy the game. Plus, the developer is responsive and continues to polish Aurora Dusk with regular updates and new features.

Aurora Dusk feels like a toolset and a game in one, consistently rewarding players at every turn and ensuring that no progress is ever lost. I highly recommend you try the free demo and see for yourself what makes this game such a rare gem.

Love it. I'm a big fan of passive gameplay (read: opportunities to sit back and see thy creation, or perhaps make a sandwich) and this game is a delight. Easy to pick up and f'around in, and before I knew it, I was a shoemaker catman whose goal in life was to make clogs. The 'make clog' button was silver and unreactive, however, and without tooltips this left The Player in bewilderment. So, El Catman was destined struggle through this world in a vain attempt to make clogs.

This did not stop El Catman.

Perhaps it was a tutorial skipped, or perhaps knowledge the designer took for granted, no matter the case El Catman was undeterred. Putting aside the greater mysteries, such as "how do I create clogs", and after rebuilding from the surely perilous but wasn't Stone Golem attack, and defating the probably-normally-peaceful-but-in-a-resource-war-what-can-you-do opponents, El Catman was victorious.

One comment- since this is a unique twist on the beloved RTS genres, being a single unit in a (BTW very well designed AI system, kudos, tip of the hat, and so on), I felt compelled to bring my resources to a centralized (or compartimentalized, states rights what what (not racist)) location, but found no such location! Could I suggest directing The Player to the most optimal supply depot location? The game's a very fun 'all for one' - vs - 'one for all' type simulation, so if you could implement more communistic features that'd be greeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaat...

IA is blew .
but the game itself is good for have fun for 1 / 2 hours .
but i wont recommend it at this current stat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pflfrvJ3VAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbA3Srp_ek8

I have had quite a lof fun playing Aurora Dusk. For an early access title the game is quite fun. Before I knew it I had several hours invested. The game is broken down into three current play modes, a campaign style more to get your feet wet, a custom game that is time limited and lastly a skirmish setting. All are pretty fun at this point. There are a lot of skills to level of and fun tactics to use. This is a game that I would definitely recommed for the price as I feel you will get your moneys worth in return.

Onto some of the current negatives. I mostly enjoy the custom mode. That being said trying to balance all of the changeable parts, i.e. number of townsfolk, number of waves and mobs and timing of waves, timing of ages, etc, is not an easy task. So far I have not found a group of settings that has proved challenging and at the same time allows me to explore all of the different crafts within each age. This is a negative I would expect to improve with time. The other negative I would say currently is the AI. The townsfolk do whatever they please including building a bakery while the town is being attacked and te monsters are even less intelligent. This is again something I would hope improves with time. At times the game does not feel very challenging but with the ability to change custom settings, I don't think this will be an issue unless you let it be.

If you are able to weather the at times stormy nature of early access I would say go ahead and pick this game up.