Demo uncovered from Ashes

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Full version of interactive graphic novel-styled thriller coming to Steam Early Access in April

Visual novels are popular these days, but interactive graphic novels less so, despite being similar in many ways. Ashes, an upcoming narrative thriller by indie Australian developer Plot Twist, definitely falls in the latter camp, as you can find out for yourself in the newly released demo launched ahead of Steam Next Fest.

Azar Warren is a 16-year-old skater who, like many teenagers, "doesn’t like putting herself out there." Stung by the rejection of her father's abandonment and now living with her single mom Lane, Azar hasn't seen her grandfather Stan in nine years. That all changes when Azar witnesses a "gruesome murder" and Lane decides her daughter would be better protected at Stan's secluded rural compound, despite her better judgment about her estranged father's character. Before long, however, it becomes clear from Stan's "strange behaviour" that he is "harbouring terrible secrets of his own," causing the troubled teen to suspect that he "may be more dangerous than her pursuers." From that point on, Azar must fight "not only to keep herself safe but also to reveal dark truths about people she thought she could trust."

Conceived by Cléa Frost during the pandemic lockdown, Ashes very much looks the part of a self-described "murder graphic novel," its hand-drawn "gritty depiction" of Victoria, Australia often split into multiple panels per screen with subtitled dialogue stylishly overlaid. Much of the story is conveyed as one too, with simple mechanics allowing players to tap to continue, revisit earlier scenes, or swipe the bottom corner of the screen to move ahead like an actual page of a book. Occasionally, though, the experience is more interactive than that. At times players must manipulate objects on-screen directly, and at others solve a variety of basic "mini-game puzzles," from finding and "piecing together torn-up photos to cracking the code for a mysterious lockbox to firing a rifle at a homemade shooting range," all of which the young protagonist will need in order to survive the "dangers that await her" from threats that ever "lurk in the shadows."

A short first sprinkling of Ashes is available now through the playable demo available on Steam for Windows PC. A larger version is not far behind, though the game will launch first via Early Access sometime in April.