This article has a talk page!This page details pre-release information and/or media for Dungeons of Aether.
Development Timeline#
- 2015
- Independent developer Nick "ampersandbear" creates a dice-combat roguelike Malleus Goblinficarium for the 2015 7DRL Challenge, where it ranked highly.
- 2019
- While working within Aether Studios on Rivals of Aether, Nick pitched Malleus as a prototype for Dungeons. It was greenlit and development began.
- 2020
- Apr. 1st - Dungeons is teased with early gameplay in Rivals Direct 2.
- 2021
- Apr. 1st - As part of Rivals Direct 3, a Developer Preview showed and explained more gameplay, revealed members of the development team, and gave a 2022 release date.
- 2022
- Apr. 1st - As part of Rivals Direct 4, a Launch Date Reveal was revealed. It showed more gameplay that closer resembled the final game, and gave a Steam release date of October 25th, 2022.
- Sep. 1st - A release date delay from October 25th, 2022 to February 28th, 2023 was announced in an update video. The video showed gameplay much closer to the final build.
- 2023
- Feb 6th - A demo was released for Steam's Next Fest. It was available until the 13th.4
- Feb 21st - A story trailer was released, with gameplay that seems to be from the final build.
- Feb 28th - Dungeons of Aether launched on Steam alongside a release trailer.
- Apr. 1st - In Rivals Direct 5, the Switch port of Dungeons was teased for an April 6th release.
- Apr. 6th - Nintendo Switch port is released. 5
- Sep. 23rd - Android port is released. 6
- Sep. 26th - The Steam demo is made available again.
- Nov. 28th - iOS port is released 7
Early Gameplay#
On April 13th, 2021, art director Ellian shared a couple early, now-deleted screenshots on Twitter. The first features an early background for the mines and an unseen Shock attack, while the second shows an unseen dungeon layout.
On January 31st, 2022, about a year before release, the main developer ampersandbear shared a screenshot on his Twitter, showing an early version of a battle. It contains some early attacks, an unused ring item, and some red numbers in the top left.
On April 1st of the same year, Aether Studios promoted the game on Twitter with a gif that features early attacks.
An early screenshot from art director Ellian's website shows the same early attacks, as well as unseen icons for open equipment slots.
Early Animations#
Fleet#
"It's already been two years since Dungeons of Aether released! I figure I should share more concept art before it gets lost to time.
Here's a thread of concepts of Fleet's in-game battle sprites from 2020. 🦊🧵"9
"Figuring out her idle pose and fidgeting, I had to making something functional and that would later be used several years later for recreation in Rivals 2."10
"Attack parry/defense concepts"11
"Fleet K.O. concepts"12
"An example of doing sprite work adjustments, left was an early sprite pass, right was my redraw to improve posing and expressions."13
Slade#
"Sharing some Slade concepts for Dungeons of Aether 🦈🧵"14
"Idle pose concepts"15
"Key posing for Slade's attack animation. Yeah, I went pretty extra for this shark."16
"Slade Parry Concept 1"17
"Slade Parry Concept 2"18
"Slade's (overly dramatic) K.O. key poses."19
Artemis#
"Artemis attack key poses"20
"Artemis damage received pose"21
"Concepts of figuring out Artemis' idle pose"22
"Idle animation concept"23
"Artemis parry/block key poses"24
"Artemis K.O. keys. I dont remember if it looks like this in the final, but the idea was that she gripped the handle trying to support herself with her lava arm but burns it off, causing her to collapse."25
Cut Content#
Placeholder Art#
"looking through old dungeons concept art folders means I find random place holder art @ThisIsEllian made from years ago with no context
for example:"26
NPCs#
"Scrapped NPC designs I made from the early development days of Dungeons of Aether.
NPC 1 - original concept for tutorial NPC. I like to think he would have told you useless geology facts and rock jokes.
NPC 2 - daughter who tasked a side quest to player to retrieve heirloom from deceased family member in mines
NPC 3 - One of the towns guards that can be found in Julesvale"27
Inn Keeper's Wife#
"In an early concept, the Inn Keeper was going to have a relative who was adventurous, often exploring the dungeons against his wishes.
She was also based off a water deer."28
"I wanted her to be a baker type NPC. Like, imagine something like monster hunter were you could encounter her in the dungeons and get food buffs from her mobile bakery."29
"found another concept with them together before it was scrapped"30
Merchant Father#
"Oh yeah, in the early concept, there was supposed to be a father/daughter merchant business. Father stayed in the town, while the daughter went into the dungeons with her giant crab mobile shop to protect her."31
"More of concepts of the father axolotl that got scrapped"32
Enemies#
"Some early Dungeons of Aether enemies that never quite made the cut. Had to have been very early into pre-production when I made them!"33
"I guess I made this as an enemy idea at one point too - hermit wizard guy"34
"Even more bug concepts. Mantis concepts that never got fully realized"35
Bosses#
"Dungeons of Aether boss that never saw the light of day - Topaz Scorpion dude. Bug designs weren't my usual forte, but was fun to go out of my own comfort zone!"36
Rivals#
"In the early story draft of Dungeons of Aether, there was a planned 'rival' adventurer system.
The idea was this adventurer would serve as Fleet's parallel, a rogue who would always try to one-up her. It was ultimately scrapped, but here's some early concepts for them."37
"dang. i didn't expect mysterious dungeons bird girl to be so popular. here's a few more even earlier sketches that I could dig up!"38
"were there other rival designs for the other characters?"
"Yep, I wanted to make one for each of them. I also wanted them to be a different element between the characters, but a similar archetype - hence, parallels."39
Earth Adventurer#
"Another Adventurer concept for Dungeons of Aether! This one was building off of the porcupine enemy when I revisited the concept.
Something between a lance/throwing javelins, it was hard for me to think of a way to tie it into his own quills as a function."40
Bounty Hunter#
"I wanted to have a bounty hunter type character in Dungeons of Aether at one point, perhaps someone who would be pursing Slade.
Is gunpowder an element? I had no idea if that would fit the world enough, but I figured some kinda gunwitch seemed fantastical enough. :D"41