Hi, my names Campbell, I'm the lead dev of Aetherclad. This first dev blog will be a little strange, but I think it’s important for you all to know who we are and how we got here.

The story so far…

Oddly, the story of Aetherclad starts back in 2012, with the alpha of Kerbal Space Program. I’d always liked building things, and it was fun firing stuff into orbit, but what eventually really captivated me was the equations you could use to help design your rockets and missions. They were like real-life cheat codes, and how they worked captivated me. Coming from a theater background, I was utterly clueless, but I was determined to find out, and so began teaching myself maths and physics. 

Truly, it was like real magic to me. Something as simple as dropping a ball, sitting on a train or watching a fire became wondrous things. While washing dishes in a pub kitchen, I’d dream of how photons interact or the immense nuclear furnaces of stars going supernova, depositing ash which would come together in balance for the relative blink of an eye to know itself. At every turn, a new mystery and nuance was revealed, and I was hooked. 

Skip forward to Halloween 2016, I’m on the road back to education to study astrophysics, and my friends and I are going to a party as a crew of airship pirates. To keep our costumes consistent, I make a world. Only maps, some names, brief backstories, and some not-great ship designs. But it was a start. Over the years, I’d sporadically work on it, often while playing with converting it to some new medium. A radio play, a D&D campaign, a short horror comic, but it was always only a fun project to work on in the background.   

Skip forward again to the pandemic. We’re in the first year of uni when lockdown is declared. For the following years, stuck inside, with little to do but watch lectures, experience self-imposed existential dread and do coding assignments, I found I had a knack for programming. 

Meanwhile, in the frozen, untamed wastes of Scotland, my closest and oldest friend, Flynn, was finishing a degree in game sound design, having spent several years studying music production previously. After years of wandering, we both found ourselves ending our delayed education at the same time. And, rather madly, with absolutely no experience, we decided we’d make a game together.

In 2022, we began serious pre-production, figuring out what features we’d like and codifying the world of Aetherclad. We “broke ground” in Unity in August 2023, but from here, the story is better told in our making of video, which you can see here. 

(breathe)

All of which brings us to you reading this now… 

This is our first game, made primarily by one person. We’re fully aware of how ambitious this project is, so we’re starting (relatively) small for our first hands-on release. The skirmish mode is a free, 1vs1 combat sandbox that lets you get first-hand experience with Aetherclad, and hopefully, you'll be kind enough to give us feedback. Stuff will be broken. Things will be missing. But from a technical standpoint, the game has finally reached a stage where we're happy to release it and see what you think.

These ships are complicated things, which aim to simulate the bizarre reality of such a craft accurately. They’re truly unlike anything you’ve ever flown. Depending on the ship, they’re part aircraft, part hot air balloon, part naval ship, part submarine, part flying behemoth, all of which have been combined into something which is (hopefully) easy to learn but hard to master. After many thousands of hours of playtesting, I'm still discovering tricks and nuances. 

There are currently four playable ships of varying sizes and power, based on three hulls, although a LOT more are on the way. 

SS Orinoco

An antiquated, lightweight Imperial Whaling Company frigate. It’s quick and manoeuvrable, utilising a pair of outrigger engines for excellent low-speed handling. This frigate comes equipped with eight 5-inch howitzers in six single turrets and one dual turret, making it a fearsome screening ship, although it lacks the ranging systems required for engaging targets at range. Due to its low lift capacity, it carries next to no armour and can only deflect larger rounds at high angles. However, it makes up for this with its speed and excellent service ceiling. All of these characteristics make it a very forgiving ship to fly, though it is outclassed by most in a head-to-head fight.

SS Devant

Another company ship, this time in the form of a destroyer. The SS Devant started life as an already sturdy whaler, but increasingly frequent incursions from beyond the deep led to the ship being refit for combat, though the decision to arm her with eight 6-inch guns, instead of the conventional howitzer battery used by the Company rose eyebrows within the empire. Devant is well armed and armoured, capable of engaging anything smaller than it with relative ease, though her refit nature makes her slow and awkward. 

HMS Wanderer

The first ship of the Decurian Royal Navy. Based on the Townsend class, this light cruiser carries slightly more firepower than SS Devant, eight 8-inch howitzers in dual turrets and four 5-inch howitzers, allowing it to pummel smaller ships, and be a true terror for riders. Where it really shines is its armour, carrying substantially more than smaller ships. Compared with other Decurian ships based on this hull, the Wanderer is substantially lighter than its larger siblings, allowing it a surprising amount of range and manoeuvrability.  

HMS Townsend

The first ship-of-the-line available. This venerable heavy cruiser has been the mainstay of the Decurian navy for almost a decade, the Townsend class has become a symbol of imperial power. Equip with eight 9-Inch long guns, ten 5-Inch howitzers, several rangefinders and a few thousand tons of armour, the Townsend class is still at the forefront of naval power. However, she's not without her weaknesses. The Townsend class was designed to operate in the relatively forgiving skies of Decuria and the wider City States, where ports and fuel are plentiful. A victim of it's own success, the Townsends large mass and slow speed make it ill equip to operate in the deep sky. 

Beyond The Deep...

At this stage, we could REALLY use your support. Beginnings are such fragile things. Since the start of this project, we’ve always been very aware that this is an extremely ambitious first game and that we’d need proof that we can achieve all we set out to do. After two years of active development and a huge amount of personal sacrifice, we’ve reached a point where we hope we’ve built enough that you’ll believe in what we’re trying to do.

In the coming weeks, our main goal is to address the feedback that we’re hoping you’ll be kind enough to give us and then add some of the very obviously missing basic features (settings, better tutorial, controller support (?)). But beyond that, we have a huge amount of content on the way. What you can play now is just a small part of the systems we’ve built for Aetherclad, and absolutely none of the heart/lore. We’ll keep updating the free skirmish mode as the game improves, but our ultimate goal is the full paid campaign mode, which will be available in the not too distant future.

Up until this point, Aetherclad has always “””technically””” been developed by one person, but the patience, talent and care of so many people has gone into getting to now, be it directly contributing or putting up with my obsession. Musicians, artists, modellers, writers, composers, friends and family have all made this possible. This may seem melodramatic, but I have no idea how you (the audience) will respond, and so after well over ten years of working on this project, this might be it. If so, to the many who supported me through this journey, who believed and supported this crazy idea, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.