Auroch Digital Blog The Year in Review 2024

Auroch Digital at Moocon 2024 2024 has been a big year for Auroch Digital, we’ve had lows, but also highs with a new Studio Director, game launches, announcements, and community activities! We are a talented group of professionals who absolutely love what we do, and we really love games! We decided the end of the year was a good time to look back and reflect on all of the exciting and positive things that have happened this year.  We have a new Studio Director – Nina Adams!  One of the biggest and best things that happened for our studio this year was Nina Adams being promoted to Studio Director! Nina has been at our studio almost from the very beginning and has helped build Auroch Digital to what it is today. She is passionate about making the games industry a fantastic place to work in which people can thrive and is an incredible leader of our herd – we are lucky to have her. Here’s what Nina had to say about it. “It’s incredibly exciting to be heading up the wonderful development team at Auroch, and to be its first woman Studio Director,” said Nina. “We’ve got 130 brilliant game developers working on some fantastic projects and I’m looking forward to help bring those games to launch alongside seeking out new opportunities for the studio.”   We launched Wildermyth: Console Edition  On 22nd October, we brought Worldwalker Games’ Wildermyth to new communities on consoles. Wildermyth: Console Edition launched on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. We’ve loved seeing adventurer’s first forays into the Yondering Lands. That’s not all, though! A physical version of Wildermyth: Console Edition launched in the US on the 9th November, followed by a UK and Europe release on the 26th November. This edition came with the Monster Compendium, a trusty tome packed full of information about the game’s monsters. Yet to begin your adventure? Read on! Aside from announcing over on PlayStation’s PS Blog, we also prepared 5 handy tips and tricks for anyone starting their adventure on Xbox.   We launched Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Forges Of Corruption On 18th June this year Malum Caedo returned in Forges Of Corruption, the DLC for our boomer shooter Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. It was released on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch. This DLC brought new levels, new enemies to destroy, new environments to explore, and new weapons for players to complete the purge!  We announced the DLC with a surprise trailer at Warhammer Skulls, which we had a live watch-a-long for in our official Auroch Digital discord.  Read more about the activities we ran in our Discord to celebrate the games launch in our Discord section of this article.  We hosted a Q&A over on Reddit to answer players questions about the DLC, and also shared an article from one of our lead artists on the game over on the Xbox Wire blog - Breathing Retro Life into the Cast of Enemies.  We launched Democracy 4: Console Edition On 5th June this year, we brought the political simulation series, Democracy, to consoles for the first-time ever with Democracy 4: Console Edition! The game launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, with it being backwards-compatible on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S systems. It’s been incredible to see console-based politicians making their mark in power across 10 different countries!  The release of the game came at a perfect time here in the UK, as an election was due to take place the very next month, so players could test out the manifestos of candidates from the various political parties. As the game was created on a custom-built neural network designed to model the opinions, beliefs, thoughts and biases of thousands of virtual citizens, it works very closely to real life! Looking to get a head start so your time overseeing your chosen country can be as successful as possible? We published a starter blog via Xbox Wire to help you begin your tenure.  We brought you updates on Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life We are still hard at work on the sequel to Mars Horizon. This year, we have had a whole host of new things to share about Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life! Back in March, we showcased the game’s Hex-Grid system, which will allow players to fully explore planets and moons as the search for signs of life. We paid a visit to our partners in the University of Edinburgh in May (which we’ll have more content to share early in 2025) as we looked to learn more about astrobiology and incorporate that into Mars Horizon 2. Regarding the University of Edinburgh, Dr Sean McMahon joined members of the development team for a talk at the Steam Festival TactiCon, which provided amazing insight on space exploration in games!  In September, we participated in Steam’s Space Exploration Fest, where we shared a video update on the game from members of the development team, in addition to brand-new gameplay footage. In mid-November, we shared an update to say that the release window will now be 2025. To go alongside this, we also shared the game’s new logo and game art, in addition to new screenshots. We can’t wait to share even more with you in 2025!   We did loads for Auroch Digital’s Charity Initiatives Auroch Digital takes on Tough Mudder! Giving back to our community is so important to us as a studio and this year we’ve been able to raise an amazing £2,600 for charity.  In August, several members of the Herd came together to run Tough Mudder in support of The Sunflower Ward and raised an amazing £1,185, meaning we’ve raised a grand total of £6,666 for the ward in total over the years! The ward uses all the funds we raise to buy games and books for the children, including sensory items which help with rehabilitation! Several members of our senior management team gave up their time to support the Bristol Animal Rescue Centre by creating toys for the injured or abandoned animals that find themselves in the shelter. Shelters can be quite scary as they’re loud and confusing. So, toys are a great distraction and perfect for chewing on! In addition to donating our time, we also donated £500 to BARC!  Last month, our studio took part in Movember (or Moovember as we call it) and raised a further £915 with many members of the Herd supporting a fantastic ‘tache in the name of Men’s Mental Health.   Outside of our own charity efforts, we also collaborated with Whales a