Hello everyone!
We are just over a month away from Aether & Iron's full release on March 31st and wanted to release an update to make sure the demo best represents the experience you'll have in the game's full release.
This update focuses on early-game stability, combat balance, UI clarity, and presentation polish.
Thank you to everyone who has been playing the demo and sharing your feedback!
New
More voiced dialogue in the demo (plus fixes for VO that fired at the wrong time or didn’t match subtitles).
Combat feels fairer and clearer with early-encounter balance tweaks, and improved tooltips.
UI/UX improvements for vehicle setup, inventory, tutorials, and controller play.
New accessibility warning before combat for players sensitive to motion sickness / flashing lights.
More robust save support (including behind-the-scenes improvements so saves behave more reliably between updates).
Improved
Combat & Balance
Early combats rebalanced for pacing and readability (including HP/AP tuning and encounter flow tweaks).
Aura and hazard tooltips now communicate effects more clearly, including who they affect and hazard type.
Better enemy/vehicle consistency so bystanders and enemies are easier to identify.
Improved combat performance in several encounters (especially around turn transitions and heavier VFX moments).
UI/UX
Vehicle customization defaults to a clearer “part map” view to help you understand what fits where.
Storage upgrades are easier to compare, with clearer slot counts and “net gain/loss” info.
Improved presentation for tooltips, popups, and UI text (including non-English layouts).
More readable POI outlines across key early locations, making it easier to spot what’s interactable.
Better handling of widescreen monitors.
Miscellaneous
Campaign sorting order now matches your save file sorting order, so your most recently updated campaign appears at the top.
Repairing vehicles at The Hole is now free.
Improved translations in several key early-game areas.
Fixed
Combat
Fixed cases where visual effects or auras persisted after enemies were eliminated.
Fixed several encounter-specific issues that could cause odd deaths, broken flow, or incorrect outcomes.
Narrative & Scenes
Fixed a large set of issues where the demo could block progress, including:
Getting stuck in certain conversations or mission states.
Edge cases around leaving/returning to hubs and key locations.
Several cases where interactions or POIs didn’t appear when they should.
UI/UX
Fixed multiple issues with controller navigation (including history screens and incorrect prompts).
Fixed issues in the control remapping UI (mouse wheel scrolling and keybinding behavior).
Fixed UI bugs like double victory text, fuzzy icons, and misaligned roads in some areas.
Misc
Fixed audio continuing to loop after pausing/unpausing in some cases.
Fixed some localization edge cases (including missing characters and incorrect fonts).
Known Issues
There are still instances of missing and/or mismatched VO.
Thank you for playing, reporting issues, and helping us make Aether & Iron better.
March 31st is just around the corner, and we're excited to release our first game!
If you enjoyed the demo, be sure wishlist the game:
And if you haven't joined our Discord yet, come hang out. We're active daily and always happy to chat:
https://www.discord.gg/SeismicSquirrel
See you at launch!
- Seismic Squirrel & Chaos Theory Games