Stone and Sky: Ashes of the First Age

Build, dig, fly, fight

You raise a hall, send workers for gold and wood, train an army and go for the enemy. That much is the real-time strategy you know. The rest is the world.

Every map has a second map under it. Dwarves carve the Deep Roads out of the rock cell by cell, open mine shafts into them, lay rails through them and come up where nobody is watching. Elves build the other way, upward: their citadel is the heart of a web of spires, outposts float, and gold flies home down the lanes between them.

Goblins swarm out of warrens dug into the dirt and make weapons out of whatever they find. Humans hold the middle ground the old way, with castles of fieldstone, royal blue banners and the faith of their clerics.

Four peoplesDwarves, Elves, Goblins and Humans, each with its own buildings, units, research and way of winning.

Two levelsThe surface and the Deep Roads beneath it, with the sky as the Elves' third.

Skirmish nowPlay against the computer on generated maps today. Campaign and multiplayer are in the works.

The four peoples

Each one plays differently, and you can tell them apart from across the map.

Dwarves

Stone, iron and runes. They dig the Deep Roads, seal their hold with great doors, run ore wagons on rails and build their hall up into a mountain throne.

Elves

Marble, mithril and aether. Their citadel spire powers a web of lanes, outposts lift into the air, and a called gale slows an enemy army to half its pace.

Goblins

Scrap, leather and green crystal. Warrens in the dirt, scavengers everywhere, and numbers that keep coming.

Humans

Fieldstone, steel and faith. Castles that hold, soldiers in royal blue, and clerics who keep them standing.

Screens

From the game as it plays today. It is an alpha; everything here is still being worked on.

A dwarf hold with miners at work — A dwarf hold at the start of a match, miners heading for the gold.

An elf citadel with its workers — The elves' citadel, where their web of spires begins.

A goblin warren dug into the dirt — A goblin warren.

A line of dwarf shield bearers on the march — A dwarf shield line on the march.

The Deep Roads cut away beneath the map — The Deep Roads, cut away beneath the surface: tunnels the dwarves dug cell by cell.

A human castle of fieldstone — A human castle.

Where it stands

Stone and Sky is in alpha. A small group of testers plays new builds on Linux, Windows and Mac and tells us what broke and what was fun.

Skirmish against the computer works, with all four peoples, generated maps and the Deep Roads under every one of them. We are building the campaign and multiplayer now, and the tools we use to make units, textures and voices for the game.

Testing is by invitation for now. More here as the game grows.

PlatformsLinux, Windows and macOS, one build each, updated from inside the game.

Made byShordal Labs, a small studio.