gravenoire

Hi everyone, I'm Benoit from Studio Gravenoire, a small self-funded French indie studio. We are currently working on Astralis: Dawnblades, a heroic fantasy tactical RPG for PC. I thought StrategyCore could be a good place to present the game because the community seems naturally interested in turn-based tactics, squad management, long-term progression and games where preparation matters as much as combat. Steam demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4233920/Astralis__Dawnblades/ Astralis: Dawnblades is not an X-COM, Jagged Alliance or Silent Storm clone, but it does share some adjacent interests: managing a group rather than a single hero, preparing before missions, reading enemy danger, and trying to bring your squad back with enough resources to make the next expedition possible. The basic loop is: - prepare your mercenary squads at the stronghold; - recruit and assign characters to different teams; - equip them and develop their roles; - choose expeditions on node-based maps; - fight turn-based tactical battles; - bring back loot and resources; - craft, improve and reorganize before leaving again. What I would especially like feedback on If anyone here has time to try the demo, the most useful feedback for us would be: 1. Does the squad preparation / expedition / combat / loot-crafting loop make sense quickly? 2. Are battles readable enough for tactical players? 3. Do enemies, skills, buffs/debuffs and danger levels feel clear? 4. Does the expedition structure create interesting risk/reward decisions? 5. Does the stronghold feel useful as part of the strategy layer, or just like a menu hub? 6. At what point did the demo become engaging, or at what point did you lose interest? There is also an optional system called MATB, which adds a timing layer over combat. It is meant to bring more dynamism for players who want it, while keeping a more classic turn-based pace available when disabled. Feedback on whether that feels useful or distracting is also welcome, but the main thing we want to test here is whether the core tactical/progression loop works. Quick info: - Title: Astralis: Dawnblades - Studio: Studio Gravenoire - Engine: Godot - Genre: heroic fantasy tactical RPG - Platform: PC / Steam - State: in development - Demo: available on Steam - Languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian - Target release: 2026 Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance to anyone who tries the demo or comments on the presentation. Critical feedback is welcome, especially from players who enjoy tactical and strategy games.