JOURNALS

Dev Journal

Ashes II Dev Journal #8: The Actors of War on Stage Pt. 1

The first faction to take the stage, the United Earth Force represents humanity’s fight for survival against impossible odds. In this entry, we explore how realism, grit, and visual clarity define the look and feel of the UEF on the battlefield. The United Earth Force – Discipline and Steel Previously, we spoke about the environment as the grand stage. It’s the backdrop where the player directs an epic performance of conquest and survival. Every stage needs its first actor, and in the Ash... [read more]

Dev Journal

Ashes II Dev Journal #7: Tech Trees vs. Building Upgrades

In Ashes of the Singularity , we had a bit of a hybrid system for unlocking orbital abilities, units, and buildings. If you built the right building, you unlocked a additional units, buildings, and orbital abilities. On the other hand, if you wanted to upgrade your abilities, like armor quality or logistics or weapon power and such, you had to increment a corresponding technology level, which you did by spending the Quanta resource. So here we are again, Ashes of the Singularity II . On... [read more]

Dev Journal

Ashes II Dev Journal #6: Setting the Stage for Battle

When designing a real-time strategy game, most people think first about the units: the soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and other powerful pieces that players use to dominate the battlefield. But as the art director on Ashes of the Singularity II , I know that the real star of the screen is the environment itself. The terrain is what players spend the majority of their time looking at. It’s not just a backdrop - it’s the stage where every battle is fought, every strategy unfolds, and every story eme... [read more]

Dev Journal

Ashes II Dev Journal #5: Evolving Production for a Grander Scale

In the original Ashes of the Singularity , we noted some key pain points when it came to producing units and managing armies in the late game. One of the first frustrations was the need to micromanage numerous production buildings during large-scale conflicts as the game progressed. You could dogpile engineers onto a single production building to make it construct faster, but if you were trying to field various cruisers, frigates, etc., you still would need to manage several different buildings... [read more]

Dev Journal

Ashes II Dev Journal #4: Building Better Worlds

Making the map a character When you think about RTS games, what do you spend most of the time looking at? More than your base, more than your armies - it is the terrain itself. It sets the scale of the conflict, shapes how battles unfold, and creates the sense of immersion that keeps players engaged. For Ashes of the Singularity II, we wanted to push this further by creating maps that are larger, more detailed, and more responsive. Our work on Ara: History Untold taught us a lot about h... [read more]

Dev Journal

Ashes II Dev Journal #3: Making the "BIG" Accessible

Updated: 22 Aug 2025 Oxide has always loved RTS games that go BIG. Big maps, sprawling bases, units all over the place - the whole chaotic sprawl. While we certainly love more ‘tactical’ RTS games as well, with Ashes of the Singularity, Oxide wanted to go BIG, harkening back to genre stalwarts like Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander . However, as we prepared to develop Ashes of the Singularity II , we wanted to tackle the core problem of “BIG”. One key challenge was that th... [read more]