Devlog #1: Worldbuilding, Character Lore, Artwork Updates!

Hi recruits! It's a new year and we've been hard at work on Ascended over the winter season—all so we can release the full version to you this Spring.

The past few months have been an extremely busy time for us. A large portion of our time has been focused on bringing our original vision for Ascended to life through worldbuilding and art.

🌍Shaping the World of Arcadia

For those of you who have followed our journey from the beginning or had the chance to become a beta tester, you may have noticed a name change to our app. Ascended's early concept model was titled "Level Up" while we were still deciding on a name, after our studio "Level Up Fitness". This version of the app (which beta users are still actively testing) was never meant to be permanent representation of our user experience. "Season 1" was set in Westhaven, a cyberpunk, near-future city overrun with an "alien-like" invasion. This was an experimental strategy to test rotating seasonal content set in different worlds with new storylines. We are still discussing the decision to rotate seasonal content within the same world (expansions) or new worlds each season.

Season 2, the full release of Ascended, is set in the world of Arcadia, a sacred high-fantasy realm where power is granted through divine trials, order is maintained by balance, and heroism is proven through continual worth.

Our first hand-drawn concept art of Arcadia's map.

Players are sent to the Nexus Academy as heroes to see if they are worthy of becoming one of the Ascended—a chosen few who are responsible for defending the region of Arcadia from the looming threat. The inspiration for the Nexus and the world of Arcadia were drawn from Fable, Lionshead’s 2004 original XBOX RPG, as well as war academies in sci-fi/fantasy novels like Harry Potter, The Name of the Wind, Fourth Wing and Red Rising.

The Nexus Academy design process in blender.

Arcadia's vibes are meant to be a blend of eerie and cozy. The world holds an unspoken power that is waiting to be unlocked by players as they progress through the storyline with their real-world effort. Players can expect the dialogue, humor, tone and objectives of Missions to mimic popular rpgs like Skyrim, Baulder's Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and The Witcher 3.

✍️Creating Characters You'll Love

Something we're especially hyped about revealing is the character cast of Ascended. Developing these characters was something we wanted to take our time with. Users of our app aren't just playing a regular video game, they are making the decision to bring positive change to their lives. We see Ascended as more than "just a fitness app" or "just a game", it is an experience personally shaped for people who want to become a better, stronger version of themselves. Our character cast was designed with this in mind. Users can expect to be led through a journey of self-discovery by people who mirror their own struggles—loss, anxiety, identity, and purpose. Each character has a unique story and growth arc, meant to land a deep emotional resonance and inspire players as they move forward in their own journey.

Early concept art for Loevi Thayne, combat instructor at the Nexus.

Written and shaped by our founders, these characters are deeply personal to us. Crafted to guide players as they grow, struggle, and discover who they’re becoming. Visit our homepage to read about the characters you'll interact with in Arcadia.

🎨 Choosing the Right Partners for Art

Over the past 6 months, we've been working with a handful of freelance artists to develop concept art as we shaped the direction for Ascended.

More recently, we made the decision to hire GRAFIT, a AAA art studio, who has worked on some of the game titles that inspired Ascended's worldbuilding and artistic direction. Because Ascended is largely story-driven, visual quality and delivering characters that our true to our vision are foundational to our user experience. We feel strongly that this partnership was right choice to bring the world of Arcadia to life at the level we believe players deserve (we knew it in our bones the moment we shared sharing photos of our cats on slack).

No cats were paid for their contributions, though several demanded compensation in treats.

GRAFIT's team is currently hard at work designing our character cast, avatar presets and weapons players can purchase in the item shop.

Ascended's avatar and character digital sketch art from GRAFIT STUDIO

We will be revealing character art for our new cast in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!