A month ago, Aestra: The Last Wish was just the game I wanted to play. I had no idea how to code, but I started building it anyway.
Today, over 17,000 people have played it. And while that number is wild to me, what really gets me is opening the game and seeing the minimap full of players.
People trading in the main city, dueling, finding groups and heading out to do content together. Seeing people actually spend time in this world, meet each other and come back to play more… it’s hard to describe how good that feels.
For anyone who missed my first post, Aestra is a real-time pixel action RPG with permadeath. You pick a class, quest, find gear, explore dungeons and take on raids. And then you get a little too confident, die, and start getting attached to a new character.
The first version cost me around $100 to build over a weekend. Since then, I’ve spent about $1,400 in total expanding it, with 9 classes, levels 1–100, talent trees, professions, world bosses and raids over the course of around 3-4 weeks.
I still have a list of probably 50 things I want to add. But seeing the game alive like this is already something I never really imagined. To everyone who’s played, shared feedback, brought a friend or lost a character to permadeath: thank you ❤️
If you’ve played, I’d love to hear your favorite moment so far. Or the story of how you lost your best character :)
Play Aestra free in your browser or on mobile
