ASKA on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Lay claim to unspoiled lands and pave the way for a fierce Viking tribe. Craft the ultimate settlement solo or together with up to x3 friends. Trust in the Gods and the power of the Eye of Odin and summon intelligent NPC villagers to provide camaraderie and relief from the toils of survival.
ASKA is a early access, online co-op and multiplayer game
developed by Sand Sailor Studio
and published by Thunderful Publishing.
Released on June 20th 2024 is available only on Windows
in 13 languages: English, German, Romanian, French, Italian, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Ukrainian.
It has received 7,075 reviews of which 5,660 were positive and 1,415 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.8 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam with a 40% discount, but you can find it for 11.16€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified ASKA into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel Core i5 6600 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
- Memory: 16GB GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 (6GB) or AMD RX 590
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 6 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I adore this game and it's only going to get better. You're basically a viking man/woman (male better a physical combat and mining/woodcutting, female better at ranged/gathering) and you have to build up a village whilst defending from increasing waves of monsters (can turn this feature off thankfully and just leave monsters out in the wilds). Game's VERY slowed paced so don't expect to have a big town for a good while. AI villagers help speed stuff up though currently, they do need a bit of babysitting still. There's always something to do though. Really good updates and there's usually a major one every month. Have a look at the news section and see the great updates they've done since launch. I'd like to see more player settings added though similar to the world ones. I'm not one for equipment that breaks, annoys me beyond belief, so I'd love options to have unlimited durability on equipment. The game does try and sell itself a Viking/Norse themed game, but I don't 100% get that vibe. It's more a pesudo-tribal town builder with a hint of Norse mythology thrown in. Buildings don't look very pre-Christian Nordic if I'm honest and more like makeshift wooden things currently. Maybe they'll do a building aesthetic overall one day. Really relaxing game.
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Thoughts on ASKA so far I played the game on default settings, except I set decay rate to low. -I got 2 bear attacks just before winter. One at day 15 and one at day 20. The bear attacks were literally impossible to beat by this point in time of the game. These bear attacks are DRASTICALLY more difficult than the other attacks you receive. The difficulty spike is too large for how quickly this happens. -The seasons pass too quickly. Every 7 days, a new season passes. This means winter starts by day 21. You’ve barely even finished building a halfway working settlement by this time. -The days pass too quickly. I find myself needing to eat and drink every couple of minutes. And every moment feels like time is escaping me before I have a chance to do something about it. -Trees do not respawn, and you'll eventually find yourself in a position where you're out of resources. Overall, this game is fun and interesting. I really like the idea of setting up a village. But the speed of the game needs a bit more fine tuning. I'd also like the option to change these speed settings after the map has already been created, so I don't have to start all over again.
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The village building RTS elements and the responsive gameplay make Aska stand out from other survival crafting games. It can be a cozy village builder or a gritty survival crafter in whatever proportion you like now that custom settings are available. Pros: * Gameplay feels responsive and controls are intuitive; keys can be remapped * Focus on village building makes the world feel substantially less empty than other survival crafters * There is a lot to build, and a whole game unto itself around village layout and resource and personnel mangement and workflow. Villager have individual traits that make them better or worse at specific jobs, during particular times of day, and in different weather. * Build designs are extremely thoughtful and immersive; each phase of construction a build goes through revolves around a specific section of the final building, requiring logical resources - thatch for the beds inside the cottage, bark for rooves, logs for foundation posts, etc. * Combat is a satisfying combination of player skill and gear quality. It's satisfying that you can kill most anything with a tree branch if you have the patience and skill, and it's also satisfying that swapping that tree branch for an iron axe makes short work of mundane foes even if the wielder is not very skilled. * You can do any job your villagers can do, so although the game can become grindy if your villager loadout is inadequate for your plans, it's rare for production bottlenecks to cause problems. * Female default protagonist is great; it's also great that you can choose to be male character as well if you wish. Aska and Ragnar are both fun to play. * Animal AI scripts are very immersive; lone wolves dart in when you're distracted, but facing them causes them to back off - only to come back before long to catch you distracted again. Wolves in groups are bolder and attack more directly, and groups form by happenstance as individual wolves wander the area near their den spawner. Prey animals dash in to steal your resources but dart away if humans come too near. * The rendering of the fields and forests and beaches of Aska is good but not great; but the wilderness is well designed, allowing for a cozy, chill experience when not in direct conflict with undead monsters. ;D * Single player game allows pausing! * Villager AI is good; they eat, sleep, work, rally to defend the village, and flee from predators reliably, and seem able to locate resources stored in various buildings, on the ground, etc as needed. I have never lost a villager to starvation or cold, only to catastrophic violence. Cons: * The terraforming mechanisms are rudimentary and it is VERY challenging to set up a village layout that isn't marred by immovable, unusable boulders and frequent abrupt changes in elevation (realistic but annoying). Other factors also make it challenging to set up a good village layout; the island feels small, densely packed with forest and rock, and a bit light on flat land near important resources. * Grindy, especially while you are learning about how best to allocate your human resources. Whatever your villagers are not doing you must do yourself, and there is a LOT of work to do to reach the point of being able to make clothes for the winter, metal weapons and leather armor for end game fights, and advanced tools for advanced mechanics like wolf taming. Certainly not worse than other survival crafters in this respect, though, and at least the villagers can be assigned to focus on things you particularly don't want to deal with. * Slow to start. There is a lot of end game content I have never seen because I find myself restarting frequently to try to apply my new insights to identifying a better starting location, making better early game choices, etc. This is entertaining for me, but drags out tremendously in time because the beginning of the game is slow and drawn out. The period before the first tool upgrade can be agonizing at times, since gathering the resource required to create new villagers takes ages with the Tier 0 pickaxe. Once you get the Tier 1 tools things pick up, but Tier 2, metal tools, is far, far away. Many factors can wreck an early settlement before you ever get within spitting distance of metal tools. This is not too devastating most of the time because you can reduce your labor by assigning villagers to do it, but getting enough villagers in the first place can be a haul. * Procedural island generation means that it's possible to roll a dud in various ways, where the only metal harvesting node is surrounded by challenging enemy spawners, there is no flat land in sufficient proximity to a source of natural water to make an efficient farm near your village, etc. This doesn't make your game unplayable but it does make some seeds much, much more challenging (and grindy) than others. I once had a game where my iron cave was very close to a smolkr (large, rabbit-like prey animals that steal and consume resources of all types) spawner, and before I could figure out how to stop them, they had eaten all the iron my villager mined from the cave, driving us back again and again for more until my miner broke through into a nest of deadly mine critters that slaughtered my villagers . Many factors affect the desirability of a village site, and some seeds are just better than others, necessitating some difficult decisions about whether it's less annoying to restart or to power through on a seed that is objectively more challenging/time consuming/etc. Overall, even with its flaws, Aska is the survival crafter that I come back to over and over and play with my partner.
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If you are into city management, strategy and survival games, this game is for you. I don't know if it is because I love these kinds of games but despite all the complaints saying this game is hard, I find it easier and simply strive to do a better job on my next play through. I have three playthroughs with the last two being solo. This game can be played solo despite what other reviewers are saying. You simply need to be strategic about everything you are doing. I am on my third play through and I had a village of about 50 villagers before the first winter invasion. No food shortages, most resource storages was full, and most villagers were wearing full winter gear. Nobody died from the winter or the invasion. This was all done solo so it can be done. I did not feel like it was that hard. I feel like I am in the minority when I say that this game can actually go ahead with trying to be more challenging. Do not play this as one would play Valheim. They are not the same game. Buildings are prefabs and not custom built. It reminds me of how it is in Kenshi (a great game btw). The layout in how you design your village matters. For example, place all your food related structures together and all your crafting structures in its own area as well. Place warehouses to cater to the buildings in the area as well. Pros: By having the villagers do the jobs that you appoint them too, the main grinding to gather and craft everything is taken away. Once you learn how to manage your village, the game is not grindy at all in my opinion. Villagers who are on the verge of dying in combat actually run from battle instead of getting themselves killed. Its nice to see that kind of intelligence. It's not perfect of course but there is more than a 50% likelihood of a villager/soldier not getting themselves killed needlessly. They do not account for the wolves bleed effect so that will still kill a villager even if they run away. I love the warehouse in the game and the job associated with it. It basically allows you to have an NPC do all the boring tasks of organizing resources into containers and even collects resources dropped by other villagers. This is a must have for any village and it resolves all of the complaints about villagers dropping expensive useful items. Once its unlocked, don't wait too long to build one. Resources to build buildings are realistic. There are no generic wood or stone costs to build buildings which is refreshing to see. You'll need a combination or logs, sticks, bark, planks, beams, boulders, etc to build some buildings. This would be annoying if you as the player were building but that is why the game has assigned builders. I only bother to build when I am in a rush. Roads that can be made in the game have a purpose. The only bad thing is that only the player can make roads. Cons: I find that it is the melee combat in this game that needs the most improvement. Combat is too easy in its current state. Combat is essentially hit then dodge roll, hit again and if enemy is stunned, wail on them. If not, dodge roll again and repeat until enemy is stunned. I started combat with a shield but find that using a shield is pointless. The game only rewards dodge roll and hit combat. The only thing good is that your villagers actually use the dodge roll effectively on their end so they at least are good at combat. I think there needs to be a combat overall to make a bit more realistic and challenging. Fiber, which is needed for rope, is needed for everything and most other reviewers correctly complain about it. My way of combating this is while your village is focusing on everything else, I gather fiber every time I see it. In my most recent playthrough, I was sure to set up a flax farm as my first farm. When gathering Jotun Blood to summon more villagers, I only work on gathering fiber during those gathering trips. I do not gather anything else. With this method, I end up not having much of a fiber/rope shortage. I find that rakes have perhaps less durability than they should. Farmers constantly complain about no rakes in the game which is annoying because they require rope like everything else. This makes farming more resource demanding than I would like. I suggest to any brand new players to skip farming until after the first winter. In my second play through, I had villagers needlessly get themselves killed due to dehydration or freezing because they stay at the guard tower or glitched in a cave too long. I found this rather annoying since it was not anything I did wrong as a player. Suggestions to the devs: Allow for the option to add more than one job per villager. If anyone on the team has ever played Kenshi, I love the jobs hierarchy in the game which I use to have an efficient self sustaining base in the game. I would recommend looking into that game to get an idea of what I am talking about although I am sure other games may have similar concepts. I simply can't stand when my smelter complains about a shortage of iron ore when he or she can have a side job until iron is resupplied. At the minimum, I recommend having an optional secondary job being added for each villager. I don't want to micromanage jobs too much in the game. To make the game more unpredictable, I wish wolves and other enemies would occasionally roam away from their spawn point in a pack/group. This would make things more challenging as currently, I can strategically place gather points away from all the spawns and not have to ever worry about villagers getting harmed which is not realistic. Be reasonable with this of course because overdoing this can quickly become overwhelming. Currently, a reeds node supplies one thatch which you can convert to one fiber. Visually the reeds node you gather looks like it can create a rope or two. Since rope cost two fiber, either reeds need to give more thatch or thatch needs to be able to convert to more than one fiber. Yes I know this is a petty suggestion but this would help with complaints about rope shortages from other players. More biomes although I am sure this is in the works being that this game is early access. I would love to see rivers and mountains just like how it is shown in the main menu of the game. I currently find no need for a boat when I build an inland base but a river would fix that. Maybe have a Chieftain's assistant type job assigned to the Chieftain's house or something similar to allow a player to set custom tasks for them. Tasks like chop down tree trunks or keep all the fires going in the area would be nice to have. Split screen so that both my wife and I can play on the couch :) Other notes: The final boss, as of August 24th 2024, is well designed. It was quite challenging to kill. There are YouTube videos of people using a bow to cheese through it, I don't like playing with a bow so I didn't do it that way. That said, I feel like a bow is way too powerful for a stone based enemy. It should be nerfed. To melee kill it, I had to get 6 of my soldiers involved and none died because they fled just before they would die (thanks good programming). Currently I think playing as Ragnar is better than playing as Aska. Per the description, Aska is better at managing and leadership but this does not really show in any practical way in the game. Because Ragnar is quicker at doing manual labor, the early boost in the game from this outweighs the advantage of playing as Aska.
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I've been playing this sort of genre for a very long time, and the games that are the most fun take things from other successful games and combine it into a seamless whole. Aska has the time scheduler of Rimworld, the 3rd person village building of Medieval Dynasty, the combat approaching Valheim (but not that good), the countdown to a large assault of 7 days to die. You play games for a long enough time and you see this sort of progression of features. The start is always the same: you begin with nothing, naked, alone, and it's always exciting on first plays to find out where you can go. Can you build things from components, or are there ready made structures? (it's the latter, but very modular). Is there a skill tree with abilities? (no, but there are skills). Is there a progressively more difficult combat challenge as time progresses? (somewhat). Do you hack it alone or can you build a community? (community!). Is there always something to do? (yes). Are better things gated by scarce resources? (gated yes, scarce no). Can you build roads and do they matter? (yes!) Is surviving with food and drink at the start hard? (no). Are there quests? (no). Are decorations just cosmetic or do they help? (they help!). Are your villagers generic or do they come with skillsets? (skillsets!) Is your building area constrained? (nope you can build anywhere). Can you mod the terrain? (yes, except for certain rocks, and it's tedious but possible to make slopes). Fixed, designed map or randomly generated via seeds? (seeds) I could go on with the various aspects of survival and management crafters but Aska slaps together enough of these features in a satisfying enough manner to keep you going. The game is absolutely not difficult. You will fail the first time because winter is absolutely punishing unless you rush to a farm, plant one or two 16 plot fields of flax, and get yourself and your crew some basic clothes via the weaver workshop addon before day 21ish. If you manage that, everything else is trivial, especially after you craft your first gambeson. But despite a lack of difficulty, the way you design your village and its tasks matter a lot, and you'll spend lots of time thinking on how to optimize everything and how to secure a steady flow of things that are not scarce (birch trees) but nevertheless require a lot of labour and steps. Absolute recommend. Playing it with my cousin. Sadly the difficulty does not scale with extra players, but the game is young, the expansion possibilities are endless, and the base is solid and enjoyable. ---- Game developer time is zero sum, feature bloat is a danger, but there are tried and true satisfying game mechanics that improve rather than detract from most games. Existing features from other games that would make Aska even better: 1) gating better things via boss fights (Valheim) 2) new biomes with new stuff via sailing (Valheim) 3) better task priority system (Rimworld) 4) Rivers, bridges, watermills 5) More elaborate production chains that take a finished product as a base component of a more advanced product (Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program etc) 6) better and better modes of personal transportation and transportation of stuff (Medieval Dynasty). Already in place somewhat with sleds and the excellent carts 7) expansion of psychological state of villagers (Rimworld) 8) underground pantry to prevent food spoilage (Going Medieval) 9) siege equipment, both friendly and hostile (Going Medieval) 10) more animal husbandry (Rimworld, Going Medieval) 11) Skill trees with investible points 12) more/interesting POIs 13) crop rotation system with fertility mechanic, where you have to leave things fallow 14) expansion of random events 15) diseases 16) items with quality levels and variable stats I could go on but ive got to go to work :(
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Frequently Asked Questions
ASKA is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam.
ASKA is currently available at a 40% discount. You can purchase it for 14.99€ on Steam.
ASKA received 5,660 positive votes out of a total of 7,075 achieving a rating of 7.79.
😊
ASKA was developed by Sand Sailor Studio and published by Thunderful Publishing.
ASKA is playable and fully supported on Windows.
ASKA is not playable on MacOS.
ASKA is not playable on Linux.
ASKA offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
ASKA includes Co-op mode where you can team up with friends.
ASKA does not currently offer any DLC.
ASKA does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
ASKA does not support Steam Remote Play.
ASKA is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for ASKA.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 03 July 2025 11:02 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 27 June 2025 17:24 |
| Steam price | 04 July 2025 04:49 |
| Steam reviews | 02 July 2025 00:05 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about ASKA, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about ASKA
- SteamCharts - Analysis of ASKA concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck ASKA compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
1,094
Developer
Sand Sailor Studio
Publisher
Thunderful Publishing
Release
20 Jun 2024
Platforms
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