Solo game developer Andrey Fomin publicly announced the early access release date of his ambitious and colorful Viction Game Award-winning ASCII art game, Effulgence RPG. This is not Fomin’s first release, much less his first time experimenting with the ASCII text style of artwork. His earlier projects, Proto Raider, ASCIILL, and Coin-OP Vice, use similarly vibrant yet simple retro-inspired art styles that set each of them apart from most modern indie titles.

Considering Effulgence in relation to his other works, the ASCII style Fomin has almost made his trademark at this point has effectively evolved past the initial oversimplicity seen notably in Proto Raider. Though shocking at first to the untrained eye, the intricate and highly intentional details that went into each character and enemy design seen in trailer footage are visually awe-inspiring. Environments and enemies pop right off the screen thanks to the use of a more modern lighting engine, allowing for greater depth to be expressed within each composition. The ripple of an ASCII font oak tree’s pink leaves as individual petals flutter to the ground in the wind’s gust, the flowing of waves under a beautiful full moon, or the rotation of a hidden image within a letter to the player are all examples of incredibly smooth animations that grab hold of the viewer’s eye immediately upon contact. It is this aesthetically pleasing art style and execution by Andrey Fomin that has drawn in thousands of excited gamers intrigued at the prospect of getting to try the game for free during its early access period, even without the need for a massively successful Kickstarter to find the game an audience.

Effulgence RPG is a game about a world far outside the reaches of our solar system. The ASCII symbols that make up the entirety of the game’s experience are explained to the player as being fragmented parts of a signal sent to Earth originating a million light-years away. These fragments, in text font form, are decoded and reassembled into logically animated characters, capable of being discerned by the human eye. On your journey through this vast and complex extraterrestrial landscape, players will gain party members in classic RPG fashion; however, by defeating these ASCII amalgamations, their text font bits will be broken apart, capable of being repurposed into weapons and tools of all kinds for the player. It is through this method of defeating and repurposing your enemies that players will grow stronger in this twisted RPG landscape.

Regarding the relevance of ASCII art in the modern era, Fomin directly addresses the situation head-on, posing and answering the question on the game’s Steam page:

Does ASCII art have a place in the era of True Color and ultra-high pixel densities? Absolutely!

By bringing the seemingly ancient ASCII text format and giving it the illusion of depth, bringing the style into the third dimension,

Effulgence is more than just a game – it’s an artistic exploration of light and symbols.

Effulgence RPG was released to a free early access state for PC gamers via Steam as of November 14.