The public demo for Nomad: The Legend of Zarqa is out now on Steam. Eight playtests and more than 900 players shaped every arrow in it.
Many of you know us from Azooma Escape, a lighthearted stealth-comedy about dodging family hospitality. Nomad is a big creative leap from there: a dark, kinetic action roguelite that brings an overlooked mythos from the Arabian Peninsula to life. We had seen so many games build worlds around Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythology, and we kept asking what it would look like if we looked a little closer to home.
We did not build it alone. Seven closed playtests with more than 220 community testers, then a public playtest with more than 700 players. We went back to the drawing board after each round. Every arrow trajectory, dash cooldown and boss phase in the demo exists because of that feedback.
In the demo: precision bow combat with Layth's Bow, more than 14 Boons and upgrades to combine into screen-clearing builds, and a 2.5D world of hand-drawn characters and pixel art inside a dynamic 3D environment.
The demo is on the Steam page now. Nomad launches in 2027 on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
Ash Games Studio is a Saudi-born, remote-first indie studio of 18, founded in 2022.
Follow us on LinkedIn, X or email info@ashgamesstudio.com.