Divine Ascent

Divine Ascent is a turn-based strategy-puzzle game for solo play or local multiplayer. Six civilizations from ancient times compete to be taken to the heavens by the gods, who have fallen silent after contacting them ages ago. You build towers and place temples on their tops; the first player to place three temples wins.

Build and climb

On your turn, you can move your pawn orthogonally to an adjacent free square on the same floor, one floor above or one floor below. You can also add a piece to a free square using the piece shown in the corner of the screen. A temple appears when you place a pawn on a tower five pieces high, or on a tower three pieces high in Puzzle mode. After a temple appears, you place your pawn again using the same rules as at the start: on any free square on the base floor, or, if none is available, on the lowest free floor.

Special moves let you climb a staircase of free orthogonally adjacent squares if your pawn can climb onto its lowest piece, or jump onto a square directly in front of you that is one floor higher, provided every floor between is lower. If pawns, temples, pieces at least two floors higher or the board edge block all four squares around your pawn, you can place a new piece beneath it. Squares also have special properties that vary by location.

Game modes

• Arena: 24 multiplayer levels set in the locations of the different civilizations, with their particular special squares. Two to six human players or A.I. compete to build temples.
• Puzzles: 30 single-player puzzles of increasing difficulty, followed by a final stage that plays like an Arena level against five opponents. This scripted solo adventure requires you to solve levels to advance, with a limited number of moves to build a single temple, alone or against opponents in later stages.

The game uses tile-based isometric 3D graphics, and each civilization has its own theme and atmospheric background sound design.