Viking Survival Game Aska Gets Closed Beta In April, Here's How To Sign Up

Romanian developer Sand Sailor Studio and publisher Thunderful have announced that the third-person Viking sandbox survival game Aska is running its next closed beta in April. Specifically, the closed beta will take place April 15-21.

Anyone can sign up for the closed beta by wishlisting Aska on Steam and then visiting the game's Discord to learn more about next steps. Sign-ups close on April 5.

For anyone just catching up, Aska puts players on a mysterious island where they need to trek out and "build a Viking empire worthy of Odin's praise." The game is playable solo or with up to three others in co-op. You can get a closer look in the trailer below.

"Players must survive, summon intelligent NPC villagers, collect resources, and build a thriving settlement. Players will need to automate, manage and defend their expanding tribe and prepare to survive the bitter winters," reads a line from the game's description.

Aska has been in development for more than four years by a small team of 10 people. Creative director Cristian Diaconescu said, "We're entering the final phase of our beta testing period and we can't wait to give players the power to build their very own truly functional Viking village, who knows what they'll build."

A major component of Aska is its AI NPCs. As fans of survival-type games know, gathering and managing resources is a big time sink, but in Aska, AI characters do a lot of that for you as you serve as the tribe leader.