Winds of Arcana: Ruination Devs on Pivoting from Mobile to PC, Working Assassin's Creed's Arbaaz, Steam Deck Support, Regional Pricing, and More
And it's likely India's first-ever metroidvania to boot.
I first played Winds of Arcana: Ruination at a web3 gaming conference. Yes, those were a thing back in the day when every game company was looking to extract fresh capital from an industry whose reputation needed to be laundered.
The crew at Brewed Games stood out. They weren’t pitching a crypto-infused game that needed you to spend on a semi-legal speculative currency, rather, their debut game played like a soulslike for mobile. It was probably the only good thing to come out of that conference.
Fast forward to 2025 and I was fortunate to play a new build of it at Indie Game Utsav. Now in its final form, Winds of Arcana: Ruination is a metroidvania for PC and console. There was a focus on precision platforming, puzzles, and exploration instead of ‘git gud’. It felt like what Brewed Games intended to make to begin with. Interestingly, it’s likely the first metroidvania to come out of the country too.
With Winds of Arcana: Ruination out on November 14, naturally, I had to reach out to studio co-founder and producer Prashanth DG to know more. What followed was a fascinating dive into Brewed Games’ origins, tackling a genre as complex as a metroidvania with a small team (spoiler alert: self-flagellation, maybe), regional pricing, working with talent from the Assassin’s Creed series, and a whole lot more. Some responses have been edited slightly for clarity and length.
1. For the uninitiated, could you give us a brief background of your game development journey?
We’re an indie game development studio based in Bangalore, India. We’re a group of friends who decided to pursue our longstanding passion – make video games filled with powerful stories, pulsating action, and sheer fun. We’re currently a team of 7; 4 founders and 3 team members. All unified by a love for gaming. Our first game, which is releasing on November 14th 2025, is called Winds of Arcana: Ruination. It is an action-focused 2.5D metroidvania set in a dark fantasy world with deep playstyle customisation and a fully-voiced narrative .
We’ve been working on this game for nearly five years now. It’s undergone multiple iterations from initially being a mobile platformer to a mobile metroidvania to a PC platformer then finally to a PC-first metroidvania.
In 2021, we began with an idea to make a casual mobile game, but our interests and passion slowly but surely drove us towards making something a little more ambitious. Which led us to making something quite ambitious indeed and here we are.
2. What’s Winds of Arcana: Ruination about and what can players expect at launch?
Winds of Arcana: Ruination follows the story of Aryn, a young mercenary who ventures into cursed lands searching for his mercenary family. Mechanically, it’s a 2.5D metroidvania featuring high octane action involving challenging combat and tide-turning magical powers. All the magical spells and weapons we provide will all be needed to defeat the vast variety of dangerous foes we’re throwing the player’s way.
Players can expect difficult boss fights, fun characters and side quests, a dark fantasy map to explore, lots of magic and weapons, and some platforming challenges.
3. What are the inspirations for Winds of Arcana: Ruination and how long has it been in development? How did you go about researching the topics it deals with and what was the reason for this choice of theme?
We’ve been developing this game for about five years now. One of our first inspirations were Ori 1 and 2. And Hollow Knight, of course. And when Hades came out, we absolutely loved the combat and the narrative so were pretty inspired by that as well.
As for theme and research we’re all fantasy geeks, so it just made sense to go with that theme. We all read, watch, and play a lot of fantasy-themed content on a regular basis, so choosing the theme wasn’t too difficult.
4. As a small indie studio, what was the appeal of working on a genre as complex as a metroidvania?
Self-flagellation. Just kidding. No, the idea of a metroidvania made sense for a small team like ours. We would have loved to make an open-world RPG but that’s a dream for another day. A metroidvania, if you think about it, is an open-world on a 2D plane. While still a mammoth task, it was an exciting prospect to build this world. As a small team with limited resources, we had to think creatively to overcome challenges and design the various aspects of the game.
5. Winds of Arcana: Ruination started life as a mobile game. What’s the thought process behind pivoting to PC and console?
We grew up playing PC and console games. So the allure of making a game for PC and console was always there. We just felt it was too ambitious for us at the time. But later, when it seemed it was possible to do it with the resources that we had, we simply thought ‘why not?’.
6. Is there anything you had to leave on the cutting floor that you wish you didn’t have to when you hit the big red ‘publish’ button?
Yup. Multiple things, actually. A boss fight that was supposed to have an additional chase sequence. A whole ‘hunter’ enemy mechanic. Lots of side-quest ideas. We wanted to do a lot more, which is crazy considering what we’ve done so far was, in itself, quite a task.
7. The Steam description of the game mentions a “fully-voiced story” with a “talented cast of voice actors”. What’s the reason for taking this approach as most studios at this scale prefer to focus on text or visual cues instead?
Immersion. We had the means to write decent dialogue and create fun characters. Voice acting adds a level of immersion that severely enhances the game experience. We always wanted to have spoken dialogue in our game, but when we played Hades, we knew there was no way in heck that we’re making a game without fully-voiced dialogue. It adds magic to the storytelling.
8. In one of your previous interviews you mentioned voice talent that worked on Assassin’s Creed worked on Winds of Arcana: Ruination — could you elaborate on who and what was it like to work with them?
Yes, their name is Johnny Neal. They voiced Arbaaz in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India. Working with Johnny has been an absolute delight. They’re super-talented, super-kind, and super-prompt with their work. I didn’t really have to direct anything beyond the initial cues I gave. They understood the character and the brief immediately and fit the role perfectly.
9. What challenges have you faced developing a game of this kind?
Art was a huge challenge. Being a 3D world, it required a lot of effort to make the levels and populate it with custom props and so on. Testing and balancing was also a difficult endeavour. The nature of a metroidvania allows backtracking, so planning for any eventuality and order of events was a doozy. But fun nonetheless.
10. And given that this is your first game, is there anything you would have done differently?
Definitely. We learned so much through this process. We know how to prepare better. The biggest takeaway is to prototype and test immediately. Only then move on to prototyping the next mechanic or system.
11. Indian audiences usually expect a lower price tag on Steam. I’m curious to know, as a developer and a gamer, what are your thoughts on regional pricing?
As both a developer and gamer, it’s always a good thing when more folks get to experience your game. And regional pricing opens access to more people and that’s a wonderful thing. Not to be too idealistic. Regional pricing means more people buy the game too. And that’s also good from a commercial point of view.
12. Are there plans to support handheld PCs like the Steam Deck or ROG Xbox Ally X?
Yes, definite plans to do so. We want to port it to as many platforms as possible. We’re trying our best to make that happen.
13. Finally what advice do you have for anyone looking to pursue a career in game development?
If you want to pursue a career in game development, start by understanding that this industry is made up of many disciplines—design, programming, art, audio, production, writing, QA, and more. Pick your lane, but stay curious about the others; the more you understand how different parts of a game come together, the stronger your creative instincts become. Game development also demands constant learning—new tools, new workflows, new engines, new challenges every single day—so being adaptable is just as important as being skilled. Finally, stay updated with industry trends and network like crazy. Opportunities in games often come from the people you meet, the communities you contribute to, and the passion you show along the way.
Winds of Arcana: Ruination is out on November 14, 2025 for PC via Steam. You can wishlist it now.