What a year 2025 has been for Auroch Digital. We’ve had several game announcements, a spin-off release, charity events, community activities, and more!

To highlight the past 12 months, we wanted to put together a list of major activities and events that happened throughout the year. We’re extremely proud of what we accomplished and loved looking back at it all. Let’s get right onto everything that made 2025 so special!

We announced Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2

On the 22nd of May at the Warhammer Skulls Showcase, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 was announced for 2026.

Following directly on from the end of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, your duty takes you to new locations in a branching, single-player campaign that effortlessly blends the grimdark Warhammer 40:000 universe with a fast-paced first-person shooter.

Not only will players take control of the unwavering space marine, Malum Caedo, but they will also experience Boltgun 2 as Nyra Veyrath, who is a skilled and remorseless Celestian within the Sisters of Battle.

We have loved seeing the community’s reaction to both the announcement of Boltgun 2 and the new playable character. We can’t wait to share even more information with you as we build up to release!

We released Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance

Our second announcement at this year’s Warhammer Skulls Showcase on the 22nd of May was the immediate release of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance, a free-to-play first-person typing game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe!

Well done to the Boltgun community as so many of you mastered incredible words such as Manufactorum, Incommodus, and Astronomican!

Thank you to everyone who has played the game so far. If you haven’t, you can play it for free now on Steam!

We announced Warhammer Survivors

The Auroch Warhammer reveals don’t stop there as we announced on the 4th of November that we are releasing Warhammer Survivors in 2026!

Warhammer Survivors is a fast-paced roguelite survivors' game, pitting a host of iconic Warhammer characters against endless hordes of enemies from multiple Warhammer factions.

We know the community has been asking for a Warhammer Survivors game for a while and we’re so proud to be working on this game in partnership with both Warhammer and poncle (Vampire Survivors). We have so much to show you in Warhammer Survivors and can’t wait to share everything we have in store for the game in 2026.

We Announced Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!

To round off our reveals this year, we announced Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! on the 4th of December.

Lock and load into the Starship Troopers universe and join the Mobile Infantry in the most realistic depiction of war ever made! Experience an original story in this action-packed, first-person retro shooter.

This is our first foray into the Starship Troopers universe and the positivity from the community has been incredible. We’re excited to share more with you ahead of the release in Q1 2026.

Would you like to know more?

Exciting Auroch news

In November, we announced that Auroch Digital is now part of the newly formed gaming collective Roundtable Interactive.
We're excited about the next chapter for our studio, and the new and exciting opportunities for the future that being acquired by Round Table Interactive provides. We’ve got lots more to share about our latest games, as well as more announcements coming soon, so make sure to keep an eye out.
In September, we released the Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life - Test Mission demo on Steam. Race against your rivals to uncover life amongst the cosmos in this strategic space management simulation that spans the Solar System. Lead a test mission to search the surface of Mars, deploying research rovers and building a vast network of infrastructure.
To continue our moomentum when it comes to cow-themed items for our staff, we unleashed a herd of Auroch-themed plushies into our teams' homes! Aren’t they just the cutest?

We raised money for various charities

Helping out charities where we can is always something which the studio prides itself in and this year was no different.

As patrons of The Sunflower Ward as part of The Grand Appeal, we have raised money for the charity and, as a result of our efforts this year, have raised a total of £7,500 between 2022 and 2025. With the studio being based in Bristol, it means a lot to us to be able to support young patients at Bristol Children’s Hospital and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Hospital.

We were also fortunate enough to be included in a variety of charity Steam events organised by other developers and publishers.

In February, we participated in the Great Ormond Street (GOSH) and Team 17 Steam Sale and the GamesAid Charity Sale, where we donated a percentage of Mars Horizon’s sales to these great causes. We know the tremendous work both charities do and to be able to support these causes was a huge privilege.

In September, Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 were part of the Games Against Living Miserably Steam event, which was ran by Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and Curve Games. The event was organised to highlight World Suicide Prevention Day, which took place during the event.

A huge thanks to GOSH, Team17, GamesAid, CALM, and Curve Games for featuring our titles in these events.

At Develop: Brighton in July, we sponsored the End of Conference Party. The party was hosted in aid of the video game charity, Special Effect. Thank you for allowing us to be part of this great celebration! 🎉

Keeping with the spirit of an annual Auroch tradition, we sponsored a Highland cow! Elspeth is fidgety, friendly, and fun loving! 🧡🐮

Sustainability and animal conservation efforts are near and dear to our hearts, and being able to contribute to Dumble Farm means a lot to us! Money raised by Highland cow sponsorship goes towards the creation of new habitats which is at the center of Dumble Farm's conservation project.

We hosted our third Moocon event!

For a third year in a row, we hosted Moocon in Bristol, which brought the entire Auroch Digital team together. Even though we are a remote-first studio, we come together once a year every April for a company meetup that’s jam-packed full of talks, workshops, and presentations. Working remote is great, but having this opportunity to come together and work face-to-face is invaluable and is something we all enjoy.

We can’t wait to meet up in 2026 and do it all again!

What else have the team been up to in 2025?

As a studio, we look to do what we can to share the knowledge we have gained over the last 15 years.

Here are the activities our staff did this year to share their expertise and time:

At the tail-end of 2024, our Senior Audio Designer, Matt Walker, provided his insight into video game sound design for both Mars Horizon and Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life in a dedicated blog.
In January, we published an Ultimate Guide to Game Jams. This was published shortly after we hosted our first studio-wide game jam in December 2024. If you have never participated in a jam before but want to know more about them, then check out our in-depth guide.

Each year, employees are given volunteer days to give something back to a cause which means something to them. In February, one of our Marketing Managers spent their day on Blacka Moor near Sheffield helping with vital conservation work and shared their volunteering experience on the Auroch Digital website.

Senior Programmer, Chris Watt, visited Cardiff Metropolitan University to provide students with an insight into a career in games. It’s always great to share our knowledge with the next generation!

UX/UI Director, Alix Briskham, co-wrote a blog with Lab42 which looked at the infrastructure of strategy games. Here, Alix shared her expertise on what makes a good strategy game, how developers port them to other platforms, and her favourites of the genre.

We had a special feature which highlighted a visit to the University of Edinburgh by the Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life development team. Here, the team met with the team at the Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences department, who have been sharing research to implement into the game.
A big issue for video game developers is key resellers posing as creators, which can result in lost sales. We shared an insight on how to spot a key scammer.

Studio Employee Support Manager, Adam Doctor, had a busy 2025!! He was part of a talk at Develop: Brighton about the Raise the Game Initiative and visited the Royal Agricultural University to lead a session on managing wellbeing for the University’s Senior Leadership Team. He also found time to volunteer a day for the Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust. Great job, Adam!
Principal Level Designer, Jack Chapman, returned to Teesside University for the Animex Festival where he shared learnings from his upcoming game, ROOST.

Auroch’s own Senior Producer, Mark Inman, celebrated his 30th anniversary working in video games. This blog shares Mark’s journey in this industry and is nostalgic.
In early November, Studio Director, Nina Adams, joined an inspiring group of leaders on stage at a BAFTA event to explore how the creative industries can lead the way on sustainability. Sustainability in video games development is one of our core values at Auroch Digital Ltd, and an ever-evolving area that we’re trying to stay at the forefront of.
QA Associate, Tom Clatworthy, shared a detailed look at the life of a QA Tester in video games. If you’ve ever wondered what the day to day life of QA looks like, this blog is for you!

And that’s all the major activities the Auroch team were part of in 2025!

Everyone at Auroch Digital would like to thank each and every one of you for following along with our activities and being part of the community this year. It’s been an exciting time with so many announcements and rewarding activities for our team.

2026 is shaping up to be an incredible year with the releases from Auroch Digital! We can’t wait to bring you along for the ride again in 2026. 🧡

Blog

The Year in Review 2025