Savant – Ascent brings wizards, robots and beats to PS4

Hey everyone! My name is Jo from D-Pad Studio, and it’s our pleasure to announce that Savant – Ascent, a game about robot infested towers, magic missiles and claiming ultimate power, is coming to PlayStation!

Music and style is what the game is all about! Savant in real life is an electronic musician, and in the game you play as Savant as he appears on Savant’s 5th album cover, designed by our art director, Simon S. Andersen.
Our team has been close friends with Savant for a long time, and last summer we decided that:

• We should create a game together
• We’d use Savant’s music and Simon’s characters as inspiration

We ended up with a beat-pumping dodge-and-shoot action game, stylised to fit with Savant’s tracks. Tracks could be unlocked, giving you an introduction to Savant’s music, and also acting as powerful upgrades. This makes you feel like nothing can stop you once you get the hang of things.
We didn’t think it was enough to only be able to shoot magic missiles and defeat robots, so we added some varying stages, powerful abilities to be discovered, and a challenging boss fight to top things off.

Challenge and the feeling of mastery was what we wanted the gameplay to contain. I can guarantee that most players will meet with an ill fate the first few tries at Savant – Ascent, but with some persistence you’ll be dodging danger like a pro.
You can change the background music to any of the unlocked tracks at any time. Each collected track will also change the gameplay, encouraging new ways to defeat the incoming robot onslaught.

Style was the thing we wanted to perfect in the game. We wanted the players to lose themselves to the music, quicken their pulse, and keep on their toes.
Even though this was to be a game revolving around music, we didn’t want a game resembling Guitar Hero or Rock Band, or any other synced beat tapper, but rather, we wanted the music to blend with the game.
Subtle elements were added, to let the game live through the music – like enemies dancing to the beat, menu elements shaking on bass drops – and let Savant seem like this would be the kind of music he’d listen to as he set out on a robot demolishing rampage.


Growing together with Savant, Ascent is a game that has and will change over time. We’ve vowed to add elements from future albums, and given time, we might be adding additional soundtracks, possible levels tailored to the album’s design and new modes, abilities and secrets.
These days, we’re also focusing on finishing our other project, Owlboy. To keep up with news on Savant – Ascent, or our studio, feel free to make a visit to DPadStudio.com or SavantGame.com.