Age of The Nerd
Kicking San Diego Comic Con 2023 off into high gear was Thursday evenings Fandom Party held at the Hard Rock Hotel. The party featured some amazing entertainment from K-pop cuties NCT Dojaejung an gave us an inside look at the highly anticipated EA [Electronic Arts] game release “Immortals Of Aveum”.
The game which suffered a minor release date change will now be available on August 22, 2023. The delay was due to the fact that the creators needed just a bit more time to make sure that the game was fully optimized and ready to go for fans, and after having a chance to witness some of the game play scenes during the Fandom Party, it looks absolutely stunning.
The cinematic trailer for the game, as well as, an additional cinematic titled “Securing The Binding Stone” was revealed during the “Making of Immortals of Aveum” panel at SDCC that highlights footage of Jak and his team arguing over Jak’s possession of the Binding Stone. You can view the cinematic footage below:
While at the Fandom Party, we had a chance to catch up Ascendant CEO and game director Bret Robbins to share more intimate details about the creation game, crafting the storyline and developing these amazing characters.
How excited are you to finally get this game out? I know there has been some delay, but it definitely looks ready to go!
Bret Robbins: It feels great! The team is literally a week away from finishing and the game comes out on August 22nd! It’s been a five year journey for myself and a lot of the teams and I’m really, really thrilled to have it almost finished…have it out there and have everyone play it and enjoy it. It’s a great feeling.
The storyline is so rich and you’ve been working on these characters for so long, which aspects of the game are you most looking forward to fans experiencing?
There’s a couple of things. I really love the combat system…the way you can combo your spells together…the way we’ve got magic to really feel impactful and visceral and the fluid movement of the character…the whole combat system is really, really fun. Everyone that has been playing it, they absolutely agree, it’s such a fun game, so I’m thrilled for people to play that and experience that! Also, the story, I spent a lot of time myself on the story…writing it with my lead writer and working with the actors and everything and I think we have a fantastic story, so I’m really looking forward to people experiencing that as well.
Absolutely! Anymore, I feel like video game have almost become like mini-movies, as we become so engrossed within them and build relationships with the characters. Do you have a particular attachment to one storyline or another?
The main storyline follows Jak, the main character, and that who you play and I think his whole arc is really compelling. He has very humble origins and he then gains a lot of power and he becomes an Immortal and he’s kind of driven by vengeance, as he’s a little arrogant…a little cocky…but there’s always pride before the fall. He makes some bad decisions and some bad things happen so I think his whole storyline is really compelling. Some of the other Immortals…I love them all, but I really love Devon, Zendara and Kirkan!
It’s like trying to pick between your children!
Exactly! It’s really hard! They each have their own personality and their own quirks and they are all really fun to write. The actors did a fantastic job…I directed the cinematics myself and really had a great time working with the actors.
How many people worked together on the game as a team?
Ascendant Studios is over 1oo people and probably when we were at peak development it was well over 150!
How much does the setting in which the game takes place, almost become a character within itself? For instance which area you are playing in, where you travel to and such within the game.
We set out to create an original world, the world of Aveum, and there are a lot of very distinct things about it that I think are going to be signature to the game. The fact that it’s covered with the laylines which are these ribbons of magical power that emanate from the earth and cover the planet. That’s where the Magni draw their power from and it is a very distinct visual thing, looking up in the sky and seeing these huge conduits of magical power everywhere.
It looks very ethereal to me!
Yes! We wanted the world itself to feel like a character. The geography of the world is very interesting. There is the Wound in the center of Aveum which is this enormous bottomless pit and the cracks of that Wound has formed the five kingdoms and a radius around it and in the center of the wound is “The Pentacade”, this enormous statue that is revered like a god. There is a lot of mystery around all of those elements, so it all becomes part of the story.
Is there anything that did not make the cut that you are holding on to for a possible game in the future? As I know you can only jam pack so much into one game!
For sure…I think that we were very ambitious with our story-telling and what we wanted to accomplish and not everything made the cut. There is a bunch of stuff on the editing room floor, so right now I’m kind of sweeping that up and looking at all those notes and everything and there is a lot of really cool stuff there. I wanted to create a world and a story that had a lot of room to grow and I feel like there is a lot more we can tell with this one.
Lastly, how are you enjoying Comic Con and this amazing Fandom Party?
It’s awesome! This is actually my first Comic Con ever, so I’m super excited to be here! The costumes are awesome and we’ve already seen a costume of one of our characters!
Is that surreal for you to see?
It is such a cool feeling! I love it and the reason I do this is for the fans so it’s great to see them all!
“Immortals of Aveum” releases August 22, 2023. Preorders are open now on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via EA App, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.
To learn even more about “Immortals of Aveum”, be sure to visit the YouTube channel, check out their blogs, and consider joining our Discord community to chat with others about the game.
