
In a wide-ranging interview with outlet GamesIndustry.biz, Ascendant Studios founder Bret Robbins has defended the team's debut title Immortals of Aveum - claiming that the "story" of its development "isn't written yet".
In this fascinating chat, Robbins highlights lots of the trials and tribulations of modern-day game development, claiming that creating a triple-A experience as an independent developer is pretty rare these days. Still, he believes Immortals has put his studio "on the map".
"We have put ourselves on the map, [...] You can probably count on one hand the number of independent AAA studios. There are not many of us. We've made a name for ourselves by putting something out that was good quality."
Elsewhere, the studio founder acknowledged the game's "very crowded" launch window, but felt that there'd be no guarantees if the game shifted its release date. In the end, the game's final delay from July to August last year ensured that "the game was better" but ultimately made it so that "the timing was worse" for its release.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a former Ascendant Studios dev claimed that the $125 million title was an "awful idea" in today's market - but clearly, Robbins doesn't fully agree. The studio founder says that Immortals of Aveum sales "are picking up", and that he "hopes more and more people play and enjoy it".
Speaking of which - we did just that back around launch last August. Immortals of Aveum isn't perfect, but it's a fun magic-based shooter that's absolutely worth a play for fans of the genre.
Have you got around to playing Immortals yet? Tell us what you think to these new comments down below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 20
I really liked Immortals, they did a demo and a sale last year and I bought after 5 mins in the demo, the world is interesting and the combat pretty fun as you unlocked more spell types. Not amazing and that crowed release time certainly made me wait but I am glad I gave it a shot
I'm planning on playing it once I grab it in a sale. The game looks cool.
Saw quite a lot of positive views about it and I would be interested in playing Immortals of Aveum. But my backlog of 8, 9 & even 10 out of 10s is huge and I suspect it is just a game I will never get around to. Too many games, not enough time.
Never had any interest in this game. The tone and character designs just felt a bit... blegh.
What happened to that other game atlas fallen? I only recently found they are different games.
The story has been indeed written - you will go to Gamepass and you will be enjoyed….
"The story of Immortals isn't written yet"
Ah, well that would explain why the game didn't do so well
good quality!? he mean like the xbox series s version at 360p on a 4k tv he talk this kind of quality? i'm sorry but this man is ungenuin and because of it i don't think i want to support is "indie" studios.
I played this for a few hours but it didn't hold my interest - may give it another go… personally preferred Atlas Fallen for a not-quite-AAA game
I honestly think this game is underrated. It’s a fun FPS, it doesn’t exactly do anything new, and the story is just ok, but the gameplay is really fun. I’d put it as a solid 7, maybe even an 8. Is it the best game? No, but it’s a good time killer.
Nothing says 'independent' like a $40 million marketing and distribution budget from EA!
Game just looked like ghostwire which also sucked, the only game where shooting magic out of your hands is good is Skyrim.
@Deityjester You must have not played either because both had their audience and was quite excellent. Ghost wire even had a free mode where you did a tournament sorta situation.Ghostsore Tokyo is better then I thought it should be and has a rich world and great side quests with a rich story, honestly it deserves more love. I played it on gamepass and it made wanna buy it cause it's that fun and unique which is rare these days
@BBB I bought it for 27 bucks on sale and it was worth every penny plus they updated it with new bosses which you can fight after beating the main game. Story is really interesting and finding more.books and exploring side parts imo is really fun albeit hard as heck
@Scirius I don't know much about it's situation but I bought and played it. It's fun, if feeling a bit outdated. It honestly feels like it's right at home with the early XboxOne/PS4 era games.
It's a pretty decent game. I enjoyed playing it. Would love to see it be expanded and improved
@Kalele You might need a pair of glasses if you think it's 360p. Also, "ungenuine" is not a real word.
Mediocre game dreadful story typical AAA garbage ludicrous that it cost over $125 million
Not a game I was interested in and the genre seemed somewhat niche. They would have had more success if their first triple-A title was of a well established genre and learned from the prior pitfalls of other well established publishers. But this game has unique gameplay, or least ground that is not well covered by many other games. They likely would have had an easier time with a different type of game in general.
I honestly don't recommend this game, I bought the deluxe edition in a sale for about half price and it's honestly a chore to play.
The dialogue is outright gibberish at times and the story is flat. Most of the characters (especially the main one) come across as annoying most of the times although it's nothing to do with the voice actors who do the best they can with a very poor script.
This is made worse by the cutscenes being unskippable and some of them drag on for ages. Even worse when you can't actually save and can only restart a chapter, so if you do mess up and want to restart you can only restart the full chapter and therefore have to sit through every cutscene again.
The combat is often underwhelming and sometimes it's extremely hard to see what is even going on or where attacks are coming from. I would honestly recommend anyone considering buying this to wait for a deep dive sale. I know I have been extremely harsh on this game and I genuinely wanted to like it but there's a lot of flaws that just make it annoying and I am genuinely unsurprised that it sold so poorly. That said I hope they learn from the mistakes they've made with this game and come back with something better next time because there's definitely potential there. That said I strongly recommend they get a decent writing team next time round because it's the worst part of the game imho.
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