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GAMING FEATURE

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MAGICAL CASTING

A hot new IP from a hot new developer, find out what CEO and game director at Ascendant Studios, Bret Robbins, has to say about their first-person magic shooter Immortals of Aveum . Words Bec Summer I f his name is familiar, you may know it from his work on the likes of Dead Space and Call of Duty . Both of these franchises gave Robbins skills that came in handy for Immortals of Aveum . “ Call of Duty taught me how to make an spells, as well as gear like Sigils, Totems and Rings, to really let you master the playstyle that best suits you.” The game involves three different colours of magic. Robbins elaborates… THREE COLOURS: PEWPEWPEW!

An exciting cast has been assembled for Immortals of Aveum , led by Darren Barnet – you may know him from the series Never Have I Ever , and he’s set to appear in the upcoming Gran Turismo movie – as protagonist Jak. Firefly legend Gina Torres also plays a major part – and keep an eye out for the likes of Lily Cowles (from the brilliant, all-too-short-lived series Braindead ), and Antonio Aakeel (TV’s Slow Horses ).

encouraged to switch and combo their spells together, using the different colours of magic synergistically to defeat their enemies.” Fantasy elements aren’t your typical shooter fare, so with Immortals of Aveum , Ascendant have really brought something new to the genre. “Once we started to prototype the game, it really felt like something new and fresh. I think magic can typically be portrayed as a little soft or ephemeral, not as something you would use in a high intensity combat situation. That was one of the first things we worked on. We wanted to get the feel of visceral, powerful spell casting to work in a first-person shooter. Once we had a great combat prototype, the rest of the game followed.” With such a combination of styles, Robbins believes that Immortals of Aveum may just deliver crossover appeal for both those into shooters and those who are into fantasy. “I think both shooter fans and fantasy fans will really enjoy the game,” he states. “The combat is fast, fluid, and intense. It’s as compelling as any FPS out there. The world building and puzzles and exploration will definitely appeal to gamers that love fantasy or action adventure – and I think everyone loves a good story, that never goes out of style. We’ve written a story that I’m really proud of.”

“Blue (Force) magic allows the caster to manipulate physical energy or gravity, Red (Chaos) magic controls light and energy and Green (Life) magic allows control over life, death, healing, and inanimate objects. In terms of gameplay, there are three main categories of spells, and each has representations of the different colours of magic. So, for example, your blue Strike spell is a highly focused beam of kinetic energy, and your blue Control spell is an energy Lash that can grab

intense, cinematic shooter and how to write a ‘summer blockbuster’ type story,” Robbins tells us. “Those campaigns were incredibly fun to work on. It was the video game equivalent of working on a Hollywood action movie. It also taught me how to work with a large team and hit a triple-A level of quality, because the level of polish on those games was extreme. Dead Space was all about focus. We had a few pillars that we really pushed on and wanted to make great, so in that way, there are similarities to Immortals of Aveum . I had a few key things that I wanted to get right, and we focused a lot on those to the exclusion of other things.” From what we’ve seen in the run

enemies and draw them close to you. I wanted to create a system where the player is constantly

• Immortals of Aveum is out on Aug 22

up to release, Immortals of Aveum is more than just a first-person shooter with magic as your weapon. “Being a magic shooter opened up what we could do immensely, almost to an excessive degree where we had to establish our ground rules as we kicked off development,” explains Robbins. “We realised early on that it was important to start gameplay from a familiar place, to allow it to feel intuitive to players. From there, we added depth to the gameplay with our different

24 AUGUST 2023

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