Immortals of Aveum: Why single-player matters, and how Unreal 5.1 is making this a true new-gen shooter

Immortals of Aveum is a big-budget magical first-person shooter from Ascendant Studios, a new team made up of industry veterans who have worked on Call of Duty and The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series. Indeed, the Call of Duty inspirations are clear in the way the game tries to aim for magic and mystery, but deliver it in great triple-A shooter fashion. But this isn’t just a hallway shooter; Ascendant Studios is weaving together many genre threads to make something unique.

We sat down with Tyler Sparks, Lead Tier Producer at Ascendant Studios, to talk about the new project: what Ascendant believes makes this unique title stand out from the rest, how to engage players early on, and why games for a single player are still important.

VG247: How important is it for Ascendant Studios to make a good first impression?

tyler sparks: It’s huge. This is our breakout title, the studio itself is handpicked – we are a group of very experienced veteran developers who are bringing an immense amount of experience to create this world and amazing cinematic campaign. The stakes are high, especially considering how unique the game is. This is not just a standard loot shooter or anything like that. We have a unique and magical first-person shooter on our hands.

What is it about the cinematographic angle that attracts Ascendant Studios?

We are telling a very epic story here. Yes, he’s a shooter, but he’s also high fantasy. We are dealing with a massive world with a huge amount of background and very deep characters. So it’s very important to us to have that immersive single player experience for the campaign.

Why is single player focus so important?

That has been the goal from the beginning. It started with Brett’s (Robbin) vision, he first had this idea many years ago and we’re all huge fans of that single player experience. There isn’t much of that these days, those experiences are a bit few and far between.

But I think taking the time to tell a story really well and thoroughly through the lens of first person combat is a very specific angle to take and one that we wanted to execute perfectly.

It’s what we wanted to do and what this game has been since its inception.

Is a first-person epic story game the best way to establish Ascendant’s reputation?

Whether it is the best way to establish our reputation or not, this is how we will do it.

You can choose to make any number of games that are popular right now, but for us it’s not about making a source of income or doing something that’s going to be the hot topic right now. It’s about making the best game that we want to make, in the best way that we know how.

How do you make sure it’s a smooth launch?

Well, first we have to make sure that the public understands our game. That is why we are trying to be transparent in all aspects. We’re pretty open about what the game is, what it’s going to be, what the features are, and how these things come together, because we don’t want there to be a lack of clarity.

Understanding exactly what you’re picking up and exactly what you’re getting, and then making sure that we get that message across, I think that’s the key.

Will it be a smooth launch technically as well?

When it comes to game release, I’ve released over a dozen titles now, I think everyone would want to say that about every game they’ve made.

However, I think the difference here is that we’ve taken the time to make the game what we want it to be.

We have accomplished what we wanted to do. I think it’s the most we can do at this stage, and we’re very confident in the product that we’ve created and I’m pretty sure people are going to love it.

How successful is Immortals of Aveum?

There are metrics you can go by, sales and things like that, but I think the most important thing for us is that everyone receives the game the way we wanted it to be received.

That we have this vision, a goal and an objective in mind and in fact we have done it. That is confirmed by the way it is received by the public. Do they understand and like it? Is it something they want to play? We have a lot of confidence in that, but you don’t know until the public has it in their hands.

In your words, what is the one thing about Immortals that you want people to understand?

It is about understanding the essence of what a magical first person shooter is.

We step away from weapons and into a completely unique fantasy world, with over 25 spells in five different categories that can be intertwined in super unique ways.

I think this is kind of a new genre. There are some things similar to it, but what we came up with is a unique combat system set within a unique story.

How do you make that deep and complex without making it complicated?

That is the great challenge. The goal we set out with was to make sure combat was as simple and straightforward to learn, yet super satisfying to master. So the idea is not to leave it all at once.

We’re not just like, “here are three schools of magic, 25 different spells, find out!” Little by little we are introducing these spells and the initial spells are very typical of that school of magic.

The first Force spell is a very specific, targeted and precise shot, your first Chaos spell is sort of like a shotgun reminiscent of something, to introduce the concepts.

We bring players into the game with concepts they’re familiar with, then expand on them as spells become more interesting, different, and creative as you get deeper into the game.

Little by little we build this tapestry of skills for you to use so that, by the end of the game, you are that epic battle mage.

You also described Immortals as “tactical”, what makes it specifically tactical?

The nice thing about this variety of spells is that you’re not just forced to fight the first enemy in front of you.

One of the most interesting ways I like to play is that there are some enemies that stay in the back of the group: enemy mages who cast spells like snipers. We have spells that allow you to back off, interrupt an enemy’s spell, hit them with a headshot to take them out while they’re stunned, and then refocus on the front of the game.

There are also spells that launch enemies into the air. So if you don’t want to deal with one group, you can momentarily disable them while you deal with another. Or you can just forget about all that, jump in the middle and start shooting.

The more you understand the skills and abilities available to you, the more your options will grow. Any combat scenario can be approached in a number of ways.

When you’re designing encounters to be approached in multiple ways, do you really try to let them have their way or try to channel them one way or another with the illusion of choice?

What we focus on is a variety of encounters. There may be a ‘better’ way of approaching an encounter, for example if you’re in a narrow hallway, a linear explosion will take people out pretty easily, but we’re not forcing players to do anything, unless it’s like a tutorial.

We’ll throw all sorts of stuff in there, but it’s not designed to force you into a specific play style. We want and encourage you to play the way you want, which is why you can reset your skill tree whenever you want. Play as a blue mage, come back as a green mage, come back and do all three, there are so many different ways to combine that play and we don’t want to limit you.

Was it a specific choice to rely on player skill with subtly marked puzzles and optional areas?

I think it’s more that the riddles have their own language. Initial learning can be quite steep for some, others pick it up pretty quickly. We’re establishing how puzzles work in the world and adding mechanics little by little as we go. The first pair can be a bit more difficult, but it’s up to the player to match it up using the skills they have.

With the different RPG elements in Immortals of Aveum, how do you make sure everyone adds something worthwhile to the game and not just make up the numbers?

It’s all very intentional around the build of the battle mage. So all gear amplifies some aspect of the player in a different way, there is no disposable gear, no grinding, all gear is associated with progression.

But it’s not like you’re going to get every single piece of equipment, you can miss things and you may have to go back to parts of the level later.

The idea is that we are giving you the pieces to build your own puzzle, there is no waste. It’s not like, for example, the blue team in Destiny that you’re constantly dismantling, there really isn’t any of that.

All the pieces here can be used to create a functional wizard.

What are some of the things that Unreal Engine 5.1 allowed you to do?

Unreal Engine 5, especially 5.1, has some really amazing features that allowed us to specifically create those great levels.

There were three in particular that were the most useful: Lumen, Nanite, and World Partitions.

Lumen is the lighting system that Unreal employs, and usually when it comes to developing levels, there are a lot of static lights that anticipate where the player is going to go.

But with Lumen, you can adjust and make those lights and reflections react to the player. It also allows us to optimize performance, which is a huge thing that Nanite does.

It basically means that wherever you are in the world, that’s the highest quality texture around you and the furthest away from you is the lowest quality. So as you move, the stuff in front of you increases in quality and the stuff behind you decreases and the detail levels change on the fly.

So we can have these huge levels and once you’re done with a section, it’s not even drawing anymore, so performance can be redirected somewhere else, which is also what world partitions do.

World partitions are the system for loading chunks of geometry. So, in one level, it’s not like you go in and everything is loaded and every single mountain peak has to be fully rendered in the back.

We are loading and unloading on the go. Those tools really freed up the art team to create these intense, immersive worlds with some truly spectacular flora and fauna.

Do you have a particular favorite part that we’ve seen?

I sound stereotypical, but I’m proud of all of that, of course. My current favorite levels change from week to week because I jump into a level I haven’t seen in a while and go “what’s going on here!”

They are a bit later because things start to get complicated. We have like 12 different biomes, it could be more than that, we have mountain peaks, volcanic calderas, it’s a crazy environment.

The most impactful moment for me today is the first big reveal in the Pale Forest, where you turn a corner and get that sense of scope and scale. You realize you don’t see things drawn and that’s the first time I really felt immersed in a world.

That moment as a player is so powerful because that’s when he grabs you and says, ‘now you’re inside Aveum’, go explore.

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