Immortals of Aveum has gone gold!

August 10, 2023
in Game News, Studio News

Hello Battlemages!

I am thrilled to announce that Immortals of Aveum™ has gone gold! That means that the game was sent off to manufacturing (yes, still a thing) and discs are being shipped to stores as we speak. This is a great moment for the team at Ascendant and myself, the culmination of work we started five years ago.

When I founded Ascendant Studios, I had little more than a game concept, some notes, and the trust of my investor Brian, to create an independent AAA studio. I had no team, no tech, and only a vague idea on how to start such an ambitious project. Fast forward five years, and I think we have an epic, beautiful, and really fun game that came out of the passion and hard work of the team. I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished: from building a world-class team, to learning Unreal 5, creating an amazing combat system and story, through the adversity of Covid, and so many more accomplishments along the way. It’s been the best experience of my professional life.

On behalf of the Ascendant team, I can’t wait for all of you to play the game and experience the world we have created. This is our first game and the first chapter of our company. It’s only the beginning. See you on August 22 when Immortals of Aveum is released!

Best,

Bret and the Ascendant Team

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The Call to Create a New IP

After 26 years in the games industry, Bret Robbins (Founder & CEO at Ascendant Studios) felt it was time to begin something new. He had spent his career working on world-famous franchises like Lord of the Rings, 007 James Bond, and directing multiple Call of Duty campaigns, but there was something about his experience creating an original IP from scratch, like Dead Space, that kept calling to him.

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Dreaming up a new game and the studio to create it

"I remember working on one of the Call of Duty levels and thinking, what if instead of a helicopter, that was a dragon. And instead of RPG explosions, those were fireballs. And instead of soldiers, we were all battle mages, firing off spells and wrecking the place.

And I stopped and thought ‘Where is that game? I want to play that game!'"

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Investing in the Vision

"I had an opportunity to just sit and write for about four months. I would park myself at a small cafe and work on the game design document and the story outline. It was a time of allowing myself to think that anything was possible and I could design whatever I wanted. Since then, a lot of the ideas have changed and gotten better, but the heart of what I wrote back then is still the vision for the game today."

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When a surprising opportunity strikes

"We had been going for about a month when we heard that Telltale Games was shutting down and that the entire staff had just been laid off. Someone heard that they were commiserating over at a nearby bar, so we drove over and started meeting with people.

I hired about a half dozen people that day, including my Art Director."

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Building a sustainable culture

"One thing I learned over years of working at different studios is that the culture starts at the top. I don't want people to crunch and burnout, because I personally don't want to do that either. I want people to feel that they are being treated fairly and honestly. I put a high premium on being open and transparent with the team, and I think that's surprisingly rare in our industry."

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A partnership to launch Immortals of Aveum

"Just when we were getting into full game production, we started to attract attention from publishers. It was a very validating moment. We chose to partner with EA because we knew they could reach the biggest audience, and their Originals label had a great track. We also kept creative control and ownership of the game, which was key for us."