Immortals Of Aveum is an upcoming first-person magic based shooter from EA and developer Ascendant Studios, and speaking in a recent interview, founder of Ascendant Studios Bret Robbins wanted to be clear that there was much more to Aveum than its magic-shooter gameplay.
Specifically, Robbins pointed to the work put in by the development team on the puzzles in Immortals Of Aveum, an aspect of game design that suits well to a magic-based game.
“We spent a lot of time on the puzzles in Aveum. It really has a huge impact on how you do the level design – the tend to be very dependent on how you build out the area, so it’s not an easy thing to just put into a level. You have to design the level with it in mind.” said Robbins.
“Puzzle designing is a very challenging thing to do as a designer. My hat’s off to games that do puzzle design in a very good way.”
If you’re not a puzzle fan though and fear it’ll get in the way of the combat, fear not, as Robbins does confirm that the most challenging puzzles will be optional, and unnecessary if you’re simply trying to march through the game’s main story.
“If you want to explore, if you want some harder challenges, they’re certainly out there for you. If you just want to enjoy the story, enjoy the combat, and push forward…you’ll hit some puzzles, but they’re a little more lightweight.
And that was how we kind of walked that line.”
For those who do want the challenge though, Robbins ensures players that it is there.
“Certainly, some of our designers went a little crazy with some of the hard puzzles in the far corners of the game. So they’re sitting there waiting for people, if they enjoy that kind of thing.”
Source – [VG247]