Atlantis Isn't Real - Age of Mythology: Retold Gamescom Interview

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone, I'm Alex here with Gamereactor and we are live at Gamescom.
We're checking out Age of Mythology Retold. I'm here with Ernest and Kristen.
And basically guys, we just got to see a brand new look at the game as of last night at O&L as well."

"What can you tell people to get them hyped about it?
What can you tell people to sort of, maybe that haven't seen it before O&L, what the game is about?
So yeah, last night, thanks to Jeff Kelly showing the awesome trailer about the game in O&L last night.
So it's great, it's the first time we get to show that."

"And you can see Athena talking to the main character, which is like a Kantos.
Like saying, hey, you need to go on a grand adventure.
Which is actually a reference to the game.
It's going to have over 15 missions of the game."

"And there are around different campaigns to get you to get on this adventure.
Get on this epic journey to actually go around.
And it's just fantastic.
And of course we get to see all the graphics that is like new."

"Like that we have actually completely redone.
And there are a lot of fun stuff as well.
Sure. Yeah, I mean for Age of Myth, it's a great game to start with.
If you've never played an Age game or you've never even played RTS."

"We have a lot of approachability features we have from our other titles.
And then in the lineup, Age of Myth is our most creative game.
So each faction, we have the Greek, we have the Norse, Egyptian, the Atlanteans.
They all play so differently."

"And they all have their own unique content.
So there's just so many types of gameplay within Age of Myth that makes it really approachable.
And you're pretty much guaranteed to have fun no matter what.
And so really there's something for everybody."

"Thank you very much.
As you said before, it's like a first for the Age series in going for this mythology approach.
There's a lot of creativity as you said.
But there's, I imagine, some challenges as well."

"And also a lot of freedoms in sort of building this around myths and mythical creatures and legendary beings.
What were some of those freedoms and those challenges that you encountered?
So I would say like first, the game is super beloved, right?
So it is one of the games that our fans have been asking for like again and again."

"So first, we are just super happy to be able to bring the game back.
And when we talk about it, we say like, hey, why do everybody love this game?
And what's so amazing about it?
And one of the things that we think is super unique is there are other games that are based on mythologies."

"But they usually have to focus on one mythology, right?
This is following the story of the Greek mythology.
Or this following one of like this about four like going around, right?
But in our game, in Age of Mythology Retold, it's really you are mixing all these different mythologies."

"You have like Greek fighting Norse fighting Egyptian, Atlantean.
It's just like crazy epic battle of all these together.
And it is just amazing to be able to tap into all these different mythologies.
And it's just a lot of fun to actually see them interact."

"Yeah, I mean, one of our biggest things that we have been working on and will work on probably forever is making sure there is a balance of chaos and then actual game balance, which is something we've relied a lot on player voice for.
But as we've made Age of Myth, what's really fun about having such diverse mythology is that for some things, we do have a lot of extant information."

"And so one of the biggest changes we made is, you know, the myth units Pestochos, which is pretty much a laser crocodile.
You know, we changed that god to be Sobek, which is a crocodile god, right?
So where there is information, you know, we've done a really good job, I think, at trying to attune to it because we're all nerds."

"We have actual historians working with us.
We have people who are just passionate about mythology.
But then there's things that are pretty much made up, right?
There is no such thing as Atlantis."

"Maybe there is, actually. We haven't discovered yet.
But there is so many.
But what's fantastic is, yeah, we have a lot of things that are kind of just made up.
So those are the things that, you know, we can really push and be creative with."

"So it is a really good balance of pulling from history, what we know in pop culture, what we know academically, and then also just what's fun.
What's fun to play, what's fun to look at.
I honestly actually learned a lot about different mythologies from the game."

"So it just sparked the interest to say, like, hey, wait, this is real?
This is actually what happened?
And it's super interesting to actually find those out.
No, I think that's what a lot of people like about Game Slide."

"This is that you get to just sort of dive into that mythology from a sort of gateway, almost.
And as you said, it's been something that fans have been clamoring for for a long time.
They've liked to see it.
And you showed off, as you said before, the graphics."

"How far do you go with sort of the graphical fidelity to make sure that you've still got that original vibe to the game?
So for Age of Apothology Retro, from a graphics standpoint, we have redone everything.
So everything you see, the animations, the 3D models, the graphical effect, this is 100% completely redone."

"But we try deliberately to make sure that we capture the feel of the original.
So when people say, like, oh, this looks and plays like exactly how I remembered it, that's actually when we are the happiest.
They say, like, yes, we have success, right?
So we actually got to exactly how..."

"We want to build a game that's in your head.
Like, how you remember the game is the game that we want to be able to present so that people will be able to play those.
Yeah, and how we did that was kind of funny and a bit informal."

"It was like I said, everybody on the team's a nerd.
Everybody played the original game.
And so when it came time to look at these assets, it was a labor of love because there's a lot of them."

"And we would pull them up, and we would see what they actually look like in Legacy at a larger size than we've ever seen before.
And we realized it was mostly just like...
Sometimes it was like blurry pixels plastered on a hot air balloon."

"And it was a Rorschach test. There was nothing there.
And so we would have to have discussions of, like, do you remember this unit having a 5 o'clock shadow or a scruffy beard?
Do you remember, like, would this unit be a little more aggressive looking?
Or were they a little bit like..."

"And so, you know, we went one by one like this.
And it was a labor of love. It was a little bit of a Rorschach test.
But really, it was all down to being like, is this how I remembered it?
And so we're really proud of it."

"And I think looking at all the assets now, it's just like we look at them and it's like looking at our own kids.
It's shocking when you put them side by side.
Yeah, it's just like, wait, no, seriously."

"I remember it being looking way better.
Like 20 years ago when I first played the game.
Exactly. I will say, like, I was telling people that at the time, I actually said graphics has peaked."

"This is clearly, like, there's no way computer graphics will look better than this, like, ever.
So that's how I remembered it.
And so, like, now looking back, it's just so shocking to actually see, like, the difference, like, before and after."

"It is one of those.
The rose-tinted glasses are always, like, in effect.
Same sort of idea, really, with transitioning the game to sort of a more modern take."

"Did you have to do anything with, like, balancing or things like that?
Because there's a lot of sort of, you know, you've got some really, really powerful stuff here.
And there's also a thing of, like, you know, not to go too far into action figures bashing against one another."

"But is there an element of, like, oh, can we make these guys that strong?
Because there might be an argument that someone in mythology could beat someone else and yadda yadda.
So I'll leave the actual balancing to our awesome design director to actually talk about those."

"But I can tell you from my Fiend standpoint, yes, one of the things, one of the reasons why we created Atop Mythology Retold is we are not simply just remaking the original.
We want to go beyond that."

"And one of the things that we have done is nowadays we have, like, awesome PCs, awesome console to be able to handle a lot of things that two decades ago is just a dream.
It's, like, not possible to do."

"So now we actually have been able to, like, for example, God Powers in the original game, most of them you can only use once.
So and what we have seen in playtests is that people will hold on to the God Power until they use it at the exact right moment."

"But which is unfortunate because God Powers is one of the coolest things that's in the game.
But nowadays with the processing power we have, we can actually let you use God Powers, like, multiple times and on screen at the same time."

"So it enables a lot of, a much bigger range for people to play.
But you're right.
It does present a balancing challenge.
So I'm passing the mic to Kristen."

"I feel like my statement on this is balance is never done.
Just want to put that out there.
But, yeah, you know, as we approach this, there's a couple of things we did."

"The first is that we watched a lot of people play the Legacy game.
A lot.
And, honestly, a lot of the people working on the game are those people playing the Legacy game and sharing it and a part of the community."

"And so we knew a couple of things right off the bat.
One of them is we want people to make more Myth Units.
You know, we want people to use their God Powers.
And so we readjusted a lot of things to make Myth Units more useful because a lot of times people would use them early in game and then they'd fizzle out near the end during the final conflict."

"So one of our guiding principles was really to have mythic proportions for things.
And so it does require a lot of balancing where it's like, well, you've got a power budget."

"If you make something more powerful here, you've got to make it less powerful there.
And we've worked a lot with our players on this to make sure that it felt good."

"And, obviously, the biggest one is reusable God Powers because, theoretically, that could literally blow up the universe very quickly.
And what actually we found is, you know, even though you could maybe ruin it for everybody, most people don't."

"Actually, what we found with reusable God Powers is that people did have strategy to it right away.
And so it was a really interesting back and forth between, you know, putting these things in, rebalancing them, and seeing how people play them."

"And they actually surprised us very often.
And so, I mean, it's something that will never be finished, to be clear.
You know, we're always going to be listening."

"We're always going to be changing.
With Retold, you know, part of the reason why it's called Retold is that we did make substantial changes, and it really was to just make everything feel larger than life, more mythical, kind of HDR in spirit and tone and game style, yeah."

"So, I would say, actually, there's even more than that, right?
We went beyond that.
Like, the Nos, we actually completely changed how they play.
So, want to talk about that a bit?
Sure."

"I don't know.
Yeah, I mean, that was another huge, big balance change we made is that we love the Nos.
And the thing is, our goal is to get more people playing with it because it's awesome."

"Frost Giants, I mean, Vikings, all of it.
It's cool.
But as a Civ, the way it was designed, originally, you know, eons ago, it was very punishing if you made a mistake."

"They're a very offensive civilization, so you needed to really have the guts.
And for a lot of people, they're still trying to get their bearings.
And so, we really all agreed we wanted to make it a little bit more approachable, but still have its identity as an aggressive Civ."

"And so, yeah, a lot of that Civ had been basically rebalanced.
So, it's a little bit more forgiving, but there's still some teeth to it.
And then it also, we have the Freyr god pack coming from the Norse as well, which kind of furthers a little bit more of, like, adding extra play styles to the Civ."

"It's super fun.
I used to only play the Greek, and now I actually main the Norse.
So, the team actually did an amazing job on this."

"Did you just ask them to keep buffing the Norse until, you know, you can play?
You can main them.
Yeah.
No, something that..."

"Balance.
Yeah.
Something that you touched about that we saw in the O&L was this sort of campaign.
As you say, there's a few missions."

"What can this bring to sort of new and old players?
So, the campaigns, story-wise, we want to stick with the original as close as we can because it's so beloved."

"So, it's just something that people really remember.
That's one of the key things that people keep on talking about and say, like, Age of Mythology, I remember playing through the campaign."

"It's one of the best campaigns in RTS history.
So, we want to make sure we respect that and get it as close to original as possible.
But since Kristen mentioned the Freyr god pack, we actually have something new added to it as well."

"The Freyr god pack comes with, like, a new mission that is completely new to the game that people actually get to enjoy.
So, that is something that we want to just let people play it and experience it and then they will see for themselves what we have done there."

"Yeah, I mean, I would say the campaign is what...
I would say that when I mention to the average person Age of Myth, they're like, oh, my God, the campaign."

"And I will say that even within the development team, everybody loves the campaign.
Our art director had a poster of Archantos on her wall as a kid."

"And so, yeah, when it came to building out the campaign, it was really a lot of quality of life things that we've tweaked.
But for the most part, staying true to our roots."

"So, I mean, some of the things you can see in the campaign is that we've added some more tutorialization to the early ones.
We have story mode now."

"And what you missed, Ernest, is that one new campaign mission.
I know.
Yeah, the one new campaign mission does feature a character from the legacy campaign, Gargarensis, who's one of my favorite villains."

"He's just a cupcake. I love him.
Yes, there are a lot of new things to discover in the game.
Thank you very much.
And just one final question, guys."

"When can we see Age of Mythology retold and what can we see it on?
So, this is the first time we are releasing an Age game on both PC and console at the same time."

"So, it is a lot...
So, honestly, it's really exciting to be able to bring the game to people, whether they like to play games on controllers or mouse and keyboard on the same day."

"And launch date is September 4th.
So, very, very close now.
I'm actually talking to a team right now to actually talk about things that we are working on still."

"But if you get the premium edition of the title, you actually will be able to get advanced access to the title even earlier.
So, that will be 7 days early."

"I think that makes it August 28th.
Yeah, 28th you will be able to start playing.
Thank you so much.
So, three things we've learned today."

"Age of Mythology comes out on September 4th.
We're all nerds and Atlantis isn't real.
Guys, thank you so much for your time.
That's Age of Mythology."

"Thank you."