How the Age of Mythology is Retold Devs Welcome the Modern Era

Released on September 4, Age of Mythology: Retold is the fourth and final remake of Assemble’s early 2000s classic Age of… RTS series, building on the legendary Age of Empires IIIReleased at a time when strategy games dominated PC gaming, all four games have remained beloved over the past 15 to 20 years, receiving several updates and re-releases before Microsoft focused more on completely overhauling and updating them for modern audiences, subtly introducing more modern sensibilities.

You might imagine that such a project would be a sideshow for one of the largest gaming companies in the world, the effort of a few dedicated people hiding in a converted office closet, but that’s completely beside the point. In fact, it’s for Age of Mythology: RetoldThere are five different studios working on the game in total, overseen by a Microsoft studio created specifically for the projects, World’s Edge. And the executive producer on all of them is a Microsoft stalwart, an executive producer on games dating back to 2002 Blinx and the great Xbox 360 title, Long live the PiñataSerious Yuen.

(If I call it BlinxYuen is taken aback, as it seems I am not the first journalist to bring it up in interviews. I keep my mouth shut and instead continue with the 360 ​​launch game Cameo. He remembers that it was the first game made for the console, before the console itself was even on sale. We all pretended to be staring at a disc in our hands.)

“The way World’s Edge was set up from the beginning was to be a studio that Age of Empires franchise, after something similar to, say, the Marvel studio!” This rather grand comparison is something Yuen couldn’t quite get through without laughing, as he tried to add that his job was to “manage the sacred timeline.” He then continues, more tempered, “(We’re there) to find people that we think are great, and then pair them up so that everyone can focus on what they’re good at.”

With five teams, Mythology retold is, if anything, a more modest endeavor, given Age II “seven or eight” teams working. Yuen’s logic is that not everyone is good at everything, “but each company is excellent at a few things they do. So we pair different groups so they can do what they’re best at, and we coordinate.”

In fact, two of the teams worked on Myth are companies that World’s Edge helped set up, built with people they knew were experienced developers who were dedicated fans of the original game. It’s clearly a huge logistical task to oversee it all, but Yuen says the only downside is the time zones, with teams in Australia, Canada and elsewhere. No matter what time an all-hands meeting is called, someone will always be up at midnight.

When recreating the Age of titles, World’s Edge and its litany of co-developers have a difficult balancing act to pull off. These are titles that have had a deeply dedicated fanbase for nearly 25 years, an audience that still engages with the games, and who are of course deeply passionate about the originals and their spirit. But then again, RTS is no longer the all-consuming genre it was in the late ’90s and early ’00s, and the format’s idiosyncratic sensibilities and sometimes impenetrable systems no longer appeal to a broader audience.

But senior game designer Kristen Hanlon-Pirillo explains that while the older audience is very passionate, “they’re also very cooperative.” A big part of the process of returning to Age of mythology went back to 15-year-old forums, looked at how people were reacting to it back then, looked at what exploits were being used, and how people were playing the game back then. “And then, on the design side, I asked myself, ‘How much of this can we iron out?'”

A lot of what World’s Edge found was people trying to play Age of mythology as if it were a Age of Empires game, and as such were missing key elements of the spin-off game, specifically the roles of gods and divine powers, skipping Heroes, and as such missing the core of the game. “We wanted to answer the question,” says Hanlon-Pirillo, “How can you Age of myth as if it were a Age of myth game?”

The other main pillar of the update’s approach was to address elements that were simply impossible to achieve in 2002. “Things like population cap, favor cap, those were no-brainers. So we can have more crazy attacks, more special effects.”

But it wasn’t until they figured out how to port these traditional mouse-and-keyboard games to consoles that they stumbled upon a whole host of other quality-of-life improvements for PC players. When they added elements like “the villager priority system” or “AI assistance for the economy” — designed to make the game more accessible with a controller, where clicking on each individual element is a less agile option — it became clear that these would be beneficial on PC, too. “It reduces the cognitive load,” says Hanlon-Pirillo. And while you might imagine that would make the heads of long-term fans ring, it seems like such changes actually improve the game for the most popular way it’s still played, via competitive multiplayer. “[Units are]more self-sufficient, not to the point where they take over, but so that you don’t have to keep an eye on them like lost ducks,” adds Hanlon-Pirillo, who says the feedback from the extremely responsive community has been positive. That’s also largely thanks to the teams who took the opportunity to address the core complaints about the game since its original release and fix those as well.

Oh, and the turtles. Not some strange new creature added to the game, but the nickname given to the kind of players who approach RTS games from a purely defensive perspective. “They’re just not offensive,” says Hanlon-Pirillo. “They’re not aggressive, they’re very strategic, they hoard all their resources. It’s called turtling.” I tell him my dad was the king of the turtles. “I love turtles!” Hanlon-Pirillo replies, but points out that many Myth‘s design expected players to be more aggressive, especially if they were playing as the Norse race. As such, many people were turned off at this point in the game. To address this, they rebalanced the Norse campaigns, introducing new unit types and building types, and giving earlier access to more powerful units. “It was a balancing act,” the developer adds, “because we still want to make sure that (civilization) is still something that you have to hone your skills for.”

There’s an elephant in the room when it comes to remaking Age of mythology. In 2014, Age of Mythology: Expanded Edition was released, updating the game with Steamworks integration, modern resolution options, Twitch support, and tweaks to the graphics. This was followed in 2016 by a brand new expansion, Story of the dragonwith the addition of the Chinese as a playable culture, along with new gods, new campaigns, and new multiplayer. There were two problems. First, this was made by SkyBox Labs, then by Microsoft, but now—after working on Halo infinite—owned by NetEase. Second, it was not Awesome. Besides being a minor update, there were issues with the multiplayer and the game felt anachronistic in the mid-2000s. But worse was that Dragon expansion, which many received a mocking response to and were left with that thought for years disastrous orange text “Mostly Negative” on Steam.

Both Retold developers were far too polite to comment on this. But given the vibrant community surrounding the game, they should make their plans clear. “We heard from the fans,” says Earnest Yuen, “and it was definitely a controversial expansion.” As such, no, the Story of the dragon expansion will not be included in this version, but instead an all-new Chinese expansion is being worked on. The Premium Edition of this remake will come with two DLC packs, the first of which is the “all-new Chinese expansion”. No further details yet, the DLC will come post-launch, but it seems like a smart compromise.

The other DLC returns to the offensive Norse campaign, adding four new gods, powers, upgrades, and units. It also has a spreading effect on the metagame, aiming to provide a good defensive approach to the region.

So, since this is of course the last game in the older Age of franchise to remake, and, well, how they make new expansions for it… Sure? Sure, right? Age of Empires V just sitting there, in the ether, unmade. “It sounds like you’re in a position where you want to make something new?” I asked, my voice getting ridiculously high at the end as I tried to bait them into an answer I know they won’t give. I’m closer than I thought!

“So…” Yuen began. “I…” he continued. “We…” he added. “I’d like to…” he continued, so seductively. And when he caught himself, he went back to the clearly rehearsed line of, “So, we’re launching the game on September 12th, our goal is for this to be a game that’s continually updated and nurtured and…” imagine if I turned the volume down at this point. So I tried again.

“I know you don’t want to answer this, but you must tempted to create a whole new one! You’ve got everything in place, right? Teams in place, all these experts…”

“Yes,” Yuen says, gently interrupting me. “We have a lot of people who are very interested in building more Age.” Come on, come on. “And that is absolutely something that we need to…” YES?! “Right now we need to focus on making Age of Mythology: Retold the best game there is.” Goddammit.

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