Games tell many stories, and some of the best demonstrate a complex intertwining of narrative and gameplay. As a JRPG fan, I have grown to appreciate games that not only take a leap into creating an elaborately designed world but also give me characters and a story to latch on to. Based on my conversations with the developers and time spent playing the demo, it seems that Aether & Iron intends to pursue this venture with its distinct sci-fi 1930s New York City alternate-history setting, meaningful character dialogue choices, and deep themes of surviving under political corruption and class division.
At PAX East, I was given an opportunity to meet with the team at Seismic Squirrel to preview their debut title Aether & Iron ahead of launch and talk to the studio leads about what went into the making of their narrative-driven tactical RPG. Going into this experience, I was curious about what influenced the design from both a gameplay and artistic perspective, as well as what convinced the team that PAX East was the right place to show off this title.
The team had been working on this project for several years, with people coming in from AAA to indie studios. With such experience, I had to wonder what compelled the team to come together and pursue this desire to collaborate on an original project.
“A lot of the people that are currently working at Seismic Squirrel have come from indie backgrounds, AAA backgrounds; but everybody’s kind of migrated towards just wanting to be in a company where they can have a lot of weight or say, or ownership over creative control over what we’re actually making,” said Product Manager Joshua Enz.
I could clearly see that Aether & Iron was a passion project when I played it, and this holds even more true for the game’s narrative scope. According to Narrative Director Tyler Whitney, the story in Aether & Iron is over 420,000 words. That puts it just a few tens of thousands of words short of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for reference. In addition, all 420,000+ words are fully voice acted! When I asked about what convinced them to have every line voiced, they said it was to keep players immersed in the story, which I have to say absolutely worked on me as I played through the demo.
Personality is something that shines through in Aether & Iron, as dialogue choices can sometimes involve a dice roll depending on character stats. This alone allows the player to pursue a multitude of paths through the story to accomplish different objectives. These choices and skill distributions can make or break decisions to either remain complacent with political corruption or pursue rebellion in the underworld, among others. When I think of complex stories where choices matter, games like Aether & Iron are among the examples of ones that do this incredibly well, even if I only got to scratch the surface of it so far.
As fun as diplomacy may be, how does the game go about handling conflicts? Aether & Iron is also a tactical RPG, with combat taking place on a grid where you have to maneuver your flying car and fire at potential assailants while protecting supplies in your storage. It’s an interesting, but dynamic twist on turn-based tactical combat, this time with more than just units at stake. Instead, even your inventory isn’t safe from aggressors you may encounter, which I think is a fascinating addition to the gameplay style.
Flying car combat is cool and all, but how on Earth did they come to the idea of 1930’s New York with an alternate history setting? The setting and concepts for Aether & Iron‘s world originally started with a simple, silly idea: Mario Kart but with guns.
“We started on this project around 4 or 5 years ago, and [we did] a lot of iteration, a lot of trial and error of trying new prototypes and trying to figure out if this works or not. We got sidetracked for a hot second about ‘what if we did Mario Kart with guns?’ and [we decided] this is not the right direction to go,” said Whitney.
When it came to deciding on using 1930s cars and building out a more tech-forward rendition of New York City as the world, eventually the creative ideation boiled down to just going with what sounded cool to the development team. They were fans of the aesthetic of New York City, of 1930s cars, and the idea of aether being a widely used technology in an alternate version of history where such technology was possible.
“Someone came up to me and kept asking me ‘why,’ [and] at the end of the day it’s just cool” said Whitney. “That’s what it comes down to. And we thought it was cool. We thought, ‘flying cars is cool, 30s cars are cool, and now what can we do with that?’ and games are about being fun, right? And so we’re having fun making it.”
Art Director Gary Jensen added, “we’ve got the 1930s and we have all of this historical reference; [we’re] just trying to find that balance between how sci-fi we make this and then how we’re trying to keep it rooted in some kind of semblance of reality.”
If there is anything I’ve taken away from talking to the development team behind Aether & Iron and playing the demo, it’s that a good idea can become something great with the right team behind it. From the art style to the complex world building to the tactical car-based combat, this game is clearly a labor of love of history and tactical RPGs like Disco Elysium that both make the player think deep about the world around them while providing an entertaining experience all around.
At PAX East, I was given an opportunity to meet with the team at Seismic Squirrel to preview their debut title Aether & Iron ahead of launch and talk to the studio leads about what went into the making of their narrative-driven tactical RPG.
Games tell many stories, and some of the best demonstrate a complex intertwining of narrative and gameplay. As a JRPG fan, I have grown to appreciate games that not only take a leap into creating an elaborately designed world but also give me characters and a story to latch on to. Based on my conversations with the developers and time spent playing the demo, it seems that Aether & Iron intends to pursue this venture with its distinct sci-fi 1930s New York City alternate-history setting, meaningful character dialogue choices, and deep themes of surviving under political corruption and class division.
At PAX East, I was given an opportunity to meet with the team at Seismic Squirrel to preview their debut title Aether & Iron ahead of launch and talk to the studio leads about what went into the making of their narrative-driven tactical RPG. Going into this experience, I was curious about what influenced the design from both a gameplay and artistic perspective, as well as what convinced the team that PAX East was the right place to show off this title.
The team had been working on this project for several years, with people coming in from AAA to indie studios. With such experience, I had to wonder what compelled the team to come together and pursue this desire to collaborate on an original project.
“A lot of the people that are currently working at Seismic Squirrel have come from indie backgrounds, AAA backgrounds; but everybody’s kind of migrated towards just wanting to be in a company where they can have a lot of weight or say, or ownership over creative control over what we’re actually making,” said Product Manager Joshua Enz.
I could clearly see that Aether & Iron was a passion project when I played it, and this holds even more true for the game’s narrative scope. According to Narrative Director Tyler Whitney, the story in Aether & Iron is over 420,000 words. That puts it just a few tens of thousands of words short of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for reference. In addition, all 420,000+ words are fully voice acted! When I asked about what convinced them to have every line voiced, they said it was to keep players immersed in the story, which I have to say absolutely worked on me as I played through the demo.
Personality is something that shines through in Aether & Iron, as dialogue choices can sometimes involve a dice roll depending on character stats. This alone allows the player to pursue a multitude of paths through the story to accomplish different objectives. These choices and skill distributions can make or break decisions to either remain complacent with political corruption or pursue rebellion in the underworld, among others. When I think of complex stories where choices matter, games like Aether & Iron are among the examples of ones that do this incredibly well, even if I only got to scratch the surface of it so far.
As fun as diplomacy may be, how does the game go about handling conflicts? Aether & Iron is also a tactical RPG, with combat taking place on a grid where you have to maneuver your flying car and fire at potential assailants while protecting supplies in your storage. It’s an interesting, but dynamic twist on turn-based tactical combat, this time with more than just units at stake. Instead, even your inventory isn’t safe from aggressors you may encounter, which I think is a fascinating addition to the gameplay style.
Flying car combat is cool and all, but how on Earth did they come to the idea of 1930’s New York with an alternate history setting? The setting and concepts for Aether & Iron‘s world originally started with a simple, silly idea: Mario Kart but with guns.
“We started on this project around 4 or 5 years ago, and [we did] a lot of iteration, a lot of trial and error of trying new prototypes and trying to figure out if this works or not. We got sidetracked for a hot second about ‘what if we did Mario Kart with guns?’ and [we decided] this is not the right direction to go,” said Whitney.
When it came to deciding on using 1930s cars and building out a more tech-forward rendition of New York City as the world, eventually the creative ideation boiled down to just going with what sounded cool to the development team. They were fans of the aesthetic of New York City, of 1930s cars, and the idea of aether being a widely used technology in an alternate version of history where such technology was possible.
“Someone came up to me and kept asking me ‘why,’ [and] at the end of the day it’s just cool” said Whitney. “That’s what it comes down to. And we thought it was cool. We thought, ‘flying cars is cool, 30s cars are cool, and now what can we do with that?’ and games are about being fun, right? And so we’re having fun making it.”
Art Director Gary Jensen added, “we’ve got the 1930s and we have all of this historical reference; [we’re] just trying to find that balance between how sci-fi we make this and then how we’re trying to keep it rooted in some kind of semblance of reality.”
If there is anything I’ve taken away from talking to the development team behind Aether & Iron and playing the demo, it’s that a good idea can become something great with the right team behind it. From the art style to the complex world building to the tactical car-based combat, this game is clearly a labor of love of history and tactical RPGs like Disco Elysium that both make the player think deep about the world around them while providing an entertaining experience all around.
by Michael Fertitta
