AEGIS: Combining Robots launched in 2018 with some rave reviews. We loved how it simplified the war genre with accessible abilities and cool, tokusatsu style. Now, five years later, the formula is being tweaked for a standalone expansion and a second edition of the original AEGIS. Fans of the original can already check out this new bundle on Kickstarter, which was fully funded in just 45 minutes.
We were able to learn more about AEGIS‘ past and future with Breeze Grigas of team Zephyr Workshop. “AEGIS began as our senior capstone project in college – I went to school for game design and by semester 8, I hadn’t made a game, so I swore I would, or else,” Grigas says. “The main premise came really quickly – we wanted to build a sort of wargame, but simpler and with design cues from video games like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. I was really into combining robot shows growing up, so that sort of became the game’s unique spin. So we built it, self-published it (with our hands! We folded boxes!) and sold some copies at local conventions.”
AEGIS was picked up by a publisher, but the first Kickstarter in 2016 wasn’t successful. Grigas states that there was plenty to learn from the failure. “Finally, when that didn’t end up working out, we took the game back and ran our own campaign in 2017, which did very well. From there we basically rebuilt the whole game (again) and made it look a lot better than what we initially pitched,” Gigas says.
“Our original AEGIS game had a pretty long development period, where it went through a bunch of versions, published and unpublished. By the time it actually came out in late 2018, we had learned a lot about making games and had a lot of ideas cut from the first box, as well as an influx of feedback from all our new players.”
AEGIS: Second Ignition (Which we will call AEGIS2) started development shortly after the first game’s release. Grigas says that their with the goal was to make AEGIS but sharper and more accessible. Zephyr Workshop sought out to leverage their experience, fan feedback, and the assets that they already had. “Because yeah, after you make one game, you have all these molds and graphic templates, and not using them again would be a shame,” says Grigas. Of course, AEGIS2 has many new art assets as well, which was outsourced by artists using the larger budget.
AEGIS2 comes with many new features, including 100 new robots. “This time we focused on making combining cooler, so there are a few abilities that let you combine your bots together in quicker, easier ways, or let you trigger multiple abilities when your new bot comes into play, says Grigas.”
AEGIS2 also has a few new features to streamline the experience with more interactivity. “We introduced more abilities that let you attack on enemy turns and react to their attacks, a few luck mitigation mechanics, status effects that create some fun decisions, and robots that spawn little drones that temporarily add to your 5-bot roster. We also went back and cut/streamlined some mechanics, so not everything in AEGIS1 is in AEGIS2, though both robot rosters are totally cross-compatible. Overall AEGIS2’s box content is less wordy than AEGIS1’s,” Grigas says.
One of the biggest new features is the new mode, Starpoint Arena. Grigas says that the new mode was made after all of the feedback from AEGIS. Players alternate turns one piece at a time as opposed to moving their entire teams back and forth. Robots respawn each turn, so players worry less about losing resources and more about capturing objectives. There are also special powers players can trigger on the board, giving them new strategic options.
To further streamline the experience AEGIS2 also reduced the map’s size. Setup is also faster in this version. AEGIS2 includes a 4-player board that’s the original game’s size, and players who prefer a larger map can use that side.
I couldn’t finish my time with Breeze Grigas without first learning about his influences. “I grew up watching Power Rangers, I think my favorites were Wild Force and In Space,” he says. “Wild Force’s interchangeable Zords had a lasting impact on me, they’re a very cool concept. A newer and very unsung favorite of mine is definitely Samurai Flamenco though, there’s just nothing else like it.”
He says his favorite new robot design in AEGIS2 is the Ahmni (“Omni”). “It was definitely inspired by Canti from FLCL – a sort of punk rock, off-beat, red robot to match our human lead character, Ashla. We played around with a lot of designs, before settling on its rad star head. Our new artist GenTrigger created the design concept and our other lead artist, Noah Nagata, really refined it.”
AEGIS‘s second season is on Kickstarter now. The campaign will run until February 17th. Those who miss the campaign will be able to catch AEGIS2 on Backlerlit with non-discounted pricing.
