Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your project is let it breathe and take on new life. With Aexia, we’ve found this to be true.
Our initial intention for Aexia was a tabletop rpg experience that brought to life the fantasy worlds GMs and players played and imagined in our heads. We developed a game where gamers dressed as their player characters sat around a virtual tabletop and played a traditional RPG. What made Aexia different was the table was alive! Our character’s miniatures could move around a 3D map on the table, and battle NPCs. Like that holographic chess game (Dejarik) in Star Wars. Cool, right?
Yeah. Not so much. It was kind of “meh”, actually.
The truth was it was the exact same experience as a traditional tabletop RPG, except with some cool animations and graphics and for that experience we had the extra overhead of having to wear a VR headset. Not what we were hoping to build. Ugh. What do we do now?
We breathed in.
We didn’t panic, we sat back, relaxed, and examined what we had. There was some good stuff here. What did we like about it? Being the characters and seeing the other player characters was fun. We stayed in character and were much more theatrical than we normally are when we play tabletop RPGs. We loved the GM reacting to our choices with new visual experiences. What didn’t we like? Sitting around a virtual table. Boring and tedious. Instead, we wanted to be ON THE TABLE where the action was!
We breathed out.
And that breath gave life to a new approach. Playing as our characters on the table top. GMs lording like gods above us! Super cool, but it has led to challenges too. Traditional turn based decisions and combat mechanics just didn’t make sense anymore. But the real time collaborative nature of the experience lent itself very well to murder mystery, escape room and LARP scenarios. Adding the GM and role playing elements to these games made them infinitely replayable and completely unique every time. This felt right.
So that is where we are for 2023. Aexia is role playing reimagined. It gives players the opportunity to embrace theatrical performances, collaboratively problem-solve while giving GMs never before flexibility to deliver unexpected game scenarios and encounters.
Take another breath. Aexia isn’t just our world anymore, we want it to be yours!
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