Tuesday 1 August 2017

Aristeia! Seminar at Interplanetary 2017

One of the seminars this past weekend was a look at Corvus Belli's new game - Aristeia!

The rules themselves were covered at the demo tables and at a subsequent talk, but this one talked about the overall game concept and character designs.

As per the Bostria Seminar, the images in particular have been cleaned up a bit and brightened so the colours may not be completely true. This was done due to the lighting conditions in the venue causing them to otherwise appear quite washed out. All the new concept art will also eventually end up on the Human Sphere wiki.


So, first thing to point out is that Bostria is a big liar. Last year they released a set of notes, like the one below, about different possible future concepts and one of them was Aristeia!. However, they were already working on the game by then. In fact they started planning it out over two years ago!


CB were well aware that they were a miniature company with just one game and even people outside the company were pointing out that this was a bit unusual and that they could stand to diversify.

As a responsible company that was in a strong position they decided that after almost ten years it was time to start diversifying their products.The positive, healthy numbers that the company was pulling in allowed CB to think big.


Aristeia! is entirely a board game, mechanically unrelated to Infinity. It comes with plastic minis, a proper board, cards and custom dice. It's designed to be a proper, competitive game and they are expecting to have a tournament scene to go with it.,

Corvus Belli is committed to making a high quality product that has been through exhaustive field tests and playtesting. They are confident in the game and are planning to continue to support it - no selling the box set and then running away!

It is expected to be out by the end of the year.


The miniatures themselves are all going to be plastic, made in china, but to a very high quality. Lessons learned from working in this medium has also translated into easier miniature assembly for new Infinity miniatures by creating a better joining system.


Maximus



Below, you can see some rejected Maximus concept art. He started off very much on a PanOceanian Knight frame, becoming a Paradiso style veteran and then onto his current design. Various other design elements were considered such as using bits of the Tikbalang design (on the rightmost sketch) and having an open or closed helmet.

Eventually he was moved onto the current design, inspired by a sleeker, racecar design, and sponsored by Moto.Tronica - PanO's military contractor for their Remotes. Effectively he's an advertisement for PanO's military might and is the favourite competitor for all PanOceanian viewers.






Wild Bill



Wild Bill is a character that initially appeared in the very early fluff.

His character went through many variations from traditional cowboy to a high-tech look and a True Grit inspired outfit. There's even a bit of Westworld in there. Broadly they moved towards a more futuristic look with these early designs.

Eventually though they moved back to a fairly historical set of clothing and they retained the 'poker' theme that was part of the original character background.

Wild Bill is armed with a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver.







Parvati



Parvati was one of the first designed and one of the first Aristeia! fighters in the fluff.

She was created by Aleph for the original seasons of Aristeia!, back when it was purely robot fighters battling it out. That was nobody was actually being hurt. Eventually people decided they wanted to join in too though and the current system of Aristeia! was born.

Parvati has disconnected, 'gravitating' limbs to emphasise her inhuman, robotic nature. For the miniature itself her limbs are linked together by her long hair.





Mushashi



Mushashi was fairly set in stone for the start with the only differences being fairly cosmetic - should he have a hat or not, or should he be in blue or red. After all, five miniatures exist for him already!

In game terms he's a close combat monster of course, based on a Samurai concept and his rules and profile support this. Generally speaking he can sacrifice defence for more offence.




Hexx3r



Hexxer is a favourite for many of the game's designers and is going to be an essential part of many player's teams.

Her concept is that of a hacker/nomad/with with a look somewhat based on the Reverend Moira from Bakunin.

The centre sketch below was the very first design with the right one being a streamlined version. Overall there were a great many concepts designed - too many to be shown at the seminar! She's the only character to have had a complete 3d model be rejected and re-done. You can see it in the grey below.

Her job is to freeze and displace enemies (and friends!), and overall act as board control. She can work on a limited amount of energy and can even push obstacles around the board.








Gata



Gata is one of the characters that defined the tone for the game - was it meant to be Saturday morning cartoon, a gritty 80s style sc-fi sport or something else entirely? What level of violence was appropriate? Gata clearly sets a slightly more upbeat, light-hearted tone than the game might otherwise have had.

Her character was well defined early on. She's a fast 'catgirl' and a celebrity with her own fashion line. Ariana Grande was mentioned as an inspiration for the character.

Her job is to pull out seemingly miraculous movements and to reach locations that other characters would find impossible.






Major Lunah



Major Lunah was originally designed as an Aristeia! character rather than an Infinity one. The main reason she was picked as the miniature to be released for Infinity as well as a promotion was that she was the only one with a military background who could reasonably be expected to be seen on a battlefield - except Mushashi of course who already has rules.

Major Lunah keeps her distances and tries to avoid approaching the centre of the board. To fight her you just need to get in close.





8-Ball



8-Ball was a character so ridiculous and random that they just couldn't help but greenlight him. He's a genetically modified combatant made specifically for Aristeia! competition.

He has a large octopus tattoo over his shoulders and what appears to be board shorts. The character is somewhat unpredictable and has some martial arts skills.

Game-wise he's a positioning based character and has strong synergies with Gata.






Group Shots

Last up, enjoy a couple of group shots of all eight characters.


3 comments:

  1. Great re-cap - was there any indication on how the game plays? Or length of play time etc?

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    1. There were also a gameplay talk and demos being run across the weekend, but there's too much to put into a comment!

      I would say that a game would typically be around an hour or so, possibly less as you get used to the rules.

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