'Rock of Ages'... where did it come from?

Posted by Carlos Bordeu, Jun 18 2010, 02:49 PM in Development

So... 'Rock of Ages'...

Where did this new game come from? What were we thinking of when we decided to make a game that is so different from our past projects? The following is just a brief insight about how we came up with Rock of Ages, which was referred to as 'Boulder' when we started working on the concept.


At ACE it has always been important to be able to create fresh new intellectual property. We wanted to make sure we could continue to bring unique and exciting ideas to the gaming industry. Shortly after we finished Zeno Clash for the PC, the studio gathered to brainstorm all sorts of concepts of what we could do for a completely new game. We wanted to create something that had an arcade feel and a strong multiplayer component while still keeping a fresh artistic approach.

We let our imagination fly through a couple weeks where everyone started compiling their own ideas -most which were not much more than doodles on napkins or simple sketches. Those game ideas ranged from shufflepuck, action side scrollers to other more ambiguous game concepts. The doodle I presented for 'Boulder' was this:



The basic drawing was the starting point from which we began elaborating Rock of Ages. It is always curious to see how simple the birth of a game can be. This horrible doodle, full of spanglish, is obviously very vague. But everyone at the studio felt it was a starting point for something we could transform into a unique experience.

We've always believed that ideas are not as important as execution. Good ideas can come and go very fast - and you generally have more ideas than you can possibly execute. Game development usually comes down to ironing out those good ideas and shaping them into concrete and fun experiences. That is what we hope to accomplish with Rock of Ages.

During the following months we will continue to share more info about how we're ironing our crazy new game. It's been a while since we've added an article focused on development so we hope you guys enjoyed the read. We'll keep on posting new interesting stuff as we progress with the game so stay tuned!