Age of Mythology devs talk Aztec expansion, being part of Xbox, and 'nerdy ratholes'

Hi there! This week, I'm excited to share my first interview for Campaign Mode! Fittingly, I've been speaking with the strategy experts at World's Edge, who told me all about Age of Mythology: Retold's latest expansion and how the studio is continuing to chug along under Xbox.

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The Aztecs are one of the most unique additions yet

In an era where discussions surround Call of Duty, Halo, The Elder Scrolls, and other titanic titles under wider Xbox umbrella, one of the unsung heroes that remains important to me personally is Age of Mythology, which is shepherded by the team at World's Edge.

Alongside its sister franchise, Age of Empires, it remains a breath of fresh air, with frequent support for a strategy game at a time when new real-time strategy titles aren't exactly commonplace.

Over the past week and some change, I've been playing Obsidian Mirror, the third expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold, a project that began as an ambitious remake of Ensemble Studios' original title, but is now arguably much more.

Alongside playing through the new Aztec campaign and unleashing the monsters unlocked by new gods and goddesses, I also took the time to chat with World's Edge, with executive producer Tim Fritz and senior game designer Kristen Pirillo, who talked with me about the ins and outs of choosing the Aztecs for the latest expansion into mythological territory.

As for the why? It was pretty simple, as fans have been loudly requesting Aztecs for some time now.

"Obviously the fans have been requesting this. I mean, if you go back and look at the forums from back in 2003, there were requests for the Aztecs as far back as then," says Fritz, adding that in addition to "fan service" the faction just made sense as an interesting addition.

"They have a lot of interesting gods and they have a lot of powers, and it brings us to a whole other continent, instead of being more European-centric...we wanted to bring something to this side of the world."

From a design side, everything about the Aztecs in Age of Mythology revolves around sacrifice. Godly favor is increased by sacrificing villagers at temples, priests gather Tonalli (a Mesoamerican concept of life energy and power stored in the head, just below the hair), and some God Powers mark particular units for death in ritual sacrifice.

Pirillo notes this theme was locked in fairly early, coming back from a weekend after learning the team would be working on the Aztecs and immediately putting the concept of "sacrifice" as a driving force. This meant the team had to do enormous amounts of research, pushing not to just shove the concept in willy-nilly but understanding Aztec life and why it revolved around sacrifice.

"I think what came together and how we translated into the game was that just having that surface level 'sacrificing unit, get some resource' from it was not enough because it was actually a very complex religious thing for the Aztecs," Pirillo says. "The Aztecs were a short-lived society. They burned bright and faded fast...but the one thing that tied them all together was always this idea of Tonalli and paying your debt to the gods."

Being a completely different society with different culture and crafts, Pirillo notes the team fell down a lot of "nerdy ratholes" to ensure things were as authentic as possible. That research meant ensuring there was no traditional blacksmithing, and even getting the feathers right on the animals that would've been around at the time.

"We even had discussions about how the turkeys have to look like heritage turkeys from North America and not the brown turkeys we know, because that's not what the Aztecs had," Pirillo explains, also pointing to the Calpuli (storehouses), which can store any resource villagers gather, but can be also customized to better suit one particular need. These were based on the real communal hubs that Aztec families would live, and it also led to one of Pirillo's favorite details in the game.

"One of my bugaboos has always been when you bring livestock to the town center, they don't go in it. This drives me crazy. I'm like, 'Go in there. There are pens! There's a space for you in there.' So when we did the livestock pens, we finally did it. We finally did it. We sent a man to space and we got animals in the livestock pen."

Obsidian Mirror also comes just a few weeks after a "Blood and Bones" DLC that adds optional blood pools and skeletons in the wake of massive battles, something Fritz acknowledges was basically a prerequisite given expectations around the Aztecs. It also adds some Aztec-unique aesthetics to buildings, with blood and skulls added to temples if the settings are enabled.

With three expansions, Age of Mythology: Retold has grown significantly from its initial status as a remake of Ensemble Studios' original 2002 title. I asked if the team feels like the game is also a sequel in scope at this point.

"Yeah, so for me, I mean, that's part of the reason why I named it Retold, right? We already knew that we were going to try and go beyond the original confines," says Fritz, pointing to the rechargeable God Powers as elements the team felt confident in improving.

"Obviously we wanted to stay true to the original, but we wanted to bring even more for what we think that RTS players of today want. So I don't think that's an inaccurate description, right? And we actually had that discussion, 'Do we just package all this up and call it a sequel, right?...But we felt this is a good bridge in-between, because it's more than a definitive edition, but it's not quite a full sequel."

Pirillo adds that working on Obsidian Mirror is the most fun she's had in her whole career.

"That is the bold statement that I will gladly make," she says. "And everybody that worked on it had so much fun. I think mythology is unique, which is the same thing I said back in 2024. Nothing's changed. It's such a deep, creative well to be able to tap from. As long as there's human stories, there's myth."

On that mythological note, I was curious what new God Powers the team was most happy with, for whatever reason. Fritz points to the Volcano, saying that "Being able to have super weapons in an Age game is amazing, and Volcano is probably the peak super weapon that we have."

Pirillo, meanwhile, picks Coatlicue's Earth Monster, a great burrowing creature that can swallow an army whole in the blink of an eye. Amusingly, the design implementation for this fearsome beast ended up being partly inspired by playing Let's Go Fishing with her kids.

"We were trying to figure out how to make it work because in the mythos, the monster itself appeared at so many different animals. It could be a fish, it could be an amphibian, it could be like a snake, it could be an alligator," Pirillo says. "So we were just like so excited. I've been playing [Let's Go Fishing] with my kids. It just comes up."

World's Edge is unique as a studio. It's the only team under Xbox (including ZeniMax Media and Activision Blizzard King) entirely devoted to RTS titles. It's continuing a legacy from a former team. It's fairly small and tight-knit, working with external teams to partner on various projects.

"From from an Xbox Game Studio standpoint, we have a tight relationship within the group — we just had this conversation, not even not that long ago — that we feel World's Edge as the strategy game team has a very good spot within the entirety of the portfolio," Fritz says.

"And our whole job is to bring these types of strategy games into the fold, because obviously we believe in RTS. I mean, that's what we make. And so, in our discussions with the leadership team and everything, they feel that, we're in a strong position as a studio to continue to bring these great games to our players, and to keep them alive.”

Pirillo adds that for her, Age of Empires has always been important, and the fact it's still going is something special.

"It's cool. It feels like an A-team of RTS designers and producers and composers and it's just a really cool feeling," she says.

Assorted News

Some highlights from across the week, with big awards, launches, reversals, and reveals.

• Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was officially unveiled by Ubisoft. Launching on July 9, 2026 across Xbox, PC, and PS5 for $60, it features improved graphics and reworked gameplay, but is emphatically not a role-playing game. The original multiplayer and excellent DLC expansion Freedom Cry will not be included.
• Compulsion Games won an extremely well-deserved Peabody award for South of Midnight. The studio is currently working on a new, unannounced project.
• Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty co-authored a letter to Xbox employees, emphasizing a return to the Xbox branding and ditching Microsoft Gaming. The leadership group claims to be evaluating things like exclusivity, while admitting some shortcomings such as on the PC front.
• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is dropping in price, down from an eye-watering $30 a month to $23. The enormous catch? New Call of Duty titles will no longer launch day one in the service.

Housekeeping

Right now I'm still having fun playing Age of Mythology, which is probably going to cover my strategy cravings until the arrival of Total War: Warhammer 3's next expansion, which is still slated to launch this summer. There's also a Total War presentation coming on April 30, where I'm looking forward to seeing more snippets of Creative Assembly's various projects.

Otherwise, I've enjoyed playing Pragmata recently, which is a consistently fun experience from Capcom that feels like an Xbox 360-era throwback, in a good way. The hacking system is great, and it doesn't ever feel like it's overstaying its welcome.

I'm also planning to check out Double Fine Productions' Kiln, which launched yesterday. It's a pottery-themed multiplayer game, and I interviewed the team earlier this week for Game Developer to discuss how the project went from a game jam prototype to a full new title.