Introducing: The Eagle Warrior
The other legendary warrior society one could enter upon successfully taking 4 captives was based on the mystical and divine eagle. The eagle had a very important place in Aztec society as both a majestic flying creature and as a herald of a new age; the ancient Mexica were told by their patron deities to build Tenochtitlan where they saw an eagle devouring a serpent atop a cactus. Truthfully, we do not know how the Eagle warriors differed functionally from the Jaguar warriors, but we know they were equally prestigious and most likely represented a tactical identity. The Eagle warrior was as glorified as the Jaguars and were just as frightening to behold to the common warrior.
The Eagle warriors will fulfill the same need as the Jaguar warriors do in terms of distinction, but will be slightly different threats. The carry different weapons and will fight a little differently from each other, but they will present a similar challenge and both will be far more rewarding to destroy then common and noble warriors.
Introducing: The Jaguar Warrior
When an Aztec noble warrior stepped his game up and took 4 captives, he was then inducted into one of two very special warrior societies. One of these two societies was based on the fierce and powerful jaguar, a highly revered and respected beast (I'll tell you about the other society real soon). Jaguar warriors were some of the most famous warriors in all of Aztec culture; they are celebrated countless times in art and in story and they maintained an inspiring position on and off the battlefield.
When these guys appear things will start to get serious. We will be using these decorated warriors to indicate stiffer competition, which is a classic trick typically done with palette swaps. The idea here is to be able to look at an enemy (in spite of the aesthetic similarity they all bear) and know what you're up against, which is essentially what the Aztecs did with their warriors as a way to trumpet the caliber of their military might.
Introducing: The Noble
Once a young combatant has taken his first captive and proven himself worthy of the warrior life path, he is inducted into the ranks of the noble class. He now has access to higher education, specialized war training, and will have front line position in the ritualized warfare the Aztecs practiced amongst themselves. It is at this point in the life of a budding career warrior that he will begin to form a battle identity and as his exploits increase, so will his formal decoration.
If this guy looks familiar it's because you've seen him in the concept art and in the technical demos. That's right; this is what you'll look like as you start out in the world of Aztez. Just like the noble warrior creates an identity for himself as he continues to fight, so shall you...I'll tell you how later. 
Introducing: The Common Warrior
After demonstrating his resolve on the battlefield by serving as a porter, the young man was given a weapon and a shield and charged with one singular task; taking an enemy captive. At this point he has had a good amount of formal training and fully understands the importance of his role as a warrior, as is now intensely focused on bringing in that first captive and becoming a man. This is where it all began for the career warrior; if he proved himself here he would formally advance into a life of nobility.
Let's be perfectly honest here; this is about as green as it gets for a man who was allowed to carry a weapon. These were young men with something to prove and this was their undoing as often as it was their success. In the context of the game, they're the perfect meat to grind; unremarkable, plentiful, and vivacious. There is some value in playing with your food and I intend to make that point with these characters. 
Aztez On Facebook
Just in case Facebook is your preferred contact point for the games you can't stop thinking about, go ahead and take advantage of our Aztez page on Facebook! We've added a button on the sidebar at the top (you can't miss it, it's the only blue object on the site) so you can jump to it from here with the swiftness of a thousand peregrine falcons.
Introducing: The Porter
When a young man makes his decision to pursue the path of the warrior, he must first prove that he can keep his wits about him in an actual battle by serving as a porter. The porter was responsible for carrying weapons of war around to wherever they were needed and making sure that the warrior ranks stayed supplied. Mobility was his weapon and the importance of his position was undeniable.
It's hard to say at this point how often you'll see this character during gameplay, but know this; his appearance will mean great things for those swift and brutal enough to get to him before he fulfills his responsibilities and disappears...
Introducing: The Commoner
The common man of Tenochtitlan, while most likely born into the lower class, would still learn to farm, be trained in the ways of good citizenship, and be introduced to warfare at a school built specifically for the lower classes. Around the age of 15, he could either continue his education and learn to be an administrator, civic worker, or even a priest (if they were pious enough), or they could attend military school and begin their life as a warrior.
Most of the time you see this character in the game he will be in the background, making the environments feel alive with their animated presence. But what about the rest of the time? Well sometimes these guys stumble onto a battlefield, and the fact of that matter is that they have as much blood to offer as anyone else...
Behind The Scenes: Bridge To Tenochtitlan
Like I did in the Behind The Scenes: Marketplace post, I just want to pull the camera out again so you can see the Bridge environment in a different light. I think this environment ended up strangely photogenic, despite the fact that it is long and way less populated than the Marketplace. It had a lot to do with the fact that I managed to find a comfortable space in between function and composition and it didn't end up needing a ton of decorative objects. As always, this is a work in progress and will get a lot more love as the project continues.
The lake itself is quite barren, but the low angle of the game camera does a pretty good job of concealing that, especially with the patches of detail (chinampas, floating vegetation) that are close to the foreground.
I love this shot. This large platform all the way on the left hand side of the level is also quite barren, and I think it needs some more love. But I like the basic concept of wandering merchants on the outskirts of the city setting up shop and trying to hawk their wares as people go in and out.
The idea here is that there is a nexus that goes in and out of the city that farmers use to get to their canoes at the docks so they can maintain the floating gardens. If you go back and look at the Marketplace environment you can see these doorway nexus objects in a couple different spots; maybe this one leads directly into the Marketplace?
I just like this shot because I like these towers. It's as simple as that. But note the function! There are docks and canoes that will take guardsmen to and from the tower entrances.
And there she is from the sky. Note all of the awkward spaces! The lack of sufficient detail in many places! The abrupt endings to long chains of assets! I plan on filling this one out a little bit more but the general layout will remain the same. Good thing you won't see it from up here.
Aztez Wallpaper #1
Just in case someone wants to splatter Aztez all over their desktop! Here is wallpaper #1 in all popular sizes! If you really want one in a size I didn't include just let me know so I can add it to the list.
There will be more of these as we reveal new characters and environments, but you should still tell us what you want in a wallpaper so we can make 'em.
The Bridge To Tenochtitlan
I am absolutely delighted to share with you a new environment I have created in which to spill copious amounts of blood within. This is a (liberal) recreation of one of Tenochtitlan's many bridges. It was created using a small handful of the structural building blocks I created for the Marketplace, but with mostly brand new assets. I thought it would be really awesome to stage a battle on one of these thin bridges where you get to see the agricultural happenings of the locals as well as an outside view of the city walls. I want to use this environment to create the breathtaking sensation of what it must have been like to approach the legendary city. Use the left and right arrow keys to run and press the up button to jump.
As with the Marketplace, this environment is still very much a work in progress but the basic idea is definitely in place. That's not to say it didn't get some lovin'! Something I put some serious TLC into is the floating gardens, or "chinampas", in the background water. Because of the heavily aquatic nature of Tenochtitlan, floating gardens like this were integral to Aztec farming. I wanted to make sure these crucial objects were represented so I actually went and modeled some of the vegetables you would have seen in a place like this.
We've got pinto bean stalks on the left, corn in the middle, and amaranth on the right. Obviously there were many more things grown by the Aztecs than that, but these three staples provide good variety to the scene since you don't see them up close anyway. And since I'm showing you these and you can clearly see that there isn't actually any detail on a lot of these simpler objects, I'm gonna show you how I get them textured quickly and easily. I'm employing the exact same methodology I showed you in the Conservative Texture Usage post, except I'm using a startlingly simple texture.
The texture file you see in this image is an exact representation of the actual texture being used on these game objects; one half is solid white and one half is solid black. On the simple objects that don't need any textural detail, I just slap this guy on 'em and he pretty much takes care of everything for me. It's great because when I'm modeling I spend NO time meticulously arranging UV's, I just cram the UV's from the main body of the object into the upper half of the UV space and the outter ink object into the lower half. And since they're all using this material in the scene, I can take advantage of Unitys mesh combine functionality and turn a whole array of simple vegetables into one object. It's beautiful and fast and satisfying.
Aztez is being made by Ben Ruiz and Matthew Wegner. Unsurprisingly, they are both incredibly violent.
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