Aztez

Lore & Background

Aztez was developed by Team Colorblind, an indie studio based in Phoenix, Arizona, consisting of a two-person team: Ben Ruiz (artist and designer) and Matthew Wegner. They designed the game to feel like an arcade game with minimal tutorials, aiming to empower players to feel like a badass. The game's action was intended to evoke God of War or Devil May Cry without the tedious elements between fights. Player weapons include a sword, spear, knife, and club.

Reader's Guide

Aztez is notable as a side-scrolling brawler and turn-based strategy hybrid set in a historical Aztec context. Its grayscale and blood red color palette drew comparisons to the 2010 action game MadWorld. The game received mostly positive reviews, with PC Gamer praising its art style and noting a potential trend of historic side-scrollers. GamesRadar found the art style piqued interest and the combat sustained it, while ACG praised originality but noted occasional confusion in combat. Caz called it a stylish, substance-filled spiritual successor to the SNES title Actraiser, giving it an 8/10. Despite positive reception, Team Colorblind reported a disappointing launch with only 2,000 copies sold in the first two months. Console versions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One were planned for a 2018 launch but had not been released as of July 2022.

Did You Know?

• Aztez was developed by a two-person team: Ben Ruiz and Matthew Wegner.
• The game uses a grayscale and blood red color palette similar to the 2010 action game MadWorld.
• Console versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch were released in 2018; the Wii U and PlayStation Vita versions were canceled.

Combat Meets Strategy in an Aztec World

Aztez blends two distinct genres into a single experience: the fast-paced brawling of a side-scroller and the deliberate pacing of turn-based strategy. Players navigate through regions inspired by real locations within the Aztec empire, set approximately twenty years before the Spanish conquest reshaped the continent. The combat toolkit is deliberately compact—a sword, a spear, a knife, and a club—forcing players to master a small set of tools rather than overwhelm them with options. Visually, the game commits to a stark palette of grayscale tones punctuated by vivid blood red, a look that echoes the 2010 action title MadWorld. Behind the mechanics sits a clear design philosophy: Team Colorblind wanted the game to feel like a classic arcade experience, stripping away lengthy tutorials and the "super tedious" downtime between encounters that plagues many action titles. Their stated goal was to empower players to feel like a badass, channeling the visceral momentum of God of War or Devil May Cry while keeping the focus squarely on the fight itself.

Two Developers, One Vision

Team Colorblind is a two-person indie studio based in Phoenix, Arizona, and the entire creative weight of Aztez rests on the shoulders of just two individuals: Ben Ruiz, who handles art and design, and Matthew Wegner. This small team made deliberate choices that shaped the game's identity. They consciously aimed for an arcade-like feel, believing that minimal tutorials and immediate, intuitive combat would serve their core mission of making players feel powerful and confident in the arena. Their inspirations were clear—they wanted the kinetic energy of God of War and Devil May Cry but without the lengthy filler content that often pads those titles between major encounters. The studio also expressed a preference for launching across all platforms at once, but acknowledged that their limited staff made simultaneous console development impractical. This constraint would ultimately define the game's release trajectory, as the PC version arrived first while console ports remained perpetually on the horizon.

A Decade in the Making

Aztez's path to release stretched far longer than initially planned. The game first appeared publicly at PAX Prime in 2013, followed by a showcase at PAX East 2014's Indie Megabooth and an Xbox One demo at the 2014 Game Developers Conference. A 2014 launch window was originally targeted, but when that date slipped, Team Colorblind publicly assured fans that development progress was "healthy but slow." The PC version for Windows, macOS, and Linux finally arrived on August 1, 2017—nearly four years after the first public showing. Console editions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One were announced for a 2018 window, yet as of July 2022, none of those ports had materialized. The studio had cited insufficient development staff as the reason for staggering the releases, and that staffing limitation appears to have ultimately prevented the console versions from ever shipping. For a two-person team, the gap between ambition and bandwidth proved difficult to bridge.

Praise and a Quiet Launch

Critics largely embraced Aztez's distinctive identity. Ian Birnbaum of PC Gamer singled out the art style and observed a broader trend of "historic side-scrollers" emerging alongside the Greek-themed Apotheon. GamesRadar noted that the visual presentation initially drew them in and the combat kept them engaged. ACG commended the game's originality while acknowledging that the turn-based combat could feel confusing during extended sequences. Caz went further, calling Aztez a stylish and substance-filled spiritual successor to the SNES classic Actraiser and awarding it eight out of ten. Despite this wave of favorable coverage, the commercial picture told a different story. By October 2017, Team Colorblind reported a disappointing launch, with only approximately 2,000 copies sold in the game's first two months on PC. The contrast between critical enthusiasm and modest sales underscores the challenge indie titles face in reaching wider audiences, even when reviewers find genuine originality and craft in the package.

Gallery