The Axis Unseenis a new indie horror title crafted by a former Bethesda developer that features mystical creatures, mysterious lore for the player character to slowly unravel, a breathtaking open world, and a killer “primitive metal” soundtrack that ties it all together. The soloindie gameis highly polished and keenly stylized, and the quality of this experience should come as no surprise given it comes off nearly 20 years of experience across various titles such asSkyrim, Fallout, Starfield,and more.
The Axis Unseendoes not yet have a release date, but players can wishlist it now on Steam. Game Rant spoke with developer Nate Purkeypile about how his experience as a AAA developer helped prepare him to create his own solo game.
RELATED:Skyrim Streamer Makes NPCs Spawn Cheese Every Second, Chaos Ensues
The Axis Unseen Is the Product of Years of Experience Across Many AAA Titles
The Axis Unseendraws heavily from a variety of Purkeypile’s interests, though the real impetus for the game was to make something that filled in the gaps he felt like was lacking.Having played hunting sims in the past, Purkeypile enjoyed the way they delve into the mechanics of tracking. While he liked the tension inherent in those games, he felt like there was room to improve using a focus on horror.
The soundtrack ofThe Axis Unseenplays a huge role in the overall atmosphere of the game, while also functioning as an important mechanic that lets players know if they’re in danger or just made it through another tense night. Being a huge fan of metal, Purkeypile knew he would have to incorporate that interest via his soundtrack in some way, especially because he felt there wasa huge lack of heavy metal-driven games on the market.
Purkeypile’s choice to work on his own game comes after nearly 20 years as a developer at Bethesda. His resume is lengthy and features notable credits as lead artist onseveral Game of the Year titlesincludingFallout 3, Fallout 4,andSkyrim. With all of this experience under his belt, Purkeypile decided that rather than wait around for the next big project, it was time to work on his own.
“At that point it’s like, well, do I want to wait to see if I’m going to be lead again, because the projects are sort of offset too. But also I’ve done so many of those games. I don’t really want to do that again. I want to do something different, so this is a unique challenge that’s not just making yet another open-world game”
While he wanted more of a unique challenging, Purkeypile saidhis extensive experience in open-world game developmentis something that he would take with him. It’s no simple undertaking to design an open-world game. Purkeypile said, “Those worlds can have infinite art;” it’s just a matter of knowing how to walk the line between making stuff that looks as good as possible while also working efficiently. For Purkeypile, his AAA experience makes him a master at doing just that. While many developers may recount a long list of challenges they’ve encountered, Purkeypile said he has encountered fairly few roadblocks - at least for now.
“I think making open worlds like that, you have lots of good habits on how to work really efficiently because those could have infinite art. It’s a matter of just finding that fine line of can I do stuff as fast as possible that also looks as good as possible.”
The Axis Unseenis in development, and can be wishlisted now on Steam.
MORE:Coffee Talk Episode 2 Interview: Devs Discuss the Art, Music, and More
