In The Axis Unseen, you’re stepping into an unfamiliar world. Here when you roam into this land, you’re greeted by folklore monsters thriving within the forests to the mountains. Armed with a bow and arrow, you must fight these primal beasts to survive. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Nate Purkeypile from Just Purkey Games about this upcoming title.
Gameranx: To start things off, let’s talk about Just Purkey Games. You’ve worked on some rather major titles before going solo. Can you share a little bit about your transition from a major studio to a solo venture?
Nate Purkeypile: I was in AAA for 17 years before going solo, so I worked on games like Fallout 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield. 14 of those years were all at Bethesda, so I saw it grow from our tiny team in the basement of about 65 people to around 500 people across four studios (not counting all the outsourcing/co-dev) working on Starfield. I really liked working at Bethesda when the team was smaller, the amount that tiny team was able to do was amazing. It was a lot closer to an indie studio back in those days. Skyrim is still played by a lot of people to this day and that team was only around 100 people.
So I learned a lot about just how much can get done when there aren’t a bunch of barriers in the way. It wasn’t like that when I worked for Nintendo at Retro Studios on Metroid Prime 3. That became increasingly less true though as the company scaled up. It’s impossible to operate that way once you reach a certain size. Especially with a distributed team with multiple company cultures and different ways of working. I wanted to get back to that and, really, going solo and self-publishing is about as far as you can go from the more rigid corporate structure. Nobody ever tells me what to do. 🙂 Granted, if anything ever goes wrong, it’s my fault. Still, I’d rather have that under my control. At a large company you just have to accept that certain things aren’t up to you, no matter how hard you try. Even if you’re very high up in the company.
Gameranx: The Axis Unseen is your debut title under Just Purkey Games, Correct? How would you describe the game to someone who is just coming across it for the first time?
Nate Purkeypile: The Axis Unseen is a heavy metal horror game where you hunt monsters from folklore in an open world. Almost all of the UI exists in the game itself, such as carvings on the bow and tattoos on your hand. It’s all about immersing the player in this world where all the monsters across the world come from. You can collect elemental arrows to control things like fire and wind as well as various magic powers such as the ability to see the scent particles of the creatures. It comes out in October of this year.
Gameranx: When did development kick off for The Axis Unseen?
Nate Purkeypile: About 3.5 years ago. I quit Bethesda on April 1st 2021, which after 14 years, went about how you’d expect. “Haha, nice April Fools’ Joke. Wait. You’re serious?” 😀
Gameranx: You’re using Unreal Engine 5 for this project, right? How has your experience working with Unreal been after coming from something like The Creation Engine?
Nate Purkeypile: I’ve been absolutely loving working with Unreal. So many things are so easy and fast to do. I don’t have to wait for the game to load to test stuff, I can just hit play. I’ve been able to implement entire features in less time than it took to even have a meeting to discuss approving that feature in AAA. It’s refreshing working with an engine that so many people use because it’s so refined and there’s so much knowledge out there. If I ever run into a problem, 99/100 times I can just search for “Blah blah blah problem Unreal” and find an answer. That isn’t the case when you’re building your own proprietary internal tech.
Gameranx: Where do some of the inspirations stem from with The Axis Unseen?
Nate Purkeypile: I’ve always thought that there weren’t enough heavy metal games, but often when they do exist, they are kind of on the nose and almost kind of a parody of metal culture with headbanging dudes and stuff. That is fine in its own way, but I wanted something closer to what I see in my own head when I listen to this music. Plus I grew up in the middle of nowhere reading and writing horror stories, so monsters in the wilderness have always been in the back of my mind. So it was almost inevitable for a video game developer from the woods who loves metal to end up making something like this.
Gameranx: Could you tell us a little more about the world we’re set in and the monsters that inhabit it?
Nate Purkeypile: The core idea of this world is that there is this concept of the Axis Mundi, which is a world outside of our own that connects everything. This is seen in various cultures as things like The World Tree or The Otherworld. I always found it fascinating that different cultures across the world have similar monster myths. So the idea is, what if this world does exist and that is where all the monsters come from? That’s why people have these shared myths. All the stories are true. The monsters sometimes come from this place into the real world. As the player, you get to go to this world and hunt these monsters and try to find out what is going on.
Gameranx: How many different monsters can players expect to encounter, and would they all be hostile to our protagonist?
Nate Purkeypile: There are currently 24 unique creatures and most of them have variants, so there’s 66 total that you can hunt. They all have statues, journal drawings and journal entries that unlock in the player’s safe space outside the main world. This is also where you level up, fast travel around the world and so on. Most are hostile, but it’s up for debate if they are really the bad ones since you’re there hunting them. 🙂
Gameranx: The combat centers around a bow and arrow. Was there a specific reason you chose to focus on this weapon?
Nate Purkeypile: I’ve always liked the inherent tension and skill behind using a bow. You have to pull it back, adjust for the drop due to gravity, account for the time it takes to get there and so on. It’s a lot more satisfying to me than just a gun. It also fits the flavor of the game really well.
Gameranx: I’ve heard that music also plays a key role in the game, with even the soundtrack intensifying during combat. Was this a concept you had initially, or did that develop over time?
Nate Purkeypile: The music was a core part of the concept from the very beginning and I worked with Clifford Meyer (previously of the post-metal bands ISIS and Red Sparowes) in the very early days to get the soundtrack made. He knocked it out of the park and was great to work with.
Gameranx: What can you tell us about the senses and powers players will obtain from defeating these creatures?
Nate Purkeypile: You find the sense powers and magic powers at various altars throughout the world. The sense powers amplify your senses in various ways like the one I mentioned about seeing the scent particles, but the first one you get is the Tremors power. Whenever anything moves nearby, a tattoo lights up on your hand. If it’s a cool blue, it’s small, if it’s red, it’s big. This lets you know something is nearby, but you don’t know exactly where. These only work if your heart rate is low though, so if you are jumping and sprinting everywhere, your heart will be pounding, your powers don’t work and certain sounds will be muffled.
The magic powers work a bit differently and are more active, like the ability to summon a rock pillar. Some of the creatures are very big and very fast, so this helps you get some breathing room. The biggest creature in the game is something like 30 stories tall, so you’re going to need more than just a regular bow and arrow to defeat them or even just to survive.
Gameranx: Are we getting an overarching narrative in the game?
Nate Purkeypile: A lot of the narrative is implied by the environmental story-telling, similar to a lot of the stuff I did in Skyrim and Fallout. There’s also a ton of journals that you can find throughout the game written by other people who came through this world. Some were other hunters, other people who got trapped here from the real world or even people who lived their whole lives there. I just sent this all off to get localized and it’s something like 37k words. So for people who care a lot about lore, there’s a lot to dig into. That said, this stuff is also optional and you don’t have to read it to figure out where to find a key to unlock a door or anything like that. It’s all about world building and lore.
Gameranx: Where are you in the development process?
Nate Purkeypile: The game is currently Beta, which means it is feature complete and everything is there. I am just doing round after round of playtesting to polish, fix bugs and optimize the game. It’s getting close to being gold now. There will be a demo in October before the game itself releases. If you wishlist the game on Steam now, you will get a notification when the demo drops and when the game comes out.
Gameranx: While we know this is set for the PC, are there plans to bring The Axis Unseen to console platforms?
Nate Purkeypile: Since I’m a solo dev, I have decided to see how the release goes before doing that. It is pretty expensive and time consuming to do this and the game is already a ~20 hour (and that’s just doing the core stuff, not a completionist run) open world game made by, uh, mostly just me. So, there’s a lot going on already. 🙂 I’m hoping it works out and I’m able to do that later though. I just know a lot of indie devs who committed to this early and have really burnt themselves out doing it or they just don’t see the sales to justify it. I’d like to be a bit more sure before I commit to something like that.
Players interested in giving this game a go can expect it available this October. In the meantime, you can add The Axis Unseen into your Steam wishlist.
