Ex developer at Bethesda quit his job after 14 years and made this heavy metal horror game as a solo dev with no publisher

The Axis Unseen free demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1807810/The_Axis_Unseen/

It took about 3.5 years, but now it's actually coming out in less than two weeks. I'm really excited to see what people think of it and it has been cool watching streamers react to the demo. Somehow my two story tall tree guy is really good at sneaking up on people. :D

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I played the demo for a few hours. Might be a solo dev, but his experience is definitely noticeable. Game looks great, albeit unoptimized. Progression is simple and fair. Artwork is incredible for a solo dev. Combat is decent, and unexpectedly satisfying.
Someone else mentioned the excessive blood explosion - it’s the best feeling when you land one of those shots from across a field.

Looks interesting, but the music should hit WAY harder, IMO. Based on the visuals, I was expecting early 2000s Opeth, and I got late 2010s Opeth instead.
- The music is all written by a member of ISIS, which is pretty heavy, but in an "atmospheric sludge/post-metal" way. So I can see how you'd think that if you're looking for something more death metal (which would fit in the fight scenes, although atmospheric sludge or funeral doom would go pretty well in the rest of the game)
  
  Oh snap thanks for pointing this out! Been a long time and I haven't kept up with ISIS, but their Panopticon was damn near genre-defining for me at the time.
  
  I recently got into slug metal. Would you have any recommendations for sludge, funereal, and/or doom metal?

Ahh, a game dedicated to being a stealth archer, fuck yeah, I'm in.
- I know right. He knew that was the best way to play Skyrim. This game looks bad ass.
  
  I never used any ranged weapon in the game, did I miss out?
  
  There were other ways to successfully play base Skyrim??

Why the f I see vertical gameplay of someone playing 16:9?

Still took less time than Elder Scrolls 6 to come out
- Think we know why (this guy quit)
  
  You’d think it would be a blow to Bethesda that their sole programmer quit, but fortunately the creation engine is so cutting edge that I’m sure they’ll lean on it just as it is for years to come.

GPU: 4 GB VRAM GeForce GTX 980/Radeon RX 580
Dammit, my iGPU has more than enough computing power but only half of the VRAM.
- iGPU's can use system RAM to supplement VRAM. Might still be doable
  
  I forgot about that. A bios setting, right?
  
  back in the day I had an ATI system that shared system ram through the iGPU to the GPU(both ATI). turned my 2gb GPU into 4gb and saved me from building a new system for like a decade.
  not sure if they do it anymore, but it'd be nice.
- There is a demo, so you can see if it will run well enough for you before you buy it.
  
  a demo in this day? dev knows what's up

Noclip's interview with Nate
- Great interview, thanks

Looks fun. I cracked up when dude shot the deer thing and the blood exploded. I'll definitely check this out.

This looks like skyrim sneaky archer: the game.
Definitely gunna play this.

Is that heavy metal music actually in the game, or is it just for the trailer?

Turok 2024
- Consider me intrigued.

I feel like credentials such as used to work at Bethesda, aren't as good as they think they are... Or is it just me?
- You shouldn't dismiss someone's 14 year career, including a game of the year, because you don't like the studio he came from.
  
  Length of time isn't a credential to me
- I don't blame the devs for bad AAA games, with like 300 people working in one game, if it becomes shit it's management fault.
  
  Okay but I don't see how it's a net positive credential, how it even actually means anything?
- I understood it as "they were fed up with the henhouse and proved they could do better alone".
  
  Yeah but it's like, ok so you're a programmer. Neat. Working at a company for a set period of time just doesn't tell me anything. I guess that's just me
- if they were a lead game designer or writer I would agree. but I think this guy did environmental design, and Bethesda has had pretty cool environments in their games. though not all of them are very believable (in feeling lived-in), they sure do provide some spectacle, and memorability. in fact many of their games have been mostly carried by environments.
- It's just you. That a company makes terrible decisions tells not that much about a dev. If a dev says he worked on multiple projects does tell something about the dev regardless of the company. Don't forget that Bethesda sold their soul to MS and now has a lot more "steering" at the top, devs don't participate in that.
  Edit: a word
- Everything but starfield seemed like a plus to me
  
  Well he mostly worked on starfield of he was recently employed there
- Depends on their tenure. If they're old school Bethesda, nah that's just you. The people who built the older TES games had much more skill than the people churning out schlock or the 473rd rererelease of Skyrim. The newer people, yeah that's not a feather in their cap really. Starfield is meh at best, and doesn't hold a candle to stuff like Morrowind.
- Especially if we are going back only 14 years. So what did they work on, skyrim remasters or Fallout 4 remasters?
  
  Starfield. Active development started 9 years ago.

Can I play a stealth archer
- This, in fact, seems to be the only option.
  
  What about an archer that is stealthy?
- I'll be the only barbarian relentlessly bludgeoning my prey with my bow.

Why do all Unreal 5 games look the same?
- Because making it not look like an unreal engine game requires an entire technical art department. Absolutely possible, but there's waay too many dials to play with.
- Same rendering engine, same lighting, and for the vast majority of them, basically the same rendering settings (as the other person said, tweaking these can actually be quite a lot of work)

What is publishers role anyway in digital age of 2024? Marketing?
- Financing.
- Marketing and distribution (physical copies)

Ah just Windows, at least on the demo. Wine and such have never had great results for me either. Shame.
- I think you must be doing something wrong. Proton has been able to play pretty much everything without unsupported anti-cheat for a long while now.
  
  Could just be a specific combo of hardware/software issues too.
  
  Yeah, I've started playing around with Proton and Heroic Launcher(Proton or Wine) and have had pretty good resaults. The only games games I haven't been able to get running were very old games with who knows what going on. I don't know if I should be surprised that HROT works without any issues.
- Eh? I have a Steam Deck and I rarely ever run into a game that performs badly or has issues. Proton and GE Proton have done amazing things for bringing mainstream gaming to Linux.
  
  Give him a bit to respond. He's living in the past.
- Seems to be not so great on Linux atm: https://www.protondb.com/app/1807810
  
  That's one review from Steam Deck. Game just might too resource hungry and/or unoptimized for it at the moment. The user also didn't state what Proton version they used. I'm going to install it on my other Linux PC and report back later.
  Edit: Works fine on my PC, running latest version of Nobara (Linux distro focused on gaming) and Nvidia drivers. I also used GE Proton 9.11 in Steam.
  I had it auto-detect graphics quality (seemed to be about High settings) @ 1080p, and enabled Fur Shadows. I set DLSS to Balanced. Averaged 60-70FPS, dips down to 45ish when I entered an area with heavy rain. Played for about 15 minutes and entered the open world area after the intro. I was playing on my HTPC hooked up to an older spare TV, so I apologize for those that use 1440p or 4k since I cant test the performance at those resolutions.
  My specs are:
  -Ryzen 5700X
  -RTX 3070 FE
  -16GB DDR4 3200
  -1TB nvme SSD
  Edit 2: Played for another 30sh minutes, no issues. Performance did dip a bit in some open world areas, but I never saw it go below 45 FPS.
  My quick review: The game has some interesting ideas, but the combat and presentation are pretty jank. Many of the early monsters just ram you like a goat, which launches you in the air and gravity is kind of floaty, so you can end up getting repeatedly tossed around. Their animations are very stiff, so sometimes it looks as though the monsters are just gliding at you versus running. The aesthetic/style of the world looks great, though. The giant tree/Ent thing stomping thru the forest was intense and surreal, I enjoyed trying to hide from it and failing.
  The UI is not good, not awful. All of your important information is in the inside of your bow shaft, but it isn't presented in a clear and easily understood way. Not being able to easily tell how many arrows you have in the middle of combat is frustrating. I also think the wind direction should be easily referenced without needing to hold down a button, sort of how Ghost of Tsushima did it.
  Lastly, and this is subjective, the music is not very heavy metal IMO. I was expecting something like Doom 2016, but with Cannibal Corpse, Cradle of Filth, or even Slayer type heavy metal. Instead, it's more ambient and slower; not intense at all.
- If you've only tried wine from like 10+ years ago like I have, I'd suggest giving it another try now. Running windows software on Linux has been better than ever with Wine/Proton/Bottles

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