We spoke with an ex-Bethesda developer who has worked on many Fallout games, Skyrim, and the upcoming space RPG Starfield, about their upcoming horror hunting game The Axis Unseen, which is influenced by mythology.
The Axis Unseen is an FPS open-world game where you use an elemental bow and arrow to assist explore and hunt down creatures from our planet’s rich mythology. It was developed by Nate Purkeypile, who departed Bethesda in 2021 after being an artist there for 14 years. But here’s the catch: they’ll hunt you down in turn.
I’ve recently completed a substantial portion of my work, and the entire map is now complete. It’s five times the size of Skyrim, Purkeypile informs us. Given its emphasis on the natural world, a considerable amount of open terrain is required for exploration.
It has nothing to do with going into caves or anything. So, the world is split into six zones, each with its unique climate, landscape, and fauna. And now I’m going to finish off the rest of the creatures by working on their bodies.
According to Purkeypile, the inspiration for the monsters you’ll face in The Axis Unseen’s environment comes from his upbringing in the woods, where he read horror novels and played hunting simulation games.
In-depth warfare that relies on factors like wind speed and direction and following a trail make hunting simulators an intriguing genre, in my opinion. But then if anything sees us, like a deer, it bolts. What if, instead of humans, there were monsters, but you kept all the complex rules?
The Axis Unseen is the source from whence all the monsters of mythology emerge into our world. Purkeypile claims that he found it easy to include the many folktales and myths in the game’s open environment because of the premise that they all originated in the same area.
Why do so many urban legends have the same core elements? Is it true that people all across the world believe in various Sasquatch legends? We don’t understand; why is that? put forward Purkeypile’s question.
As a result, I found myself musing, “What if there’s this world outside of our own, where there are these animals, and they sometimes leak out into our world, and that’s why they’re the same, it’s because they’re from this place?”
In The Axis Unseen, you’ll be able to defend yourself with a bow and arrow; yet, the elemental arrows at your disposal will only be useful against certain types of creatures.
But here’s where things get really interesting: when you mix and match the ingredients with the environment, you get all kinds of unexpected outcomes. Using wind gusts as propulsion, as Purkeypile puts it, “is like rocket jumping, but with a bow,” which means you can scale cliff walls.
Purkeypile didn’t tell us when we might expect The Axis Unseen’s release, but he did remark that everything was going swimmingly in development and that he was meeting his goals early. Consequently, if he continues at his present rate, we may obtain The Axis Unseen sooner than we thought.