Who is Throwing Axe Studios?
How’s it going? Megan here.
Welcome to our first Dev Blog! Thank you for seeing a block of text and deciding, “Hmm! I want to read that.” If you don’t plan on reading it at all, it’s all good—just the fact that you’ve clicked on our website and blog page in the first place means a lot to us.
So, who are we? We have a page for that. You can even check out our beautiful faces. We decided on the name Throwing Axe Studios because we liked the tangible sound of it. We both heard it and immediately got this mental image of an axe whistling by as it thunks into a target. It provides imagery in our minds that inspires us to “take aim, focus, throw with power, reach our target.” This is what we have in mind when making games. We want focus, power, and to meet our targets. IMPACT!
How do we plan on doing this? Well, it depends on your idea of “impact.” For us, it means leaving players leaning back, taking a few minutes after the game to just think about their experience—a lasting impression. We don’t just want to make pretty; we want to make meaningful. As Isabella in Encanto once said, “I’m so sick of pretty; I want something true, don’t you?”
…It’s a good movie. As parents, we’ve probably watched it about 200 times at this point. But I digress.
Our First Game : Vanguard: The Descent
We’ve been quietly working on our first game in the background, and we believe it’s time to start sharing our journey.
Vanguard: The Descent (I will not share with you the number of times I’ve pronounced it ‘Decent’ by mistake) is a first-person survival horror game where you explore a maze-like catacomb and uncover the dark secrets behind what caused it.
We are still in the early days, but we’re laying down the foundation—the mechanics, the world, the art. Let’s break that down below:
What We’ve Been Working On
Level Design
Hello, Harvey here! One of the small gripes I’ve always had with video games in general is how the player always seems to have a map of every zone within the world. Take Fallout: New Vegas, for instance—the Courier is the only person outside of a few existing vaults who has a Pip-Boy, and somehow, this one just happens to have an updated map of all areas within the world, including caves and secret facilities like HELIOS One. Like, HOW?? I know the player still needs to navigate these spaces to get them to show up, but the inclusion of a map takes agency away from the player to forge their own path and navigate based on signage and landmarks.
So, for Vanguard, I want the player to feel the panic of being lost in an unknown, abandoned space. How would the protagonist know the layout of this labyrinth without diving in and walking its halls? With no map to guide you, making wrong turns is how you discover the secrets within this world. Building the level as a maze has its challenges—I need to ensure the player can navigate the space effectively while also adding just enough extra turns to get them going in circles. That sensation of being lost is paramount to keeping you moving, pushing you deeper into the darkness.
Enemies
Building enemies and working with finite state machines is something I have always been interested in. The ability to set a bunch of parameters and watch as the creatures run around and engage with different objects within the world is always awesome. However, one of the issues with building an FPS game is that in many games, enemies have only one behavior—hunt down and attack the player.
This didn’t sit right with me, and I want to create behavior that feels dynamic, leaving the player second-guessing themselves when they encounter an “enemy” (and yes, I did those finger quotes for real). When building the finite state machine to control the creatures within the world, they need to be able to make decisions for themselves—whether they’re actually offended by your presence or not—and in turn, either ignore you or try to eat you.
This is still a work in progress, as I need to ensure that creatures who ignore you don’t suddenly turn on the next frame and bite you.
Art Direction
When we first started developing the game, Harvey mentioned he wanted to create a homage to Half-Life 1. But I believe the game is taking on a life of its own. We’re going quite dark in terms of character design. There are elements where you feel like you’re in our world, but then you’ll be reminded that you’re actually on a different planet.
The areas will all have different color palettes—some bright and some dark—but all eerie and unsettling. I’ve created the concept art for the first three main creatures you’ll be facing, as well as some art for the main character. Please understand that we won’t be sharing too much of the art to protect what we have so far. But, we will try to give sneak peaks in the future where we feel comfortable.
3D Work
We are both sharing the weight of the 3D art. Harvey will be focusing more on the environmental objects (structures, machines, props), while I will be working on more organic forms like creatures, people, and plant life.
I haven’t done much yet, though, as I’m still learning the program (Blender). The learning curve is like a 90° angle.
Story
The story has become its own monster. We have fallen in love with the characters and their individual stories—even though some of them are short-lived and are only told through audio logs in the game.
We know the beginning and end and have fleshed out everything in between. We’ve begun work on the dialogue and admit we have a long road ahead of us. Dialogue is tricky—it requires each character to have their own voice and personality, and we need to understand exactly what they would say in a specific moment.
Also, it’s so easy to be cheesy. So, some forgiveness in that regard will be most welcome.
Voice Acting
We have found the voice of our main character! An incredible friend of ours has taken the dialogue and run with it, and we can’t wait to see what he does with the rest of the game’s story and dialogue. It’s so awesome to see our friends and family joining in on our excitement. It feels like they’re all coming forward to encircle us and lend their voices to the game (pun intended).
What’s Next?
In the coming weeks, we will be focusing on…
Art (Megan):
- Concept art for a team of characters you’ll encounter in the first area, along with their 3D assets.
- I’m also working on an illustration for the website and the future Steam page.
- And I have a small 3D model I’m animating… your thoughts and prayers during this endeavor would be greatly appreciated.
Story:
- Writing the dialogue for the audio logs of the same team mentioned above.
- Most of the story is done for the first area of the game. It’s the dialogue we’ll be focusing on now.
Mechanics/Development (Harvey):
- I need to rebuild the flashlight utility. This isn’t just a simple on-and-off function—I need to add behavior for how creatures react to light, as well as how light affects the world.
- I need to work on the saving/loading system. The functionality is working, but with the most recent additions to the game, I need to improve its design and expand on what it saves.
That’s the next slice of the big cake that is our game! We’ll see you in three weeks.