Axon Interactive

We are an independent studio based in Toronto. In addition to making games, we specialize in interactive media for healthcare and education. We also like triangles.

[quenchgame]

Hi fans! Quick update – we’ve been featured in a couple of games articles in the past few weeks (with a few more on the way!)

http://cliqist.com/2016/04/22/quench-keeping-it-green-and-smoking-the-competition/ “Quench feels like the RTS that Molyneaux et al alumni like myself have been waiting (insert number) years for.”

http://www.lowbrowgamer.com/kickstarter-spotlight-quench/ “…the low-polygon count graphical style is one of the game’s most striking qualities.”

We’re also currently on Imgur – take a look and upvote to help us get more exposure! https://imgur.com/gallery/PROc3

We’ve still got just over a week left in our campaign. Let’s make it count! <3

[quenchgame]

Quench: a narrative puzzle game by Axon Interactive

Control the weather to help herds of animals restore their home in this low-poly, narrative puzzle game, coming to PC & Mac in 2016.

Support Quench on Kickstarter! 

Quench is a story-driven puzzle game set in a colourful, lo-fi world. You play as Shepherd, an avatar of nature, and you have the power to control the weather to guide herds of animals on a perilous journey.

You must protect your flock, tend the land, and unravel the mystery of the strange smokebeasts that have invaded the land.

Using your divine powers over the weather, you will provide for your herds, help them as they take up their great pilgrimage, and ultimately restore the world.

Do you want to see Quench on Steam? Vote Yes on Greenlight to help us get there!

We <3 your likes, reblogs and shares! Thank you!

[quenchgame]

Support us on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight on April 20!

Huge news from the Axon team:  We will be launching a Kickstarter campaign and a Steam Greenlight campaign for Quench on April 20th!

As many of you know, we’ve been working on our first independent game, Quench, for more than a year. Thanks to the support of a grant from the OMDC and the hard work of our team, Quench is well into development: the core gameplay is functionally close to completion, and we’re in the process of integrating new levels and story into the game now. We’ve been lucky enough to show off our demo at several events including Level Up Showcase, Con Bravo, Bit Bazaar, and most recently at GDC, with more events on the way.

In the past year, we’ve received incredibly encouraging feedback from our fans about the unique aesthetic of the world and its creatures, the focus on non-violence as a game mechanic, and the central themes of compassion and community, where you can change the world through nurturing the earth and helping others.

We’re on our way to completing and releasing Quench on PC and Mac near the end of 2016. But with the majority of our funding received and paid out (and the final amount allocated to post-production costs), we need a boost to help us get to the finish line. So we’ve decided to turn to our friends, family, and fans.

Please support Quench on Kickstarter on April 20!

In addition to getting the game as soon as it comes out, we’re offering great rewards to backers, including the original Quench soundtrack by composer Adam Sakiyama, an artbook and guide to the world of Quench, and custom animal portraits made in Hexels and signed by the team.

Even if you can’t pledge, you can still help! Vote “Yes” for Quench on Steam Greenlight next week, and make some noise about Quench on your Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr!

To everyone that’s been following this project, thank you so much for your support — we could not have gotten this far without you. Let’s work together to make Quench awesome!

[You can follow our progress on Twitter, Tumblr, and the official Quench website.]

[tabbyrose]

GDC Day of the Devs + Day 2 Highlights

Featuring some new and old friends at the Sushi Boat! Having a great time :D

[tabbyrose]

Day 0 and Day 1 of GDC!

Went to the Bay yesterday with Andy, hung out in the indie park, went to Day of the Devs (it was awesome) and had some drinks with some nice folks in the indie hostel <3

Now off for Day 2~

[tabbyrose]

Kristina brought me paper plants for my fake plant collection! Thank youuu! <3

[tabbyrose]

Sunrise at @axoninteractive #junctiontriangle #toronto

[bloomdigital]

Long story this game is so cool and cute you guys should make it free we shouldn't have to pay just to play episodes that's just stupid and makes no sense please make this beautiful game free please :):*:) oh pretty please with a cherry on top muahs xoxoxox i would be so happy and very very greatful love this game only if it was free 100%

Ok well, this is not exactly phrased as a question… But I will kindly rephrase

Why don’t you make LongStory free?

Here is the thing. Take a little wander over to the  team page. All those lovely people gave their time to this project - I think (I am the executive producer Miriam Verburg, who in case you wondered, does not get paid for working on LongStory because we haven’t become profitable.) that each of those wonderful talented individuals deserve to make a living because they are so good at what they do. So that is one reason we sell the game. 

But, maybe that doesn’t get at the second question (which you didn’t ask but I will ask for you): Why don’t you just run ads?

Ok well, this one is tougher to answer, but I think if you are interested in becoming a game designer, or just anyone who works in some form of published media (films, music, writing, video) this is a good one to think about. 

1. Advertising is kind of a racket. The more people decide it is ok to bargain their free attention to advertisers in exchange for getting free cool stuff especially games where this problem is the worst. The more they are saying that they would prefer that somebody else take responsibility for paying for their attention. If you used a food analogy it would be like, I am willing to eat whatever crap you put on my plate. Dog poop, snails, a fresh baby hand, just so long as I get two bites of that ice cream sundae I have been craving. 

Nobody would do that with their appetite but for some reason we freely give away our attention to people who want to waste our precious time with crap. 

2. Not only is advertising a racket but the only way to make money from ads is to sell humungous quantities of games, or force people to watch an ad in exchange for what amounts to a very small amount of gameplay. Again, we think your time & attention is valuable, and we don’t want to sell it so cheap. If we could run only 1 or 2 ads per episode and cover our expenses we might consider it. But right now, to make the game recover it’s cost of development we’d be running a 30 second video spot every minute and thirty seconds. That seems brutal to us and we’d prefer not to do it.

For the reasons above (no baby hands disguised as good food) we have to charge, we feel you get your money’s worth and you don’t have to sacrifice a bunch of your quality time just to enjoy LongStory. 

[axoninteractive]

I think people (especially young people or those not involved in the industry) often forget that games, like any product, cost money to make, so “free” usually actually means in-app purchases or ads are paying for development. Either you are donating some small portion of your life to watching an ad (as described above), or you are possibly playing the game for free on the backs of a very small number of people who spend a lot of money in microtransactions.

Like @longstorygame, we hope to sell our games for a flat price or a fee-per-chapter. Players get an unvarnished experience of the game and can use their precious time on things other than watching ads. Few artists/developers want to produce an experience that involves regularly peddling things to players. That’s not fun - and in our case it actually works against the central theme of our game.

[quenchgame]

Here’s our (late) #screenshotsaturday for #Quench, which you’ll be able to play next weekend at @TheBitBazaar!

[quenchgame]

Today’s #screenshotsaturday is a gorgeous still of our opening cinematic, plus an early shot of our dialogue system in action!

[quenchgame]

Summer Events Roundup!

Tabby here! The Axon team has been a little slow on blog updates recently, but we have good reason in the last month or so. We’ve been working really hard on Quench to get to the coveted alpha milestone, both to hit our own deadlines and because we were accepted into a couple of fantastic events in the past month. Now that they are wrapped up (mostly – I’ll get to that in a minute), I thought I’d share some photos and screenshots to get you all caught up.

If you weren’t at either show, first order of business is: We have a brand new, shiny-as-heck demo! We’re not quite calling it an alpha milestone yet, but check out these screenshots (taken while people were playing the demo)!

So, first up for events was Bit Bazaar 6, which took place on July 12 as part of the Pan Am Games at Ontario’s Celebration Zone. We had the great privilege of showing off our newest public demo alongside game-maker friends Golden Gear (Fate Tectonics), Damian Sommer (The Yawhg, Chesh and more), Numizmatic (Arcade Skidaddle), comic artist friends Love Love Hill (and Like Like Hump ;D) and Maiji, and a bunch of other really cool people.

To prepare for this special event, we created 20 hand-crafted elephant sculptures (shout out to Chantal Parent’s awesome mould-making/casting skills!) based on the models in the game and showcased the little herd at the table. (We have lots of progress photos for the elephants, but we’ll save that for another post!) We also made a bunch of other swag, which was pretty neat too.

Next up was Con Bravo from July 25-27 in Hamilton, ON. This was everyone at Axon’s very first Con Bravo, so we didn’t know what to expect, and man, were we happily surprised. It was a fantastic weekend – we had tons of people drop by to play Quench (which we had tweaked a bit based on feedback from the previous event) and we made a bunch of friends! Special shout-out to Cassie Chui, who expertly organized the indie game area and for giving everyone stamp cards to fill out as they played games over the weekend, and to Bret Measor, who runs GameDevDrinks in Hamilton every month.

So, onto our last event of the summer! We were invited to give a talk over at GameDevDrinks on August 19, so if you live in the GTHA, come on down, have a drink, play Quench and chat with us! We hope to see you there!

[quenchgame]

5 Days of Quench: Day 5

Hunter + Relic

Hunter is the proud matriarch of the Lion Tribe. She cares deeply for her family and is very resistant to the idea of putting them in danger for the sake of the other animals. Her stubborn self-reliance makes it difficult for her to ask for or offer help, even in times of dire need.

Lions are strong and proud animals that value family before all other things. Lions are deadly fighters, and will attack anyone that threatens their group. Their insular and distrusting way makes them the voice of independence in the story of Quench. Unfortunately, they are poor swimmers that become panicked by deep water.

Relic is a great blackened eagle spirit. She seems to be the leader of the mysterious smokebeasts that recently began roaming the Eastland. When she flies near them, the smokebeasts are driven to madness and begin attacking everything around them. Some say that they have heard Relic speak, often in long cries or wails, though it is difficult to tell what she is saying.

(Art credit: Tabby Rose [1], Tabby Rose & Kristina Neuman [2])

Previous Days: [1] [2] [3]

[quenchgame]

5 Days of Quench: Day 4

Flint + Fern

Flint was appointed as the leader of the Baboons after proving his worth by bringing the power of fire to his tribe. Flint is cunning and sly, and although he seems eager to join the other animals, he does nothing to mitigate the unease that the other leaders feel around him. He seems to know more about the Smokebeasts than he lets on.

Fern is the previous leader of the Baboon Tribe, and Flint’s sister. She is quieter than Flint, and less reliant on the firestones, preferring the older, more traditions of the Baboons, which were closely tied to the trees of their jungle home. For this reason, she and Shaman get along well.

Baboons are smart, dexterous primates that use tools to achieve their goals. They are ambitious and enamored by the magic of fire, using it to stun and repel anything that threatens them. By using the power of fire they have built great things, and so they represent the voice of industry in the story of Quench. 

(Art credit: Tabby Rose)

Previous Days: [1] [2] [3]

[quenchgame]

5 Days of Quench: Day 3

Grizzle + Switchback

Grizzle is the battle-worn leader of the Wildebeest Tribe. He is the oldest of all the leaders and has been on two previous pilgrimages in his lifetime. Although he agrees to participate in the pilgrimage, Grizzle is protective of his tribe, and distrustful of the Lions and Baboons, whom he considers a threat to the group’s stability.

Wildebeest are stoic and stubborn. When threatened, they would rather charge through a known danger than face an unknown path. Their unyielding manner lends them the voice of tradition in Quench. When the herd faces dangers, Wildebeest will stubbornly ignore them and continue onward. They travel in large herds and are able to brave the worst of weather with their thick hides and seemingly endless endurance. 

Switchback is the brave leader of the Zebra Tribe. He and Grizzle are very close (though Switchback is somewhat younger), as their Tribes spend much of their time travelling together.

(Art credit: Tabby Rose)

Previous Days: [1] [2]

[quenchgame]

5 Days of Quench: Day 1

Shaman + Smokebeasts

Shaman is a young elephant who has the power to commune with the natural world. She recently became the leader of the Elephant Tribe after the recent death of her grandmother. Quench begins with Shaman’s first pilgrimage, during which she must prove that she can lead her Tribe and the other animals with Shepherd’s help.

Elephants are wise and thoughtful creatures with long memories. They travel in small herds, keeping each other close to protect the group. They listen to nature’s omens and tell the stories of their ancestors, representing the voice of spirituality in the story of Quench. Because elephants stand very tall, they can walk through deep water without swimming, but are vulnerable to lightning for the same reason.

Smokebeasts are the mysterious creatures encountered by the animal Tribes as they make their way to the Eastern Elder Tree. Smokebeasts take the form of ancient and somewhat monstrous animals shrouded in black smoke and seem to be found most often near caves and holes in the earth. 

The smoke that covers these creatures is noxious, and normal animals begin choking and coughing if they come too close. In certain circumstances, the smokebeasts emit a black sludge that coats the ground and prevents any life from growing there.

It is not known why they began appearing or what their motivations are. However, they seem to respond to a leader of sorts, a smokebeast taking the form of a huge bird of prey.

(Art credits: Tabby Rose [1 & 2], Chantal Parent [3], Albert Fung [4])

[quenchgame]

5 Days of Quench: Day 2

Headlong + Scout

Headlong is the leader of the Springbok Tribe, a title which he earned for being the fastest and cleverest of his peers, despite his very young age compared to the other leaders. He believes wholeheartedly in Shaman’s cause and Shepherd’s power and vows to help in any way on the pilgrimage.

Scout is Headlong’s second-in-command and close friend. Like most Springbok, she is quick-minded, but often sounds as if her thoughts are getting ahead of her tongue. As her name suggests, it is usually her job within her Tribe to scout ahead in order to assess the landscape or send messages to other Tribes.

Springbok are quick, excitable and easily spooked. Springbok are the voice of youth in the story of Quench, always charging headlong into danger and learning quickly from their mistakes. When threatened, Springbok fan out and take flight to escape, making them hard to catch. However, they are easily exhausted by the forces of weather and hunger if not provided for regularly.

(Art credits: Tabby Rose)

Previous days: [1]

[quenchgame]

5 Days of Quench Characters!

Starting July 6 we’ll be showcasing each of the Quench characters every day until @Bitbazaar (including all new artwork!)

The lineup:

Day 1: Shaman + Smokebeasts

Day 2: Headlong + Scout

Day 3: Grizzle + Switchback

Day 4: Flint + Fern

Day 5: Hunter + Relic

The official artwork for each Tribe’s leader will be available for sale at Bit Bazaar on July 12. Stop by to check it out and play our shiny shiny demo!