Although Axle is a gear, and is surrounded by gears, we have always hesitated to call the game "Steampunk". It is set in a later period than Victorian, and deals with large engines, huge industrial machines, electricity, and fire. We've found thatDieselpunk is a much more accurate depiction of what the world of Axle is all about. Bigger-than-life machines, the swingin' class of the wealthy, and the engine grime of the workers!
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You can now like Axle on facebook! This is the best way to ask questions and communicate with the developers. Also, if you use twitter, we'll be tweeting. Keep your eyes out for contests, promotions, and announcements! Also, we clearly have a new webpage layout. Everything is still be here and where you expect it to be. :)
Updates on the project itself: We've finished up re-working our back end code to perform better, faster, and more efficiently! It took a while, but it is definitely going to be worth it, particularly because we're getting some new programmers on board to help, which is going to make finishing up the rest of our systems and implementing level-specific code much faster. We live in exciting times! So this new console has been causing quite a stir. What is exciting for us is that it is using the Android OS, which means that it will be compatible with Axle's native language. We will definitely be looking into developing for it, and porting Axle to the big screen! It is super exciting to have a console specifically designed for indie gamers and developers in mind.
So, we are going to be updating the site soon, and we would love to hear what you guys would like to see on it!
Since we have heard from a lot of you that we need an iPhone/iPad version of Axle, we have been looking into crowd funding to cover the expenses of the port. What kind of rewards would you guys be interested in for contributing? Some of the ideas we have are in-game currency, a downloadable soundtrack, and dinner with the developer at a Steampunk location! We would love to hear your ideas! School is out, which leaves the Axle team as proud graduates! From here, we are looking to launch a studio with Axle. This endeavor is going to keep us extremely busy this summer. We are working with a business incubator on Chapman to help us figure out everything we need to make a sustainable business doing what we love: making games! Thank you so much for the support everyone has shown us up to this stage. It is you that is going to make a successful launch possible!
Keep tuned! We will have some big news for you soon! We are featured in the Chapman Happenings for our success at the IEEE competition! It talks about the game as well as the our summer plans to release it. Last night we screened a trailer for Axle at the Digital Arts thesis screenings, where it was nominated for a Cecil Award! This is another great honor, because there were many really interesting and excellent digital arts projects created, in a variety of mediums. The team finished up classes this week, which means that we'll be able to focus all our efforts on getting Axle ready for release! Wow! We came in first place at the game competition on Saturday! It was amazing to get such a good response for Axle. The event was packed and exciting, full of awesome, talented game makers. The other teams brought games from JRPGs, to puzzle-platformers, to UDK masterpieces, to multi-player frenzies! Congratulations to everyone who participated!
We want to thank the judges for their compliments and criticisms. It is such an honor to get feedback from game industry veterans. Thank you Chapman for hosting the event and supporting this project for almost a year. And finally, thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth to play the game. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us, and we're going to use it to make the game better and better. There were a lot of people who wanted to know when we are releasing Axle on the Android Play market. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly yet, but we started a mailing list for people to find out. We promise not to spam you, but we'll send out announcements about the release and perhaps even a few focus testing opportunities this summer. The link to sign up is at the top of the page. Although this award is an amazing achievement, we still have a lot we want to improve on, and the game will only get better from here! We are a finalist in the IEEE GameSig Intercollegiate Game Showcase! This afternoon is our presentation where we will live demo Axle in front of a crowd of over 400 people! It is a super exciting prospect, and we are thrilled to be a finalist! It will be great to get a bunch of feedback from professional developers and meet game teams from all over Orange County. This week has been a lot of last-minute cramming to fill the game with awesome content for the show, but after this we'll be able to take a bit of a break while we make it through finals and graduation.
We finally have a gameplay trailer to show everyone! Check out the first glimpse of Axle in action! With our big push on implementing and finishing assets, we finally have some great in-game screenshots that we can post! You can see how the player is actually a gear and moves along other gears. We have two stages, the Toy Shop and the Factory. The next stage will be the Estate. It is great to see this in the game now, comparing back to our original concept art. The start of the Toy Shop level. Axle on a dangerously heated gear in the factory. The finish line! Time to escape! Moving gears in the toy shop. Death by crusher! Axle's magnetic jump.
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