Axiom Verge

Axiom Verge
Information
Developer(s)	Tom Happ
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Distributor(s)	Tom Happ
Designer(s)	Tom Happ
Artist(s)	Tom Happ
Composer(s)	Tom Happ
Platform	PS4
Released	March 31st, 2015
Genre(s)	Action-Adventure
Rating(s)	TBD

A failed scientist dies in an accident, only to awaken in a mysterious, alien world. Where is he? How did he get here? And why do the fundamental laws of reality appear broken? Life. Afterlife. Real. Virtual. Dream. Nightmare. It's a thin line.

It's Axiom Verge. Axiom Verge is a 2D retro-syled "metroidvania" side-scrolling action-adventure inspired by such classics as Rygar, Contra, Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, and Metroid. It was created, developed, stylized and composed by Tom Happ. He worked during the day as a developer for Petroglyph Games but worked on his own game during his off hours. Sony contacted Tom Happ and offered funding through one of their programs and Tom was able to work on the game full time. 5 years later, the project is finished and ready for the public. Thanks to the exposure from Sony, the game has already grown in popularity and was GameSpot's Best of E3 in 2014. 

The game is scheduled to release on March 31st, 2015 for the PS4 with a release for the Vita coming soon after. Actual date is TBD. Initial release will include a 10% discount of the $19.99 price for PS+ subscribers. The purchase for the PS4 will also include a download of the Vita version once it becomes available. 

Features

• Expansive Non-linear Exploration of 9 labyrinthine, interlocking areas.
• Unique tools and abilities, lots of weapons, and tons of health/power/attribute upgrades.
• Combat with dozens of unique creatures and bosses.
• Glitches allowing players to break past the boundaries of normal gameplay.
• Speedrun Mode – Play with a streamlined interface and additional features to facilitate speedrunning.

Gameplay

Players play as Trace, a scientist who woke up after a lab experiment accident only to find himself in this strange new enviroment. It will be up to the players to discover why this place is in the state it is in and Trace's role in it. One of the features that is unique to this game is purposful glitches. Anyone who has played older 2D platform type games, or even games prior to that, will remember the feeling they got when they found a way to glitch something out in the game and go into areas or do things they weren't expected to be able to do. In this game, the developed made sure that those possibilities not only existed but hopes that players will discover them and use them. His hope is to bring back the 'magical feeling' of discovering a 'glitch'. It could be anything from an unexplored secret area, an item with bizzare stats to character glitches. It is up to the players to find them. 

To help players along, the developer has also provided Powerups, which he descibes as the 'lifeblood of an exploration based game'.  New abilites give players access to areas they were unable to get to before and open up new sections of the game. Other Powerups will include weapons like the Nova, which unlike the basic weapon players start with, can be shot in two different ways. The basic way is to shoot it like a normal weapon, which is slow. The other ways is to detonate it while it's mid-air and make it split into 6 pieces. Players can use this to hit targets that are not in a direct line of sight. 

Another powerup is the Drill. Players will aquired this after defeating the first boss and will need it to destroy rocks in the path of the next section. Another is the Address Disruptor, which acts as a type of glitch ray that will corrupt the reality around the player, cause unique things to happen. 

There are 9 labyrinthine interlocking areas and dozens of unique creatures and bosses. 

Gallery