Axiom Verge 2 - Reflections One Year In
It’s surreal to think that Axiom Verge 2 has already been out for a year, at least on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and the Epic Games Store. (The PlayStation 5 version launched as a free upgrade on Tuesday, and the Steam version launches today!) My mind still wrestles with the idea that Axiom Verge 1 is out, and Axiom Verge 2 very much still feels like the shiny new thing that I’ve been working on—despite the fact that I worked on it for as long as it took me to make the first game.
Time moved slower back when I was working on the first game. Back then it was just a boy and his dog spending our evenings together, sharing the same space. My dog Max would hang out patiently beside me while I assembled the world of Sudra. Along the way, I met my future wife Chloe, and by the time Axiom Verge 1 launched, it was the 3 of us, with a little one on the way. Axiom Verge 1’s success ensured that I’d be able to support my family doing what I loved most. Life was, for a brief moment, perfect.
I don’t want to rehash some of the tragedies that hit my family. For anyone reading this who isn’t familiar with my story, here is the short version. Just after Axiom Verge 1 launched, my dog Max died. And even worse, my son Alastair, who was born perfectly healthy, suffered irreparable neurological damage several days into his young life, due to jaundice. He is deaf and unable to control his limbs, forever confined to a wheelchair. He will need constant round-the-clock care his entire life. He will never be able to feed himself or go to the bathroom on his own. Every day my mind can’t help but wonder what my handsome little boy would be like if this hadn’t happened.
The development process for Axiom Verge 2 took on a different, more conflicted tone. Whereas Axiom Verge 1 was just a fun way for me to spend my evenings and weekends, Axiom Verge 2 was both an obligation and an escape. Don’t get me wrong—I loved working on Axiom Verge 2 as much as the first game, but I felt tremendous guilt over that fact. Was Axiom Verge 2 a convenient escape from having to take care of my son? The fact that working on Axiom Verge 2 was the best way to take care of him did little to assuage the feeling that making Axiom Verge 2 was a selfish act. I recognize that that feeling isn’t rational. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t there.
They say bad things come in threes, and the most recent blow came just last month when Chloe suffered a heart attack. She had a quadruple bypass and is in recovery. The heart attack also revealed an entire slew of underlying health conditions that she will now be much more careful about monitoring.
Now a year later, Axiom Verge 1 and 2 continue to feed my family and put a roof over our heads. I know I often repeat myself when talking about my personal life, but the one consistent bright light in all of this has been the continued support of the gaming community. For anyone who has ever recommended Axiom Verge to a friend, thank you. For anyone who helped a stranger online find where to go next in the world map, thank you. For anyone who wrote up (or even read!) a detailed treatise of the lore of the Axiom Verge universe, thank you. And for all those players on Steam who patiently waited to play Axiom Verge 2 on your platform of choice, thank you. You all mean the world to me and my family.