EGX 2015: Soul Axiom Interview
By Fraser G.
GameSided Staff Writer Fraser G. recently attended EGX 2015 in the UK, gaining access to hands-on previews of some of the hottest upcoming AAA titles and indie games. Our EGX roundup series has now concluded, but you can find links to all of our features below.
#1 Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Hands-On Preview
#2 Soul Axiom Interview
#3 Star Wars Battlefront Hands-On Preview
#4 Aaero Interview
#5 Rise Of The Tomb Raider Hands-On Preview
#6 Indie Showcase – Fire Fu
#7 Just Cause 3 Hands-On Preview
#8 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Hands-On Preview
#9 Indie Showcase – Just Shapes and Beats
#10 HTC Vive Hands-On Preview
Among the vast number of excellent indie titles at the Nintendo booth during EGX 2015 was Soul Axiom, a title which has already received high acclaim during its Early Access period on the Steam platform. I had a chance to go hands-on with the game, sampling its unique mechanics and exploring the world that Wales Interactive have created.
One of the restrictions of playing a game like this at a big convention is that I was thrown into a world which had already been partially explored by other players – something which obviously won’t happen when playing the game at home. Despite this, I enjoyed the exploration elements in my hands-on preview with the game, and I was intrigued to find out more about the strange world that exists within Soul Axiom.
In my quest to discover more, I had a chance to speak to Richard Pring – Technical Director of Wales Interactive.
GameSided: How would you describe Soul Axiom in a nutshell for someone who has no idea what they’re in for?
Richard Pring: Soul Axiom is a Sci-Fi adventure puzzler, and the idea of it is Facebook for your soul, so you’re exploring your digital afterlife, finding out what’s going wrong, and trying to piece together your past.
GS: I noticed from playing the game that there’s a lot of exploration and a lot of puzzles which were fairly challenging. Is this the type of game for a player who loves hard puzzles?
RP: Oh, definitely. I mean, we try and keep the level fairly medium (difficulty), I would say. A lot of the puzzles should be possible to complete by pretty much anyone, so they’re quite intuitive, and that’s what we tried to design around. We don’t want to make it impossible.
GameSided: In terms of story, what can we expect?
RP: Soul Axiom is set in a world called Elysia, and Elysia is basically a big server which is operated by a massive company. They offer a service where you can transfer a copy of your digital soul to their server, so you can then meet other people – meet people who are dead, meet people who are alive.
The idea of this is that you get transported onto a ship – you don’t know who you are, or where you’re going, and you find four other characters, and it’s about making your way through the world. You’ve got a giant angel chasing you, corruption everywhere, and it’s about trying to piece everything together to discover why you’re there.
GameSided: What gave you the idea behind this game?
RP: The idea of a digital world gave us a lot of scope to do anything we want. Another thing is that we quite like the idea of exploring what is next for humankind, you know? This technology one day probably will be a real thing. We also like the idea of questioning ethics – Is a digital soul a real soul? So we’re trying to explore some interesting concepts.
The idea of a digital world gave us a lot of scope to do anything we want.
GameSided: I’ve heard that Soul Axiom is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Master Reboot. If you’ve played Master Reboot in the past, are you going to enjoy Soul Axiom?
RP: Yes, you will. It is (Soul Axiom) linked loosely with Master Reboot, but the thing with Soul Axiom is that it is the development of a game and a company. When we started with Master Reboot, that was our first game as a company. Soul Axiom is four years on, and everyone has grown as individuals and as a team, so it’s really an evolution. If you played Master Reboot and you liked that, then you’ll love Soul Axiom.
GameSided: Fantastic. I know that the game is coming out for a lot of platforms – can you list them and let us know when the game is coming out?
RP: We’re looking at Q1 next year (2016), and it’ll be available for Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, Steam – and that’s Mac, Linux and PC.
GameSided: Great, and any idea of prices yet?
RP: We’re looking at £14.99, but that may change.
GameSided: Thanks for your time, Richard.
I’d like to extend my thanks to Richard and Wales Interactive for taking the time to talk to us, and if you’re interested in checking out Soul Axiom then you can find out more at www.walesinteractive.com, or by searching for it on the Steam store.
You can check out the Story Trailer for Soul Axiom below.