The first official AMA for Sawyer Friend was held in the Axial Community Discord server. This was a ton of fun, I got to talk a lot about my design philosophies and a few fun character tidbits. For some reason Homestuck came up a lot... I have no idea why, Homestuck really doesn't have anything to do with Axial! This post does contain spoilers for Axial Disc 1, however.

The questions are organized based on similar themes (Questions about design, characters and lore, and general off topic concepts)

On the Origins of the Title "Axial"

Question from NatePlays95: "Why 'axial'? Where did the name come from and how it influenced the character designs?"

So, we actually have Mr. Nedben to thank for the title of the game. As is pretty common knowledge at this point, the original concept of the story has been in the works for a very long time, but it went a huge chunk of that time with no title. Finally at one point I decided 'gosh I really need a title', and Mr. Nedben in his infinite wisdom helped me through the process.

For starters, he asked if there was any sort of theme or idea that encapsulated the story, and I felt that the biggest overarching motif is the way the story basically revolves around every character's connection to the entity known as Axis (who you may remember as one of the secret bosses in Disc 1 as well as the guy that appears in the secret ending). To those who are especially well versed in the story, there is a really strong theme of 'connection' in general. Everyone is tied to something else in a way that creates this enormous web, and to me, Axis himself lies in the direct centre of that web.

So from there, I considered 'Axiom', but Mr. Nedben pointed out that name was pretty common (I think Axiom Verge had recently come out at the time), and honestly upon double checking the definition right now I don't think Axiom would have had as much meaning as I thought it did, so with Axiom out of the running, Mr. Nedben suggested the next option down. The adjective 'Axial'.

Funny thing is that I actually thought the name sounded kinda dumb at first, but it totally fit the vibe perfectly. Axial means 'revolving around an axis', and so in a story where everything revolves around a guy named Axis, everything is axial.

The funny thing is that it's sort of a Chicken or the Egg situation, because Axis's name is literally 'a point that things revolve around', so if you were to ask 'Why Axial?' and I were to respond 'Because everything revolves around Axis', you could just as easily ask 'Why Axis?' and get 'Because everything revolves around him'!

On How Playable Characters Are Selected

Question from Mooglerampage: "At what point during development or planning did you make the decision on which discs would feature which characters? I'm curious if it was a decision influenced more by gameplay or by the story."

So, Axial was absolutely a story-first situation for a very, very long time, and that definitely shaped how the party members were selected. During the first few years of development, I was actually a little obsessed with this sort of 'motif' with each entry's party members, where they would be introduced in trios of one mage, one support, and one attacker. You can see this trio mentality in Sai, Oli, and Amara, as well as Chip, Ania, and Ciel.

Of course, the fun part was the fact that the ways that these characters fulfill that role would vary greatly. Sai deals a ton of raw damage up front, whereas Chip has the highest damage potential out of anyone but needs to slowly build it up. Oli supports the party by offering aggro control and defence, whereas Ania supports the party mainly through healing. And of course, Amara attacks head on with melee attacks while Ciel focuses more on "overall damage" by managing her own melee attacks with enemy debuffs and her undead allies.

Obviously based on what I just described, the trio thing does retain a bit of a presence in the game, but after a few years of being so rigid with it (to the point that I refused to add a new party member without first removing one), I finally said 'screw it, do you guys even care about this whole trio thingy?' to which I got a resounding 'eh, not really'. So from there, we ditched it for the sake of just making the game more fun. The story context still dictates how characters are decided (for example it has always been my intention basically from day one that Disc 1 and Disc 2 would be parallels of each other from Sai and Chip's perspectives), but now if I ever spontaneously feel that I could add or remove a party member to enhance the game, I totally can and do.

Despite the fact that gameplay used to be such a huge factor to how party members are chosen, it's actually somewhat rare that it is treated as the main factor. This is mostly because the story has been planned for so long that, for the most part, I already know what roles each character will play in the grand scheme of things, so I'm a lot less likely to simply add a character to fill a specific gameplay purpose when I can almost surely add that gameplay purpose to an existing character, either by restructuring one that we haven't seen yet, or simply giving them new Commands or equipment that can fulfill that element.

On the Holy Trinity (in MMOs)

Question from Mooglerampage:  "Was it an intentional design decision for Disk2 to, as I understand, step away from a 'MMO holy trinity' sort of party? If so what impact did this decision have on the game's content?"

So, Disc 2 actually doesn't step away from the holy trinity as dramatically as it may seem! I mentioned earlier that the trio element has been a factor of its design from the very start, and this makes Team Chip a sort of new 'flavour' of the roles that the Disc 1 party filled.

That said, the game does step away from the trinity a little just in the introduction of party members outside of that trio. Now that there are more than three characters that fit into one specific role, I can never be certain that the player will have a specific "role" in their party, and I have to consider that with every challenge I make. Luckily, this was already a factor that I'm pretty intimate with due to the way the Command Setting system works. From the very beginning I was never able to guarantee that the player will use those characters with their 'intended' roles: Sai could be a physical attacker, Amara could be a healer, and Oli could be a mage. The player could even choose to make all three of them fill the same healer role! So, with that in mind, I'm not too worried about what issues the new party members might bring, because Axial has always been designed around the idea that the player could approach a challenge in just about any way.

On Designing Around Builds and Specific Skills

Question from Mooglerampage: "Do you design character skill sets around builds / strategies or individual abilities?"

I do a mix of both. Every character starts with a bit of context, some more than others. I usually know what their main "power" is, and probably what sort of weapon they fight with, and even their [C]haracteristic, so these elements all form what is essentially a character's core 'gimmick'.

Amara's gimmick is being able to weild any weapon, Oli's gimmick is collecting magic, Chip's is charging and releasing raw damage, etc.

Once I know a character's gimmick, I then start making Commands that revolve around that gimmick. For someone like Chip, [C]++ was basically the first skill I ever made for him, because right from the beginning I knew I wanted him to have an element of stacking raw damage on top of multi hitting attacks. From there, I started making other skills that either support that gimmick further (such as Coilgun, which hits 3 times, thus applying the damage boost three times), or flavour (such as Giga Bite, which is pretty divorced from his gimmick but suits his sub-theme of fast anime kicks). When I first started off, I actually turned to a lot of MMOs to think of various ways that certain skills interacted with each other, and I even assigned "classes" to the characters for a short while to get them on their feet (Ciel is a Summoner from FFXIV, for example). That helped me make a lot of the more generic weapon skills for each character, and then from there it became a factor of ideas just coming to me during development. If I think of a neat build for a character, I'll start adding new equipment and Commands to augment that build, and sometimes it's just as simple as thinking of a new gimmicky strategy that synergizes with a character. With a game like Axial, more is more, so I never flinch to add a new Command to the pool if I think it'll be a fun option.

On Work Ethic and Scheduling

Question from ManuGamingCreations: "How many hours a day you work on Axial? & Axial 2 (average over year)"

I have a very 'bursty' workflow. I almost always want to work on Axial, but things like having a personal life and a work schedule and being required to sleep prevent me from doing that constantly. I also can get bored or just satisfied with a day's work, after which point I'll usually stop to go start something else.

So because of how much my workflow can fluctuate, it's actually a really tough question to answer. Even on days where I make "no progress", I usually do get around an hour's worth of collective work done through talking in the Dev server about various ideas or making small tweaks to the game that are low effort.

When my burst window is open though, it's really hard to get me to stop, and I often get upwards of 11 hours clocked in a single day if there's nothing to interrupt me. Of course, I do believe in healthy work habits and I won't try to act like working that much is something that should be admired, but when I get going sometimes I just keep going. It's actually very difficult for me to take structured breaks because of that; in a way, I'm pretty much always working on Axial in some way, even when I'm not a my desk, just because there's almost always something to think about.

On Revising the Story

Question from CallMeDJ: "How often do you find yourself rewriting parts of Axial's story? I'm aware Axial was a story five years before actual game development began, and even then bits and pieces are still being rewritten. When do you feel you need to put down the pen just so the game can be done?"

The story has been around for a very long time, so naturally a lot of elements are pretty set in stone, but I also feel that the story being so old is also the cause for many rewrites. 

I'm obviously a much better storyteller now than I was in high school, and I will be a much better storyteller ten years from now too, so some elements that I thought might be cool or simply couldn't think of any other approach to are pretty easy to notice and return to just from me thinking about how everything in Axial fits together. 

Of course, if something doesn't fit together, I'll change it, but that's also the case when things do fit together but I can think of something that would be even more thematically or narratively appropriate. I never set out looking for something to change in the story, but the nature of game development means that in a way I am sort of writing the story as I go, even if I have a very intricate outline to follow. It's one thing if something makes sense when it's summarized in two sentences on a sheet of line paper, but it's another thing to see it play out with stage blocking and dialogue and the way characters act. Every now and then I'll be thinking about what scene I have to write next and realize 'that isn't how things should go at all', at which point I will immediately start rambling in the Dev server until I get a better idea.

On Perseverance and Knowing When to Quit

Question from Mooglerampage: "Has there even been a time where you'd considered cancelling or shelving Axial? (Or, at some point did you discontinue it temporarily and come back to it?) In either scenario, what brought you back / prompted you to soldier on with the project?"

Somehow, after all these years, I actually don't think I've ever come significantly close to just giving up. I've flirted with the idea before as an intrusive thought, but it's never been a serious consideration for me.

Axial is sorta the axis of my life (har har), in the sense that most choices I make are in the grand context of making this game. So, even though I do enjoy my moments away from Axial, either from just playing a game casually or taking a thorough break, I can only really enjoy those things knowing that I'll be returning to Axial pretty soon.

I actually did come closer than ever recently though, after a barrage of feedback that I just found a bit overwhelming. The "crisis" started largely out of me kinda playing up my reception of some feedback that I actually found to be a bit unhelpful, but admittedly I got so passive aggressive that I ended up having to backpedal and pretend I was completely genuine about my worldview for Axial being changed just to save face! Not proud of that one, admittedly. That said, this outburst of mine absolutely lead to a lot of feedback and advice from various people about how they felt I could address the 'issues' presented, after which point it was kinda impossible to just ignore it! Notably, I was getting more frequent playthroughs from players that were less enthralled by the game than some of my core audience, which made the rough edges much more prominent, and honestly I really did get to a point where I was starting to wonder if this was really all worth it.

I don't think I ever seriously considered quitting, but that was the closest I've ever gotten to seriously considering seriously considering quitting. Luckily, I brought myself back pretty easily by just remembering why I love Axial. I had to replay the game anyway to catch various details for the changes I was about to make to the game, and in the process I had an amazing time and remembered how much this game was made for ME. I still stand by my decision to go back and make changes to the game to make it more enjoyable to those who enjoy this sort of thing, but ultimately I had to remember that Axial isn't for everyone, and I was never really supposed to care about what other people thought about the game anyway. My goal is to make a game that players like myself will love, and I think I accomplished that, and while I do want to make those players love the game more if I can, that doesn't mean catering to every person that tries it out.

If you're feeling like shelving your project, I think my biggest piece of advice would be to ask yourself why you started in the first place. What driving desire was so powerful to you that you decided to take up the extremely daunting task of making a video game? Fall back in love with your game, play the hell out of it not for testing but just because you made something that you love. And if you do all that and you decide 'eh, I still want to quit', then maybe it is time to move on. Sunken cost can really mess people up, but I think it is better to pick up the pieces of a broken project and use them as experiences to shape something that speaks to you, than to force yourself to carry out a goal that a different 'you' made a long time ago.

On Design Philosophy

Question from Mooglerampage: "If you could summarize your game design philosophy - in general not just in terms of Axial - what would it be?"

I've said this in a few places before, but make your favourite game. Unless your goal is to make money (in which case, there are easier means to that end), I don't think there is any good reason for you not to create something that appeals to you.

For me, I unashamedly incorporate elements that appeal exclusively to me, things like that aforementioned Bionicle Game Boy robot that (ending of Disc 1 spoilers) dies like the robot from Final Fantasy Adventure after getting into a cool anime fight, or Chip using Magnetism to battle because I think magnets are just really freaking cool. Why is everything green? Because I like the way the Game Boy's screen looks, and that's green. Why is Energy Ball purple? Purple's my favourite colour. If something doesn't fit the story, I make it fit (there is actually deep worldbuilding that explains why we have stuff like Game Boy aesthetic and Magnet magic, and yes, it was all added retroactively after I decided I wanted to put it in the game).

Every decision I make runs first through the filter of 'does this make me enjoy the game more?' because at the end of the day, I'm making this for me, so why shouldn't I unapologetically shove my tastes and interests into this game, right? Of course, the important thing to note is that even if I am really the only person I'm particularly worried about appealing to, that doesn't mean that the game only appeals to me. The way I see it, if I like a particular thing, someone else surely also finds that aspect appealing. There probably isn't anyone out there that finds this unique combination of elements as appealing as I do, but it's not like anyone is gonna be like 'ew I was super into this game until I found out that there's an optional dungeon based on Secret of Mana.' So, for the most part, if a choice I make causes me to like the game more, it probably won't hurt others' enjoyment of it. And if it does, well, there are thousands of other games to play!

On Plans for Future Community Events

Question from Mooglerampage: "Any plans to make AMA events (or other fun community stuffs) semi regular?"

I'd honestly love to make this a more regular thing. As you've probably noticed, I really love talking about Axial, from my design philosophies to just little tidbits about the characters that aren't apparent in the game. I also love the idea of doing more community events in general.

The main factors at play are community interest, as well as my own schedule. This little experiment ended up being a resounding success in my opinion, I got some fantastic questions and I'm pretty happy with how thorough I was able to be about answering them. If people are interested in this sort of thing again, I would totally like to keep doing it. The reason we didn't have another DPS contest is also just a matter of community interest. There weren't very many interested parties, so I decided that wouldn't be worth the effort it would take to set up. If that changes in the future, I'd love to do another! I'm also completely open to any other ideas that people might have for events or just ways to hang out.

The main reason I brought up the schedule thing is just because if I let the community events take up too much of my time, I'll end up spending more time talking about Axial than I will making it! But of course, I really did have a great time with this one, and I think given the nature of it, it wouldn't make much sense to have extremely regular AMAs anyway, so I'm absolutely interested in doing this sort of thing again in the future, especially after how much interest there seemed to be with this first one on such short notice. On that note, after I decide the AMA is officially "closed", I'll be leaving this channel open for further questions that'll be queued up for the next AMA.

On Future Installments

Question from Ronaldbabe: "you said there probably won’t be disc 3 but do you think the remaining story will exist in any other form? (though we joked about visual novel)"

At the moment, we have no plans for a Disc 3. After Disc 2, I want to be able to branch out and focus on other game ideas that have been sitting in the drawer for so many years while I've been tackling this project. However, there are absolutely some big plans in store for the world of Axial. I don't want to go into too much detail about what those plans are, because I'm a sucker for a good reveal, but you can rest assured that Disc 2 won't be the final piece of Axial media that I plan on making. With that said, however, I do intend on putting my all into Disc 2 to treat it as a satisfying conclusion to the story. Unlike Disc 1, which was always tied to its role in setting up Disc 2, I really do feel that Disc 2 will have a sense of 'completeness' to it that should hopefully satisfy myself and players for a long time.

On The Way Characters Might Act Differently During the Story

Question from Nedben: "Which characters do you feel are the most Busy Dealing With The Present Situation and therefore show the least of their casual personality? Would anyone be acting drastically different if they weren't on the job, or were on the job as opposed to adventuring? (My guess is Arlyn and maybe KING are leaders there, but who knows.)"

So, I'm assuming 'present situation' would be referring to the ending of Disc 1, with Astral Point collapsing. Or do you just mean whatever is currently going on at that point in the story that you meet a given character?

For the most part, the NPCs are a little more one-note than the main cast, just because I spend a lot less time thinking about them. When I make a character, it's typically to fill some kind of void in the story, such as Arlyn being created because I felt there weren't enough Agent boss fights, or KING being created to [Disc 2 spoilers] give Chip something to push himself over the edge to cause that EMP and question the Agency.

So admittedly, it's a bit hard to say what characters like Arlyn or KING are like when they aren't busy dealing with the current conflict, because in my head they were created specifically within the context of that conflict. That said, I feel pretty confident in saying that most of the one-off Agents like Roy and Arlyn probably do act pretty much the same regardless of the stress of their situation, because their personalities sorta revolve around the gimmick they've bene given (Arlyn being a quiet three-word-sentence sort of guy).

Now that I've properly given you a weird roundabaout answer, I think I can answer more directly and say that Lux is absolutely a character that we've only really seen one side of in Disc 1. During the events of Disc 1, the guy is under a lot of pressure doing a very important job, and he actually does a good job keeping his cool and detached demeanour despite that, but as soon as Amara enters Overflow, he completely snaps under the weight of the situation and goes bananas. That is not at all who Lux really is, but perhaps in a way that side of him will slowly begin to enter the forefront.

On Axials and the Coffee Allergy

Question from Knightly: "If any of the axis cells didn’t have a problem with coffee would they drink it"

That's a straight yes, actually! In fact, (Disc 1 spoilers) Chip drinks quite a bit of coffee, and simply masks the adverse effects and strong bitter flavour by mixing in a copious amount of sugar. Amara also doesn't like coffee very much, but she does occasionally drink some just for the sake of paying Sai a visit (because Mel's doesn't serve tea).

On Chip's Favourite Game

Question from NatePlays95: "What would be Chip's favorite game? Axial does not count (I guess it's close to Sawyer's favorite, so a double whammy!)"

I actually try to keep Chip's (as well as all of my other characters) interests divorced from my own when I can. That said, we know that his favourite game in-universe is Winklemo, which is a pretty obvious Pokemon parody, so I think it's a safe bet to assume he enjoys Pokemon a good deal. He also plays a lot of fighting games, mainly traditional 2D fighters. 

We've also made jokes amongst the friend group that he definitely has his own Minecraft server. Considering he's a massive weeb, he surely likes dating sims too, and honestly I'm not even saying this to be a contrarian, he would probably like Earthbound (but I don't think he'd be into Undertale tbh).

If I have to pick one game in our universe that would 100% be his favourite... I would say it's probably Pokemon Omega Ruby. Just seems like a Chip sorta game.

(if you wanna know my favourite game, it's Xenogears, and my favourite Pokemon game is Soulsilver)

On Casting Axial Characters in a Musical Film

Question from Knightly: "If axial were to become a musical movie who would play who"

Interesting, this already would have been a tough question if it were any old movie, but making it a musical adds an even bigger challenge.

A lot of the cast of Axial is really young, most of them are younger than 20, so finding respected actors that can fit that age category is pretty tricky.

Right off the bat, we've already decided Josh would totally be played by John Goodman (who we know has some musical talent thanks to the track "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters Inc.)

My immediate pick for a character like Sai would be Daniel Radcliffe due to the obvious Harry Potter comparison, but the tricky part is I'm not actually sure if he's a musically talented person. Fortunately, Sai is canonically a horrible singer, so that actually works out.

Oli's a bit tough, since her quest for self discovery gives me a very Disney Renaissance vibe, but her headstrong attitude doesn't really make her your typical princess type character. This feels like a really specific choice, but Auli'i Cravalho, the voice actress for Moana, seems like a really good fit for Oli due to her talents for grand sweeping ballads, as well as her acting skills she showed off in All Together Now. This was a pretty tough pick that I'm not super married to, though.

Amara's also tricky (I guess these all are, really) but I think Anne Hathaway would do her justice given her acting talents and fantastic singing voice.

For Swed, I'm immediately reminded of Hugh Jackman's performance in Greatest Showman, which isn't exactly a great film but his performance specifically was pretty good. Considering how Jackman tends to portray a real grizzly middle aged guy, he definitely gives me Swed vibes, and I think his voice could lend to a more sympathetic take on the character while still letting him serve as a villain.

Finally, our boy Chip has only one possible option. The community has had a sort of soft headcanon that Chip talks like Ben Shapiro, and given Shapiro's amazing musical talents on display in his cover of "Wet Ass P-word", I can think of no better man for the task.

On Characters to Bring to Real Life

Question from Knightly: "If you were to bring one character to real life, who would it be?"

Ooh, okay, that's a bit of a tough question. I am totally a "character-first" sort of guy, so naturally characters really are something I think about a lot, but the concept of bringing a character to the real world is a little foreign to me. Like I mentioned earlier, most of my characters exist in the context of the story for me, so even aspects like AUs which people seem pretty interested in are harder for me to get a grip on.

If we're just talking about Axial characters, my obvious answer has to be Kwadle. He's a freaking Game Boy robot with a heart that just wants to make you happy. I just think he's so cool and he'd be such a nice buddy to have around.

If we're thinking about any character... okay, this might be a bit of a cop-out, but I think I would choose Digit, my Porygon-Z. It's been my partner in the Pokemon world for a very long time, and I do treat it like a bit of a pet despite the fact that it's literally just a bunch of Hex values with a 3D model slapped on top, but I am very emotionally attached to the memories I've shared with it, and it would make me really happy if I could make more memories with it in the real world too, or even just say thank you for everything that it's helped me with.

On Which Homestuck Characters Make Their Beds

Question from Nedben:  "alright, Homestuck question you're qualified to answer: Which characters make their beds and which don't? (We see a few beds ingame, but that might be an art style thing or people naturally don't bother with blankets that often: feel free to answer 'would' in that case)"

Hm, I haven't even touched Homestuck in like 8 years, let alone known enough about it to say whether or not I think a character makes their bed. 

I guess... I would say that John probably makes his bed on a good day, Dave definitely doesn't but he pretends it's because he's cool instead of because he's lazy, Jade definitely makes her bed and probably spends way more time doing so than she needs to, and Rose doesn't touch her bed in the morning not because she doesn't want to but simply because she wants to make the answer to this question more interesting. 

I am not going to go into the bed-making habits of the other bajillion Homestuck characters I don't remember the names of. I don't even like Homestuck.

On Which Axial Characters Make Their Beds

Question from Nedben:  "I forgot to specify I meant Axial characters, my bad. It was part of some convoluted thing or other that lunar sway skipped to bed making habits. But congrats on getting that right totally offhand"

Ah, okay, returning to this question with Axial characters then, I'll go ahead and hit up the Main 6:

-Oli tends to be too lazy to make her bed, but Joshua does it for her anyway so it's typically pretty neat.

-Amara actually never learned how to make a bed until she started living with Oli and the gang, and thus she practices it regularly with Oli's bed as well.

-Sai also doesn't make his own bed, since he's effectively royalty and has someone else do that for him. That said, after leaving the Agency, he is absolutely such a worrywort that he definitely makes his bed without hesitation. Despite being pampered all his life, he actually does have a natural sense for tidiness and is completely willing to clean up after himself.

-Chip does not make his bed. Never had, never will.

-Ania makes her bed on her days off when she is well rested and temporally flexible, but when she has work, she's usually too tired to bother, using the justification that it's just going to get messed up anyway.

-Ciel is kinda good at everything, which includes her sense of tidiness, so her bed is usually quite neat. She has a variety of shortcuts to make her bed in a matter of seconds, and doesn't dwell on it for too long.

On Improving Homestuck

Question from Knightly: "If you were the co creator of homestuck, how would you improve the story"

Oh boy, more Homestuck!

Okay so, for starters, I found the shift of focus to the trolls to be too much. We've got this tightly knit cast of four main characters to care about, with maybe a dozen or so supporting characters to supplement that, and suddenly several hours into the story, we're pulled away from that main cast and forced to spend a very long time getting to know like 8 (relatively) new characters. Ironically, a lot of the fanbase refers to this point as the moment where it "gets good", but for me I was actually kinda into the story for a pretty long while before the trolls hijacked the story and I lost interest very fast after that.

Also, forcing the reader to engage with the story via long paragraphs of late-90's chat logs complete with max saturation rainbow fonts with no consideration for readability is a surefire way to get people to stop reading those chat logs, which are actually the medium through which 75% of the plot is actually conveyed. I still don't really know what's going on in Homestuck, because when I read it in middle school I sorta just looked at the pictures and laughed at the jokes in the descriptions but pretty much completely skipped all of the chat logs.

On Tron's Tier List

Question from Mooglerampage: "(only partially serious question) How do you feel about being an honorary 'S' Tier?"

Jokes aside, I was actually deeply honoured that Tron put me in the 'A' tier in his RM Dev tier list. I know I made the joke that I accepted the honourary S for Sawyer, but really even that A tier was more than I expected.

Tron didn't seem to find Axial entirely appealing, he was frequently frustrated with some of the more difficult moments in the game, and he felt the pacing was too fast, so to me I took that as a sign that while he respected me as a person, he and I don't really have the same ideals in design, and he likely wouldn't value me very high because of that. So, having him refer to me as 'one of the kings of the beta testing server' as well as just generally appreciate my eagerness to discuss design and help out others made me feel really appreciated, and I in turn appreciate that.

Of course, it also makes me pretty happy knowing that despite all of the grievances he has with the game, Tron does seem to be generally enjoying Axial despite it not really being something that aligns to his tastes. I personally see this as a huge win, because if someone who doesn't like retro games with chiptune music and random encounters can still consider the game a generally positive experience, that must mean I've done a great job making something engaging for my core audience.

Thank you to everyone who participated tonight and gave their questions!