(Spanish ) — “AK-xolotl” is a video game that draws attention for how it is reminiscent of successful titles on the independent scene such as “Nuclear Throne” and “Enter The Gungeon” due to its dynamism, action, and 2D pixel art aesthetics, but it is noticeable it has its own personality and premise.
It’s a shooter title roguelite (random elements in each game, but they keep certain improvements or objects obtained when dying or failing and it does not mean starting later with nothing) in which you have to control an axolotl who is armed with an AK (and other weapons) to sow chaos among other animal beings that inhabit a pond. All this while rescuing baby axolotls to care for and feed so that they grow, develop skills and attributes and be able to control them later.
The title has not stopped arousing interest since it was announced. He raised more than 132,000 euros (about $146,400) in his crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, when the minimum goal to fund it was 15,000 euros (about $16,700). Most recently, his latest trailer, posted by PlayStation on its YouTube channel on March 24, has amassed nearly 600,000 views and was even shared by veteran former Sony Computer Entertainment (PlayStation) president. Shuhei Yoshida.
The project is the first game designed by young creator Daniel Piqueras, supported and developed by Barcelona-based studio 2Awesome Studio. They recently released their first demo to test it out and en Español has spoken with Piqueras and the studio’s co-founder and creative director, David Jiménez, to learn more about the title, its influences, aspirations and how it was originally a Arcadian very different from what it is today.
Raising axolotls, the differential factor
After spending a couple of hours with its demo, the “AK-xolotl” proposal is perceived as a familiar flavor, but it ends up working and attracting. Although visually and even in terms of weapons and proposals, the gameplay is reminiscent of the aforementioned titles and even has a level progression system inspired by “Hades” by Supergiant Games, it shows that it has its own style and idiosyncrasies within the games roguelike.
Regarding these influences, Piqueras acknowledges that originally the project was going to be something else, a Arcadian, and that at that time I had not played either “Nuclear Throne” or “Enter The Gungeon”. However, the game began to mutate when Jiménez proposed to publish it and release it on consoles under the umbrella of 2Awesome Studios. It was then that the title began to grow and develop into what it is now. The two creatives acknowledge that now they are inspired by them, but that they are contributing their own touch and differential mechanics: raising axolotls.
Raising baby axolotls is what “AK-xolotl” wants to differentiate from other titles of the genre. Image provided by 2Awesome Studio
“As they are the references of the genre and at a technical level they do things well, now we are taking more references from there because since they tell us ‘you have copied’ well at least we take advantage of everything that we can rescue and adapt to our game well we do,” explains Piqueras. “What we want to bring new is the part of managing the babies that is a bit ‘Pokémon’ and like ‘Cult of the Lamb’ in reverse.”
Jiménez adds: “We have added our own twist, our own essence. What makes it unique is pet management: you collect axolotls, take care of them, make them grow, feed them. It’s not like “Enter the Gungeon” that you unlock playable characters and select them and that’s it. Here you take care of them, you make them grow, you create them, you configure them and in the end the axolotl that you take with you to combat and exploration is something more yours”.
Piqueras also points out that another differential factor is that in other games of the genre, the player has to lose due to the difficulty involved, but here he wanted it to be the other way around. “As I really like “Doom”, the idea of ”AK-xololt” is that you have to win and the enemies have to be scared of you. So that is also reflected in the combat and how the weapons work and else”.
The two creatives also specify that one of the keys to succeed in this genre is to have enough content. Piqueras points out that one of the factors of this type of game is that there is a mysterious point in terms of not explaining much so that it seems that there is more content than there really is. For his part, Jiménez confirms that they want to continue supporting it after launch by adding more weapons, objects, axolotls and areas in the future.
without work, a hobby and the pandemic: the origin of “AK-xolotl”
The origins of this video game are a rare notify in the industry. “AK-xolotl” began to be developed after Piqueras made a joke with the title and thought it was a good idea to make a game about it. And it is that this was his first game developed. Before I had only developed one in one game jam and another for the final degree project. The developer details with humility and between laughs that at that time it was a hobby. “I started just the day before the pandemic (of covid-19). Since I didn’t have a job and I wasn’t going to find it because of the pandemic, I was basically with him all day. I started sharing gif and they spoke to me a couple of publishers, among them David Jiménez and he told me that maybe this could move forward. I remember that David asked me ‘how many copies do you want to sell?’ and I told him ‘I don’t know, 500?”. And although the title is not yet for sale, it already managed to have more than 2,500 backers on Kickstarter.
The action and shooting mechanics is one of the strongest elements of the “AK-xolotl” video game. Image provided by 2Awesome Studio
The person in charge of 2Awesome Studios points out that when he saw the game it caught his attention despite the fact that at that time it was very different. Initially it resembled “Tormentor X Punisher”, argues Piqueras. It was to be a court action title Arcadian in which you get points for holding out as long as possible in a delimited space. “That, but with the axolotl in a room full of bugs. That was the idea,” he clarifies.
Jiménez also explains how the title evolved. At 2Awesome Studios they develop their own video games and also support small studios or solo developers as a distributor, providing them with resources where these do not reach: quality control, launch on consoles, support with extra developers. Initially they were going to publish the original game by Piqueras, but seeing that it was popular, the creator became part of the studio and “AK-xolotl” became a studio project and not an external one. “That’s when we decided to do the roguelike, make it much bigger. It has been the typical case of the snowball gradually making an avalanche.”
“AK-xolotl” does not yet have a specific release date. It will be released this 2023 on PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Xbox.
