woke up to the surprising news that Sega is releasing the Golden Axe prototype I coded in 2012 under crunch conditions

At least I'm not alone - this appears to be a surprise to everyone I know who actually worked on it https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368460/Golden_Axed_A_Cancelled_Prototype/

this project was my personal nexus of nightmare hours, inept management, industry realisations and heroics achieved with a small team under unreasonable conditions, so it's an odd feeling to see it surface eight years later without context, credits and with a joke title sequence

it exists because @SanatanaMishra and I had delivered the Castle of Illusion prototype that was maintaining the studio

A producer we trusted asked us if we could make a 'polished gameplay prototype' for an internal Golden Axe pitch in about two weeks to land a second project

we agreed because we were assured management wanted us to develop it 'our way' (ie another miracle please) but did mandate a darker, bloodier Golden Axe, with splatter and decapitations and two button combat

So we tried to combine all that with the spirit of the original game

this would have been a difficult line to walk at any time but we had two weeks and no time to iterate

So we made do, just really attacked the design knowing we wouldn't be able to course correct much, but luckily we had a talented team of artists, animators and sound designers

much less luckily we also had the lead designer who thought he was designing it, and sometimes @SanatanaMishra would have to physically block him from reaching my workstation or he'd start explaining insights he'd received playing the mobile port on the train on the way to work

he took to inventing arbitrary challenges like "management want to see an attack animation playing in game by the end of the day or they'll think the project is in trouble" while I was busy coding enemy ai and the soft lock combo system simultaneously

a week or so in, the lead campaigned for branching the prototype and making a Streets of Rage pitch concurrently because to him they were the same game

It took me sending a 2am email to the studio head and a "lets go for a coffee and a chat" the next morning to get that stopped

but the biggest gut punch came a week and a half in - combat was working, it was all on track! I was called for a meeting in the big room, so I put the latest build on the network and went to see what was up. All of management was sitting around the big table

I showed the game

grave faces

There was a pause

"where's the wow factor" someone asked

The lead designer once again complained it wasn't a God of War-like 3D brawler like he wanted

Someone said maybe it'd have been better to have made a prerendered video where the barbarian fought a monster

I experienced a moment of clarity

Either they couldn't see what was in front of them or wanted me to feel bad because it's the only way they knew how to manage

I was 'the guy who makes playable prototypes', I had over delivered and if they didn't want that, THEY had screwed up

I had been working 14 hour days but I went home on time that day

I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling. They didn't want it. They wanted something else entirely

I came to my conclusion - they didn't matter, I would continue doing exactly what I intended to do and try to deliver what @SanatanaMishra and I had planned in the beginning

So I did

Effects and polish was added. More sounds implemented. Combat timings sped up and input windows widened to make combos executive friendly

The finished build was revealed, and the same management team that negged me earlier lined up to tell me how good it was now

I felt dead inside

Not just because of a couple of long 7 day work weeks and start of the RSI in my right arm that would go on to jeopardise development of @AndroidCactus , but because I had no trust left in the people who ran things

from the Steam Page:

"Golden Axed may be janky, may be buggy, may be an artifact of its time, but it offers a unique glimpse into the prospect of a project that could have been"

go fuck yourself, parasites