The Axis Unseen Will Be Playable on Steam Deck - Q&A With Developer Nate Purkeypile

If you haven't yet, follow us on X (Twitter) or Mastodon to know when we post new articles, and join our Reddit or Subscribe to us on YouTube to check out our content and interact with our awesome community. Thank you for supporting us!

Of all the upcoming games I know that are coming, The Axis Unseen almost immediately caught my eye. It's a gorgeous first-person horror game with heavy metal undertones, and it hooked me in with its premise of hunting down monsters from folklore. A couple of weeks ago, Nate Purkeypile, the developer of the game, posted about playing it on the Steam Deck on Twitter/X, and I was intrigued, so I sent over a DM and some questions about Steam Deck compatibility and his favorite games to play on the go.

A big thank you to Nate for taking the time to respond to my questions. And if you haven't yet, you can wishlist The Axis Unseen on Steam right now ahead of its release next month:

Q&A With Nate Purkeypile - The Man Behind The Axis Unseen

What have you done behind the scenes to get it running better on the Steam Deck?
It is my primary way to playtest the game, so if any performance issues come up, it's a lot more obvious. It's really easy for someone to just playtest on the latest and greatest hardware and then miss a lot of things that might come up. I use my Deck all the time and it's my primary gaming machine, so I didn't want that to be the case. So I have done round after round of playtesting and iterating on the game to improve the performance and the Deck is the best way to test that.

What is the performance you are hoping to see on the Deck with The Axis Unseen when it releases?
It's usually around 30-40 FPS now, but it can be higher if you really want to lower the graphics options. This is on a preset that I think still looks basically like the normal game on a PC. There's a Potato Mode for anyone who wants even more frames. 🙂 I'm hoping to get it even more optimized by ship though and I'm constantly finding new things that improve the performance pretty substantially. Even just last night I optimized a whole bunch of things in regards to FX that should make the game run a lot better.

Are you going to be supporting resolutions like 1280x800 and the 16:10 aspect ratio?
Yes, my game supports any resolution that the display can do.

Are you using any upscaling tech in the game like FSR or XeSS?
I'll be announcing which particular things I support at a later date, but yes, there is resolution scaling. Unreal 5 even has its own system (TSR, Temporal Super Resolution) by default.

Are you supporting Steam Input or using it in any way to enhance playing The Axis Unseen on Deck? (Virtual Menus, Action Switches, etc.)
I plan on setting up customized mapping by default to use the buttons on the back of the Deck. I play the game that way myself and it's a handy way to switch arrow types or magic types without needing to take your fingers off of the regular controls. I just need to go through the process of exporting that and setting it up as the default.

Do you have any tips for other developers who may want to get their games running better on the Steam Deck and other handhelds?
Use it all the time! Stop just using your fancy machine. You're going to get a much better running game and then you can just playtest your game on the beach or outside. It's totally the way to do it.

What is your current favorite game to play on the Steam Deck?
The last game I was playing on the Deck was Cyberpunk. It runs shockingly well and looks great. It still blows my mind that I've gone from playing handhelds with no color at all playing Tetris to playing Cyberpunk on a handheld. (Yes I'm old lol)

Is there any upcoming game you are personally hoping will be playable on the Steam Deck?
That PVKK game looks pretty cool and up my alley, I hope that is playable on the Steam Deck.

Again, I just want to give a huge thank you to Nate for taking the time to answer my questions. I couldn't be more excited to see this game release and play it on the go, and I feel even more confident that it will after reading some of these answers! I am hopeful PVKK will be playable as well, though I would love to hunt down some monsters on the go a little bit more.

The Axis Unseen can be wishlisted now on Steam before its release next month.

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got you covered!