In Celebration of Supergiant Games

From dad’s living room to global phenomenon

Back in September 2010, the work of seven people was released for the first time at the Penny Arcade Expo. It was an indie game. People were impressed with the game’s initial presentation — so much so, in fact, that the game received awards from E3 and the 2011 Independent Games Festival before the game had even released. That game was called Bastion, and had started development in the living room of the studio director’s dad. Four years later, the game had sold more than three million copies and had set the bar for art and design for other smaller development teams to follow.

As 2020 passes, the studio has released three games (with an extra game in early access, Hades). With these titles, they have cemented for themselves a reputation for impressive visual and audio work, combining enjoyable gameplay with hauntingly beautiful songs and instantly memorable characters. It’s a reputation to be envious of — especially with a catalog so small.

At the time of Bastion’s release, I was busy with university work and was not privy to any of this hype. In fact, I was pretty new to the general concept of an indie game, and had been mainly playing through World of Warcraft expansions and Xbox 360 releases. That was until I had discovered the Xbox Live Arcade, which was a mini haven of indie titles (like the time-twisting Braid) that could be downloaded from the store. I quickly discovered that there was a lot I was missing out on available on the digital store, and the title that really stood out to me was Bastion.

The gameplay was impressive enough, with a multitude of weapons available that made it possible to create your own playstyle according to your preferred way of engaging an enemy — the usual mix of ranged gameplay combined with melee combat. It wasn’t always that inventive or difficult, but it was still fun to play through. It would be a decent title with this aspect alone, but what really made it stand out from its peers was its added focus on its setting, its storytelling, its art, and its presentation.

Bastion’s story was entirely narrated with the voice of the character Rucks (played by Logan Cunningham) set in an isometric world liberally splashed with artistic strokes full of colour, and the combination gave way to a style of game that seems to be a Supergiant Games recipe: that of the playable graphic novel, where gameplay walks hand-in-hand with the storytelling. Be it through the vehicle of sound design, artistic choice, or character development, one does not fall secondary to the other. It meant that playing Bastion had a purpose beyond trying to get all of the achievements available or to unlock all the weapons. Sometimes, it was simply to see what Logan would say next.

The audio treats did not end there, either: the music of Bastion was impressive, memorable, and had context within the story being told, reminding me of the type of music you might find in an episode of Firefly. The production quality was groundbreaking to me. Previously, I hadn’t really considered small-team efforts could yield games with as much soul as Bastion had.

In that way, each of their games has a different blend of storytelling. They have shown a willingness to deviate from a standard they could have easily stuck to through sequels, downloadable content, or other continuations of the initial story of The Kid. So far they have tackled party-based RPGs with Pyre, sci-fi action RPGs in the form of Transistor, and now a rogue-like dungeon crawler called Hades. In each of these other titles, you can detect Supergiant’s influence in its art direction, its choice of music, and its focus on strong, fully-voiced characters.

That very blend is what I love about the studio — there is a recognition that storytelling underpins the context for why players are doing the thing they are doing in the first place, and as well as that, it’s how much effort goes into telling that story well. That method changes noticeably from each time as the overall formula of the Supergiant game is tinkered with to create something original, but on-brand.

Later this year, Supergiant Games will be seeking to close the early access period of their latest game Hades. It feels like a return to form for the developers — creating a form of combat that adapts to the preference of the player through weapon choices and roguelike gameplay. Combined with the Supergiant Games brand of storytelling, it feels like an engrossing, interesting underworld — and the story hasn’t even been completed yet.

Possibly my favourite interactions are between your character, Zagreus, and Hades, his father. Hades is the primary antagonist of the game. As opposed to being abrasive for the sake of the plot, Hades acts as if you’re just being a naughty kid. He’s not evil for the sake of it — if anything, he’s more like God of War’s Kratos, except this time he’s got too much paperwork to be dealing with your tantrums. You can also pet Cerberus, who is a good dog.

While the game is clearly still in development and needs a conclusive ending, the whole process has been handled clearly, with a defined roadmap and regular updates. Early access games have a reputation for ending up half-baked or coming short of what has been promised. This has not been helped with how the concept of preordering a game has been tarnished in recent years, most notably with the likes of games like Fallout 76. Players as a group are now more averse to spending so early for games that disappoint fairly often.

Supergiant Games, by comparison, sought to approach creating an early access title with the help of the community:

Hades has now been in the works for about three years. The very first decision we made on the project was to make it an Early Access game, something we could build in partnership with our community. We also wanted to prove that Early Access development could be compatible with our approach to making games. We couldn’t be happier with how the experiment has gone. Your feedback has made this game so much better than we could have on our own, so keep telling us what you think.

It has gained an Overwhelming Positive rating on steam with 20k reviews, which is only a few thousand behind Bastion’s lifetime performance. I think that Supergiant Games are on their way to achieving another success — and it’s done through a passion for engaging gameplay and an engaging narrative. I’m eagerly awaiting the close to this tale, and I’m interested to see how the developers handle the scenes following Zagreus’ escape from his father.

I’m also keen for more of the music. If Supergiant Games had designed the music for Doom Eternal, this would be it. They have been kind enough to share their singles on YouTube, but it would be nice to support them if you can.

Studios like Supergiant Games need to be celebrated for their commitment and passion for creating amazing titles for their players, as well as treating them fairly. They’ve crafted a fantastic reputation from humble beginnings, and I hope they continue to work on inspired works of art.

Thanks, guys.