#series: hades

[galedekarios]

among mortal men you’re far the best at tactics, spinning yarns, and I am famous among the gods for wisdom, cunning wiles too

[eviefrve]

MELINOË

[bubblebuttgames]

GAME INFORMER #366 - THE MAKING OF HADES II

"The sorcerous Melinoë gazes with intensity toward her goal - and the audience!" says cover artist and Supergiant art director Jen Zee. "She's determined, focused, and powerful. Hecate, Melinoë's mentor, can be seen in the distance wielding her torches and gazing toward the moon. Standing on the precipice of the Crossroads with back turned, she is flanked by her trusty familiars, a hound and a polecat."

COVER STORY - HADES II

Supergiant Games is making its first sequel, and we visited the developer in California to find out why it wasn't quite ready to escape Hell and move on. We played the game extensively, spoke with the team about bringing the follow-up to life, looked ahead to the game's future, and lots more. If you're playing Hades II in Early Access, consider our cover story the perfect companion piece

Platform: PC

Style: 1-Player Action

Publisher: Supergiant Games

Developer: Supergiant Games

Release: May 6

BASTION. TRANSISTOR. PYRE. HADES. Supergiant Games built its name on four distinct, critically lauded titles, giving them a pristine track record few developers can boast But the thrilling roguelike action of Hades catapulted it above the rest to become the studio's most successful game and biggest mainstream hit. Four years, hundreds of runs, and thousands of hours later, the fanbase still can't get enough of Zagreus' adventure and Supergiant's captivating vision of the Greek Underworld.

They're not alone. The folks at Supergiant felt it still had more stories to tell, more places to explore, more deities to meet, and, most importantly, a new perspective for players to view it all. That enthusiasm inspired the studio to tackle its first sequel, Hades II. With players now taking it through its paces in Steam Early Access, we visited Supergiant Games to learn how it came to be and what to expect as it evolves over the coming months

LOOKING BACK AND MOVING AHEAD

Creative director Greg Kasavin declares Hades as "our most successful game by any sort of measure." A litany of industry awards, strong sales, and a passionate fan following have backed up this claim, earning Hades a place among the gods. Yet despite this overwhelming success, Supergiant remains the same as it ever was: a small team (currently 25 full-time employees) driven by a passion and enthusiasm to create unforgettable experiences that stay true to their personal tastes and interests.

When it came time to decide what the next project would be, they approached it as they always do by asking one question: what idea excites them the most? Knowing that they'll be spending the next several years of their lives working on it, making sure the game captures the team's collective passion ensures the best execution and, ultimately, the strongest product. Though it weighed various pitches and ideas, Supergiant had already recognized the potential to expand Hades' world even during the first game's development

"There are so many characters from Greek myth that we're very excited about that simply didn't have a place in the story of the original game," says Kasavin. "You've got these really big names like Apollo or Heracles and stuff like that. And they don't appear in the original Hades, not because we weren't excited for them, [but] just because we were focused on other characters..But we always wondered: how would we portray some of these other characters?"

Greg and the rest of the team soon realized it had much more it wanted to say with Hades. Speaking with five of the original seven employees who have been with Supergiant Games since the development of 2011's Bastion - Kasavin, studio director Amir Rao, art director Jen Zee, composer Darren Korb, and voice actor Logan Cunningham - all of them expressed excitement about returning to Hades' world for their own respective reasons

For Kasavin, Greek mythology's rich and expansive lore offers a multitude of storytelling possibilities. For Zee, the principal artist behind Supergiant's signature art style, redesigning beloved characters was as exciting as illustrating new ones. Korb looks forward to adding new thematic and tonal layers to Hades existing soundscape that exemplifies the new presentational direction for the sequel. Cunningham, the voice behind several key characters, including Hades himself, teases a new direction for the ruler of the underworld.

For Rao, however, he tells me this is the studio's opportunity to define, in their eyes, what a sequel looks like. Supergiant has been a one- and-done studio since its inception, to the point that some fans believe the studio has some sort of policy against making sequels. Kasavin says this has never been the case. Rather, the reluctance came from the studio's desire always to surprise players; sequels are known quantities. At the same time, the idea of making a sequel at a conceptual level became an alluring challenge in itself.

"We made four original IPs in a row," says Rao "We are unpracticed at making a sequel [laughs]. So, this is our first time doing it. We had to reflect on what are some of the sequels that we loved? And what did they do to move the game world and mechanics and design and story forward?

To that end, Supergiant examined the team's favorite sequels that expanded on their predecessors in meaningful and dramatic ways while still retaining the elements that had worked before. Rao cites Portal 2 as an example, and he also names Diablo II as a personal inspiration, particularly his love for the magic- based sorceress class - a specific trait that would later prove a vital ingredient. As the team decided on ideas and priorities, Greg formulated the story and lore that would best fit these concepts. The journey would take him to lesser-known edges of Greek mythology and the discovery of another long-lost child of Hades himself.

MAKING A NEW MYTH

[kermit-coded]

god. hades saying, "ask me for sanctuary" after percy talks about kronos hits like a truck when you remember that he tried to do the same for maria, bianca, and nico.

[steelsartcorner]

nobody took my pen away so the hades-crossover-fever continues. i’m ill

others: the dark urge (OC); minthara (bg3), karlach (bg3), shadowheart (bg3), gale (bg3), halsin (bg3), lae'zel (bg3), astarion (bg3), kotallo (horizon)

[mydairpercabeth]

season 4 is gonna hurt me i fear

[venator-signum]

I really like this version of hades they've gone with in the pjo show

this is a guy who's chilling, he's content in his solitude, he knows that his wife will be home in a matter of weeks

and not only that but the second percy figures it out, he immediately offers sanctuary

I like to see a hades that doesn't stick with the dark, brooding and depressed idea we have of him because this is a man who has been able to remove himself from the toxicity of his family is is clearly all the more happier for it

[moonlit-typewriter]

“Percy being traumatized for 7 minutes” compilations this and “Percy nearly dying for 5 minutes straight” videos that.

Nah, I can’t wait for “Percy having problems with authority for 10 whole minutes”

[readerconfused]

The other gods: Hades is the king of the dead, he is bad, he was definitely the one who did it all

Hades: hi guys, sorry for the tortuous path it takes to get to my house, would you like some pomegranate juice? A snack?

[greenyoshi72]

it just occurred to me that nobody bothered to tell Annabeth about Ares and the helm and the bolt since she was in asphodel.

Girl saw her bestie challenge a god to combat with no context a couple hours before her oldest friend tried to kill her bestie. The girl must be confuzzled.

[somewhereincairparavel]

gentle reminder that jason has striked a god with his blade causing him to bleed, when the god was INVISIBLE, simply based on the movement around him.

[galedekarios]

🤔⛵🤔🌊🤔

[silkinsketch]

Annabeth Chase as Athena (Hades)

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

"percy manipulated bob" "percy manipulated charon" i think the thing we all need to focus on more is the fact that he accidentally manipulated the whole of the pjo fandom into seeing him as dumb and stupid when he was just insecure as hell

[sashthesloth]

Casual conversations from before

[steelsartcorner]

the make-everything-hades fever has spread to lae'zel

all her boons are for sure big huge damage boosters at the expense of your magic meter

others: the dark urge (OC); minthara (bg3), karlach (bg3), shadowheart(bg3), gale (bg3), halsin (bg3), astarion (bg3), wyll (bg3), kotallo (horizon)