Nintendo unveiled its Change 2 hybrid recreation console in New York yesterday, and it introduced alongside quite a lot of recreation builders who made video games for the platform. One of many video games on show was Supergiant Video games’ Hades II, which has been within the works for 4 years.
I spoke with Greg Kasavin, inventive director of Supergiant Video games, on the occasion about how the corporate made the sport for each the Nintendo Change and the Nintendo Change 2. The work started in 2021, after Supergiant shipped Hades for the Change in 2020. The corporate shipped its Home windows title in early entry in Might 2024 on Home windows and it did the identical for early entry in October 2024 for the MacOS.
Now it’s readying the title for its Nintendo Change and the Nintendo Change 2. I performed the sport and the gameplay was fairly easy, with pretty speedy 2.5D motion.
Hades II options Melinoe, the sister of the unique recreation’s hero Zagreus. She is in battle with the Titan Chronos (her grandfather). She tangles with Olympian gods from the primary recreation — Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis and Aphrodite. She additionally has to take care of new gods within the recreation like god blacksmith Hephaestus, solar god Apollo, moon goddess Selene and Hecate. Melinoe has the power to tame animals and convey down the ability of the moon on her enemies.
Supergiant was proud of how the Change model turned out in 2020, Kasavin stated, as the sport discovered a giant and enthusiastic viewers.
For the sequel, the corporate wished it to run nicely on the unique Change. On the time they began, they didn’t know something in regards to the Change 2, Kasavin stated.
“Once we realized of the Change 2, we had been capable of get the sport up and operating on that platform fairly rapidly due to the groundwork we had already laid,” Kasavin stated. “It was nice for us to have this larger and brighter display.”
The dev staff took benefit of the extra {hardware} headroom so as to add results whereas nonetheless supporting the unique platform. The staff explored the brand new Pleasure-Con recreation controller for the Change 2, because it serves as a mouse. However the staff determined to bypass the mouse functionality.
“We would like individuals to have the ability to choose up and play this recreation with simply probably the most primary understanding of how controllers work,” Kasavin stated.
The sport runs at 720p on the unique Change, however it will probably do 1080p decision on the brand new {hardware} by way of operating Hades II. This wasn’t arduous to do as a result of the staff was making the sport to assist a variety of resolutions on trendy PCs. The goal is to get the sport to run at 60 frames per second on each the Change and the Change 2. The 120 FPS functionality was a shock to Kasavin, and so the staff hasn’t found out but if it will probably hit that spec. That’s the character of {hardware} design — it’s a transferring goal.
As for the 4 years, that’s about the identical time it took to make the unique Hades. The brand new recreation will seemingly take longer to make, Kasavin stated.
“That is merely a much bigger recreation,” he stated. “It’s actually necessary for us to discover a growth tempo that we are able to maintain over over time it’s a marathon, not a dash, kind of mentality. Our staff has been collectively for greater than 15 years now, and our purpose has at all times been to stay collectively so long as we are able to and hold going for so long as we are able to. So meaning ensuring we may give our video games as a lot time as we expect they should find yourself at the usual that that we would like them to be. Hades II is the largest recreation we’ve ever made. A lot of the longer growth time is only a operate of that.”
Hades II doesn’t but have a launch date. There’s nonetheless a minimum of another early entry mode to hit. However Kasavin stated the sport will promote for a low worth as a result of the corporate believes in giving good worth for gamers.
“The unique recreation of Hades turned out in addition to it did due to early entry growth, and it’s massively necessary to this sequel as nicely,” Kasavin stated. “We’re simply actually grateful for everybody’s pleasure for the unique recreation, and for the early entry of this recreation. It’s it helps hold us going.”
Disclosure: Nintendo paid my strategy to New York.
