Nintendo unveiled its Change 2 hybrid recreation console in New York yesterday, and it introduced alongside a variety 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 Could 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 cope with 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 produce down the facility of the moon on her enemies.
Supergiant was pleased with how the Change model turned out in 2020, Kasavin stated, as the sport discovered an enormous and enthusiastic viewers.
For the sequel, the corporate needed it to run effectively on the unique Change. On the time they began, they didn’t know something in regards to the Change 2, Kasavin stated.
“After we realized of the Change 2, we have been capable of get the sport up and working on that platform fairly shortly due to the groundwork we had already laid,” Kasavin stated. “It was nice for us to have this larger and brighter display screen.”
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 could do 1080p decision on the brand new {hardware} when it comes to working Hades II. This wasn’t exhausting 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 discovered but if it could 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 doubtless take longer to make, Kasavin stated.
“That is merely an even bigger recreation,” he stated. “It’s actually vital for us to discover a growth tempo that we will maintain over time it’s a marathon, not a dash, sort of mentality. Our staff has been collectively for greater than 15 years now, and our aim has at all times been to stay collectively so long as we will and maintain going for so long as we will. So which means ensuring we can provide 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 most important recreation we’ve ever made. Many of the longer growth time is only a perform of that.”
Hades II doesn’t but have a launch date. There’s nonetheless at the very least yet 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 vastly vital to this sequel as effectively,” 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 maintain us going.”
Disclosure: Nintendo paid my solution to New York.
