We review the history of Supergiant as a company since its inception and highlight each of its games: Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades.
As the years go by and the video game industry is expanding to unsuspected limits, it is increasingly difficult to find works that really differ from the rest. Many studios choose to find their own goose that lays the golden eggs and squeeze it for as long as possible as games as a service or by transforming their idea into a saga or franchise with multiple sequels, spin-offs, expansions and other content. This is not the case with Supergiant Games, a company founded in 2009 that this decade has released up to four unique works, each in its own way. Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades are four excellent titles that we will discuss below, in addition to reviewing the history of the studio from its origins to the present.
Origin and evolution of Supergiant; eleven years go a long way
Supergiant Games was born in 2009 in San Francisco, California, founded by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon. From a very young age, both were great lovers of the video game world as well as other areas such as the role of the table, something that has greatly influenced their creations, with overtones of the RPG genre. Both founders met in the Electronic Arts studio located in Los Angeles, where they were working on the Command & Conquer saga. However, they knew early on that their place was not there and that they should try to bring to fruition all those creative ideas that were on their minds:
“While we were at Electronic Arts in Los Angeles, we were part of a great team, but it was too broad. Getting your own idea taken into account required convincing a large number of people and a good deal of effort. On the contrary, if it is a small team, if someone has an idea they can see it reflected in the game in just four hours. That means that we can try many different things and even though there are many risks and we are small, we are agile and it is more exciting ”, details Amir Rao in the interview with Gamasutra (2011).
Therefore, as soon as they had the necessary resources to set up their own company, they did not hesitate. At first it was a very humble project, as is often the case with indie studios. Amir and Gavin decided to move in together and start working on the idea for their first game: Bastion. But they were not alone, since for the development they had the help of other independent programmers and developers, in addition to hiring musician Darren Korb to handle the audio and music of the game:
“Darren and I have known each other since we were seven or eight years old. We played a lot of D&D together and went to college in New York, so we’ve been friends throughout all these years. When we started developing Bastion, I knew exactly who to ask to make the music. I recognized that he loved games, that he could internalize the creative direction we were thinking of, and that he would work tirelessly to make it happen. It started on the first day, making all the music you hear in the game, ”Amir explains in the aforementioned interview.
As the years went by, Supergiant grew, but always maintaining its original essence and distinctive creative vision that is transferred to its games to make them unique. Currently, in the middle of 2020, it has approximately 20 employees and it is a multicultural team in which we also find several developers, artists and programmers. Perhaps the reason for the success of the studio’s games lies in this varied range of profiles, in addition to maintaining that particular individuality and essence:
“We have been able to push ideas that are aesthetically appealing, even if they are difficult to rationalize. The kinds of games that we are managing to make would never have been viable on paper. The idea of a game where an old man talks to you all the time sounds terrible, but hopefully when people try it they will have a very different experience (in reference to Bastion) ”, Gavin Simon adds to Gamasutra.
It is impossible to fully know the mechanics and work culture that exist inside each studio if we are not part of it. However, thanks to some statements offered to Kotaku (2019) by the team leaders, we know that Supergiant has managed to reduce crunch during the development periods of their games quite efficiently. Greg Kasavin, designer and writer on the team, explains the situation: “We strive to have a production discipline that does not force crunch, because if your milestone program involves reaching each development goal through crunch stages, the whole process crumbles. The development of an individual game should not be a sprint, but an extensive mega-marathon in which our criteria of success for a given game is to live another day and play another game after that. “
These statements do not mean that work hours at Supergiant Games do not intensify in the run-up to a game’s launch, which is inevitable due to the setbacks that often arise and the team members’ own willingness to work. However, examples of the specific measures they comment on in the Kotaku interview to try to curb crunch are avoiding sending and answering emails on weekends and forcing their employees to take at least 20 vacation days a year. . An ideology that they have maintained since the study was founded and their first project saw the light until today, with their four successes already published.
Bastion: the starting point of your own style
Let’s go back to the origin: Bastion. It was in the framework of the Penny Arcade Expo 2010 when it was presented for the first time. A year later, in 2011, it saw the light thanks to the distribution of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, since despite receiving several offers to take care of it, it was this great company that best suited them for their vision of the game: “ After showing the game on PAX Prime, we caught the interest of all kinds of publishers. But Warner Bros were the most excited about the game and had great respect for what we had been able to do up to now and for our independence ”, picks up the VG24 / 7 (2011) media.
Bastion won over players and critics thanks to its distinctive and unique art style, with hand-drawn settings bursting with color and detail. As if it were the work of a craftsman (which, in a way, it is), the first Supergiant creation was reminiscent of the great RPGs of the late 90s for its mechanics and isometric perspective. Through a peculiar way of telling the story (through Logan Cunningham’s voiceover) that did not focus on the background but on the form, a wide variety of customization options for the protagonist hero and more than one surprise, it became a success and garnered notable and excellent reviews after its launch on different platforms:
“We spent a great deal of time reinventing Bastion for all of those platforms. It was important for us to do it ourselves, because we wanted to do something that was more than just a port. It felt good for every platform it hit. Bastion came out in July 2011 and I think we finished with the latest version in September 2012. It was a lot of dedication on the part of the team, ”Rao explains to Venturebeat.
Transistor and its special duo of protagonists
The Supergiant Games team grew from just seven members to expanding the roster to twelve for their next project: Transistor. It was announced in March 2013, but the company got to work on the project shortly after Bastion ended. As Rao explains to Venturebeat: “We started a little before the end of 2021. There was work in progress since we finished with Bastion, so we did not get to work as a team with Transistor until some point in 2012, when we all started work on it full time ”.
Transistor introduces us to Red, a mysterious protagonist who must deal with the loss of a loved one who has somehow ended up transferring his conscience to the great sword that he carries throughout the game. Thus, the idea of the peculiar narrator is maintained and presents a story set in a cyberpunk universe that, of course, is really impressive visually thanks to its artistic section. In terms of mechanics, the team defines it as an action RPG and science fiction in which various tactical mechanics are combined and provide the option to pause time to test different strategies.
As a curiosity, Amir Rao himself commented in the aforementioned Venturebeat interview about his influences to make the title: “For each section, it is a different influence. For me personally at least, on the gameplay side, Fallout and Fallout 2 were a huge inspiration. Many people on the team like some turn-based games like Final Fantasy Tactics and so on. All of this is feeding some of the strategic aspects, but put in a more immediate reactive context. We are still the same team as Bastion and I think it bears our signature. We have the art style hand painted. We also use the voiceover in the game in a different way. It is omnipresent throughout the game. “
Pyre, a unique work with sports dyes
After the release of Transistor in 2014, it was the turn of his third work: Pyre. We found out about its existence in April 2016 and we were able to play it a little over a year later, on July 25, 2017. However, it should be noted that the idea of the game was one that both Rao and Kasavin had been carrying since their time at EA, a place where both spoke and were excited at the idea of being able to tell a story of these characteristics in such a peculiar way.
Despite sticking with a similar artistic style, he radically changed his approach to present a game system based on sports. Each team consists of three players and our objective is to defeat the rest to continue advancing through the 2D overworld where the action takes place in order to achieve glory and escape (Does this concept of seeing it applied in Hades sound familiar to you? ?). The isometric view was left behind to welcome a series of different shots depending on the type of scene experienced at each moment: conversations, world exploration or combats / matches. An attractive additional component was added by presenting different decisions that shaped the end of the game, something that did not allow us to turn back and that depending on our ability in the rites (the aforementioned games) and in the conversations, ends up leading to a another outcome.
“A long time ago we were talking about how Pyre could have just been our third game. There was no way it could have been our first game, because it’s too ‘out there’ and there’s no way it could have been our second release because with Transistor it was like ‘Well can we do it again? Can we like to make something from scratch that’s also cool and has its own identity? So with Pyre, we feel really emboldened to go on and go where our imagination took us, which ended being in search of this specific feeling of meeting a good group of friends and then having to say goodbye to them, “Kasavin comments to Kotaku.
“In the name of Hades”; a strong candidate for GOTY
We come to this peculiar (to qualify it in some way) year 2020. Twelve months marked by the arrival of the new generation of consoles and by a good handful of great triple A releases. Despite this enormous competition, Supergiant has managed to carve out a niche once again and release his fourth masterpiece: Hades, which initially came out with an early-access model to demonstrate how the support of the gaming community can make a project shine and succeed. In fact, Hades has been nominated for several GOTY awards and has been awarded Best Game of the Year by TIME magazine.
Hades’s approach falls under the umbrella of the roguelike genre (or, to be more precise, roguelite), something innovative compared to the previous trilogy of works by Supergiant. In it we accompany the son of Hades, Zagreo, on his mission to escape from the underworld. Repeating over and over his ascent to the top, we immerse ourselves in an addictive and satisfying game system at the controls and we have the option to improve the protagonist’s weapons and abilities both in each run and in general. Of course, the artistic section is not far behind and shows the peak of the company’s talent by presenting characters designed with care, detail and with high-quality voice interpretations.
“Our previous games were mostly focused on a pretty tight script where every scene was measured to the millimeter. With Hades, we needed to embrace the comprehensive randomness of the genre and accept that this game was going to be so big that none of us would see everything possible that can happen in it. That change in mindset was terrifying as well as exciting! I think we found a good middle ground between that rogue-like sense of randomness and the elaborate, narrative-driven feel of our previous games, ”Kasavin explains to GameRant.
With these four works under your belt, how does the future of Supergiant look? The creative director’s words to Kotaku invite optimism: “It’s great that we hit our 10-year mark (…) Through thick and thin, this is a roller coaster ride, but I really love it. I would do it again, repeat it, and so on. And I think many of us feel that way. ” For all this and because they have shown us their talent in each of their creations, we do not doubt that the future of Supergiant will be bright and we will be able to enjoy their future works as much as we have already done Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades .
