Nintendo unveiled its Change 2 hybrid recreation console in New York yesterday, and it introduced alongside numerous 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, artistic 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 clean, 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 flexibility 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 mentioned, as the sport discovered a giant and enthusiastic viewers.
For the sequel, the corporate needed it to run nicely on the unique Change. On the time they began, they didn’t know something concerning the Change 2, Kasavin mentioned.
“When we learned of the Switch 2, we were able to get the game up and running on that platform pretty quickly because of the groundwork we had already laid,” Kasavin mentioned. “It was great for us to have this bigger and brighter 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 want people to be able to pick up and play this game with just the most basic understanding of how controllers work,” Kasavin mentioned.
The sport runs at 720p on the unique Change, however it may possibly 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 may possibly hit that spec. That’s the character of {hardware} design — it’s a shifting 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 mentioned.
“This is simply a bigger game,” he mentioned. “It’s really important for us to find a development pace that we can sustain over over time it’s a marathon, not a sprint, type of mentality. Our team has been together for more than 15 years now, and our goal has always been to stick together as long as we can and keep going for as long as we can. So that means making sure we can give our games as much time as we think they need to end up at the standard that that we want them to be. Hades II is the biggest game we’ve ever made. Most of the longer development time is just a function of that.”
Hades II doesn’t but have a launch date. There’s nonetheless at the least yet one more early entry mode to hit. However Kasavin mentioned the sport will promote for a low worth as a result of the corporate believes in giving good worth for gamers.
“The original game of Hades turned out as well as it did because of early access development, and it’s hugely important to this sequel as well,” Kasavin mentioned. “We’re just really grateful for everyone’s excitement for the original game, and for the early access of this game. It’s it helps keep us going.”
Disclosure: Nintendo paid my method to New York.
