How Hades Was Made and Why its Early Concept Didn’t Work

This Hades documentary details the development of the indie game Hades and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover how Supergiant Games, the creators of Bastion, Transistor and Pyre, prioritized a transparent and inclusive development process before they even had the idea for their first roguelike dungeon-crawler. The documentary also explores all the design decisions that Supergiant Games made and why Theseus was originally going to be the protagonist instead of Zagreus.

It also takes a close look at the inspirations for the ink art style and why the team choose to introduce more diversity among the Olympian characters. Implementing a cohesive narrative within the roguelike genre also presented lots of challenges that the studio found clever solutions for. Furthermore, it explores how the developers used Early Access to create the best possible version of Hades.

References:

Outro song: Thank You R.G.E. - Joe Bagale

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#Hades #SupergiantGames #GameDevelopment

[philippefabre]

So that's why Theseus is so salty : he got out-MCed by Zag !

[mrrd]

My favourite part of this deep dive is how you were able to mention "They wanted the characters NAKED AND HOT" but with the amount of depth and nuance they actually reasoned it out for the story

[federicosavorani]

I study ancient Greek literature, and one concept always at the center of debate is that of καλοζ και αγαθοζ, or "beautiful and virtuous". Basically, in ancient Greece, it was common to describe someone virtuous as beautiful, and someone with unpleasant characteristics (such as being of a lower political status, lol) as ugly. So yeah, the gods and heroes were beautiful because thy were gods and heroes, and that was portrayed perfectly in Hades.
Also, there is an event where Dyonisus, for a joke, tells Zagreus to convince Orpheus that the two gods are the same, thus providing an explanation on the confusion in literature between the two gods.

[soulshardcorebalestor]

The fact that they REMADE their entire engine in native c boggles my mind. That level of dedication, let alone knowledge is unheard of these days

[Jake]

I really like how you change your editing style based on the style of the game you're covering, and it always looks great!

[moogamooga]

You look at Hades and you think "teams and teams of countless individuals". And then you show how much creative genius comes from only a couple dozen people. I loved watching this, Glen. Thank you! :)

[syntext]

Glen: "This game could not exist without Gen Z"
Me: "Yeah that makes sense, an arcade style rogue like is almost like a complete circle back to millenial- oh wait, he's saying a name..."

[KennedyLouis]

Imo, Supergiant made their Magnum Opus with Hades, I feel like now the team has Hades as a sort of goal to the level of greatness they want their games to be, and they learned so much while making it that whenever they decide to make their next game it's gonna be equally ambitious and gorgeous.

[ericcataldi]

This game should have won game of the year in 2020, but alas it was tough competition. I could not imagine the game featuring Theseus for the whole thing, makes sense they couldn't get it to work. Good video as always my man, keep up the good work.

[zrixie]

This information makes the Theseus and Asterius boss fight so much better.

[linkingheartsmusic]

"Their next project will be looked at closely with great anticipation..."
HADES 2 BABY LET'S

[darkmirror]

Honestly, I think the fact that Hades is also a rogue-like made it much easier to replay it every time there's a new update so it didn't really got old which is why early access worked so well.

[JoaoPedro-brpl]

I hope Supergiant can manage the success of Hades and the big expectations for the second game to make something even greater than Hades 1. I cannot wait to dive into Melinoe's story and be a part of the community development process for Hades 2.

[trax]

Whenever you die in Hades, you probably zigged when you should have Zagged.

[thegothaunt]

One of your best ones yet! Hades was such a thrilling game to follow through early access and the art style is just out of this world. I couldn't wait to share this video with my friends!~

[rodneyabrett]

I've run into Greg Kasavin at various game developer events here in San Francisco a decade or so ago when Transitor was just released. Really cool guy. I also remember talking with him about his time at Gamespot in the early years as a journalist and he was always very knowledgeable about what makes a game good on a granular level. Not surprising he eventually pivoted to working as a game developer. It's hard to explain, but Supergiant games(especially Transitor) really capture the Bay Area/SF vibe. Maybe it's the music or the look of them. Doublefine also has this. Sort of a laid back humorous vibe, but still challenging.

[rstuio]

Crosscode just recently finished everything it wanted to do in almost 10 years, and being crowdfunded and supported by fans I'm sure it counts as an indie game!

[justintime]

I was told by some co workers to try this game a few weeks ago. I was absolutely amazed with the amount of dialog and how well the game seems to understand what you've done. Hell, zagreus has even said shit after death that I said moments before lol. Seeing now how this game was developed makes me appreciate it even more.

[heromeister]

Shout-out to the engineers who probably worked tirelessly to rewrite that engine. That shit is hard work.

[kreamsodapop]

Your documentaries never cease to entertain glen keep it up