Supergiant Games is known for creating original games and original worlds, from the frontierpunk action of Bastion to the contemplative sci-fi tactics of Transistor and the doomed sporting conflicts of Pyre. But with a cast of lovable, lustable takes on mythic Greek figures and arguably the greatest roguelike action ever conceived, Hades turned out to be their biggest hit yet. So making a follow-up in Hades 2 was only natural, right?
While making a sequel to Hades might’ve been the smart business decision, Supergiant was far more interested in making sure their creative juices were still flowing. As the devs themselves explain in a new Noclip documentary running down Hades 2’s development history, the sequel wasn’t set in stone.
With each new project, Supergiant takes a step back to “think about how we feel about the last game,” studio director Amir Rao explains. “What kind of lessons did we take from it and how did we feel about the original game? We did our process where we considered lots of projects and I actually, at the beginning of that process, thought we almost certainly would not make a sequel to Hades.”
Art director Jen Zee and others on the team saw the possibilities that a Hades sequel could provide, though. “We still have enthusiasm for this world that we’ve been exploring,” Zee says. “The Greek pantheon is so vast. It just felt like, ‘Oh, there’s this beautiful orchard and there’s so much fruit left on the trees. Like, we should maybe consider harvesting.'”
In fact, the challenge of following up Hades was part of the appeal of doing a direct sequel. “We approach sequels with a fair amount of skepticism because we do love exploring new worlds and we’ve never done it before,” Zee explains. “I would say that was actually one of the appeals of making a sequel, as well – because we’d never done it before. We’re real thrillsekers here. We’re like, ‘What if we did a sequel? No one would expect that.'”
Every dev who speaks in the documentary emphasizes the creative challenges of building the sequel as the primary motivation to make Hades 2, not the business benefits. “If making the sequel is the right financial decision, we have made the dumb decision many times in a row,” as Rao puts it.
“Certainly the success factors in,” Rao admits, “but with the same success comes the expectations, right? For us, we always have to ask ourselves, ‘Are we ready for this?’ Even if it was the right decision, we had to creatively get ourselves to a place of excitement because otherwise it’s just a non-starter for the studio.”
No prizes for guessing what tops our list of the best roguelike games.