Supergiant Games is an independent game developer based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon. The studio reached fame in 2011 their debut title, Bastion, which received critical acclaim. Around that time, Supergiant hired Darren Korb as a composer, who would then become a mainstay at the company.
Supergiant would later release Transistor in 2014 to further acclaim. In 2017, they would release Pyre, a party-based sports RPG that was a change of their usual formula. The game was also well-received, winning "Best Indie" in Game Informer's 2017 RPG of the Year Awards. Less than a month after the game's release, the company began working on Hades, which was revealed in December 6 at the 2018 Game Awards, releasing on Early Access at the Epic Games Store. Its official "Version 1.0" was formally released September 17th, 2020. It received critical acclaim, was named "Game of the Year" by several publications, and won "Best Indie" and "Best Action" in the 2020 Game Awards.
Not to be confused with Supermassive Games.
Games developed:
- Bastion (2011)
- Transistor (2014)
- Pyre (2017)
- Hades (2020)
Games from Supergiant Games tend to contain:
- Strong narrative thrust with a degree of top-level Gameplay and Story Integration (upgrading Bastion, traces in Transistor, The Rites in Pyre as a whole, the cycle of life & death in Hades)
- Some sort of play on player's game-over state, sometimes to the point that said game overs do not "cut" the story but are woven into narrative itself.
- Heavy focus on voice work (especially for the narrator character) and soundtracks.
- Elaborate user interface designs that tie heavily into the games' visual feel.
- Combinatorial Explosion, often with player's abilities or loadout.
- Enemies named with derogatory words (or in Pyre's case, all of the playable races)
- Main/supporting characters whose real name is never revealed to the player. (The Kid in Bastion, the man in Transistor, the Stowaway in Pyre, The Fates in Hades)
- Optional Dynamic Difficulty system that gives the enemies new game-play traits or slaps more restrictions on the player in exchange for more reward (Idols in Bastion, Limiters in Transistor, Titan Stars in Pyre, Pact of Punishments in Hades)
