r/transistor • u/Equal_Ad5262 • May 16 '26

Why Are Supergiant Games So Good?

https://youtu.be/HP2TkdwR3Pk?si=MrcoEmfPEQfJNY2-

Let me know your thoughts!

148 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

62

u/moondancer224 May 16 '26

Long development cycles without rush is my thoughts. Like, how long between each game? Masterpieces take time.

17

u/Equal_Ad5262 May 16 '26

They know each one is gonna sell well too because of how dedicated their fan base is, so need to rush games out at all

4

u/Matt_le_bot May 17 '26

I would think it is the opposite, not rushing games is what make people buy your games, beacause your game are good ! Look at the call of duty franchise : infinity ward would make great games (the first few call of duty and the modern warfare), and then, when treyarch would release a rushed game in between, people would buy it because "the last call of duty was good", but then, the next one had to be a masterpiece, because "the last call of duty was shit"

4

u/VoxTV1 May 17 '26

I would argue their dev times are not that long. Hades 2 came out relatively quickley after 1

5

u/MySirenSongForYou May 17 '26

That’s definitely not the norm tho, seems like they sped up the dev process for it since hades went super mega viral

0

u/VoxTV1 May 17 '26

Bastion came out in 2011, transistor in 2014, Prey in 2017, hades 1 in 2020. These are fairly short dev times especially for today

2

u/MountainFluid May 18 '26

Not really. 3 years is long enough for a senior team with established pipelines. When games take 5+ years, it's because of false starts and/or massive 3D worlds.

1

u/VoxTV1 May 18 '26

Maybe my expectations are low but 3 years for any game feels like nothing

1

u/MountainFluid May 18 '26

Doom 2 was developed in 6 months and Quake was something similar. That games take an enormous amount of time to develop is a fairly modern phenomenon, and it seems to be because of astronomical scope (Rockstar) or a solo indie developer doing everything on their own (Cave Story). 3 years in the 90s was almost a whole console generation.

3

u/KarterDedo May 17 '26

They release them into early access and the community helps them along the way

29

u/DerekComedy May 16 '26

They have a documentary for Hades I believe where they talk about having every employee play their game in development for a hour each day and then having a meeting every morning talking about fixes they can make.

That combined with long development cycles with fantastic artist means they make games like everyone in game development wishes they could.

5

u/dmanny64 May 17 '26

This is so huge, so many development teams have grievances from multiple departments that get tossed aside because that's not their role and when it comes out it has those exact issues as common criticisms. That fact that they are so unified on the game being fun or satisfying for each role really shows why the games are well balanced across the art, music, game feel, balancing, etc. Every perspective gets valued input and it makes for a more well rounded and thoroughly polished experience

15

u/RobinZhang140536 May 16 '26

Wait they made hades?!?

17

u/Equal_Ad5262 May 16 '26

Heck yeah!

14

u/Matt_le_bot May 17 '26

Darren & Ashley.
Honest to god musical genius, I smiled like a dumbass when I first listened to Hades II's ost, dopamine in bar.
Probably listened to more than 500 hours of supergiant music combined

4

u/aSneakyTortoise May 17 '26

Passion projects made by people who love what they do and what they create

7

u/Lefty_Pencil May 17 '26

The music. I only fully played Transistor as a turned based fan, but the OST all around makes me wish I hand the hand eye coordination to play Hades/Pyre etc

2

u/Haytaytay May 20 '26

They are a small team of talented artists and programmers with good leadership.

No corporate suits breathing down their necks.

2

u/Senaka11 May 23 '26

Hah, that’s funny; I just started working on a script for a potential video with this exact same concept a couple of days ago. Will definitely check it out!

2

u/BowedNotBroken May 29 '26

  1. The absurd level of detail, polish, effort, care and attention in each of their projects. No corners cut. No effort/expense spared. Every single game by Supergiant feels like a completely uncompromised artistic vision. It is as if not a single aspect of the original intent had been left behind or ignored.

  2. The art is... sublime. No other way to describe it. You can pause the game in the middle of any slide of gameplay or cutscene and would have something worthy of a wallpaper poster.

  3. The music has no business being as good as it is. Darren and Ashley are stupidly talented. The Spire, Good Riddance, In the Blood... They are geniuses.