Q&A

Greg Kasavin

Writer-designer, Supergiant Games

Having no game-over state is quite unusual…

Yeah. One of the old, old games that was an inspiration for me in this regard is the original Wing Commander. That had a whole separate storyline – essentially a ‘losing’ campaign – if you failed your mission objectives but didn’t actually die. It blew me away at the time; I was amazed that much effort went into it. And they never did it again with a Wing Commander game. I always had a sneaking suspicion as to why, and having now gone through a similar experience, I understand more viscerally. (laughs) It’s not something that most players will see, but for the ones that do, it results in a more memorable and impactful experience. We try to load our games with as many little details off to the side as we can, so the experience feels personal for everyone who plays.

There’s a lot of that kind of fine detail in Supergiant’s games. Are you always looking to add that extra layer of refinement?

For sure, we care about the craft of our work a lot. And since we make games that heavily rely on a narrative experience and a sense of atmosphere, I think that sort of attention to detail is justified.

What’s next for Supergiant?

We’re in the midst of figuring out what the next project is going to be while continuing to support Pyre. We’re very grateful that people were willing to take a leap of faith on it, and we always love hearing what everybody thinks and the decisions they made along the way. It feels good to get it out there and survive the process and be able to keep going in [adopts dramatic voice] the cruel, high-stakes world of indie videogame development. There are so many great games out there that it’s hard to put something out that can get any attention. We never take it for granted – we’re always grateful to be able to stick around for another round.