Supergiant Games was formed by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon in 2009. Both had been working at the Los Angeles studio of Electronic Arts, involved with the Command & Conquer series. In 2009 they agreed to quit their job, move into the same house, and begin to work on a new game together. At that time, they had also hired musician Darren Korb for audio and music work. They also used a number of freelancer programmers and developers they could call on for help at various times during the development of this first game. Their first game, Bastion, received high critical praise, including being listed among several "Game of the Year" lists from game journalists. It was first shown in mid-development at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo as part of its "PAX 10" highlight ten upcoming independently developed games. This attracted several publishers who wanted to help distribute the game, but Supergiant Games found that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment shared the same vision they had for the game. Supergiant selected them as their publishing partner, enabling them not only to distribute the game to Xbox Live Arcade but as a premiere title during the 2011 "Summer of Arcade" promotion. In March 2013, Supergiant Games announced their next title, Transistor, released on May 20, 2014. A promotion video was released March 19. The game features a female protagonist, Red, in a cyberpunk-like city, who had acquired a powerful weapon that she is nearly killed for possessing. The game features a similar isometric viewpoint to Bastion. Transistor was similarly met with critical acclaim with an average critic score of 83 on Metacritic. In April 2016, Supergiant Games announced their third game Pyre, released on July 25, 2017 for Microsoft Windows, Linux and PlayStation 4. It was described as a party-based role playing game. In a break from their previous games Pyre does not use an isometric viewpoint; the player's party travels across a 2D overworld, and combat take place on a separate arena. The combat system is also very different, being described as "fantasy basketball". Pyre was again highly regarded, with a Metacritic score of 82 on PC and 85 on PS4, and winning "Best Indie" in Game Informers 2017 RPG of the Year Awards. Supergiant's next game, Hades, was first shown at The Game Awards 2018 presentation in December 2018, and made available as an early access and debut title for the new Epic Games Store the same day. Hades is an action roguelike game based on Greek mythology, where the player characterZagreus uses a combination of weapon, magic, and abilities to defeat enemies in procedurally-generated dungeons and escape from his father, Hades.
