GAME · 2018 · USA
Hades
- Developer
- Supergiant Games
- Publisher
- Supergiant Games
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, macOS, Xbox Series X and Series S
21 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
21 Interesting Facts About Hades
Interesting Facts (5)
- #001
Dionysus and Zagreus play an unforgettable joke on Orpheus: they tell him that Zagreus was destroyed by the Titans and that his heart was reborn as Dionysus. The joke rests on a genuine contradiction in Greek mythology; while Aeschylus calls Zagreus the god of the underworld, later texts attributed to Orpheus recount that he was killed by the Titans and resurrected as Dionysus.
- #002
The developers initially planned a 'monster weapon' with which Zagreus could fire while running. But when combining the running and firing animations proved far too complex, they realized that what they actually loved was the weapon itself; the idea later became Exagryph, the Adamant Rail.
- #003
Darren Korb, who voices Zagreus and Skelly, is also the game's audio director and the composer of its music.
- #004
If you start a new game and choose 'Give Up' exactly 68 times, Dionysus appears on your 69th attempt and delivers a special line to you.
- #005
The orchestral concert Ballads of the Underworld, celebrating the games Hades 1 and 2, can now be watched in full for free online. The concert is described as one of the year's best orchestral game music performances.
Production Story (12)
- #006
After Pyre, Supergiant Games wanted to open up how it made games, using player feedback to shape both the gameplay and the story.
- #007
Supergiant Games only put Hades into early access once the game's foundations were in place.
- #008
Hades launched in early access on a single platform because Supergiant Games was still a small team of about 20 people; ports to other platforms were planned for near the end of development.
- #009
Supergiant Games picked the Epic Games Store for Hades after talks with Epic Games, when it learned Epic planned to open its own store and felt an experimental platform suited the game.
- #010
Supergiant Games expected Hades to take about three years, roughly as long as its earlier games.
- #011
The roguelike structure of Hades fit Supergiant's long-standing design aim of constantly adding new tricks or tools that make players rethink how they've been playing.
- #012
Greek mythology, a subject he had loved since he was young, was creative director Greg Kasavin's pitch for the setting of Hades.
- #013
Hades started life as Minos, with Theseus as the player-character trying to escape the ever-changing mazes of Minos.
- #014
Supergiant dropped Theseus as the hero of Hades because they found him too generic for the story they wanted to tell.
- #015
The Greek gods of Hades shape the boons players pick up along the way, each reflecting a god's particular powers, and features like Trials of the Gods play up their fickle relationships with one another. Dialogue moves forward with every run, so each escape attempt counts for something, unlike in traditional roguelikes, which Supergiant felt would win over more players.
- #016
Partway through making Hades, Supergiant Games decided to rewrite its custom engine for better performance and cross-platform support.
- #017
Supergiant rebuilt the Hades engine in C++ on The Forge framework, citing technical limits, the difficulty of porting to different hardware and other performance concerns as reasons to switch to faster native code.
Behind the Scenes (2)
- #018
Dialog events in Hades can chain off earlier encounters: a player might meet Eurydice on one run, then, back at the hub after a failed run, meet her husband Orpheus, who asks them to take a message to Eurydice next time they see her.
- #019
Finishing a chain of dialog events in Hades could also unlock improvements at the hub.
Deeper Meaning (2)
- #020
Kasavin described the Greek gods as a dysfunctional family players could relate to, and said Zagreus's endless failed escapes would make for slapstick comedy while echoing the roguelike feeling of being invincible one moment and sent straight back to the start the next.
- #021
One of the side stories in Hades follows the romance between Achilles and Patroclus, two men in love.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Hades (video game) — Wikipedia
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