Paperwork and bureaucracy can clog just about any line of work, even the lucrative business of death itself. What happens when Death, the founder and CEO of Death Incorporated, is buried under the paperwork resulting from too many souls being taken from the mortal plane? In Have a Nice Death, the Grim Reaper must take matters into his own hands and navigate the perils of every underworld department in order to subdue his minions. However, this is a 2D action roguelike, which means Death will need several passes to finally get the job done.

The Magic Design Studios team, in collaboration with Perfect World Entertainment and Gearbox Publishing, have big plans for Have a Nice Death, a game first revealed at The Game Awards 2021. Biggest plans include a move to Steam Early Access, starting next week. To get an idea of ​​what gamers can expect and how the development team will build on their current product over time, Shacknews sat down and had a meeting of office with Lead Game Designer Simon Duertre, Marketing Coordinator/Narrative Designer Meredith Alfroy, and Creative Director/Animation Director Nicolas Leger.

Shacknews: Explain how you found the premise of the game. How did you find this spin on death and how the afterlife works in this universe?

Nicolas Léger, creative director/animation director: During a team meeting for our previous game, Unruly Heroes, I scribbled a little sketch of Death. I have always been fascinated by the macabre and the allegorical representation of death. This sparked a conversation about what it would be like if Death was in charge of the underworld and worked in a traditional office. With everything going on in the world, I thought death would probably be very busy processing paperwork for incoming souls and desperately needing a vacation.

Meredith Alfroy, Marketing Coordinator/Narrative Designer: Yes, the team thought that this unique approach to death would make an amazing setting for a video game and from there, Have a Nice Death was born.

Additionally, the game is a commentary on modern corporate culture and the futility of trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Working hard – especially in the corporate world – is a topic that resonates with many people in our society, including developers. As a result, the inspirations come from professional experiences that we have had, that we have heard about by our relatives, or simply from stories that we hear. Some of us are big fans of the TV show “The Office” and often use the show as inspiration for gaming. But most of the time we were inspired by all facets of the culture in Have a Nice Death, from managing difficult employees to the most mundane tasks like loading coffee and managing a mountain of paperwork.

Shacknews: What can players expect from each department of Death Incorporated? Artistically and aesthetically, how will development approach the design of each section of the Empire of Death?

Alfroy: Each department is an abstract representation of the causes of death (industrial pollution, addictions, etc.), reflecting the universe where Sorrow works (the boss level).

Light: Concerning the creative direction, we made the choice to limit the color in the game. But at the beginning of the development, it was difficult to clearly identify each world (the game was entirely monochromatic at that time). We sometimes approach our worlds from a purely graphical point of view, but must also take into account technical constraints related to procedural generation (limited level-art control, need for modular elements).

From this concept, we then identify strong iconic elements that will mark our environment. We work on graphic rhythms, particular contrasts (of light but also graphic density), a specific form repertoire, adding colors to important gameplay elements. The goal is to create an original vision of the subject addressed, in this case a more or less metaphorical cause of death.

We can thus play with accumulation vs minimalism, curves vs corner, chiaroscuro etc. In any case, we want everything to remain consistent (whether it’s the world itself) or the overall consistency of the game, but also different (visual diversity and impact of each universe).

Simon Duertre, Lead Game Designer: From a design point of view, we tried to give each department a specific philosophy to differentiate it from the others. A department has a theme and from there we develop a vision of how we want the player to feel and play. Some may, for example, be more open with lots of rooms for platforming and movement, while others are more claustrophobic or more labyrinth-like.

We’ve tried to add specific enemies and bosses that resonate with these themes to provide a specific challenge for everyone.

Shacknews: Roguelikes have become increasingly popular in recent years. How do you approach the roguelike gameplay loop and what sets Have a Nice Death apart from some of its contemporaries?

Duertre: Many of us at Magic Design are fans of the genre. We have played a lot of it and it speaks to us. Games like Binding of Isaac, FTL, Hades are some of our favorites of the last ten years, so we really wanted to explore the genre.

One of the goals of Have a Nice Death was to have a good mix of improvisation and foresight. We wanted the player to be both surprised by every run, to give the impression of what we call the “golden run”, but still be able to have agency and try to influence the run to get that satisfying feeling of being in control. This happens by giving the player many choices, while changing gameplay, so as not to encourage “save-scumming”, for example.

Another thing we really tried to improve was the marathon feel of the genre. Our game is mostly difficult, not because the Boss can take a hit at the player, but mostly because every injury suffered can’t necessarily be healed instantly, so players will have to pay for every mistake later.

Alfroy: We’ve incorporated all of the mechanics players already love in roguelikes, but we’ve brought our own twist to the genre with a unique hand-drawn corporate setting that’s rarely been explored in video games.

Shacknews: How did you choose 2D for this game? What makes this game best suited for 2D, as opposed to 2.5D or 3D?

Alfroy: Prior to joining the gaming industry, Nico had extensive experience hosting TV shows and movies. He brought his passion and experience to Unruly Heroes, where he served as Animation Director with [animator] They and Sébastien Parodi both won an Annie Award for best character animation in a video game. The team wanted to keep this style/technique for Have a Nice Death. Also, Nico had always wanted to make a hand-drawn game and the rest of the team agreed.

Duertre: Well, the main thing that is important to note is that the studio has extensive experience in creating 2D games. We know how to make character movement enjoyable, how to deal with enemies in 2D space, or how to deal with the different artistic layers. Our goal was to make gameplay enjoyable, and we knew how to do that right away.

But there was also something else we had to consider. Most gamers have played a 2D platformer and will know how to control their character instinctively. So it became our goal to make a “simple” game that could speak to a lot of people.

Shacknews: Finally, what improvements are you planning to make during Steam Early Access? How will you seek to develop the game and what specific feedback do you expect from players?

Duertre: Offering the game in Early Access is something we have had in mind since the start of development. We are fully aware that many new systems could be improved and would benefit from further additions, but we are very happy to show players how the game will evolve over time.

We want to add more content, we want additional enemies and mini-bosses to encourage players to check out new builds and also punish pony type players. We also want to create new systems that add more variety to the gameplay loop, encouraging the risk/reward type of play.

Regarding our interaction with players, there are many points that we want to discuss with them. The main one is the difficulty of our game because we want to do one thing – a fun game. Adjusting the difficulty is just one way to achieve this, but some players may prefer other adjustments, like less power creep, for example.

Alfroy: We have a clear idea of ​​the experience we want to deliver for the full launch of the game. However, we do not rule out deviating from it based on community feedback. We try to leave enough room to meet the expectations of the players. In addition to what Simon says, of course we want to provide a fun game, but we would also like to surprise players. We have a lot of ideas that we want to add to the game.

Have a Nice Death will enter Steam Early Access on Tuesday, March 8. The full version will soon be available on PC.