8:56 there's more to the story, which Chris explains in one of his Q&A videos. after agreeing to make music, Hopoo was still on the fence about what composer to hire on. initially they wanted several composers for variety. Chris instead emails Hopoo saying something along the lines of "Hey, I'm willing to do all the music, but you have to act fast because I have several job offers right now." he was bluffing, and Hopoo bought the bluff.
@@krisg.6745 One small problem, most of the bugs aren't DLC-specific. The new content of the DLC itself is fine (a bit lackluster, but fine), the UPDATE that ADDED the DLC to the game screwed everything up. So even people who DON'T HAVE the DLC are affected. Steam players can thankfully downpatch, but console players are just screwed.
@@krisg.6745 The game has already received the Skyrim treatment luckily, there's a mod that fixes 95% of the bugs introduced by the latest DLC which is great for Steam players. Sucks that console players have been screwed though
One of my favorite games of all time. It's shocking to me how adept they were at programming and rapid iteration that they finished the first game as quickly as they did.
I wish I could say the same on console (ps5), however idk if it's due to their servers but my mates & I get random disconnects and can't play longer than 40mins+ because everyone gets thrown back to the title screen. I really hope they come out with that 'Survivors of The Void' update that overhauls the game for us on console. I really love this game and I WANT to keep playing it, but it's just not as much fun playing alone..
@tobiasrex8052 risk of rain net code is very janky even on PC latest update. Enable steam/epic cross play completely breaks multi-player still now. So your not alone
I remember when I first saw the second one was 3d, and I was like, "eehhhh Idk man, it's so good as 2d." And then I got it on a whim and they did it again! So hyped to see what they do next
It's always interesting to see how games that hold titles of having incredible narratives, soundtrack, visual style, and unique gameplay are the result of some guys going "wouldn't it be cool if..."
Returns is being developed entirely in-house at Hopoo Games and was in development for years before the sale of the IP was fully considered or finalized. That said, it is published by Gearbox and so we have support for marketing, QA etc and obviously they're excited to be able to present our love letter to you all as well.
I don't think them wanting to port it was the mistake in and of itself, but I'm sufe you're aware of all the things Gearbox has done, like genuinely making the game unplayable 💀
Yeah.... Saddening. But that is how it goes. Letting things go means that you have less influence on how they change. (And giving things to Gearbox appears to mean that it will change for the worse.)
I remember playing the original Risk of Rain many years back on the ps4. Me, my dad, and a couple of my friends frequently enjoyed it for a long while. A few years later, I was browsing games on the ps store and found Risk of Rain 2. It was so exciting to see that they made a sequel to a game that I had already enjoyed so much. It's sad to see the harsh treatment RoR2 has been receiving when it comes to the console editions, but it is still a legendary game. I love playing games like this made by small teams, and seeing how it all happened.
Oh yeah the console version is terrible. It’s so broken and unfair with many glitches. At least I get the DLC’s on November 8th. I can ignore everything else
Thank you for making another one of these amazing, interesting and useful videos. The summary of every point, listing every important detail and portraying the creators thoughts and emotions shows how dedicated you are. Every single minute of the video has high levels and research. I truly thank you for these videos and I hope you can continue to post videos in the future.
Yessss one of my favorite games ever!! I remember buying Risk of Rain 2 in early access and playing a bit of it, but it wasn't until 1.0 that I became absolutely obsessed with the game. Something about it just always grabs me back, and even after 2 years I still haven't gotten tired of it; especially with the modding community and DLC update. Such a fun and special game to me This was such a great video!! Especially loved seeing all the unused content; and as someone who's played only a bit of ROR1, it was cool to see where it began!
It's so interesting to hear about them being concerned if they could translate the first game into a 3D experience, simply because of our future knowledge and how much they knocked it out of the park. I remember seeing a PCGamer article posting the first screenshots they put out and being a bit skeptical, like "there is no way this can end well. where is all the pixel art soul? tsk." I guess 2017 me was a bit of a hater. 😹 It's also interesting to hear that they wanted the game to be singleplayer focused initially, because most of my best memories of the games come from playing the first with my brother couch co-op and the second with friends over calls, discussing builds, trying to break the game with broken synergies. I'm super glad we got what we did as it turned out to be one of the best roguelikes of all time!
The irony. I thought the pixel art of the first game was boring and uncreative for what pixel can do. Although ror2 used cell shading in a way that wasn’t new it uses a very clever colour pallet to create mood and atmosphere which fully took advantage of the cell shaded style.
I guess the saying goes "Don't knock it before you try it". I always like to think positively about what will happen to things in the future, as well as things going on now. There's too many negative voices out there, protesting against things that are honestly not as bad as people make them out to be...
What indie game would you like to see me cover next? Leave a suggestion in the comments below! Also, if you enjoyed the video, please consider subscribing to stay up to date on future “How Games Were Made” episodes. Leaving a like and sharing the video also helps out! Support me on Patreon and get exclusive content like Q&A sessions, ad-free content, access to my Discord server and more: www.patreon.com/ThatGuyGlen
I'd love to see you cover Minecraft seeing as it's kinda like the biggest indie game in the world (it's not so much indie nowadays but it started that way)
I remember the chucklefish stuff happening partly live, it was during the JSmith Super Stream (or the 52 hour stream for googling) in April 2013, where as the stream just went on and on without plan, eventually several indie devs (like Mike Bithell of Thomas was alone for example) just came on and talked or played stuff since the NLSS group was pretty in that scene. Near the end the RoR guys (and someone from Chuckelfish I believe) also came on and they said something to the effect of: "if you win/do good in this run now they are gonna publish this". Obviously the talks were probably already happening or had happened off stream but that was pretty sick. They also live read Pulp Fiction and Star Wars IV with everyone playing different characters, which included Mike Bithell and later the guy he was supposed to be in a meeting with at that point. Pretty memorable event for me in that eras indie scene, devs that showed up included: RoR devs of course (played on stream) (turns out this was during the kickstarter as well!) Chris Hecker (Spy Party which was quite new at that point) (played on stream with dev) Mike Maulbeck (Paranautical Activity) Jim Crawford (Frog Fractions) (played on stream with dev) MikeBithell (Thomas Was Alone) (played on stream with dev) David S. Gallant (I Get This Call Every Day) Rami Ismail of Vlambeer (Luftrausers, Nuclear Throne etc.) the Chasm dev (played on stream) (forgot the name whoops) and maybe the Legend of Dungeon dev as well but I'm not sure on that The Vods still exist and/or are downloadable, the RoR part is on 20h09m25s on the Part 4 twitch vod. Time to rewatch that whole thing again, what a great time oh man
i'm from the same game development community as hopoo and the earliest prototype i recall of what became RoR was a kind of 2D tower defense against a basic version of the magma worm. i remember they said the prototype was scrapped because this was one of the versions where the player had no reason to leave their "home". this was ~10 years ago so it'd be hard for me to verify how much of my memory is correct do a video about the making of vampire survivors!
Wonderful video! Always interesting to learn about development in games like this! Especially a game so close to me 23:50 though quick correction, the DLC SoTV was released in March 2022. The anniversary update was the one released in 2021.
Stellar video, as usual, Glen! Always look forward to your videos and you've introduced me to so many amazing indie game gems. Keep up the great work, my friend!
Glad to hear! I listen to a lot of your content on my bike rides then watch later. Your videos have really good flow and editing and you clearly put in a lot of work into research. I first found you when I was playing Stardew Valley and happened upon your video about Eric Barone and the games development. Appreciate your hard work and look forward to more content!
I think you shouldve at least mentioned the fact that the game was launched with a big trailer set exactly before the first big official news to borderlands 3 and the last borderlands 2 DLC at PAX east 2019 which was a GIGANTIC boost to popularity and honestly a genius move on gearbox's part in addition to the buy 1 get one free offer. This was a big reason why so many people that would usually not've paid too much attention to the game got hooked into it because everyone was waiting for a cool new looter shooter to play with their friends and guess what? They have to wait a little longer for BL3 but hey here is something to last you until then. I love ROR2 but i think when talking about its success this headstart has to be mentioned
I audibly screamed "nnooooOOOOOOOOOO" when I heard Gearbox is taking over the Risk of Rain IP. I honestly couldn't have ever asked for more from Hopoo than what we got in RoR2, so that will be my ultimate experience with the series. Gearbox (and more pressingly Randy Pitchford) will slaughter the soul of this series, I guarantee it. May time prove me wrong in the end but the moment they replace Chris as the composer, take off Commando's helmet, or make Artificer talk, you will know what kind of mistake was made here. Despite that, much love goes out to Hopoo Games and I'm looking forward to what they can bring out of the ether next.
what the fuck are you talking about that's the most delusional thing I've read all month. Slaughtering the soul? Guarantees? Replacing the composer? Taking off helmets? Giving them voices? _What the fuck are you talking about?_ Where do you think this is all coming from, if not from your own mind????
Chris Christodoulou on the music for these games, i dont think ever in the history of gaming, has there ever been a better idea hatched. He absolutely shreds every track he did. especially The song "The Rain" LOVE IT
What a episode, such nice story telling and imagery, I'm hard fan of the game seeing some of the art of the items and what they could've looked like was amazing
Actually, most of the unused content that You see through the video is used, just in a mod called Starstorm, wich is the biggest RoR mod to exist, almost being a RoR 1.5. If I remember correctly, part of the players that created that mod are now collaboring in the making of RoR returns, but I don't remember where do I readed it.
Don't worry about that they shutting down as they have now been hired by Valve, easily the best game company to be an employee of. They fed their fans for the wolves and are living the dream
I remember seeing RoR2 get announced and thought it was an April fools joke, I couldn't wrap my head around how this incredible sidescroller roguelike would ever work in 3D then RoR2 came out and it's one of the greatest games I've ever played
I remember the Early Access days, watching Risk of Rain 2 content creators on youtube min-maxing different build tests, just to give feedback to the devs. I barely understood all the multipliers & logic in the game on how it all affected certain balancing changes, but it was fascinating to see such a dedicated community to help make the game feel balanced as much as possible.
4:53 in risk of rain 2 I’ve had so many enemies spawn at once and then immediately die in a triple loop run it heavily lagged my series x. All part of the fun.
@@zieftheknight6061 that was the best loader run I’ve ever had. I had a setup where everything that went near me died instantly through a stupid combo of many ukes, much movement, unstable Tesla and several shaped glass
The Risk of Rain 1 and 2 (and Returns now) are easily one of my favorite games in the genre and while I'm sad that now we have a soulless corpo known for bad monetization on their games handling the series, I can only wish the best for Duncan and Paul from now on and that we Chris can keep delivering some of my favorite pieces in gaming soundtrack.
Agreed. Happy for the devs, they deserve their success but I'm sad at what Gearbox apparently has planned for the series. At least we know whatever Hopoo chooses to do next will be an absolute banger
Hopoo moving on kind of worked out well for me and I assume many others, because it means that now I (and I assume I'm not alone in this) are now interested in following Hopoo on their journey and being *Hopoo* fans, instead of just being fans of one single IP.
Dude, I love this game so much! I bought it to 5 friends of mine to coerce them to play with me. I love the mistery, the pieces of lore, the soundtrack. Damn what a masterpiece. I felt betrayed by hoopoo when they sold the IP to gearbox though!
Lets be fair too them. They were offered LIFE changing money to be split between 4 people, and they have said that after SotV that they were done with the game. They wanted to move to a different IP, and that money would help A LOT. Anyone would have done it.
Thank you for researching and creating this video. The RoR series is my second favorite roguelike, and it's great to see the process that the creators went through
@@343JustMe Dude, the game had game breaking bugs, for console players it was unplayable for 3 days; one of the bugs deleted your save file. I'm glad they patched stuff, but the way the game was released is completely unacceptable, Gearbox or not.
@@hikarikouno no I completely agree for console it was literally unplayable and for PC it was at the very least unacceptable but people are treating it like the end of a game. There were game breaking bugs but that shit happens for renewing a codebase. As someone who played 20 hours of the new update I personally don't think it was nearly as bad as anyone made it seem to be. Streamers played the game just fine and so did I.
Yeah, as someone who has modded that game quite a bit, I can see how it was originally built to let you play as enemies The entire character system is modularly built to easily allow for stuff like that
This legit makes me want to get back into this. I bought it and only played a few times. Really loved the first game, but the 3D of the second didn't scratch the same itch for me at the time. Will have to reinstall.
@@riotfist9747 "Only" if you have friends. 2 fundamentally isn't designed in a way that meshes with a single player focus, 1 worked so well because the 2d environment ensured you were always aware of all possible threats and could react accordingly, you can't do that in 2 on your own because at any time you only see 180 degrees of vision.
@@Cr3zanthere is Audio, situational awareness, and passively gauging the aim of incoming projectiles in order to avoid them, i.e: not running over old paths too often. While yes, 3D makes it harder to see things in all degrees, there's other ways players can detect enemies. On the other hand: Line of Sight is far greater than in 2d, and the extra Axis gives more options for movement and evasion. I think Alloy Vultures are a solid example of this stuff. Every sound is distinct, every thrown feather of theirs takes time to travel, and even their wings make noise during flight. You can use these sounds and their last position for a mental image of where they might be at and where their feathers could be aimed on their flight path to you.
Here after the release of Risk of Rain Returns. Such a phenomenal revitalization of the original, and a monumental milestone signifying how far Hopoo has come. Can’t wait to see what they will do in the future, and I hope Gearbox properly carries on the Risk of Rain IP.
Idk. I stand by their decision to sell ror. Considering that the assload of money gearbox probably offered money was split between like, 3 people, that money could probably send their great grandchildren to college, at the cost of just.. moving on from risk of rain to a new ip.
its insane that so many of the mechanics that are so important to ror as a series were Kickstarter goals. makes you wonder ehat the game would've looked like if they just got the 7,000
I was just browsing games and stumbled upon Risk of Rain Returns and as a 2d, rouge-like, metroidvania, platformer player, I immediately fell inlove just after seeing the visuals and the mechanics. A new game to enjoy while also waiting for Silksong hahahaa
15:21 haha omg my art teacher from highschool actually made this concept art he also made concept art for sundered grove, clay apothecary, larva, parent, minishrum, lunar chimera wisp, lunar chimera golem, shatterspleen, molten perforator, mired urn, and an unreleased warden survivor pretty neat stuff
A quick question Glen, do you have any criteria on which games you cover on your channel? like: not covering unreleased/early access titles, games you haven't played, maybe not bother with web/flash games?
I only cover games that have been fully released so indeed no early access titles. I’ll probably also never cover flash or mobile games. Most of the time, I’ve played the game I decide to cover, but there’s been exceptions like Among Us for example. Sometimes I decide to cover something like Pokémon because I’m really passionate about it. The most important criteria is that the game simply has an interesting development history.
Any other miners here? I love how the miner can be in the middle of the fray like HAN-D without any healing skills. Hell, as far as I know, the miner has got the highest DPS for any characters normal attack.
As much as I love RoR1&2 and Hopoo, I’m still pretty salty about the ridiculously long time us console players have waited to receive the latest RoR2 update. From what I understand, it wasn’t Hopoo’s fault but that of the studio tasked with the port and some unforeseen issues they encountered. I could be wrong on the exact details so don’t quote me on that. I got even more frustrated when they decided to announce the new RoR game being developed before giving us ANY news about the missing update. They eventually apologized and gave us an explanation about what happened but it was a bad look imo. Now it’s been over two years since the update was released on PC and we’re still waiting. I don’t want to sound like an entitled whiny gamer but I still think the whole thing could have been handled better.
@@moster1539 it's been nearly 2 years at this point (or closer to 2) and I also clearly state that I understand that it wasn't necessarily Hopoo's fault. Doesn't change the fact that all us console players are very annoyed over the situation. I'm guessing you're not one of us but I'm sure you'd understand if you put yourself in our shoes for a moment. I'm not being unreasonable. I still adore the franchise and by extension Hopoo for creating such a great series but this whole mess, however unforeseen or unintended is still a big disappointment in my opinion. My trust is unfortunately shaken and makes me weary of supporting future titles on PC or console for that reason.
