page_title: Bastion (video game)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Bastion (video game) / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Darren Korb at the 2012 Game Developers Conference giving the presentation Build That Wall: Creating the Audio for Bastion
context_page_description: Bastion is an action role-playing video game developed by independent developer Supergiant Games and originally published in 2011 by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In the game, the player controls "the Kid" as he moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments and fights enemies of various types. It features a dynamic voiceover from a narrator, and is presented as a two-dimensional game with an isometric camera and a hand-painted, colorful art style. Bastion's story follows the Kid as he collects special shards of rock to power a structure, the Bastion, in the wake of an apocalyptic Calamity.
  The game was built over the course of two years by a team of seven people split between San Jose and New York City. They debuted the game at the September 2010 Penny Arcade Expo, and it went on to be nominated for awards at the 2011 Independent Games Festival and win awards at the Electronic Entertainment Expo prior to release. Bastion was published in July 2011 for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, and in August 2011 through digital distribution for Microsoft Windows on Steam. Supergiant Games made it available as a browser game for Google Chrome in December 2011.
context_section_description: Bastion was created by a team of seven people, who composed the studio Supergiant Games. It was the company's first game. The game was directed by Amir Rao and Greg Kasavin wrote the game's narration, which was spoken by Logan Cunningham. Jen Zee was the artist, Gavin Simon developed the gameplay, Andrew Wang helped develop the game, and Darren Korb handled the sound effects and music. The co-founders of Supergiant Games, Rao and Simon, previously worked for Electronic Arts, where they helped develop Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3. They left to form the studio because they wanted the development speed and the ability to try new ideas that would be possible with a smaller team. Development began on the game in September 2009. The team created the game over almost two years, and funded the development themselves. Most of the team built the game in a house in San Jose, though the music and voice acting were recorded in New York City. Some of the San Jose designers—including the writer—did not meet Rucks' voice actor in person until near the release of the game. The team spent the first nine months of development prototyping various ideas, before settling on the game's design.
  The original idea was based around the premise of creating a town like those found in a role-playing game. The team chose the design elements of a fractured, floating world due to their wish to portray a sky in the game, which is usually not possible with an isometric camera, as it always points down. They also wanted to forgo a map system, and felt that having the ground come up to the Kid allowed the player to easily see without a map where they had already been in a level. The story of the Calamity was created as a way to explain this game mechanic. Jen Zee developed the art style of the game to express beauty in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The hand-painted style was intended to soften the sharpness she saw as typical in isometric games and the colorless, harsh depictions of most devastated landscapes. Zee was inspired by the pixel art landscapes of earlier Japanese isometric games.
  The narrator was added early in the game's development as a way to provide background details and depth to the world without requiring the player to read long strings of text or wait through cutscenes. To avoid slowing the pace of the action-oriented gameplay, the team had the narrator mainly speak in short, evocative phrases, with long pauses between speaking parts. The narrator is intended to feel like an "old acquaintance" to the player, a connection built by his commentary on the player's actions as they happen, both major and minor. Kasavin sought to make the game feel as if it were the player's story, rather than just a story being watched. The development of Bastion was chronicled in the monthly Building the Bastion video series from October 2010 to May 2011 in which Supergiant Games collaborated with Kasavin's former GameSpot co-workers at Giant Bomb. The videos showed early game concepts in addition to the process of building the final game, as well as interviews with the team.
  Supergiant Games showed an early, unplayable version of the game at the March 2010 Game Developers Conference, to little acclaim. They debuted a playable version of the game at the September 2010 Penny Arcade Expo, where it was well received. After a strong showing at the March 2011 Game Developers Conference, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment signed on to publish and distribute the game. This publishing agreement lasted until September 2019, when Supergiant Games took over as publisher on all platforms. The team decided to partner with a publisher in order to get through the process of Xbox Live certification. Bastion was released on July 20, 2011 for Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), and on August 16, 2011 for digital distribution on Windows through Steam. It was released as a browser game for Google Chrome on December 9, 2011. A version for Mac OS X was made available via the Mac App Store on April 26, 2012 along with a SteamPlay update for Mac OS X and Windows. Ports followed for P
caption: Composer Darren Korb at the March 2012 Game Developers Conference
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