Hypertextualized Mythologies: The Hades games and how they digitize Myths

The vibrant world of digital media is something that subsumes everything into itself, from art to music to movies. Everything is taken in, polished and comes out looking a lot more futuristic (usually involving a lot of chrome polishing); even our mythologies have been getting a digital spin to them. Digital media and its associated technologies have given us an entire list of ways in which we can experience stories from classical myths in a brand-new light. And this is what the indie game studio Supergiant Games has managed to do with their flagship games: Hades and Hades II

Both games are 'roguelikes,' a genre of game in which whatever the player encounters is entirely randomized and if they should fail in their current run of the game, they will lose all progress. This type of game has been popular for a long time but it was rare for a developer to attempt to fit a story into this format owing to how the game would constantly reset itself each time the player dies. This was the first challenge posed to the game's developers and it's something that we can learn from to understand how hypertexts work.

Both games feature their protagonists—the son and daughter of Hades, the god of the underworld—venturing into the Greek underworld and battling all manner of monsters and demigods. Should they fall during their journey, they are transported back to a central hub area where they can rest, recuperate and unlock permanent upgrades that make subsequent runs much easier to get through. The hub area is host to a myriad number of colourful characters who offer comments, jabs and advice to the weary protagonists. It also provides a period of much-needed downtime between the game's bouts of frenetic combat.

The actual game itself is divided into rooms, with each room having a different event tied to it. Some rooms contain battles to face and challenges to overcome the player while others might offer a chance to meet the other characters that call the Underworld their home. This adds a neat twist to how the story unfolds as the choice is always left to the player as to which path they want to take and, consequently, which characters they want to meet.

This branching narrative system completely shakes up the way the story is told, offering a story that—much like the labyrinths the player battles through—shifts and changes depending on the player's choices and actions. It is a testament to the game's writers that they were able to manage this chaos and create a compelling narrative about the Greek gods and their (dys)functional family dynamics.

There is quite a bit that we can learn from how Supergiant has transformed mythology into a digital story, leveraging the medium's penchant for choices into a system that shifts and changes depending on how the player plays the game. No two people will experience the story the same way. Writers in this new digital age need to learn how to approach stories from a different perspective entirely, taking into account how the story can shift and branch off depending on player choice. We are quite fortunate then, that we live in a time where writing for games is easier than ever, with plenty of software available (such as Twine) that allows even those without any programming knowledge to become game writers. Every person has at least one good book in them ready to be written; who's to say that book can't take the form of a video game?