The development of the action-oriented platformer Have a Nice Death is coming to a close as the final release inches closer. The game offers a Tim Burton-like visual feel akin to Nightmare Before Christmas and a diverse cast of deep characters that fill in the gloomy offices of Death Inc. alongside the protagonist, Death. Death has to get the offices in order and take on bosses known as Sorrows throughout the game.
Have a Nice Death was first introduced at The Game Awards 2021 and released to Early Access on Steam in March 2022. The gameplay is reminiscent of metroidvanias like Hollow Knight, although the developer Magic Design Studios likes to call the game a hack-and-scythe. Game ZXC spoke to Meredith Alfroy and Simon Dutertre of Magic Design Studios about the characters of Have a Nice Death, how Death became the protagonist, the developers' favorite creatures and enemies, and much more. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: How did Death, both as a concept and as a character, become the focal point of the game?
Meredith: Nico has a long-standing interest in gothic themes. While designing the Death character, he imagined a Death who is constantly busy and exhausted by the task of collecting souls due to the high mortality rate on Earth (caused by war and diseases, etc.). This concept of "burnout" immediately led the team to think of the world of work. Thus, we decided to portray Death as the CEO of a large corporation, overwhelmed by the demands of their job.
Our goal was also to explore the possibilities of integrating this character into our current world, specifically in the context of the contemporary corporate world. By doing so, we wanted to delve into deeper themes such as burnout, disinterest, laziness, narcissism, and disrespect that are prevalent in today's society and are often associated with the corporate world. We hope to offer a thought-provoking reflection on the state of the world of work and its impact on individuals and society as a whole through this character and the story we have created around it.
Q: The story isn't a traditional one. There's no conventional hero fighting a villain, or really even the opposite. How did this corporate structure become the basis for the story?
Meredith: As the team began to develop the game as a hack and slash (or as we like to call it a "hack'n'scythe"), it became clear that it would not make sense for Death to have the task of collecting /fighting souls -- because it’s Death’s main job. This led to the question of who could serve as formidable enemies as powerful as Death for the player to fight. It was from this question that the concept of the boss enemies, known as "Sorrows", that would represent the causes of death on Earth (wars, diseases, etc.), was born.
We didn’t want the player to perceive Death as some sort of brutal taskmaster, bullying his employees into forced labor. On the contrary, Death is actually a kind-hearted boss who tries his best to look after his employees (the NPCs encountered in-game). We also made sure the Sorrows are as unlikeable as possible, so the player genuinely wants - and has good reason - to fight them.
Q: Can you talk about Death Inc. and its employees, especially those loyal to Death?
Meredith: Death Inc. is - more or less - a company/organization that works like any other. We wanted to keep the general image that people have when they think about their work lives: offices, business equipment, a break room, a front desk to welcome customers, gallons and gallons of coffee, etc.
That’s also why we chose to exaggerate the characteristics of each employee: Pump Quinn, the keen but naive intern who takes on thankless tasks; Jerry, the union rep who spends most of his day on break; Patrick, the receptionist, who is a stickler for protocol but is also really friendly and loves to gossip; Mr. O'Shah, HR, who’s about as likable as a tombstone; etc.
Through interacting with them, we learn more about how Death Inc. operates, and at the same time, players form attachments to these employees as they gradually find out more about their lives, flaws and qualities, and possibly even start identifying with one or another of them.
Q: One of the characters, Harriet, is based on you, Meredith. Can you explain how she came to be?
Meredith: As we mentioned earlier, during preproduction, Nico was doing a lot of character design research. And he started to animate some of them, including this pretty terrifying skinless character with a whistle. So we thought that they could be a sort of business coach/physical trainer for Death, and we could use them in the game tutorial. It was quite easy to come up with their personality - a sporty, lively person who is always in great shape, constantly on the move, shouts more than they speak, and so on.
The dialog came naturally because, well, I recognized myself in parts of this character. I’m always trying to get those around me to be more active (I led remote exercise classes for them during the COVID-19 lockdown) and resist the temptation to eat too much fat and sugar. So it was quite easy to find the right technical terms and expressions from the fitness and strength training world, which we were then able to get down on paper with Hugues Tourneur, a writer for Have a Nice Death.
The name "Harriet" also came to us very quickly. The twitchy side of her personality reminded us of Arlette Laguillier, a French politician, known for her loud outbursts and dogged persistence during debates, so that’s the name we went with in French. We then localized this name to Harriet for the English market.
Q: According to the game lore, Harriet dies in 2098. Is there any specific time period Have a Nice Death takes place beyond this, and why have a futuristic setting for Have a Nice Death?
Meredith: We’ve made references, in various in-game descriptions, to the fact that Death has traveled to the past and future to collect resources and colleagues… We thought that this indefinable temporality would add an enigmatic dimension to Death Inc.
Q: Are there any other characters that were influenced by real people, whether in the company or outside of it?
Meredith: Muriel was inspired by the French artist (singer, writer, and poet) Brigitte Fontaine, who is considered to be a free spirit - or a bit of an oddball, even - in the French music scene. Personally, I know her more for her escapades and repartee during interviews, which makes me laugh, than for her songs and other artistic endeavors. Visually, Muriel looks a bit more like Edna Mode from Pixar’s The Incredibles, but Adrien Fromenteil, a Have a Nice Death animator, kept some elements that were reminiscent of Brigitte Fontaine: the fez, the sunglasses, and the fan.
The other characters are inspired by fictional characters, but there are still some elements and expressions that come from our MDS colleagues.
Simon, did your love of cooking have an impact on the Fast Food Update?
Simon: [Laughs] Honestly, not really. My cooking is quite different from the type featured in the Fast Food update. I don’t eat fries that have fallen on the floor.
Meredith: Yeah, Simon isn’t a lover of fast food. He prefers more traditional cuisine.
Simon: That’s right. Bistro food, for the win.
Q: There are some food-based enemies like the sandwich monsters. How did these come to be?
Simon: When creating the enemies for this world, I tried to link their behavior to the fast food theme, for example, by having them "eat their colleagues." That’s where the idea for the "Hambleurgher" came from, a burger enemy that eats the other enemies around him. And the "Bubbaboom," a flying enemy (he blows a chewing gum bubble around his head) that can burst on the ground and inflict damage, as well as the Hara Kola (a soda pop) that stabs itself with a straw to release its sparkling bile that is harmful to players all over Death Inc.'s carpets.
Q: Who are your favorite Have a Nice Death characters, and why?
Meredith: I’ve grown attached to all the characters in the game, especially since Hugues and I were the ones who came up with their personalities, their backstory, their lines, etc. But I have a particular soft spot for Patrick, Muriel, Pump Quinn, and Jerry (I couldn’t choose just one).
Simon: I really like Patrick, the receptionist. Perhaps it’s because his glasses remind me of myself, or maybe it’s just that he’s the one I see each time I start the game, and he always has some funny little quip to make.
Q: Who are your favorite bosses in Have a Nice Death, and why?
Meredith: Oh, now that’s a tough question! I really like Maxxx because his gameplay is quite surprising, and the animation is insane. We tried to match this crazy energy when writing the script -- likewise for Catherine Imamura. But I really like Waldo, too, because his character is the result of more in-depth narrative design research.
Simon: My favorite miniboss is Candice. She’s an enemy based on a SINGLE mechanic - teleportation - so I had to put some thought into how to surprise the player with this mechanic. As for the main bosses, I like Gordon Grimes because his behavior can be adapted to any situation to challenge the player.
Q: Which came first: the story lore or the characters? How did these concepts impact each other?
Meredith: The characters came very quickly because Nico had already created several character design concepts and Simon had already given some thought to gameplay mechanics that could be applied to a GPE or an NPC. We built the game lore around the characters we created. As the company organization chart started to fill up, it became clear that we needed to come up with narrative side quests for the player, to make runs more diverse.
Q: What were the origins of the Sorrows and how they came to be in the game?
Meredith: The first step was to simply take inspiration from the most common causes of death on Earth. Once we’d chosen the causes of death we wanted to be represented in the game, we had to develop the world's (the Departments) artistic direction and the appearance of the Sorrow associated with it. To do this, we work as a team. Nico draws up several character design concepts for the boss, while Simon suggests gameplay patterns that would fit in terms of offering the player a challenge.
The narrative design also offers up a few ideas and makes sure the boss fits in with the department and with the game as a whole, and that they stand out from the other bosses. Nico and Simon then decide on the boss’s various attacks together and determine whether or not the game design is feasible in terms of animation, etc.
Q: How does Death's interactions with each Sorrow impact his character?
Meredith: There are some Sorrows, like Catherine Imamura, who developed a friendship with Death over time (friendship not really being the aim of the game here). But now, all the Sorrows are freewheeling along, and Death no longer has any authority or credibility with them. That’s why they end up coming to blows. What’s more, losing to them is what leads him to burnout.
However, depending on where you are in the game, you not only learn a little more about the relationship between Death and the Sorrows - and between the Sorrows themselves (for example, Mr. Gordon Grimes and Mr. Hector Krank are often at loggerheads) - but also the cause for all this chaos.
Q: What can fans expect from the first trailer in the Have a Nice Death “Life in the Afterlife” video series?
Meredith: The first trailer, "Your First Day as CEO" shines a spotlight on Death Inc.’s one-and-only boss, Death! It goes over how Death Inc. is in utter disarray, and how players (mortals) will start their first day at Death Inc. by taking on the role of the Underworld boss himself to get everything back to normal. Being CEO is no easy task, but we think this trailer can at least help make starting the new role a bit easier since it will show off what players will experience when they don the cloak and pick up the scythe.
Q: What can fans expect from future episodes in the series?
Meredith: With the series being a three-part series, future episodes (parts) will teach all mortals everything they need to know about Have a Nice Death before they jump into it. The next addition, the "Tour of Death Inc." trailer launching on February 15, will open the gates of Death Inc. to let anyone take a look around the procedurally generated worlds (known as "departments") within the game. And then on March 1, there’ll be the "Tools of the Trade" trailer that’ll show the many weapons, cloaks, and spells that are available in Death's arsenal.
Q: Thank you Simon and Meredith for the interview! Is there anything you'd like to add before I let you go?
Meredith & Simon: Thanks for interviewing us. We’re really excited that the game will be out soon on Nintendo Switch and PC. We’d like to thank all our Steam Early Access players for their feedback on the game, which has been motivating for us and very helpful. Feel free to join us on the game’s official Discord (we have a cool, welcoming community) and follow our Twitter (@JoinDeathInc) to get more information about the game.
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Have a Nice Death is available now on Steam Early Access and launches on March 22 for PC and Nintendo Switch.
