More On: Nidhogg 2

Nidhogg 2, the follow up to Nidhogg, will be arriving on the PS4 and the PC on August 15th. Mark Essen, cofounder of Nidhogg developer Messhoff and the creative director for this title, made this announcement via PlayStation's Blog, where he also addressed why Nidhogg 2's artstyle looks so different from the first game.

"We were proud of the original Nidhogg’s visual style, but that’s not to say we weren’t a bit surprised by how well the chunky, featureless pixels were received," said Essen in the post. He goes on:

"This makes it infinitely easier to combine things like fencing footwork, various upper-body stances, and weapon types. Plus, it means you can swap out the sprites without breaking the animation. It seemed silly to use all this potential on pixelated stick figures. So, instead of minimalism, why not try out some maximalism? Animated faces, sweet outfits and hairstyles, bustling environments – the doors had swung wide and Nidhogg 2’s visual style was born."

The whole post is really cool, and goes into what it takes to develop a game, and the way different elements of making a game go into influencing other decisions. Niddhog 2 had a great showing at the Devolver Digital booth at this year's E3. Fellow GN writer Nicholas and I had a blast slashing each other to pieces in the Nidhogg 2 demo. August 15th can't come soon enough.