Death's Door Developers Explain its Design & Philosophy | Noclip

[@NoclipDocs]

Thanks to the folks who signed up to our Patreon to watch this early on Monday. The "Coming Soon" videos will be unlisted and moved to a public playlist so we don't clutter the channel with early clips. Sign up today to help us pay for shovels; www.patreon.com/noclip

[@ninja4187]

Maybe I didnt hear something when it was said but... are the characters going to be voiced? Or silent?

[@NoclipDocs]

@@ninja4187 The game doesn't have voice-over, and also it's available now.

[@Pung_Henke]

have you considered stardew valley? i find the game mindbogling! its a very simple yet a deep experience, i cant figure it out really. cheers!

[@ninja4187]

@@NoclipDocs awesome thank you for answering :-)

[@Dukefazon]

It's so inspiring to see a basically 2 men team can put together a game like this. Gives me hope that someday when I got the courage I can make my own game. I have this idea for 10 years now and I'm slowly changing stuff in my head but it has a strong core idea that I really want to make. Some day I might be able to pull it off.

[@g3nj1]

Get started today. Writing things down, making the world through images. Rough draft and refining. Start learning Unity or something else accessable. One bite at a time. One day at a time.

[@scuppo]

Team Cherry 🍒 is also a 2/3 man team. They did hollow knight and the upcoming Illusion that’s silksong

[@morganlak4337]

Overly ambitious solo dev here: making something like deaths Door is totally doable as a duo or soloish small team, but do not take this as like the base line. This is the result of years of experience and work AFTER getting started making games, not just doing it in your head. My advice: just start working on your big crazy dream game. You'll figure things out, just don't expect to make deaths Door in your first several years of work lol. You'll make plenty of cool shit though I'm sure

[@dayga5568]

hey kinda late to this lmao but I just wanted to say that i've heard from a few game devs that your dream game should never be your 1st game because you're gonna be full of desilusion from the fact that you'll dont have enough experience to express what you truely want to create im not a dev myself so maybe thats not true and that obviously does not apply to eveyone but I think you should train and create other stuff before so you'll have the technical knowledge to optimize your toughts and creation process still hope you progressed since this comment !

[@MrNikoSrb]

The soundtrack to this game is a freakin masterpiece.

[@Sumpfgnom]

That’s what I was missing in an otherwise great NoClip documentary. Not a single word about this wonderful music. It contributes so much to the unique atmosphere of this jewel of a game.

[@MrNikoSrb]

@@Sumpfgnom Yes, it's a shame.

[@jeremybjayne]

@@Sumpfgnom Heya, Jeremy here! I spoke briefly with David/Mark about music during the interview and they told me that the soundtrack syncs with the pistons in the Witch of Urns' basement (and that they used Wwise for audio), but it was such a brief section that it made kind of an odd fit in the pacing of the doco. Would love to speak with David again about his music sometime, though, as I'm a big fan of his tunes.

[@Sumpfgnom]

@@jeremybjayne Hey Jeremy, thank you for answering. Hope you get the opportunity :)

[@themightyant.]

@@jeremybjayne much appreciated added insight. I’d love to hear more on the music too!

[@nuthinguseful]

The tone of this game was perfect. Its genuinely one of the best games I've ever played. Perfectly balanced in so many ways.

[@Scythra]

But it needs sandbox mode, after completion there is nothing to do. I did the umbrella run even.

[@TheTyper]

1. Really cool to see Jeremy get some more time in front of the camera doing the thing. 2. Really cool to see NoClip look at one of the less-celebrated games this year (Death's Door WAS celebrated, but it wasn't making waves the way some other games were, but I LOVED it).

[@somebodyoutthere]

I love the entire Frog King sequence, from marching to his throne, ambushed by all his armies, to defeating him. Definitely looking forward to whatever these guys are making in the future.

[@Supernova094]

Another masterpiece! You guys should try to get an interview with Larian Studios , IMO one of the best game devs.

[@Johannes_Brunnhuber]

@@duasfh Indie?

[@AleksandrStrizhevskiy]

@@Johannes_Brunnhuber Well technically they are independent of major publishers like EA or Activision. But yeah not the best example of Indy games.

[@HlaaluGuard]

@@Johannes_Brunnhuber They publish their own games... So... yes? That's literally the definition of indie.. They're actually more independent than all the games published by Devolver Digital in that respect.

[@Johannes_Brunnhuber]

@@HlaaluGuard I'm pretty loathe to use the term indie when referring to a multinational with over 200 employees. They make cool stuff though

[@HlaaluGuard]

@@Johannes_Brunnhuber Okay, then choose a term that doesn't mean "independent". Talk about "small" companies if that's what you mean. And for the record, it's all relative: 200 people is not a lot. For comparison's sake - Dischord Records, one of the most important independent record companies of the DIY music scene, has over 100 employees. You'd be hard-pressed to say they're not representative of "indie music". It seems like lately the term "indie" has become vague, and lacking any clear definition in the way it's used - but it literally means independent. And like I said, Larian has more independence than games by tiny developers that are released by a publisher.

[@LeateqOfficial]

I hope they’ll release it for Switch It’s a perfect game for switch

[@Dukefazon]

Yes, it feels perfect for Switch, I'd buy it with no hesitation (but only a physical copy!)

[@aimelle3]

It was just announced for the Switch!

[@LeateqOfficial]

@@aimelle3 no way ! nice !

[@VoicelessTom]

This game is incredible and easily one of my all time favourites! Really interesting to here the guys talk about difficulty, it obviously paid off in the end as I feel they nailed it!

[@motherreaper7287]

This was so dang beautiful and wholesome! I end up wanting to buy so many games you interview the devs on just because they bare their soul and passion and it's easy to see it even more in their games.

[@ShellComics]

I loved the opening! First Loop Hero, now this. Jeremy is quickly becoming my favorite host. Sorry Danny XD

[@sadrequiem]

I LOVED the death screen presentation. It was so jarring but with a funny clash of tone with the game. I remember it and smile. What a memorable game.

[@evilmarc]

I never connected that Titan Souls and Death's door were both from Acid Nerve. Loved playing both of them. One thing I think is beautiful and already recognized at Titan Souls is that their games definitely are more than the sum of its parts. I'm excited to see what they come up with next (and I'll be ready to buy and enjoy it day 1)!

[@sadrequiem]

It's great to listen how they approached difficulty in the game. When I finished it I remember feeling that the difficulty was spot on for me. It was a lot of fun because of it and I never felt overpowered.

[@Incrediblefatslug]

I love getting into the dance like flow state with the boss fights. Can't wait to see what they do next.

[@rickwoods5274]

I want to buy this game solely based on the way the crow's head is animated

[@geojimz]

Deaths Door is one of my favorite games this year. It was a joy to play from start to finish. I hope it was a huge success and we get more.

[@DrEcho]

Titan Souls is a masterpiece in and of itself that I'd been gushing over and comparing Death's Door to throughout (just drawing comparisons out of mere fascination with the growth and ethos of the studio) my playthrough. So when I saw the true ending I absolutely lost my mind. It was such a special moment. Admittedly, the penny didn't drop for me until the very end despite all the breadcrumbs leading up to the big final reveal 😂

[@nevercurrentgames90]

My wife was a big fan of their Ludum Dare game, Leaf Me Alone, so when I found out that Acid Nerve was also reposnsible for Death's Door, she got so happy one of her favorite developers was still making games!

[@oussamaraven1549]

these are the kind of developers that needs support i really enjoyed every aspect of this game definitely one of the highlights of this dry year

[@DudeWithTheNose]

LOL I loved hearing the negotiations between them and devolver. Love to hear devolver is so helpful and not predatory

[@Kyrrial]

I was going to say the same thing. It *seems* that the folks at Devolver just want cool games to get made, and want to help indie devs get their games out. Yeah, there's going to be some business involved there, but by not acting like cold, calculating a**hole business people, they generate some goodwill and a good working relationship. It doesn't hurt that their E3 presentations are superb, too. Love me some Nina Struthers!

[@suburbansamurai3560]

Okay, the true ending to Death's Door is much cooler than I realized!

[@Drumada]

This game was quite a surprise for me this year and I'm super stoked y'all made a doc on it! Cant wait to dig into this after work!

[@shaunthomasgaming]

This game was SOOOOOOOO GOOOD!! Great job on making this doc!!!

[@Toddis]

I absolutely loved death's door, and I can definitely see the titan souls aspects of it. It kind of feels like a mix of Titan souls and the new Zelda Link's awakening I will say that deaths door was kinda easy, especially compared to Titan souls

[@ploxyemortem4656]

Man, this is such a good video. Keep up the good work guys! Would love to see a documentary on the game called Monument Valley

[@EviePatamon]

The whole time I was playing Death's Door I was wondering why I was getting strong Titan Souls vibes from it. Makes a lot more sense now I know they're both by the same dev 😅 Great games, both of them

[@The_Crooked_Step]

Excellent documentary. Death's Door is by far one of the best games to come out this year, and I hope more people will give it a chance after watching this.

[@nighthawk4251]

Please release the game on switch or PlayStation!! I have it on my series x, but I want my friends to experience this masterpiece

[@vitsavicky]

I just finished the game and it was a blast. Really a great game. The combat felt so crisp... I just love the detail and the "scope". When most games are shooting for hundreds of hours and bigger and bigger open worlds this game feels like such a breath of fresh air. Love every part of it.

[@reNINTENDO]

I believe this is the first video that told me to play a game and come back later that I actually did that to. Beat Death's Door, enjoyed it immensely, and came back to finish the video. Of course I didn't play Titan Souls and didn't get to the "true" ending yet, so... maybe I didn't really need to, but I'm sure glad I bought and played the game.

[@Miguigg1412]

Just bought it, I played 2 hours and I'm totally invested. I would say that it is the indie game of the year

[@TheKiburedo]

I will watch this as soon as I get to my home, sadly I can't support being a Patreon right now to watch this early, still... I will support you guys in any way that I can, really love all your content, can't wait to watch this!!

[@itzurboyjc4117]

They should release this on Nintendo switch physically...with the DLC attached

[@Pedro_The_Neco]

What DLC?

[@itzurboyjc4117]

@@Pedro_The_Neco The dlc that always eventually comes with popular games

[@gamongames]

@@itzurboyjc4117 at some point, being too cynical just becomes being moronic

[@raph2550]

It was very satisfying watching this after finishing the game. I already like Titan Souls a lot and I'll follow eagerly what they will make next. Also cheers to Noclip for the video. The editing was really really good

[@nightsmusicuk]

is that a SHADES hoodie in the first 1 min?

[@jeremybjayne]

Yes! Well spotted.

[@mr.kittens6747]

I has hoping for a music section. It is one of the things that make this game so good! ☺️

[@aisadal2521]

Ooh, this looks like a cute, if dark, video game!

[@eliezerborges9327]

I'm doing 100% of this game in my series S and i'm totally loving it. It is a great experience to play that game. You guys did a Huge masterpiece! Thank you a lot!!!

[@lawbag1]

Thanks for this documentary. I knew I wanted to buy this game because of the developer, but now it made me need this game. I played it and completed it and then completed it again to 100% the trophies (yes even with the umbrella!) on the PS5 and now Im watching the documentary again with this new knowledge. Beautiful game and a wonderful story told.

[@Remix26]

I fuckin love this game. 10 out of 10, I've beat it 100% 5 times now. Can't say enough, such a masterpiece. I never really feel like I'm a great gamer and this game made me feel like that. Played on xbox, ps5 and switch... recommend on any platform.

[@AdamCDagg]

This game was an absolute joy to play. Loved the music and visuals. The difficulty was perfect for me; I cleared every boss in maybe 2-4 tries, and each death felt like I learned what I needed to.

[@houdin654jeff]

Recently got all the Steam achievements in Death's Door, loved every minute of it, even the frustrating bits in the umbrella only run. Will watch for more games from these two lads.

[@Diwasho]

Betty's story wasn't very well defined, was it? Unlike the other two Giant Souls this one didn't have a particularly clear explanation of how and why she evaded death, it just boils down to "she's too strong for reapers to get her". At least the other two had some sort of deals made with the Lord of Doors that let them stay immortal and they had interesting views on life and death, arguing that what they do is for people's benefit. Betty didn't even show up at all until the actual fight with her, I guess she's unique in that but she's still a bit underwhelming after Grandma and Frog King.

[@Cyenjoyer]

A hidden documentary youtube channel gem covering a hidden indie video game gem, let's go !

[@jose.a.martin]

I was on the fence about buying the game and this documentary made me run to give them my money. Love talented small studios

[@ozanatak7457]

I still didn't play the game but whenever I saw it I thought there was an inspiration from Miyazaki movies because of the grandma and frog characters. Watching this I see that there are even more inspired aspects such as the doors and the crow. Neat job on turning this inspiration into a unique and beautiful game instead of a visual rip off!

[@Dukefazon]

When I first saw Death's Door, I thought that it's more like Dark Souls than anything else. After you showed those clips of the Ghibli movies I can't unsee the inspiration and now I think less of Dark Souls and more of the Ghibli inspiration. This game looks amazing! My second thought was that this would be a perfect Switch game and I found that Devolver's game store site is taking pre-orders on the physical copy of the game, I think I'm getting it for Switch. I don't like digital games so if I can I'll get everything on physical media.

[@jonathanbutruce3825]

Just want to say thank you for the warning on the spoiler section. Really want to play this game and titan souls but too many other games to play first.

[@jadoisready]

Absolutely love this game. One of my top 10 for sure. OST is incredible.

[@karlmoore1837]

Good to hear from the developers of this game. I would never of put two and two together on the link between Titan Souls and Death's Door, great for those who had played both (I hadn't played Titan Souls). I would definitely like to see where they go next. As there is clearly a good amount of growth between games. The only thing that stops me from adoring this game is some of the lack of onboarding of the player to new areas and certain things like keeping track of where things in the world. I had come to this game from getting the "true" ending in Hades. So, maybe I got spoilt in that regard.

[@strobaholic]

I’m a little late to the party, but I’m playing through this game on switch right now. It’s a little on the challenging side, but I really like it. I hope we get a part 2 with a bigger world, deeper story, more weapons, and tougher bosses.

[@darkcult99]

Beautiful game, loved every minute of it (on PS5).

[@freakazoid9889]

I'm disappointed I waited till gamepass to play this game, I wish I could buy the physical switch version still. It's one of the best games I have ever played.

[@Diwasho]

It would be nice to have the concept art unlockable in the game's title menu. The camera is very far away from the action and sometimes it's hard to see the details of the smaller enemies, having the art to show them from up close would really help. In the game I had no idea the archer enemies looked like that and I wasn't even sure about their species, the drawings shown in this video finally removed this ambiguity.

[@samhodgkinson8901]

Yeah OK I don't need to get any work done for the next hour

[@penttikoivuniemi2146]

I didn't realize it was by the same people who made Titan Souls. I thought it looks cool and I should play it at some point, but that really makes me want to get it.

[@rodrigorodrigues2820]

Making of Disco Elysium would be so cool

[@jaspermaden9982]

Great documentary, very interesting! l also never knew how these worked at 33:50 but I guess I do now and have a reason to play the game again...

[@jerryverhoeven]

These guys have a really well-rounded vision and approach to design and development, very impressive effort. The best games are often the ones that can present a focused but complete vision and they really nailed that here.

[@chuckbricks7039]

Absolutely brilliant work Jeremy. 👍

[@Kahedro]

Literally I saw the cut a sign in half tweet and bought because of that :P

[@GATESOFKELL]

First Loop Hero and now Death's Door? I think Jeremy and I have some similar taste in games.

[@ohbeastin5010]

I hope they make another one or a game with a similar style. They hit the nail on every aspect of a game and being so simple makes it even better.

[@mynameisfatmike6742]

Beautiful doc! Great work Jeremy, this was awesome

[@biancaoliveira1840]

Amazing game! I had such a great time playing it and it was hard to let it go when it got to the end, honestly. Brilliant soundtrack as well! Definitely deserves some awards

[@Zebula77]

Such a wonderful game. I thought it was perfectly paced, and it was always introducing new and different things which kept it consistently feeling fresh. One of my faves of the year, for sure.

[@teamalpha8134]

Fantastic work … lost count of the amount of people & students I recommend ‘No Clip’ too. Can you please tell me what music track is playing at the start of this documentary?

[@VTpwnu337]

It's called "The Forest Settlers" from this game's soundtrack

[@GrimmerPl]

My GOTY of 2021. This game is such a beautiful, full of love and passion masterpiece. And the soundtrack is just perfect

[@egoitzsanz4567]

One of the best things the game does is something simple but almost any game do. It gives you clues! I was about to end the game but found out that a man gives you clues for shrines location. That pushed my curiosity to find all shrines. Then I was missing some seeds. A shovel lights up if you are near one! Other guy gives you tips for plants, doors get red if there is something missing in that area.... True ending is something you can really achieve without looking a guide if you don’t want to. In most of indie games you have to do a lot of random things to unlock the ending which are completely impossible to do without a guide.

[@lunasophia9002]

Yay, an indie game! Yay! More like this please.

[@helevole2]

after 100%ing Hades, it was a non-question if i would aim for the same with this one. Both happened, like both the same :)

[@noshow]

A legit contender for GOTY this game. This game has Nintendo levels of polish and design.

[@TomboBrewster]

Loved this game except am sad I'll never finish it as the end boss fights are just too hard. This documentary is great!

[@fadiabdi7103]

Death's Door is for sure my pick for Game of the Year. Can't wait to pick it up on the switch and play through it again !

[@NasiLemakTech]

This is one of my favorite game and the soundtrack is amazing!

[@VideoStalker00]

The story got me hooked and the soundtrack made me fall in love with it. 100% completed this game and now replaying it again for the umbrella challenge! So much fun!

[@super8mmo]

How many people worked on this game?

[@overdigitize]

Around 16 minutes in, I stopped the video and purchased it on the Epic store. I'll finish the documentary after the finishing the game, so I'll leave more things to surprise ;)

[@eos_aurora]

You know what sure I’ll subscribe

[@IRWPD]

Enjoyed this a lot. Think I will be trying out this game on the weekend.

[@diligencehumility6971]

One of the better games out there, I was really surprised by the depth, characters, secrets, upgrade, bosses, level design... Really good game! Just beat the last boss, at 90%. And now for the 100%, finding the last secrets and the secret boss. Love games like this. EDIT: Now I have 100% the game, what a blast! Easily recommendable and I hope for a sequel

[@mlmattin]

Such a cool game, and so beautiful. Is there an art book for this game? If not, there definitely should be.

[@therupoe]

Fantastic game and fantastic video. Thanks for making it!

[@mononoke721]

2 guys primarily developing a game this popular - yeah, those guys are sitting comfortably I should think! A well-deserved success as well; you can tell they put a lot of themselves into this rather brilliantly executed and above all well-paced action-adventure game that builds on the tightly focused foundations of Titan Souls and fleshes things out further. Sure, some of the influences are worn a bit too clearly on their sleeves (The Witch is a straight-up visual copy of Yubaba from Spirited Away to name just one), and the writing and storytelling could have been stronger given the themes they were working with, but the core art design, combat gameplay and satisfying level design kept me engaged throughout, though I couldn't quite bring myself to go hunting for all the plant seeds I'd missed just for the 'true ending'. Still, will definitely be checking out whatever they come up with next!

[@Dan_Tactics]

I regret not getting this game the day it launched. I just picked it up a few weeks back and can't stop playing it! Already completed once at 100%, now im on my "umbrella run" and enjoying more of a ranged build to mitigate difficulty. If the devs see this message, I want to say thank you for this masterpiece. I will not miss launch date of Death's Door II.

[@samuelc6246]

Oh look, a cute crow with a tiny sword in a funny beautiful world, a black and white bureaucracy and a colourful world outside... Reaping souls and collecting shiny's. Oh look, a big funny boss. Oh look, the crow itself found DEATH ten times. I'm glad a game of this beauty got a regular retail Switch release that still shows off its art and love for the medium in every possible way, through inner box art, a gorgeous manual, and more than half of the box backside also dedicated to visual artwork.

[@ravenlover7924]

I had a funny story when it comes to this game. For years I had the idea of this horror survival game where the main character is a anthro crow. The main distinction is that the whole story would have been in black and white. And when Death's Door trailer came out, my soul dropped since the first bit is similar to what I had. I lost all hope until friends told me that it's a coincidence. I didn't want to play the game, but since the character is a crow, and I love crows. I bought later. It ended up becoming my favorite, and it's much different than expected. My game I had in mind for years is like a over the shoulder shooter like Resident Evil 4, except with platforming and flying mechanics. It's called Factory of Darkness by the way. Playing Death's door certainly gave me inspiration to do something amazing with it, even is it would take years. Thank you Ps, The beta designs of the crow looks much cooler, and the soundtrack is amazing. Honestly... a over the shoulder Death's door would be cool, considering how he uses a bow.

[@georglehner407]

Death's Door is absolutely fantastic and even more so considering it was made by just two people. The music and visual are beautiful, the characters are funny and creative, the combat is fluid and fun, it takes all the right design lessons from 2D Zelda and Dark Souls. It's so close to a masterpice, it's just missing that last thing that makes it truly stand out. Given how good it is already, it's hard to complain, of course. If those two guys keep pushing it further, maybe with a bit more budget, their next game might just be a Hollow Knight or a Hades.

[@rustyhelm93]

WTH?! I just 100% this game and never tried cutting the sign in half! 🤣🤣🤣 But yeah, I can tell that these guys put so much love and passion into this 10/10 would play again! 👍

[@glorbojibbins2485]

Game is friggin rad, i am just wrapping up the last %5 of the story today. Loved the quiet moments even more than the hectic moments. The story in my opinion was very well done. The squid character was my favorite. The squid mission after the main story made me laugh pretty good 😂 Edit: also i love the headless zombies neck hole noises 😅 cracked me up.

[@blackjacket_]

One of the fastest 40 minutes of my life 👌

[@fliptopjim]

This is such a wonderful documentary on the process. I've only recently discovered the game and this is filling up the moments before I finish it (have paused it just before the spoiler section but will be back when I've finished it). An extremely well put together doc and I'm going to dig into the rest of your films as soon as Death's Door has completed me. Thank you and well done.

[@bratdfortd]

I 100%'ed the game the same day I started playing, the next day I did it again with the umbrella. I played 5 other games for like an hour each before I came back to play it through again. I'll probably beat this game 50 times before I get tired of it. Something just really clicks here, bravo guys.

[@intothefey]

Im late to the party but i just played it to 100% then immediately created a new game to do the umbrella challenge and ended up with all 25 trophies. It was such a pleasure to play. The music really got me, like when in Inner furnace, the different platforms move to the beat of the music. Anyway thx guys for making this game and i look forward to seeing your next project!

[@matthewclark1006]

You can tell they were kind of trying to make the next “hyper light drifter” I played the game and it was decent/ ok. Nothing close to what drifter accomplished. It’s very well polished and the game mechanics are pretty snappy, but ironically…for a game called “deaths door” it seemed to lack soul. I was really excited for it too.

[@TheStowAway594]

I just finished this game. I did everything, and while I think it was good, and really solid feeling there was way to much back and forth, it really felt like the game was wasting my time on multiple occasions. Also the bosses seemed like such a huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game, and by that I mean the normal enemies are so easy they are kinda pointless. The art style was great and consistent, I know a lot of people liked the music, I thought it was kinda meh myself. Anyway I feel like if they could have added a bit more this could of been an incredible game, but as it is it's a little bit to by the numbers, if you know what I mean. I'll definitely be checking out there next project though, and I gotta say for such a small dev team the level of quality throughout is pretty amazing.

[@TheStowAway594]

I think they are totally right about dev team size. I feel like that's one of the biggest problems with games nowadays, way to many people on dev teams, and those people realizing that it makes no difference if they put in 110% or just enough to get by because no one is going to be able to tell, and or the higher ups are going to change direction and it was all for nothing anyway. Basically there is no ownership of the game by the team that made it.

[@riccardoleone4265]

Interesting how they said that they smoothed the usual Soul-Like difficulty to encourage the players to explore and experiment. Really makes you think about this fetishism for difficulty and punishment for games like Hollow Knight

[@PenguinStyleish]

Did a 100% clear, beautiful and captivating game. Regarding boss tuning, I found some of the spell upgrade bosses to be harder than some of the actuall bosses! Though I loved every single moment of it.

[@DemoEvolvedGaming]

How good this game is for the number of people that made it is unreal. There is evidence here of what a few masters of their domain can do together. Masterful concept artist, masterful gameplay designer, masterful amount of soul put into the game. What is also interesting is how between this and the Forgotten City is how both of them spent years making the game in a lesser form and then "remade" it better in the final form. Aka. It did not take 3 years to make deaths door. It made 3 years PLUS all of the time from Titan's Souls to make Deaths Door. So that is over 6 years to make this exquisite piece of art.