FULL AUTO

Sequestered well away from other game teams at Valve, the 30-odd people making Dota Underlords are having a lot of fun. They’re loud and competitive, playing instruments on breaks from coding and jumping at the chance to down tools and just play their game for a while. After a year of growth and work, they’re preparing to release season one of Underlordsthis month – February 25. I visited the team, talked about their development, and got a look at what’s new in the game’s 1.0 version. What really struck me is that, approaching release, they’re still in love with their game in a way unlike many other teams I’ve spoken to in games development. Even in a studio with a healthy work environment, one that doesn’t crunch, the time before release is still fraught and stressful. The Underlordsteam seems to just want to keep making Underlords.

is a standalone spinoff from the main game. It’s inspired by a mod, , that has gone on to spawn a whole new genre. A simple hook makes the hero-drafting gameplay of the new auto-battlers almost like a kind of strategic slot machine, fun both sitting at a desktop and on mobile. They’re colourful games, forcing you to stay on your toes, but still offering downtime between rounds. Brad Muir, coder and designer on , feels just that way about it. “I’ll go to the bathroom at round 12 and 13,”