Party Hard 2

Party Hard 2 trailer excerpt · Silent loop.

The sequel: bigger levels, a real campaign, and a drug syndicate to unravel.

The game

Party Hard 2 turned the one-joke sandbox into a story. A fourteen-level campaign with two boss fights takes you through a drug syndicate and, eventually, an alien invasion — played straight enough to be funny.

Mechanically it is a much wider game: dozens of new traps that combine into chemical reactions, a crafting system, four playable characters with distinct abilities, a Multi-Kill for simultaneous takedowns, Party Vision for reading a room before you commit, and NPCs you can bribe or get drunk instead of killing. Objectives are flexible — most levels have several honest solutions.

Local co-op came back, Twitch integration let streamers build levels for their chat, and the whole thing moved to 3D rendering while keeping the pixel silhouette. Released 25 October 2018.

My contribution

• Studio direction. Led the studio’s direction while collaborating closely with the publisher and two external studios. At the time, our studio had around 20 employees, with roughly 15 more people working externally on the project.
• Level design & balance. Handled most level design and balance. The sequel introduced dynamic liquids, vehicles and throwable items, so the challenge was to add those new mechanics while keeping the core feeling of the original.
• Marketing & player feedback. Worked closely with marketing, player feedback and influencers throughout development.
• Narrative & community. Developed the deeper narrative in collaboration with external writers. It created a separate layer for players who wanted to explore it, and a community that produced fan art, cosplay and more.

  

Links

• Party Hard 2 on Steam