''Pit People'' is an

action role-playing An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

strategy video game Strategy is a major video game genre that emphasizes thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, as a genre, strategy games are most commonly defi ...

by indie game developer

The Behemoth ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. An early access version for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

was released in January 2017 and the full version was released March 2018.

Development

, founded in 2003 and based in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, is known for making games with offbeat humor and a signature cartoon art style. The success of their prior games—''

Alien Hominid ''Alien Hominid'' is an independently developed run and gun video game developed by The Behemoth. The game was developed from an Adobe Flash game originally released on Newgrounds in August 2002. O3 Entertainment released the game for PlayStati ...

'', ''

Castle Crashers ''Castle Crashers'' is a 2D side scrolling hack-and-slash video game developed by The Behemoth. It features music created by members of Newgrounds. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008, via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox L ...

'', and '' BattleBlock Theater''—established their reputation as an indie game developer. As ''BattleBlock Theater'' approached its April 2013 release, the company began work on ''Pit People'' under the codename "Game 4" (the studio's fourth game). The new game was designed to continue its predecessor's story, and both prominently feature a "space bear". Its original arena-centered concept was titled "Pit People". Behemoth set out to make a team-based game, and developed its

strategy game A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. a board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decisio ...

play elements over time—the grid-based combat was raised several months into development. This was a new genre for the company, which had established itself with

action games An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform gam ...

. By 2014, the game had become a "fast-paced, turn-based, co-op adventure with management and role-playing game elements" in development for

and

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. While the genre was new for the developer, the game retained their signature style. The team teased its reveal in August 2014, when it debuted as a

playable demo A game demo is a trial version of a video game that is limited to a certain time limit or a point in progress, which leads to the player buying the game if they liked it. A game demo comes in forms such as shareware, demo disc, downloadable sof ...

at the

PAX Prime PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...

exposition. They released its first trailer a year later, and ran a private beta test in September 2016.

Steam Early Access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

and Xbox One Game Preview program versions were launched on January 13, 2017. In a blog post, The Behemoth announced that they are aiming to release the game in the first few months of 2018. On February 21, it was announced that the game would release March 2.

Reception

In an early 2015 preview, ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

'' wrote that the game's control scheme appeared to balance accessibility for newcomers and tactical options for veterans. They added that it was the funniest title at the

PAX East PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...

expo. ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' noted the game's zaniness and the enjoyment of playing it. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' described its gameplay and style as "chaotic" and "unabashedly lowbrow", in light of an objective based on destroying fecal matter. The game received positive reviews upon release according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. It was nominated for "Writing in a Comedy" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Video games 2018 video games The Behemoth games Action role-playing video games Indie video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Strategy video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Xbox One games