Bastion (video game)

Bastion
A white-haired young man sits on a floating piece of grass, looking to the left. He is holding a giant gear and has a large hammer strapped to his back. "Bastion" is written in white above his head.
Developer(s)Supergiant Games
Publisher(s)Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment[a]
Designer(s)Amir Rao
Programmer(s)
  • Gavin Simon
  • Andrew Wang
Artist(s)Jen Zee
Writer(s)Greg Kasavin
Composer(s)Darren Korb
EngineMicrosoft XNA
Platform(s)
Release
July 20, 2011
  • Xbox 360
  • July 20, 2011
  • Windows
  • August 16, 2011
  • Linux, Mac OS X
  • April 26, 2012
  • iOS
  • August 29, 2012
  • PlayStation 4
  • April 7, 2015
  • PlayStation Vita
  • December 5, 2015
  • Xbox One
  • December 12, 2016
  • Nintendo Switch
  • September 13, 2018
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Bastion is an action role-playing video game developed by independent developer Supergiant Games and originally published in 2011 by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In the game, the player controls "the Kid" as he moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments and fights enemies of various types. It features a dynamic voiceover from a narrator (Logan Cunningham), and is presented as a two-dimensional game with an isometric camera and a hand-painted, colorful art style. Bastion's story follows the Kid as he collects special shards of rock to power a structure, the Bastion, in the wake of an apocalyptic Calamity.

The game was built over the course of two years by a team of seven people split between San Jose and New York City. They debuted the game at the September 2010 Penny Arcade Expo, and it went on to be nominated for awards at the 2011 Independent Games Festival and win awards at the Electronic Entertainment Expo prior to release. Bastion was published in July 2011 for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, and in August 2011 through digital distribution for Microsoft Windows on Steam. Supergiant Games made it available as a browser game for Google Chrome in December 2011. It was released for Mac OS X and iOS in 2012, for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2015, for Xbox One in 2016, and Nintendo Switch in 2018. Bastion's soundtrack was produced and composed by Darren Korb, and a soundtrack album was made available for sale in August 2011.

During 2011, the game sold more than 500,000 copies, 200,000 of which were for the Xbox Live Arcade. It sold over three million copies across all platforms by January 2015. The game was widely praised by reviewers, primarily for its story, art direction, narration, and music. Opinions were mixed on the depth of the gameplay, though the variety of options in the combat system was praised. Bastion has won many nominations and awards since its release, including several for best downloadable game and best music, from review outlets such as IGN and Game Informer as well as from the Spike Video Game Awards, the Game Developers Conference, and the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
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