How 33 Immortals Channels the Spirit of MMO Raids in a Whole New Genre 

Hey, I’m Stephan Logier, Creative Director here at Thunder Lotus Games. It’s an honor to meet you all to present our new game, The 33 ImmortalsIt’s a 33 player co-op action roguelike game!  

I joined Thunder Lotus a few years ago to head up a brand-new team building the studio’s very first online multiplayer title. The goal was to develop a unique multiplayer co-op game in Thunder Lotus’ signature style, which is characterized by hand-drawn animation and immersive art.  

It’s been a long journey to reach that goal, and I can honestly say that we’re very proud of what we’re revealing today. But let’s take it from the top! 

In the beginning… the only thing we knew was that we wanted Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” to be the foundation for our game world. To the uninitiated, “The Divine Comedy” is a 14th century Italian poem, a bonafide literary classic, and a personal favorite of our studio founder and many members of our team. The inspiration source was chosen, but the rest of the game’s design remained blank. 

The team and I began by deeply exploring the historical context, religious symbolism, and mythology of “The Divine Comedy”, to tease out what we could bring into the universe of our game. As epic as the tale of Dante’s journey through the afterlife may be, in a real sense the key story in a multiplayer game is the one players are creating in-game, on the fly. We needed to take the literary setting as a foundation, upon which we’d create a world full of incredible creatures and epic scenery in which it would make sense to have many players fighting together. 

As a result, we decided on the key idea: what if our players were souls that are condemned to punishment for eternity in Inferno. If they rebelled, would that risk the Wrath of God on them? What if all the great characters of “The Divine Comedy” were helping them on their journey? 

We now move on to gameplay details. I’ve always been fascinated by the enormous scale of raids and epic multiplayer missions found in MMOs. But the barrier to entry into raids – the necessary time investment, the preparation and practice – as a player, I found these things to be a turn off. The question was: What if players could jump straight into an epic social cooperative raid experience? We concentrated our efforts on making the jump into each run as quick and seamless as possible – to make this a “pick up and raid” experience for… how many players? 

Admittedly, we didn’t decide on 33 straight away. As we prototyped our game, the goal was to have many players enter a virtual world. They would then group together in order to overcome the challenges, before finally joining up to take on a huge boss. As we began to build the game for 32 players, I chose a number that would represent our world and fantasy. “The Divine Comedy” has one hundred chapters and is divided into three major sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, each with 33 chapters! The matter was finally settled. The 33 ImmortalsI was born 

Then, let’s tie all of it together: The 33 Immortals, you’re a renegade in the rebellion of souls, a soldier in a fight for your eternal life. Runs are quick, punchy, and very challenging – death can and will happen often (as can happen when you defy the Almighty). But players can optimize their builds to match their playstyle, mixing and matching weapons, perks, and persistent upgrades to steadily improve their rebellion’s odds of success.  

The game ends each session with an epic raid like Boss confrontation, where the players are challenged to work together to stop deadly attacks and beat their massive opponent. Above all else, The 33 ImmortalsThe game actively encourages the players to work together throughout the run to make sure that they are the strongest and largest group to survive the boss battles. 

There’s so much more to tell – but we have a road ahead of us too! The 33 ImmortalsIn 2024, the game will launch on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass in 2024. Until then, we’re inviting you to come help us make the game as epic as possible, by participating in the The 33 ImmortalsLater this year, Beta will launch.

Visit www.33immortals.com for more information. Hope to see you at the event!