THYSIASTERY arrives with a clear point of view, combining traditional roguelike ideas with a striking low-palette presentation. In this interview, the DIRGA team explains how it came together. Speaking with CEO Thành Nguyễn and Creative Director Saska “SAS” Liiman, MonsterVine got a closer look at the game’s origins, the challenge of balancing its early difficulty, and how player feedback is shaping its future.
Building THYSIASTERY From Constraints
THYSIASTERY came together less as a long-planned passion project and more as an idea that fit the team’s circumstances at the time. As Creative Director Saska Liiman explains, “THYSIASTERY was largely spontaneous as we had the opportunity to pitch a number of projects,” and because of the team’s limitations, “THYSIASTERY felt like a feasible idea.” That practical starting point also helped define the game’s visual identity early on, with Liiman saying, “One of the immediate ideas was visual style, having a very distinct low-palette and low-resolution ‘crunchy’ game.” The project ended up taking “around 22 months from initial concept to release,” while also drawing from concepts Liiman had been sitting on for years. Among those older ideas was the system of sharing skills between characters, which Liiman says came from “the original core idea of teaching skills from one character to another,” tied to a broader interest in “the idea of people relying on each other.”
Launch Reception and Player Response
A month after release, the team says the response to THYSIASTERY has been stronger than expected. CEO Thành Nguyễn says, “It has been positive and better than what we expected. We’re very happy with how our debut title has been received.” At the same time, the launch also revealed where players pushed back, especially with one of the game’s more demanding systems. Nguyễn notes there was “some surprise on how some players reacted more negatively to the soft turn-limits per Stratum system than we anticipated,” showing that even players who connected with the game still had friction with some of its harsher mechanics.
Difficulty, Feedback, and Adjustments
Much of the conversation around THYSIASTERY since its launch has centered on difficulty, and Liiman says part of that stems from players bringing different expectations to the game. “Some players aren’t accustomed to more ‘traditional’ roguelikes without much metaprogression and have different expectations for the game,” Liiman explains. Still, the team is not pretending that all the criticism came from mismatched expectations alone. Liiman admits that “the launch version definitely was rough on tuning,” with some encounters dealing “sometimes ‘one-shot’ levels of damage,” though the team says it has already addressed the worst cases. Nguyễn says the goal behind the updates is straightforward: “The intent is to help new Players get comfortable during their early runs.” Liiman adds that the core experience is still meant to stay intact, saying, “When you learn the game, it becomes very approachable,” and that current changes are mostly about helping players “be a little more comfortable during their first runs.”
Future Updates and Metaprogression Plans
Looking ahead, the team is exploring ways to expand progression without flattening what makes THYSIASTERY work. Liiman says, “We are also exploring some ideas of metaprogression,” but frames that less as raw power growth and more around “creating extrinsic goals” and adding systems that feel natural to the game’s setting and tone. As Liiman puts it, “These would also have to be diegetic and fit the theme and mood,” making it clear the team does not want to bolt on systems that clash with the rest of the game. At the same time, Liiman argues that THYSIASTERY already contains “a manner of metaprogression,” pointing to features like “custom characters and the monster logbook.” Future updates may also put more emphasis on difficulty-based rewards, with Liiman saying, “I also want to make more tangible rewards for completing the game with higher difficulty ranks.”
Development Challenges Behind the Scenes
Like many first projects, THYSIASTERY ran into problems that had less to do with big ideas and more to do with execution. Liiman says that “multi-language release was a challenge none of us had experience with,” and the team’s uneven workflow led to content cuts because “we forgot to add them to localization tables.” Dungeon generation also turned into a major technical hurdle. Even with relatively small environments, Liiman says “the dungeon generation as well has been very difficult too,” with debugging becoming “a significant challenge.”
What Made It Worthwhile
For the team, the payoff came once players started sharing their reactions. In a response from the DIRGA team, they say, “Seeing players post that they like the game has been the most rewarding part,” adding that it “does make all the effort feel worthwhile.” After a long development cycle and a tricky launch period, that kind of response seems to have given the team its clearest sign that the work landed.
How to Pronounce THYSIASTERY
And for anyone still unsure how to say the name, the team cleared that up too. Liiman notes that “THYSIASTERY” is “a very obscure and obsolete word from the 17th century,” derived from a Greek word meaning “sacrificial altar.” Nguyễn gives the pronunciation plainly: it is “Thee-see-astery,” with the first half sounding like “thee-see” and the second half rhyming with “mastery” without the “M.”
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