This Grounded 2, “Beat the Heat,” interview was edited for length and clarity. To listen to the full interview, hit play on the audio below.
In four years, Obsidian Entertainment’s Grounded has grown from a simple game with children who shrank into two games that have wholeheartedly embraced the survival genre and keep building on momentum to create a multiplayer game with creature variety, boss battles that resemble raids, interesting terrain, and a dedicated community whose feedback has been crucial for Grounded 2’s expansion into a game that maintains what the core audience fell in love with but explores how much further it can go.
As one of Obsidian’s most successful titles, Grounded 2‘s most recent Beat the Heat update keeps pushing the little game that could into a model for multiplayer play in 2026. During Summer Game Fest Play Days, we spoke with Chris Parker, the Game Director on Grounded 2, about introducing new fixtures like buggies and the King Dozer, and how the studio has looked to build its franchise with player feedback at the center.
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After going hands-on with the update’s new big boss, King Dozer, who just so happens to be a horny toad lizard, marking the first time that amphibians (or as most biologists call them, herps) have entered the franchise as an enemy. And the journey of getting the herp into the game was a long process that began back in the first game.
About King Dozer’s addition, Chris Parker said, “The Grounded 1 team had actually worked on bringing a lizard into the game as the only non-insect ever, and they got it to a certain point. But it just sort of didn’t fit, and the gameplay wasn’t really there, so they scrapped it for a time. The community, though, did actually find out about it, and [it was] one of the big things that they asked for [in Grounded 2], to bring the lizard back.”
King Dozer is the first time Grounded players can fight an amphibious creature, and that’s a big deal.
He continued, “When we started Grounded 2, we had lots of features and thoughts that we were talking about, but one of the early things that made it on the list was to revisit this lizard… When we were doing the garden update and mapping out how everything works story-wise, we plotted the spot where the lizard makes the most sense. Josh [Sawyer] just started talking about it and just said, ‘Let’s figure it out.’
“That’s where that King Dozer fight comes from, and why the lizard got reintroduced there, and how it wound up not being the first non-insect—because technically the snake got in there before, technically, but you don’t fight the snake.”
To adjust for the boss raid mechanics that King Dozer has added to Grounded 2, players also have far more customization options that allow them to set up personal builds to enter the encounter. While the game doesn’t have an outright class system, buildings are useful for taking care of King Dozer. And that was showcased in the pre-built builds that Obsidian put together for a hands-on look at the boss fight at Play Days.
Parker agreed that the builds used do “definitely” serve as classes for players and are important in this kind of boss fight.
“There are definitely also some things that you should do before you go into the fight with King Dozer,” he said. “Whether you have like some mixtures to eat, or whether you make some anti-sizzle smoothies, those are things that are going to help you out. The goal for us is to make that boss accessible [for] all classes. I think in reality, different classes do better against different folks, and the reason why it’s so easy to switch between different builds in Grounded is so that you can do that for a single player.”
Grounded 2 may not have a class system officially, but builds do matter when it comes to boss battles.
And for players looking for a little hint at how to enter the King Dozer fight, the Grounded 2 Game Director explained, “The two archetypes that sort of win that fight are fighter and mage. Mage, you’re able to keep your distance and keep blasting it with your staff. And fighter, I think you have a lot of tanking abilities there that are just the nature of having heavy armor and stuff like that, but I think it helps out. I think the other [builds] work too, but those are probably the two I like the most.
On top of optimal builds, the progression additions to Grounded 2 are also a big element that stand out as the game has evolved since the release of the first game. But with that progression, Grounded 2 has also added mounts in the form of buggy buggies that can be upgraded through their own unique progression system. Parker added some insight into the number of ideas that went into their choices.
“On the one hand, it was proposed that baby buggies are more like cars in Grand Theft Auto, and you sort of use them until they crash, but they’re kind of disposable—which isn’t exactly how cars work in GTA, but I think you get the point,” he said. “That was one thing, then the other was: What if [buggies] are more like Pokémon, where I’m gonna have some Pokémon, and grow them, and some of them are gonna be good for some kind of fights that will be good for different fights.”
Grounded 2’s Beat The Heat update isn’t just about combat; it’s also about mounts that add to the player’s experience beyond traversal.
Parker added, “After a lot of discussion, where we ultimately landed was a little bit of both of those ideas, but taken in a very Grounded direction, of course. Which was, ‘hey, we want buggies that are very capable of certain things, like the red ant is your generalist, but it’s also really good at building; the orb weaver is really all about fighting; the ladybugy is about being able to shoot and take down flying creatures, and also clean up toxic things. The idea that they would all have their own special sauce to bring to any situation is important to us.
“At the same time, you’re like, well, if you have a red ant buggy and then you’re able to go get a black ant buggy, what do you do with the red ant? I just put it in the closet and never use it again, right? So that’s not that much fun. So that’s where the buggy progression side of things comes from,” he concluded.
Ultimately, Grounded 2’s growth is also encapsulated by the thoughtful progression and individuality of each of the buggies. Still, these progression systems must be integrated and balanced with the game’s existing gameplay loop. Parker described it as being focused on harvesting, exploring, killing, and crafting, propelled by resources.
For Parker, buggies developed from something “cool” into something functional, which is how progression came into play. “There’s a lot of discussion about how to do the progression. Do I just mutate a red ant into a black ant? But that isn’t much fun. What if we level up, and then you have both?”
“Well, then, eventually, we have other kinds of ants that are higher tier, and we can level all of them up, but you can already see. The black ant still has a sour ranged ability that the Red Ant does not have, so even though they might be in the same tier and at similar power levels, they’re still a little bit different. So it’s just a fun way for us to play with stuff,” he concluded.
Obsidian’s Grounded team isn’t just about aesthetic or coolness factor; every new addition is about function, too.
Buggies are a great example of how the Grounded team at Obsidian has evolved over time. This has seen the game grow from a small title to a game with an excited community. Part of that is fueled by Obsidian’s transparency, but it all comes from caring about the feedback they receive over time.
When asked how much Grounded has evolved over time, Parker reflected on what Grounded 2 has been able to build on and accomplish, with the first game serving as a strong foundation. “All of that stuff [in Grounded 2] was there in the first game, and for the most part, we needed that. Some of those systems we need to think about a little bit, but by and large, we were able to take the first game and just start adding pieces to it. In some cases, this has gotten pretty crazy.”
The craziness that Chris Parker mentions comes directly from how robust Grounded 2’s systems have developed over time. In our conversation, the Game Director used armor sets as an example. With so many choices and ways to craft, the studio eventually moved towards refining it. But refinement is expected with evolution, and with a solid first game, Obsidian has been able to expand and explore systems even more with Grounded 2.
“To answer your question, [we have] been able to [evolve] effectively, because of Grounded 1‘s success. Because that foundation was so strong, we can just continue to build on it and evolve. [It] let us make a really big, expansive, and hopefully super fun experience with Grounded 2,” the Game Director said.
Grounded 2’s showcase at Summer Game Fest Play Days may not have been as loud as games launching this year, like Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis or Stranger Than Heaven, but it was an excellent way to show media and creators just how much the game has evolved.
By focusing on the Beat The Heat update, and specifically the King Dozer boss battle, Obsidian was able to highlight that this little survival game about kids who shrunk in their backyard has everything from mounts and meta builds to raid battles. And if our conversation with Game Director Chris Parker is any indication, the game is just going to keep growing with its community.
