Hotline Miami is a 2012 top-down shooter game created by Dennaton Games and published by Devolver Digital. The game is set in Miami in 1989 and follows an unnamed, silent character known as Jacket by fans. Jacket carries out violent attacks against members of the local Russian mafia. In each level, players must defeat all enemies using any method available. Players can wear animal masks that give them special abilities. The story shows Jacket losing his grip on reality and being questioned about his actions. The game encourages players to feel regret for the violent choices they make in the game.
The game was made over nine months as Dennaton Games’ first commercial project. The team consists of Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin. Söderström programmed the game and wrote its story, while Wedin designed the visuals. Many artists helped create the soundtrack, which includes music from genres like electronic, techno, vaporwave, and synthwave. Hotline Miami was first released for Windows in October 2012. Later versions were released for OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita in 2013, and a PlayStation 4 version in 2014.
Hotline Miami is often considered one of the greatest and most influential indie games. Early reviews praised its gameplay, music, and atmosphere, though some criticized its controls. The game’s themes and storytelling were also highly praised. It was nominated for multiple awards and sold 1.5 million copies by May 2015. The game inspired many developers and helped increase the number of indie games released during the 2010s. It also helped Devolver Digital become more successful and increased the popularity of synthwave music. A sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, was released in March 2015. The series later expanded into a franchise, including two compilations of both games on platforms like the Nintendo Switch, a comic book adaptation, and several fan-made games.
Gameplay
Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter game. It is set in Miami during the late 1980s and is divided into nineteen chapters. At the start of each chapter, the player character, named Jacket, receives a message on his answering machine. The message tells him to go to a different part of Miami and kill all enemies there. The player can defeat enemies using melee weapons, like crowbars, or ranged weapons, like firearms. The player can also use a door to knock enemies out, use them as a shield, or kick them against a wall. If an enemy is not killed immediately, the player can perform a special attack to finish them. Later in the game, the player controls a different character called the Biker, who can only use knives.
Both the player and enemies can be defeated by one attack. To help the player, the game allows them to restart the current stage after dying, so they can try again. Different types of enemies appear, such as dogs and boss characters. Enemy behavior varies, with some reacting quickly to attacks and others not reacting at all. The player earns points for killing enemies, with extra points given for specific killing methods or killing many enemies quickly. The player can lock onto an enemy without aiming. On the PlayStation Vita, aiming and other mouse functions are controlled using the touch screen, and locking onto enemies requires touching them on the screen.
Before each chapter begins, the player can choose from different animal masks. These masks give special abilities, such as faster finishing moves or improved vision. At the end of each chapter, the player’s total score is calculated, and they receive a rating based on their performance. The score is also adjusted based on the player’s style, which is classified as "coward" or "sadist." High scores unlock new masks and weapons. Achievements are earned by completing specific challenges, such as killing two enemies with one throw of a brick.
Plot
In April 1989, Jacket receives a message on his answering machine and a package arrives at his door. The package includes a rooster mask and instructions telling Jacket to retrieve a briefcase from the Russian mafia at a metro station. After completing this task, Jacket continues to receive messages instructing him to carry out more attacks. After each mission, he visits a store or restaurant where a man named Beard meets him and gives him free items like pizza, movies, and drinks. During an attack on a film producer’s estate, Jacket saves a girl, helps her recover, and begins a romantic relationship with her. Later, three masked people—Richard, Rasmus, and Don Juan—meet Jacket and question him about his actions. These meetings happen repeatedly throughout the game. In another attack on a phone company, Jacket finds everyone dead except a man named the Biker, who is trying to use a computer. Jacket and the Biker fight until one of them dies.
As Jacket continues his attacks, his view of reality becomes more strange and confusing. Talking corpses appear at Beard’s workplace until Beard dies suddenly. Beard is replaced by a bald man named Richter, who gives Jacket nothing. One night, Jacket returns home and finds his girlfriend killed by Richter. Richter shoots Jacket and puts him in a coma. In a final meeting, Richard tells Jacket that he will "never see the full picture" and explains that Jacket had been reliving the past two months while in a coma. After waking up, Jacket learns that Richter has been arrested. Jacket escapes the hospital and goes to Miami police headquarters, killing most of the people there. He confronts Richter, who reveals he had also been receiving messages. Jacket lets Richter live, steals a file about the police investigation, and goes to a nightclub where the calls were tracked. Jacket kills everyone there, then goes to the Russian Mafia headquarters and faces both leaders of the group. After injuring one leader and killing his bodyguard, the first leader kills himself. The second leader allows Jacket to kill him without resistance. Jacket then walks onto a balcony, lights a cigarette, and throws a photo off the balcony.
After completing the levels about Jacket, the player unlocks an ending focused on the Biker. Like Jacket, the Biker has been receiving messages on his answering machine and is determined to find their source. After his fight with Jacket and several interrogations, the Biker discovers the messages come from a group called 50 Blessings, run by two janitors. This group tries to stop an "anti-American" alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States by telling their operatives to kill Russians. To finish the story, the player must collect puzzle pieces hidden throughout the game to unlock 50 Blessings’ password. If the password is cracked, the Biker learns the group’s secrets and plans. If not, the Biker fails to uncover the truth. In both endings, the player can choose to kill or spare the janitors. After this, the Biker leaves Miami.
Development
Hotline Miami was created by Dennaton Games, a team made up of Jonatan Söderström, a Swedish game designer and programmer, and Dennis Wedin, an artist. Söderström had previously made several free indie games, including the puzzle game Tuning, which won the Nuovo Award at the Independent Games Festival in 2010. Many of his earlier projects were not completed. One of these was a top-down shooter called Super Carnage, where the goal was to kill as many people as possible. He started working on it in 2004 when he was 18 years old but later stopped because he faced problems with creating the artificial intelligence (AI) for the game.
Years later, Söderström met Wedin, who was a singer and keyboard player for a synthpunk band called Fucking Werewolf Asso. The two worked together to make a promotional game for the band, called Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf, and another project named Life/Death/Island. However, Life/Death/Island became too difficult to manage, so it was abandoned. After this, the two decided to create a game they could sell to the public. Wedin looked through Söderström’s unfinished projects and found Super Carnage. After playing similar games like Gauntlet (1985) and Chaos Engine (1993), the two decided to develop Hotline Miami. The game was originally called Cocaine Cowboy, named after the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys. During development, Söderström shared updates on his Twitter account and blog.
The first playable version of the game was made within the first week of development after Söderström built the basics, including a temporary soundtrack. The game was made using the GameMaker engine over nine months, with the developers working 12 hours a day, six days a week. The project grew in size after a development studio called Vlambeer shared a demo with Devolver Digital, who offered to publish the game. The team faced many challenges, including uncertainty about the game’s success and limited resources. Wedin described the development as “fucking hard” in an interview with Edge. At one point, Wedin was hospitalized for two weeks due to depression caused by a breakup. Problems also arose because the team used an outdated version of GameMaker, which caused compatibility issues with newer operating systems and strange bugs reported by testers. One bug caused the game to crash if certain printers were connected to a player’s computer.
In a 2022 interview with Noclip, Wedin said the team designed Hotline Miami as a game they wanted to play, without worrying about what average players or critics might think. He and Söderström said this allowed them to decide what players would enjoy based on whether they personally found the game fun. They also said they designed the game as an “arcade game first, and a reality simulator second.” When creating the AI, the team debated whether to make it more “believable” or to make its behavior more varied. They chose the latter. Wedin later said they “never wanted to do realistic behavior,” and Söderström said the limitations of GameMaker contributed to the enemies’ varied behavior. Some game mechanics, like throwing weapons at enemies, were originally coding errors that were later turned into proper features. The levels featuring the Biker character were created near the end of development.
The story was inspired by movies the team watched before starting development, including works by David Lynch, the superhero comedy film Kick-Ass (2010), the Cocaine Cowboys documentary, and the movie Drive (2011). Another influence was Gordon Freeman, the silent main character in the Half-Life series. Söderström said Lynch’s movies had the biggest impact, while Drive inspired the game’s minimal dialogue and critique of violence. This led to the creation of the masked characters and their scenes. In a June 2012 blog post, Söderström said he wanted the story to be interesting but not too intrusive, allowing players to skip through it if they wanted. Some characters were based on real people, like Beard, who was inspired by artist Niklas Åkerblad, a friend of the developers and the owner of the apartment where they worked. The janitors in the game were based on the developers themselves.
The graphics were created by Wedin using pixel art with a high-contrast color palette. The first designs, including a player character and an enemy character, were made by Wedin during a weekend in the early stages of development. The team believed the use of pixel art might reduce controversy about the game’s violent content. Wedin said that games with realistic 3D graphics often faced more scrutiny after real-world events, but Hotline Miami’s pixel art style kept it “out of the spotlight.” When looking for artists to design the box art, the team initially sought artists who had worked on older horror films. When they could not agree on a choice, Åkerblad offered to create the box art himself, completing it in about three days.
Creating the game’s soundtrack was a major focus for the developers, who wanted it to sound like a film soundtrack rather than a typical video game soundtrack. After failing to get licenses for a temporary soundtrack they used early in development, the team searched Bandcamp for free tracks. Söderström said they listened to up to 2,000 tracks. Some artists, like M.O.O.N., were found through this process, while another artist, Scattle, contacted Dennaton directly after seeing blog posts about the game. Tracks from M.O.O.N. were added directly, while Scattle was asked to compose original music using Renoise. Other artists who contributed include Coconuts, Sun Araw, Perturbator, and Åkerblad. The final soundtrack includes 22 tracks with different styles, ranging from bass and drum-heavy songs like “Hydrogen” to upbeat pop tracks like “Miami Disco” by Perturbator. The music includes genres such as electronic, techno, vaporwave, and synthwave.
Release
Hotline Miami was first announced on Söderström's personal blog on July 3, 2012. A teaser trailer was shared at the same time. The game was later displayed at the A Maze Indie Connect festival and again at a Rezzed event in Brighton. Attendees at A Maze had mixed reactions, but people at Rezzed praised it. It was the most played game at Rezzed and won the Game Of The Show award. Tom Bramwell from Eurogamer called it "the best example of the sort of game we invented the show for." Dennaton bought a phone number in the Miami area so people could leave messages for use in a trailer. Hotline Miami was released on Steam on October 23, 2012. Versions for MacOS and Linux were released on March 19, 2013, and September 9, 2013, respectively.
In November 2012, an update fixed many bugs, added support for gamepads, and made small changes to the game's graphics and gameplay. This update also included a bonus level called "Highball." Söderström created patches for pirated versions of Hotline Miami after users on the Pirate Bay reported problems. He wanted players to "experience the game the way it's meant to be experienced," whether they bought it legally or not. The game's soundtrack was available on Steam in January 2013. A physical version with all the tracks on three vinyl records was released in 2016 by Laced Records. This was a limited release with only 5,000 copies, and it was funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $75,000.
Versions for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, developed by Abstraction Games, were released in North America on July 25, 2013, and in Europe the next day. These versions allowed players who bought the game on one platform to get it on the other. They also added a bonus mask and leaderboards. A PlayStation 4 version, also supporting cross-buy, was released on August 19, 2014. A Japan-localized compilation featuring Hotline Miami and its sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (2015), titled Hotline Miami: Collected Edition, was released in June 2015. Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2 were re-released as part of the Hotline Miami Collection for Nintendo Switch on August 19, 2019. The collection was later made available for Xbox One and Stadia on April 7 and September 22, 2020, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on October 23, 2023.
Reception
Hotline Miami received mostly positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, a website that collects game reviews, it has an average score of 85% based on 51 reviews for the PC version, 87% based on 19 reviews for the PlayStation 3 version, and 85% based on 27 reviews for the PlayStation Vita version.
Many reviewers liked the gameplay. They said it was fun and easy to get hooked, even though players often died quickly. Chris Plante of Polygon compared playing the game to participating in a sport, saying the fast restarts made it enjoyable despite repeated failures. Graham Smith of PC Gamer wrote that the game was designed to make players feel excited and that it was both well-made and efficient. Phill Cameron of VideoGamer.com described the gameplay as a short burst of action that could feel like hours of fun. Danny O'Dwyer of GameSpot said the game had some frustrating parts, especially the boss fights, which he felt were unclear in how to beat them.
Some critics said the controls were not ideal. Ben Reeves of Game Informer wrote that the controls made it harder to enjoy the game, even though the idea behind it was creative. Eric Swain of PopMatters said the PlayStation 3 controls made the game easier to play, which changed how the game felt. Giancarlo Saldana of GamesRadar+ said the PlayStation 3 controls took time to learn, and he preferred playing it on a computer.
The story in Hotline Miami was praised by many. Reeves said it helped players understand the mind of a serial killer. Saldana called it a thoughtful look at violence in video games and said it had a unique storytelling style. Plante wrote that the game explored why people are fascinated with violence better than other games, and that its violence had a purpose. Graham Smith said the story lacked depth and did not explain the violence, but he thought it was better than other games that used clichéd reasons for violence. Cameron said the game missed a chance to make a meaningful point and did not clearly explain why so many people were being killed. The game's visual design was also praised, often discussed along with its story and sound.
The soundtrack was widely appreciated. Reeves said it did an excellent job, and Saldana said it was done perfectly. O'Dwyer called it outstanding and said it worked well with the game's visuals. Charles Onyett of IGN said the music fit together perfectly. Tom Brawell of Eurogamer agreed, saying the soundtrack was not as strong on its own but worked well with other parts of the game.
Hotline Miami sold more than 130,000 copies in seven weeks. By February 2013, when the PlayStation 3 version was announced, it had sold 300,000 copies. Anthony John Agnello of Digital Trends said the game's success helped Sony bring it to the PlayStation 3, allowing the company to keep its reputation for supporting indie games after the success of Journey (2012). When the game was released on PlayStation Vita, it became the best-selling game on that platform in June 2013 within six days, even though it was released near the end of the month. By May 2015, Hotline Miami had sold over 1.5 million copies across all platforms.
A month before its release, Hotline Miami won the "Most Fantastic" award at the 2012 Fantastic Arcade festival in Austin. At the end of 2012, it was nominated for several awards by IGN, including "Best Overall Game," "Best PC Action Game," "Best PC Story," "Best PC Game," "Best Overall Action Game," "Best Overall Music," and "Best PC Sound." It only won the "Best Overall Music" award. PC Gamer gave it its "Best Music of the Year 2012" award. At the 2012 Machinima's Inside Gaming Awards, it received the "Most Original Game" award. It was also nominated for several awards at the Independent Games Festival in 2013, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Audio, and Excellence in Design. Many publications, such as Kill Screen, Paste, Ars Technica, Wired, The Guardian, and VentureBeat, listed Hotline Miami as one of the best games of 2012.
Themes and analysis
The game Hotline Miami promotes a message against violence by making players feel guilty for the violent actions they take in the game. Some people believe this is achieved by using upbeat music and a scoring system that encourages players to focus on completing tasks. Because the game moves quickly, players may become so focused on their actions that they become less affected by the violence they are causing. According to Nina Corcoran of Pitchfork, the upbeat music increases players' anxiety and focus while also making them less sensitive to the violent scenes. After each level ends, the music changes to a calm, ambient sound as the player leaves the scene, where the remains of enemies are visible on the floor. Dom Peppiatt of NME compared Hotline Miami's message about violence to the films A Clockwork Orange (1971) and American Psycho (1991). He wrote that the game makes players think about how the line between fiction and real life becomes unclear and encourages them to reconsider how violence is shown in video games.
Each of the masked characters in the game has a specific role in their interactions with the player. Richard is curious, Don Juan is calm and friendly, and Rasmus is aggressive. Each character is also assigned a color that represents their personality: yellow for Richard, blue for Don Juan, and red for Rasmus. They question the player in different ways. Don Juan says things like, "knowing yourself means accepting your actions," while Richard directly asks, "do you like hurting other people?" The masked figures never explain who Jacket is, instead giving hints to the player. They also hint at future events in the story, such as the murder of Jacket's girlfriend.
Luca Papale and Lorenzo Fazio suggested that the different behaviors of the masked characters might represent a mental condition called dissociative identity disorder in Jacket. Marco Caracciolo of the University of Groningen wrote that the masked characters could be "projections of Jacket's troubled mind." He also said the story is "intended to be confusing," pointing to the masked figures' actions and the differences between Jacket's perspective and that of the Biker. Papale and Fazio described Jacket as the first example of a "meta-avatar," a character who makes players question their own actions and causes uncertainty in their sense of self. They compared Jacket to characters like Doomguy from the Doom series and Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series, who are examples of "mask digital prosthesis," a term describing how players and game characters may share overlapping identities.
Legacy
Hotline Miami has been called one of the most important indie games ever made. It was very successful both in terms of praise from critics and money earned. Its success encouraged many people to try making their own video games, which led to more indie games being released during the 2010s. Many of these games share similar ideas, ways to play, or music styles with Hotline Miami. Games inspired by Hotline Miami continued to be made for more than ten years after its release, including games made by large studios like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II (2020). The game’s soundtrack helped popularize a music style called synthwave and brought attention to the artists featured in it. Hotline Miami also helped Devolver Digital become one of the most successful indie game publishers.
The way Hotline Miami handles violence and its story has been seen as important for the video game industry. Some journalists have said its message about violence influenced how other games treated this topic, even into the 2020s. In a 2019 article, Cameron Kunzelman of Vice described Hotline Miami’s anti-violence themes as part of a trend with other games like Spec Ops: The Line. He noted that after Hotline Miami’s release, more games began using violence to show “seriousness” without clear reasons. He pointed to a trailer for The Last of Us Part II and how some of Hotline Miami’s dialogue became internet memes. He also said the industry might need to change how it handles violence again. In 2024, Chris Tapsell of Eurogamer agreed, calling Hotline Miami a key moment for the industry and a time for self-reflection.
In 2023, Aleksha McLoughlin of TechRadar called Hotline Miami the best example of an indie game in its category. Nina Corcoran of Pitchfork said the game was designed to be fun to play again and again even years later. In 2022, Lewis Gordon of The Ringer said Hotline Miami pushed the video game industry to new limits and was one of the most respected indie games. Christopher Cruz of Rolling Stone called it a major achievement in indie gaming with a wide-reaching impact. The game has also gained a large, loyal fan base.
Hotline Miami has been named one of the best video games by many publications, including GamesRadar+, Slant Magazine, Hardcore Gaming 101, Stuff.tv, Popular Mechanics, GamesTM, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated. It was also listed as one of the best PC games by PC Gamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and one of the best PlayStation Vita games by Digital Trends and GamesRadar+. The game appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. Writers from Paste, GameSpot, PCMag, and VG247 praised its soundtrack as one of the best in video game history.
After the game’s release, Dennaton created downloadable content to expand the story and added a level editor. When the project became longer than the original game, it was released as a separate game called Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, which came out in March 2015. This game introduced new characters and explored the background and aftermath of events from the first game. It also ended the series’ story. However, some players did not like it as much as the first game because of differences in gameplay and level design. Both games were later included in the Hotline Miami Collection, released in August 2019. As of 2022, the two games sold more than five million copies combined across multiple platforms. In 2025, Devolver Digital reported that Hotline Miami was its seventh most profitable game, earning over $30 million in total sales.
An eight-part comic book series called Hotline Miami: Wildlife was announced in 2016. It was released digitally over several months and followed a character named Chris, whose story is not part of the main Hotline Miami series. A parody called Hotline Milwaukee was included in Devolver Bootleg, a 2019 collection of game parodies. The character Jacket from Hotline Miami has also appeared in other games like Payday 2 and Dead Cells. Many fan-made games based on Hotline Miami have been created, often including elements from other games like Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life. One example was Midnight Animal, which would have included parts from the Persona series but was canceled by 2019.