Support NeoGAF

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Heart Machine, which previously released the critically acclaimed Hyper Light Drifter in 2016 and the Annapurna-published Solar Ash in 2021, released Hyper Light Breaker on Steam Early Access back in January.

The game is a prequel to Hyper Light Drifter, but rather than an overhead pixel art action adventure game it's a third-person polygonal one (much like the difference between 2D and 3D Zelda games).

User reviews for the game have been mixed during its Early Access phase, with 67% of the 2,580 reviews it's received to date being marked as Positive on Steam's digital storefront.

Now the studio has confirmed the Game Developer that the Early Access period is ending for Hyper Light Breaker after around nine months, with development on the game coming to an end.

Heart Machine also stated that it will be laying off staff as a result of the game's development ending, though it hasn't confirmed exactly how many will be affected.

"As we wrap up our work on Hyper Light Breaker, we've had to make the difficult decision to part ways with a number of talented team members," a statement reads. "This was not our ideal path, but rather the only one available given the circumstances," reads a statement.

"While this path will include a conclusion on the project, it reflects broader forces beyond our control, including shifts in funding, corporate consolidation and the uncertain environment many small studios like us are navigating today."

The studio laid off some of its staff last November, but said at the time that it hoped the "strong and timely" release of Hyper Light Breaker could "rekindle opportunities" for those who were let go.

Hyper Light Breaker was originally planned to hit Early Access in 2023, but a number of delays saw this being pushed back by two years.

Development ends on Hyper Light Breaker as studio Heart Machine says it’s making layoffs | VGC

The Hyper Light Drifter prequel has had mixed reviews while in Early Access…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Mister Wolf]

They were dumb for not making a TRUE sequel to Hyper Light Drifter.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

IMO this game was DOA from the announcement. Such a strange pivot after really great Hyper Light Drifter.

 

[Griffon]

Another Sweet Baby game bites the dust.

 

[Achelexus]

Weird wording. The game is concluding development, not being cancelled. That being said, the first game was pretty mediocre IMO and made by idiots. So I'm skipping on this one.

 

[Punished Miku]

They were dumb for not making a TRUE sequel to Hyper Light Drifter.

They were dumb for not making it a true sequel to Solar Ash. That's what I thought it was going to be, and then all the previews said it had major issues and was a multiplayer game which is just an odd choice. Solar Ash is by far their best game and this is clearly built on the bones of it.

 

[00_Zer0]

Another Sweet Baby game bites the dust.

 

[Jaybe]

Oh no, anyway

 

[John Bilbo]

They fucked up.

 

[BigBeauford]

Fuck, how did a temu Risk of Rain 2 with furries fail?!

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I'm not going to buy any game in the nonbinary color scheme. Let alone working with sweet baby.

 

[Fake]

Sweet Baby is on fire.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Hyper Light Drifter was such a good videogame, wonder what happened internally at the studio for their following games to be so mid in comparison.

 

[Mikado]

Huh. Maybe they were relying on a funding source that dried up?

 

[Mister Wolf]

Hyper Light Drifter was such a good videogame, wonder what happened internally at the studio for their following games to be so mid in comparison.

They wanted to fly too close to the sun and try other new game formulas before even elaborating on the sucessful formula they created with HLD. It would akin to From Software making Demon Souls and ditching the successful formula because they wanted to try new things, never bothering to make Dark Souls.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Hyper Light Drifter was such a good videogame, wonder what happened internally at the studio for their following games to be so mid in comparison.

I checked it out today and it's not for sale anymore. Solar Ash has a huge discount.

Are they closing shop?

 

[touchfuzzy]

I checked it out today and it's not for sale anymore. Solar Ash has a huge discount.

Are they closing shop?

No.

In fact, they have another game coming out in November that actually looks pretty good. At least better than whatever they were trying to do with Breaker.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I don't understand what people saw in Hyper Light Drifter, actually thought it was a poor game. The controls were terrible and I didn't think the other aspects of it were particularly special to make it stand out. But it always sucks to see what happens to teams like these, not being able to complete their vision and possibly finished in the industry for good.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

They decided to change the game from retro pixel art to stylish 3D gameplay.

What a scam. Game is still selling as early access for $40 CDN on Steam, and reviews are negative as people pointed that out and it isnt even finished. Yet still selling for full price.

Unless the console and mobile versions were giant sales, the Steam CCU even for the original game was barely anything. 5,000 at launch then drifted down fast to 1,000 and less. HLB is the same. Started at 5,000 early access sales and then dropped fast to 50. A couple Steam sales bumped up the CCU to 300-400, but then back to 50.

So this IP looks like will never be big sales. So having an overreaching dev time and budget for a game like this is destined for doom. Modest selling products need modest budgets. They probably went ape shit on costs making it a 3D game.

You never know. Since dev is done, they might flip the switch claiming the game is now fully released hoping to catch unaware gamers.

 

[phant0m]

67% positive is not good if you're a small/indie studio

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

another victim; I mean, sucesss story Sweet baby inc can add to their portfolio

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The company said they will finish off some work updating the game to a final state by Jan 2026. At that point, they'll probably release the game as "complete" and what you see is what you get.

No different than other early access games or a kickstarter campaign. Buyer beware. Always best to wait for a final release in good shape. Let the eager beavers be the guinea pigs.

 

[March Climber]

No.

In fact, they have another game coming out in November that actually looks pretty good. At least better than whatever they were trying to do with Breaker.

Seems like Breaker was too ambitious of a development compared to Solar Ash and HLD.

The SBI description says that they worked on the story, but all of it's issues stem from the gameplay.

 

[The_hunter]

This game was in development for what felt like 5 years, what happened?

 

[HYDE]

Another Sweet Baby game bites the dust.

Oh darn

 

[winjer]

Sweet baby inc claims another victim....

 

[fallingdove]

I really liked Hyper Light Drifter.

This is another sad case of not understanding why your game is/was popular and trying to retrofit non-complimentary mechanics or monetization with future iterations.

For me, Hyper Light Drifter was a unique post apocalyptic Zelda-like single player adventure that occasionally broke up moments of quiet, cerebral traversal with frenetic gameplay. The IP wasn't rollerskating on the clouds, it wasn't Shadow of the Colossus-style puzzle bosses, it wasn't an MMORPG with GaaS adjacent monetization.

Heart Machine, like so many companies have tried to manipulate the market into expecting a certain product. Manipulative marketing always fails in the end.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

HLD was one of those games that needed a sequel to flesh that world and gameplay out properly in my opinion. Elements of it were good but some just weren't. I remember thinking it just didn't feel very good to control for example.

It was okay but I read this headline and was like yea, eh, shrug. Never checked out any other games by them either.

 

[Hudo]

I really liked Hyper Light Drifter.

This is another sad case of not understanding why your game is/was popular and trying to retrofit non-complimentary mechanics or monetization with future iterations.

For me, Hyper Light Drifter was a unique post apocalyptic Zelda-like single player adventure that occasionally broke up moments of quiet, cerebral traversal with frenetic gameplay. The IP wasn't rollerskating on the clouds, it wasn't Shadow of the Colossus-style puzzle bosses, it wasn't an MMORPG with GaaS adjacent monetization.

Heart Machine, like so many companies have tried to manipulate the market into expecting a certain product. Manipulative marketing always fails in the end.

This. Hyper Light Drifter was cool. Anything after that, that used the "universe" or style or whatever, was not what I wanted. I just wanted more Hyper Light Drifter, maybe with a hand-drawn version of that art style or so. Upping the production values, perhaps.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

This. Hyper Light Drifter was cool. Anything after that, that used the "universe" or style or whatever, was not what I wanted. I just wanted more Hyper Light Drifter, maybe with a hand-drawn version of that art style or so. Upping the production values, perhaps.

Gaming is like that. The next game always has to look better with more budget and productions values. It's not too often a game studio makes a sequel which continues on with some content improvements with zero/very modest boosts to visuals. It's always got to have more budget to make it splashier. And splashiness always costs more money to produce.

An odd choice, since I doubt the first game sold blockbusters to begin with. So they were hoping a better looking indie game would lead to more sales, since the retro look didnt sell. HLD peak Steam CCU was only 5,000. And it dropped fast to 1,000 and under. So this IP already doesn't have a sales show stopper history. But like just about every tech company, no budget is too big when the company wants to go big and expensive beyond sales expectations.

Media is like that too. That She Hulk TV show cost $225M to make over 9 episodes. That's more than most hollywood movies with a AAA cast. But it happened.