Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter was a hit amongst indie fans in 2016. Its sequel Hyper Light Breaker was announced just last year, with gameplay being revealed a couple of weeks ago. Just recently, Heart Machine revealed more information about its upcoming release.
Lead developer Alx Preston spoke about the game’s innovative features in a Hyper Light Breaker gameplay preview. The preview was exclusive to IGN and uploaded to their Youtube Channel on Friday morning. The key point Preston spoke about to IGN was how Breaker‘s gameplay mechanics differs from Drifter‘s.
Hyper Light Breaker makes a significant departure from Drifter‘s genre conventions. IGN news reporter Rebekah Valentine explained, “While Hyper Light Drifter was a single-player (at launch), top-down action-adventure, Hyper Light Breaker is a multiplayer-focused, 3D, roguelike action game.”
Preston was passionate about this gameplay alteration. He said, “People will like it or not like it, and that’s up to them. We’re just making a game that we want to make, and I feel like the Hyper Light world has room to have a lot of different things in it as far as game styles go. Why not a Hyper Light racing game? It’s a robust world, and it can maintain many different identities as far as gameplay goes so I don’t think there are any limits to it.”
Despite this difference, Breaker and Drifter both feature a colorful environment and expressive pictograms. Preston also notes thematic similarities between the games. He states, “There’s like a vibe to [Hyper Light Drifter] that was mysterious and dark and bleak. And while this one is brighter in a lot of ways, as you start to get into the story and as you start to get into different areas and bosses and whatever else, you’ll find those elements of bleakness even in the more stylized realm.”
Hyper Light Breaker is set for Steam Early Access this year.