More or less direct successor to Hyper Light Drifter, spiritual heir to Solar Ash, Hyper Light Breaker promises to be an ambitious roguelite in a procedurally generated open world. Inevitably, this synopsis induces a small package of challenges. “We have made remarkable progress since development began,“says creative director Alx Preston.”Taking this extra time to focus on the development of Hyper Light Breaker will allow us to reach its full potential, and we are incredibly grateful to our community, who have supported us from the very beginning. We thank you for your patience and understanding. We want to offer you a new adventure that lives up to what you expect from a Heart Machine title.“
Heart cost
As Alx Preston points out in his explainer video (available below), the concept of Hyper Light Breaker is extremely demanding from a conceptual, technical and qualitative point of view. It must be said that generating a whole new world open to each run is a major challenge that has never really been met to our knowledge (it’s not poor Ravenbound who will tell us otherwise). Preston points out that Heart Machine’s new tools are extremely powerful, and that this new delay is mostly aimed at tweaking their first copy; then, during early access, they can gradually add their ideas “completely crazy“.
We don’t really know what that means, but since it’s stamped Heart Machine, it’s still very attractive. Hyper Light Breaker is scheduled for PC only in early 2024.