That being said, gameplay-related stretch goals such as co-op and online challenge modes remain scrapped for the time being, although the first one is promised to be delivered soon as a free update. Really, it’s an odd thing that you have to experience for yourself. In a way, I appreciate this aspect greatly, as it’s perhaps the main reason for why I decided to describe my initial experience with the game as a blissful state of flow. You learn by failing consistently, partially due to the huge amount of confidence the game puts in its players initially and also thanks to an overly cryptic and minimalist way of presenting the world’s story and user interface. Hyper Light Drifter is far from an easy game though, and once again that’s not a big surprise considering its original pitch. Lots of blood, lots of dying.Īs it stands now, the end result is a ridiculously polished game that took me about 9 hours to beat (minus all the secrets and backtracking routes I haven’t bothered checking out). All in all, despite said delay to 2016 Hyper Light Drifter’s developers managed to consistently excite and inform backers of major development changes. By being publicly active and constantly willing to respond to backers and fans, Heart Machine seem to have managed to keep their game in the public eye quite well throughout three years – proof being numerous cross-over appearances of the game’s main character in other Kickstarter protégés such as Paradise Lost: First Contact and Starr Mazer, in addition to Wii U’s Runbow. These decisions stand proudly among 75 Kickstarter updates in total, most of which contain hefty amounts of gorgeous gifs mixed with honest, detailed reasoning behind most decisions that had happened around Hyper Light Drifter’s development.
Back then, the estimated plan was to release at the end of 2014, but after a bit over a year the team dedicated their focus to shipping Windows and Mac versions in Spring of 2016.
Instead, an update from February 1 st in the same year announced Heart Machine’s unwillingness to rush the project, with the team instead opting for take their time in creating a “polished, beautiful experience”. Driven mainly by the team’s realization that they can deliver something truly special and partially due to Alex Preson’s unfortunately continuing heart-related issues, Hyper Light Drifter ceased to exist as a game that would release in mid-2014. It is then without a surprise that the game met numerous delays and re-scopes throughout its three year-long creation. As such, Hyper Light Drifter grew into a multi-platform project developed by a reasonably bigger team – that growth also being enabled by the realizations of additional funding goals. Originally intended only as a PC/Mac/Linux release, a sudden appearance of a new $220,000 stretch goal bringing the game to PS4/Vita had to be made to accommodate the immensely positive response to the campaign, in addition to versions for Wii U and, subsequently, Xbox One also becoming possible. The initial pitch for the project, although requiring a mere $27,000, has grown to receive $640,158, remaining to be a solid representation of the final product while also evolving into something much, much bigger. This overall focused direction can be apparent from the way the game’s Kickstarter has developed over time, too. Every now and then you’ll stumble on serene places like this. If not for anything else, Hyper Light Drifter possesses an oddly intriguing sense of carefully thought-out atmosphere. Walking through beautiful 16-bit inspired sceneries riddled with a grand sense of scale and annoyingly fun, yet deadly encounters with corrupted denizens and tricky bosses is often interrupted by brief moments of visual static supplemented by a main character coughing up blood. The concept itself has lingered in Alex Preston’s mind for many years, partially inspired by the studio head’s long-term health problems which have found a manifestation within the game’s core gameplay. Summarized by developers Heart Machine as a 2D Action RPG, Hyper Light Drifter surfaced on Kickstarter in September 2013 by promising a fast-paced, modern take on classics such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo, mixing challenging combat with a carefully designed, detailed world of technological decay and eerie charm. As it turns out, I also think it perfectly describes how I felt during my first few hours with Hyper Light Drifter. It basically describes the moment when someone enters a highly focused mental state, forgetting about reality and getting submersed into whatever experience is taking place. The concept of flow, although originally nestled exclusively within the field of psychology, is a term used by many game designers when looking at achieving “immersiveness” and atmosphere in interactive form.