Hyper Light Breaker Dev Reveals Exciting Early Access Roadmap!

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I’ve been eagerly awaiting the Early Access release of Hyper Light Breaker, a spin-off from Heart Machine’s acclaimed isometric pixel art action RPG, Hyper Light Drifter. Having impressed fans with their innovative follow-ups like Solar Ash and its signature rail-grinding mechanics, the studio has demonstrated a knack for exploring new concepts. And that’s exactly what they’ve done with Hyper Light Breaker, as it offers a dramatically different take on the same universe. Unlike the solitary single-player adventure of its predecessor, Hyper Light Breaker is a 3D, open-world, multiplayer roguelite featuring various playable characters. The game also introduces a procedurally generated Overgrowth to explore and offers numerous weapons and upgrades to master.

As a passionate fan of video games, I’ve been keeping a close eye on Hyper Light Breaker – it’s Heart Machine’s debut in Early Access game release. While the reception has been somewhat divided, the team is actively listening to player feedback and dedicating substantial time and resources to make necessary improvements during this development phase. To give us a glimpse of what’s to come over the next year, Heart Machine has unveiled an ambitious roadmap for Hyper Light Breaker, detailing their development plans. In a chat with Game Rant, lead producer Michael Clark and community manager Yiyi Zhang emphasized the significance of player feedback and outlined the content and updates we can expect to see. Here’s a condensed and clear account of their insights on the game’s progression.

Player Feedback is Helping Guide Hyper Light Breaker’s Direction

After the game has been handed over to players, what do you think deserves our primary attention now? Has this priority changed since the Early Access release?

Clark: In our planning, we reserved room for adjustments based on player feedback, so our roadmap focuses more on moving forward rather than backward. We anticipated that we’d need to invest a lot of time in balancing and fine-tuning the game, as well as fixing bugs – thus, you can expect substantial modifications in the upcoming monthly updates with regard to those objectives.

Has the input from players played a role in shaping the future content of our roadmap? Are there specific elements that we’re developing as a result of player suggestions or feedback?

Clark: To better meet user demands, we’re enhancing our tutorial and onboarding experience significantly. Additionally, we are considering gameplay modifications and new features that will make the game smoother overall. There has been a lot of enthusiastic input about this, so you can anticipate seeing more changes like these in the upcoming months.

Q: What item on the roadmap are you most excited for players to experience?

Zhang: As a community manager, I’m thrilled for players to get to enjoy everything they’ve been asking for so politely – it’s like their wishes coming true! In our Discord community, we’ve noticed a pattern of users adding ‘- something lover’ to their usernames, where ‘something’ represents what they are most eagerly anticipating.

Our players are thrilled by various characters – whether they have large tails (tail enthusiasts), horns (horn enthusiasts), or are crows. It’s fascinating to see how passionate our players can get about specific details, and it will be a delight for them to finally encounter all the elements they’ve been eagerly anticipating!

Have any specific actions taken by players during the Early Access period left you quite astonished in the game?

As a movie enthusiast, I’d say our team members are exceptional gamers with an insatiable curiosity. They’re always eager to dive deep, to dismantle, to probe, and it’s fantastic for us! It challenges every limit we’ve set in our creations, revealing potential avenues of exploration and expansion that might have escaped our notice. Plus, they fill in gaps we didn’t even know were there.

I established a Discord channel named “#hlb-git-gud” for sharing amusing discoveries made by players during their gameplay sessions. This includes fascinating findings such as parrying fall damage (and recovering health from it), performing a pop shove-it on the hoverboard, and inventive methods to achieve extraordinary attack and movement speeds. The players’ actions never cease to astonish us.

Q: Can you talk about ways the Overgrowth will be expanding in the future?

Clark: In the coming spring season, we’re planning to broaden the scope of the Overgrowth by adding new regions for exploration. While we can’t reveal much about them yet, if you take a good look at the Overgrowth as it stands now, you might spot hints of where these fresh, currently unreachable zones will be located.

During our Early Access phase, you’ll notice an increase in interesting spots across existing biomes and fresh areas opening up, enlarging the overall explorable territory within Overgrowth.

New Characters and Weapons are Coming to Hyper Light Breaker

Could you provide some information on the upcoming characters or classes for our game? I’d be happy to discuss their unique playing styles and the contributions they make to the overall experience.

As a movie enthusiast, I’m excited to share that our upcoming character is a bit of a wild card – packed with power but delicate as glass. It’s a high-risk, high-reward kind of role, and it’s going to shake things up! Expect more distinct personalities and wider ranges in abilities among characters in the future, making each one unique and thrilling to play.

Is it possible for you to discuss the specific areas in the game’s equilibrium that you intend to fine-tune, as suggested in the roadmap?

As a passionate moviegoer diving into this cinematic universe, I want to share that our team is working diligently to ensure a smooth entry for newcomers while keeping seasoned players engaged. To achieve this, we’ve meticulously adjusted enemy encounters and equipment, making the initial stages less daunting yet intriguing.

Additionally, we’ve fine-tuned the parry system and modified certain move interactions to make combat more responsive and swift. There’s a plethora of other changes, but I’ll leave the comprehensive breakdown for the official patch notes when it drops!

Q: Are there any details about the new Assassin that you can share?

Clark mentioned that the upcoming Assassin character in our game boasts an impressive skillset in dual combat, and their arsenal may look rather recognizable to those who have played during Early Access.

A: Are there any specifics you can share regarding the additional armaments in the pipeline? Will they be entirely novel weapon types, or are we talking about existing weapons with unique enhancements or modifications?

Clark:During Early Access, we aim to broaden the player’s collection of Blades and Rails. When we reveal fresh weapons, we’re talking about entirely novel weapons with unique attacks and combos, special abilities, and so on. We view Affixes, or gear modifications that appear on each piece of equipment, as distinct entities. Although this upcoming update will feature more Affixes, and we expect that to continue in future updates, introducing a new weapon is a significantly larger endeavor!

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2025-02-16 17:04