Embracing restraint to build a visual bridge from Hyper Light Breaker to its predecessor

Can there ever be another game like Hyper Light Drifter? The 2D action adventure RPG landed right as the Dark Souls series was making its mark but carved its own identity before the word "soulslike" was ever uttered. Creator and Heart Machine founder Alx Preston envisioned an ancient and ruinous world with a hero whose body is struggling under the weight of a disease not unlike the one Preston lives with. But it's not strictly a world of body horror—its dungeons and overworld mix light and dark colors inspired by a 16-bit color palette.

The game seemed so inseparable from that SNES-era-style aesthetic, so it was something of a surprise when Heart Machine revealed the existence of Hyper Light Breaker, a third-person roguelike that can be played solo or cooperatively, which is on its way to an Early Access release. What does it mean to translate an aesthetic from 2D to 3D, especially in the world of the Hyper Light series?

According to art director Danny Moll and principal character artist John DeRiggi, it's all about carefully defining what made Drifter such a striking game, then recreating those concepts with 3D techniques.

Which ones? Have a look.

Hyper Light Breaker doesn't need your fancy textures

To understand the aesthetic of Hyper Light Breaker, you should take a quick look at Heart Machine's previous game Solar Ash. That game was the studio's jump from 2D into 3D, and taught the team a lot about how to create vibrant locales in beautiful locations.

Moll explained that studying Solar Ash taught him what Preston valued in 3D art direction; impressionistic environments and character models with bold colors and very simple textures.

"When you move into a 3D space, you start having to restrict data and details more intentionally," he said. That led to the team using decimation processes and embracing "polygonal qualities" to create that game's aesthetic"

On Hyper Light Breaker, Preston told Moll that he wanted to "slightly" increase the intricacy on objects so that if players got close, they'd see some detail. This creates a space where Heart Machine can bring over the worldbuilding style of Hyper Light Drifter, with its ancient ruins of a high-tech civilization sitting in the middle of a "post-post apocalyptic" world. The former is an environment defined by rigid and "blocky" geometry, moody purples and reds, and runic symbols, while the latter has softer, pastoral vibes and colors of green, orange, and pink.

Image via Heart Machine/Arc Games.

On the character design side (and characters are very important here, since players will have the option to select one of several "Breakers"), DeRiggi explained that the team took inspiration from 2D cell-based animation like the kind used in classic TV shows. Here, the detailing was dedicated on elements like the Breakers' costuming and drapery—but still kept in check, to contrast with the highly-detailed PBR rendering used in higher-fidelity games.

"We really wanted to push on selling the 'lower-frequency' hero elements, [focusing] on elements of the characters that made them pop and reach from a distance," said DeRiggi.

Breaker introduces another new challenge for Heart Machine: the live service-adjacent nature of Early Access. Shipping the game won't be a one-and-done process, it'll be evolving in response to player feedback and design shifts throughout the game.

How does the art team intend to handle that challenge? "Flow charts," Moll said. He described a "big" flow chart that maps out the design process—how designers or artists block out a level, iterate, then shift it to the art side, then what to do if the level needs more feedback, etc. etc.

Image via Heart Machine/Arc Games.

"One of the fun things about working on this kind of game is that there's an indefinite amount of variety that we can add, so we're always brainstorming new ideas and queuing things," he said. "Then when it comes to Early Access, we have our our plans about what we want to make, but we are also preparing to be flexible to player feedback."

He credited lead producer Michael Clark, who has experience on live service games, with building internal processes that could keep content flowing smoothly.

Another self-imposed limitation that helps this process, DeRiggi added, is that when it comes to the visual design of the Breakers, they're not designed to be visually customizable, a feature found in other live service or roguelike games. "It's a personal world for [Preston]. So he wasn't looking for there to be this whole wide range of customization across the the board of characters," he said.

Image via Heart Machine/Arc Games.

That means he and his colleagues can focus on improving the looks of the revealed characters (mostly through small tweaks, as their designs are pretty much locked-in), and spin up new ones inspired by community feedback.

Combine those strategies with some "highly modular" environment kits, and the Hyper Light series is now ready to roll into a new era of game development.

Heart Machine is a benchmark of how indie developers survive and thrive

Through hard work and creativity, Preston and his peers have kept one of the most eye-catching indie studios of the 2010s alive even as the game industry struggles through financial crisis and COVID-19. Its continued success tells us a lot about how studios are making the jump through different eras of development.

Image via Heart Machine/Arc Games.

Hyper Light Drifter was one major beneficiary of the Kickstarter era before games began to struggle on that platform. Solar Ash brought it into a partnership with Annapurna Interactive, a publisher that's brought indie games to bigger audiences through a mix of patience and film industry experience. And now Breaker sees the team embarking on an Early Access journey, following in the footsteps of Supergiant Games, Mega Crit, and other roguelike studios that specialize in eye-catching design.

One thing remains true through all those eras—if you're going to adapt to trends, you need great aesthetics to always make sure players can't look away. Good art pipelines and direction make that possible.

Update: This story has been lightly edited for clarity.