Hyper Light Breaker’sEarly Access release is nearly here, providing a sequel to indie darlingHyper Light Drifterafter nearly a decade.Hyper Light Breakerwill differ significantly from its predecessor, evolving not only aesthetic and gameplay aspects, but story and worldbuilding elements as well.
Despite the widely beloved status ofDrifter,Hyper Light Breakerwill pivot greatlyfrom what’s been established previously in the franchise. The game will be an open-world roguelike and will take advantage of a cel-shaded art style that bringsRisk of Rain 2to mind. With these sweeping changes to the core experience, it follows that changes will come to how the game’s world and story are built. To learn more about howBreakerwill evolve the series' narrative, Game Rant sat down with members of the Heart Machine team—including lead producer Michael Clark, narrative director Laura Michet, senior gameplay engineer Chris Forseth, and art director Danny Moll.
How Hyper Light Breaker Will Build On The World Of Drifter
Q: How did you approach building upon the world/lore ofHyper Light DrifterforBreakergiven that it’s not strictly a sequel/prequel?
Clark:TheDrifter’s experience takes placemuch later thanHyper Light Breaker—but they spend much of their time walking through the history of past events. We started with that shared history, expanding the world and the various warring factions and opportunistic groups that sought power.Breakeris a new story with a lot to discover—I don’t want to spoil it—but over the course of early access, players will learn more about what happened here, how the world changes, when the Abyss King gained his power, and who the Abyss King and his Crowns were, are, and aspire to be.
Michet:When we created the story forBreaker, we focused on the characters who are inBreaker—theBreakersthemselves, and the Crowns in particular. They have their own experience of the world and their own goals, fears, and relationships with one another. The story focuses on these things.
Q:Hyper Light Breakerwill feature up to 3 player co-op. How does this play into the story versus the single-player experience?
Forseth:I don’t believe this is really any difference. It is the same game, same story, just with friends.
Michet:The story isn’t affected by how many players are in your session. Each player makes their own progress through the story at their own pace.
Q: Are there any particularly fun or favorite NPCs that you are excited for players to get to know?
Clark:I think players are going to be very eager to learn everything they can about Pherus Bit.
Michet:I agree—Pherus Bit is my favorite character as well!
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the benefits of using comic book panels to communicate information? What does this add to the overall storytelling?
Clark:Showing and not telling a story draws players into the narrative and asks that they pull the story from the imagery, rather than just reading text. It operates on a different level than text or speech, and plays very well into the worlds we create. We create deep, interesting worlds, and our players enjoy discovering them and discussing them.
Michet:InBreaker, we wanted to try and lean on and extend the storytellingtechniques fromDrifterinBreaker. We think that there are some cool structural opportunities available in breaking up the story this way and in challenging the player to speculate and investigate as they start to put the story together from different perspectives.Drifteralso told its story with enigmatic images representing the perspectives of different characters, so that gave us an opportunity to try and use those techniques in new ways inBreaker.
Q:Drifterhad more isolationist, solitary themes, butBreakeris more co-op-focused. How do the themes shift and change between games, and how does that impact its storytelling?
Clark:I’m hesitant to delve too much into this because I want players to experience it in-game, but ifDrifteris more solitary,Breakeris more social in its themes.
Michet:Players will discover this as they playBreaker.
Q:Hyper Light Drifterwas so unafraid to be bold with its use of color. How doesHyper Light Breakerincorporate this—did you keep any of the same color palette choices fromDrifter, or go with different color palettes to establish a different world?
Moll:A key part ofDrifter’s color identity is its use of gradients and impressionistic color variation.TheBreakerart teamhas worked hard to translate these kinds of treatments into 3D space to vivid effect. In most cases, we’ve targeted unique color palettes, but in some places (thatDrifterfans will recognize) we’ve referenced things more directly. The sky color, just to name one.
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