Eliminate textures to create a visual bridge between Hyper Light Breaker and its predecessor

Will there ever be another game like this? Hyper Light Drifter? The 2D action-adventure RPG landed just as the Dark Souls series was making its mark, but it carved out an identity for itself before the word “soulslike” was even uttered. Heart Machine creator and founder Alx Preston imagined an ancient, ruined world with a hero whose body is struggling under the weight of an illness not differently that Preston lives with. But it's not exactly a body horror world: its dungeons and the outside world mix light and dark colors inspired by a 16-bit color palette.

The game felt so inseparable from that SNES-era aesthetic, so it was a surprise when Heart Machine revealed the existence of Hyper light switcha third-person roguelike that can be played solo or in co-op, which is coming to Early Access. What does it mean to translate a 2D aesthetic to 3D, especially in the world of the Hyper Light series?

According to art director Danny Moll and lead character designer John DeRiggi, it's about carefully defining what made Vagabond such an amazing game, then recreating those concepts with 3D techniques.

Which ones? Check them out.

Hyper light switch It doesn't need your fancy textures

To understand the aesthetics of Hyper light switchyou should take a quick look at the previous Heart Machine game Solar AshThat game represented the studio's leap from 2D to 3D and taught the team a lot about how to create vibrant environments in beautiful locations.

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

“As you move into 3D space, you start to have to constrain the data and the details more intentionally,” he said. This led the team to use Blender “Tenth Modifier” and embracing the “polygonal qualities” to create the aesthetic of that game.

ON Hyper light switchPreston told Moll that he wanted to increase the complexity of objects “slightly” so that if players got close, they would see some detail. This creates a space where Heart Machine can bring the worldbuilding style of Hyper Light Drifterwith 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, “blocky” geometry, moody purples and reds, and runic symbols, while the latter has a softer, more pastoral vibe and colors of green, orange, and pink.

As for character design (and characters are very important here, as players will be able to select one of several “Breakers”), DeRiggi explained that the team took inspiration from 2D cell-based animation like that used in classic TV shows. Here, detail was given to elements like the Breakers' costumes and drapes, but still kept under control, to contrast with the highly detailed PBR rendering used in high-fidelity games.

“We really wanted to push the 'low frequency' hero sales, [focusing] on the elements of the characters that made them stand out and strike from afar,” DeRiggi said.

Switch introduces another new challenge for Heart Machine: the live-service-adjacent nature of Early Access. The game's distribution will not be a one-off process, but will evolve in response to player feedback and design changes as the game progresses.

How does the art team plan to handle this challenge? “Flowcharts,” Moll said. He described a “big” flowchart that maps out the design process, like how designers or artists block out a level, iterate on it, then move it to the art side, then what to do if the level needs more feedback, etc., etc.

“One of the fun things about working on this type of game is that there’s an infinite amount of variety that we can add, so we’re always brainstorming new ideas and queuing things up,” he said. “So when it comes to Early Access, we have our plans for what we want to do, but we’re also preparing to be flexible with player feedback.”

He credited lead producer Michael Clark, an expert in live-service games, with creating internal processes that kept 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 are not designed to be visually customizable, a feature found in other live service games or roguelikes. “It's a personal world for [Preston]. So he didn't expect there to be this wide range of customization for all the characters,” he said.

This means he and his colleagues can focus on improving the look of the revealed characters (mostly through small tweaks, since their designs are pretty much final) and creating new ones inspired by community feedback.

Combining these strategies with some “highly modular” environment kits, the Hyper Light series is poised to usher in a new era in video game development.

Heart Machine is a reference point for understanding how independent developers survive and thrive

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

Hyper Light Drifter was a major beneficiary of the Kickstarter era, before games started struggling on that platform. Solar Ash led her into a partnership with Annapurna Interactive, a publisher that has brought indie games to a wider audience through a mix of patience and experience in the film industry. And now Switch sees the team embark 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 throughout all these eras: if you want to adapt to trends, you need great aesthetics to always make sure players can’t look away. Good art pipelines and direction make this possible.