Hyper Light Breaker, the roguelike twist on the hit 2016 action game, has been near the top of my list ever since its incredibly slick reveal trailer in early 2022. Since then, developer Heart Machine has been hard at work to get it out of the door. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a little bit longer as Hyper Light Breaker’s early access launch has been delayed to early 2025.
In a post to the Hyper Light Breaker community on Steam, Heart Machine founder and creative director Alx Preston explains that the upcoming roguelike game has been pushed back to polish the experience, even for its early access state: “After much evaluation and many conversations with our publisher Arc Games, we’ve decided that we need just a little more time to get the gameplay experience polished to our standards.”
“We don’t want to ship a project, even in Early Access, that we’re not satisfied with on a number of fronts. Especially in the current state of the industry, we need to put as good a foot forward as we can.”
“However, we also really need to make sure that the core foundational units of the game are as strong as they can be, so that we can build on them during the Early Access period.”
Given how many early access games launch in an almost unplayable state these days, it’s good to see such an anticipated release be moved back even though it stings.
Crucially, this delay was also made to avoid developer crunch, with Preston claiming the developer believes in “maintaining a sustainable pace of development for [the] team, which means taking care of the mental and physical health needs of everyone first”.
Though no concrete date was given, Heart Machine is currently aiming to launch Hyper Light Breaker into early access “very early next year”. Thankfully, there will be a demo for the indie game at PlayNYC + AnimeNYC in New York City, XOXO in Portland, and Media Indie Exchange in Seattle if you’re able to attend, with the possibility of more opportunities at DreamHack in Atlanta and MAGFest in Maryland.
While we wait, there’s no better time to replay Hyper Light Drifter – or play it for the first time if you missed out. Otherwise, you could sink your teeth into the best Metroidvania games or the best RPGs.
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