Michael Clark from Hyper Light Breaker: “We want our real believer to feel that their faith in us is rewarded”

Like many people, I loved Hyper Light DrifterThe debut title from Culver City in California Game Devs Heart Machine.

Drifter He was one of those uncommon independent games in which all parts of the components simply click: He had a great artistic style, Incredible soundtrackAnd a uncommon but very effective story that indicated a truly original world. The dash was skillful, and the general atmosphere of the game was, as the children say, immaculate.

So I was a bit disappointed this month to see it Drifter’s long -awaited observation, Hyper Light BreakerHe receives less than constantly reviews from players and critics after starting early access to Steam. Currently, he sits as a result of 63% out of 2576 reviews.

Many players had a problem with Breaker’s Uneven difficulty curve. At first, the game is brutally tough, but it can become trivially basic if you manage to improve. There are also problems with several key gameplay systems (especially profit, treatment and weapon durability) and a fight that may seem unfair and one -dimensional. “Just Dodge. Always ”, he advised the players to one Steam reviewer.

And yet another phrase appears in response to the player Hyper Light Breaker: “This game has potential.”

You can see it in the comments on the review of the game on YouTube, even very negative Skills.

Even negative reviews about Steam carry this sentiment. One of the players ended a long, multi-kapit about the shortcomings of the game with “Keep at, the game has potential”, as well as the promise of changing the review to “thumbs up” if the heart machine repairs problems.

Machine’s heart, to great appreciation, responded with gracefully and humility to such opinions. They quickly send corrections and their public communication was world -class.

Here’s what one heart wrote in response to the review referred to above:

When you see such things, you must take root in this team.

But the challenges that are ahead of us are harsh. His Really It is difficult to reverse mixed review results. More simply: it’s rare. Each devity that launches poor or mixed reviews dreams of becoming No man of man (2025), but most are to remain No man of man (2016).

But there is a reason to believe it Hyper Light Breaker It can be one of the rare exceptions to the rule. I wondered what the next six months and the following year would look like if the heart Machine band could provide players as they want?

So I called last week Hyper Light Breaker’s The main manufacturer, Michael Clark, to ask him directly.

One unusual thing in Breaker The team is the way it was open to creating the game. The team invited youtuber Danny O’Dwyer and his team on Nightlip for capture Breaker’s Evolution in a series of well -produced documentary films. As a result, the fans received a rare behind Breaker’s Creating and sometimes a sloppy development process that included a painful wave of dismissals Announced studio At the end of last year.

Below is one mini-document that examines how the game moved over time to the concept of “open world”. It is worth watching in full, but to take to TLDW is that Breaker The team withdrew from the game and underwent a lot of iterations that have successfully changed the species:

Hyper Light Breaker The main producer Michael Clark says that in some respects this evolution was powered by lessons pulled out of the second game Heart Machine, Sunny ash.

“We wanted to do something that could be reproduced, that it was focused on the systems because Sunny ash He had many very specific content – says Clark. “So z Breaker It was so that we should not create a lot of content that should be radically reproduced – a lot of level content. This pushed us to the procedural generation from the very beginning. “

When this modern, open global technology for generating procedures was shown over a year ago in the above document Noclip, many players responded enthusiastically:

Despite this, other players expected that such a dramatic change compared to previous Heart Machine games may take some time:

Due to the openness of the heart machine band, their fans understand that they are trying to do something really different. “I don’t know any games that do something like what we do,” says Clark. “We are not trying to play on the mass market – the lowest common denominator. Our fans do not want it either. That is why we want to listen to these people and come up with what they are looking for. “

Clark claims that the band Machine trusts that their fans are players like them: “We didn’t sit there and we didn’t look at a few charts and mock and go, All right, According to this statistically, players will like it ” Clark says. “Instead, we attack people who are very similar to us. It gives us a really good focus group internally. “

Since Hyper Light Breaker It is outside the home and there is feedback of players, the challenge for the team Heart Machine is to provide a road map, as well as responding to the player’s opinions. “The biggest emphasis is now smoothing the implementation and providing more in the game,” says Clark. “We also expect a triple content in most areas of the game. Much more bosses, playable characters, new biomes, new everything. “

Of the complaints that appeared in the reviews, Clark claims that some of them were expected – or at least not quite surprising. “I don’t think anyone in the audience said something that we didn’t have Bubble Up internally,” he says, “But it’s nice to get external validation of things that are important.”

One of the outstanding example is Breaker’s Difficulty curve. Clark says that the team was still improving the difficulty “radically, even until the premiere.” He says they reduced the amount of health available to players shortly before starting, because the team considered the game basic. “We were like: people should not be able to sit and beat him first,” he says. “But apparently we managed him too far, and this is one of those things to which there is in particular early access to Roguelelica. This is the reason why you have early access. “

Side belt: 18 -year journey around the gaming industry

Many team members in Heart Machine are veterans of the game industry, including Clark, who started their games as a tutorial Red Faction Guerrilla AND Saints Row 4.

After running a weapon project Sr4 And rising through the ranks to become the main artist, Clark gradually grew up to the art producer and then the main producer.

“I had the opportunity to touch many different pieces, mainly props and vehicles, but many different pieces in the pipelines there, which is great as simply a broad understanding of things,” he says. “And then I sold out and became a producer and moved to California and basically, with a small chip on my shoulder. It was, hey, you know what? I could do it better. I could be better in this, because I actually know the complexities and details, and my ADHD willingness to optimize things excessively would be very useful here. “

After four years as a producer and director of the game at VR Studio Survios, Clark joined Heart Machine in 2023. He talks high about the studio, and especially the simplicity of cooperation with the artistic director and the head of the ALX Preston studio.

“When I came here,” he says – “It really was: how to build an optimal production environment for a creative direction that is fast and responsive, and this is not a slow committee with a taxi of directors who must agree. “

After a conversation, through specific changes to which the team of the heart machine introduces Hyper Light Breaker In the near future I asked Clark what he hopes to provide players to the next six months or year, or how long the game is at the beginning of access.

“We want to create things that are influential and good, and make us feel better,” he said.

When I talked to Clark, the smoke from recent fires in Los Angeles was still hung in the air in the city where the Heart machine was based. “At the moment I am looking for games to escape everything else,” said Clark. “We had burning fires La. I have the rent for paying and cats that can be taken. I know that many people are looking for games to escape. “

Clark continued: “telling stories, entertainment of other people, bringing joy to others has a fundamental value for the world. So we want our true believer to feel how their faith in us is rewarded … something that excites them and entertains them, which brings them joy, gives them escapism when they need it, gives them a challenge, when they need it, he gives them everything, What they are looking for in games – because I think we were all looking for many different things at different times. We have a team that is able to deliver. We have fans who are hungry and who believe in us. So we deliver to us. “