I think Hyper Light Drifter was released at the perfect time. Indie games really carved out their niche in the industry in 2016, and the year did see some big (relatively speaking) games – Firewatch, Witness, Inside, Teacup Head,” Enter the Dungeon, Darkest Dungeon, and even Stardew Valley. Now that I think about it, 2016 can be said to be the year of independent games! A few years ago, we launched some of the same beloved games like Her Story, Undertale, Downwell, Soma, Octodad, and Shovel Knight.
You'll quickly find that the one big common thread here is that, unlike many of today's indie games, all of the games I mention here are more unique experiences. Stardew Valley obviously has a co-op mode, but other games are generally designed to be played as single-player games, in contrast to the proliferation of small-scale live-server games, roguelikes, and other attempts at games designed to be played permanently.
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Looking back at all of these games, especially Hyper Light Drifter, which are all about a decade old now, I can't help but feel that its surprising follow-up, Hyper Light Breaker, shows how much can change in a decade . What really appealed to a lot of people about Drifter when it went on Kickstarter was its combination of modern pixel art, an evocative synth soundtrack, and an interesting world. The final game embodies all three characteristics, delivering a game where you have to figure out the storyline on your own.
The real focus is on its combat and world-building, unaffected by the current state of the gaming industry. Every day you can hop on Steam and see so many developers trying to become the next big thing, but they rarely do so independently. Multiplayer is huge now, live service is de facto in many cases (although it rarely works), and, boy, are there so many roguelikes out there these days. That last one, I can't really blame anyone – when times are so tough and people don't have that much money right now, of course you want to design something that's infinitely replayable, otherwise you might lose out on sales. Only big-name indie teams (probably not really indie teams anymore) are capable of making single-player games, JRPGs, or Zelda games.
In turn, I can't really blame Heart Machine for deciding to turn the world it established in Castaway into a roguelike, which I imagine will have some real-time service elements to keep players ahead of the game Come back after the experience is over. Now, it's hard to tell whether this was the right decision. Early access does mean early, and currently only the core loop. Castaway's challenging combat is already well implemented into 3D, though I'm sure it'll get some improvements over the course of a few updates.
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There are also similarities to the upcoming FromSoftware game Elden Ring: Nightreign, which is also a roguelike with procedurally generated maps and missions to take down terrifying bosses, so Heart Machine is in good company there. But ironically, Nightreign also highlights how different the industry is compared to a decade ago.
Will this make me sad? Yes, a little. There are still developers making games like Drifter and all the other indie games I mentioned at the beginning, I wouldn't even say there are fewer of them, if anything there are more of them than ever before. That's part of the problem, there's no room for them in so many games that have a higher chance of survival due to their replayability, not to mention how difficult discoverability has become these days.
It's no surprise that the industry has changed so much in ten years, I just think Breaker made me realize how different it is now. I'm not trying to pass judgment here, the main thing is, I really hope Heart Machine succeeds, because if the early access issues are ironed out, there could be something really special out there.
