Michael Clark from Hyper Light Breaker about the “true believers” of the game

How many people I worshiped Hyperliche -drifterThe debut title from the Game Devs Heart Machine based in Culver City, California.

Drifter was one of these rare indie games in which all components are straight clicked: It had a beautiful art style, a Incredible soundtrackAnd sparse, but very effective stories that pointed out to a really original world. The Dashy Slashy fight was chic and the overall mood of the game was, as the children say, unconditional.

So this month I was a little disappointed to see that Drifts long-awaited follow-up, HyperlagAfter the start on Steam early access, gets less than outstanding reviews of players and critics. It is currently with a score of 63% of 2,576 reviews.

Many players have problems with Breaker Uneven difficulty curve. The game is brutally difficult at first, but it can be trivially easy if you prepare it properly. There are also problems with several important gameplay systems (especially discounts, healing and weapon duration) and the struggle that can feel both unfair and one-dimensional. “Only avoid. Always ”, a Steam Reviewer advised the players.

And yet another sentence appears constantly in the reaction of the players Hyperlag: “This game has potential.”

You can see it in the comments on YouTube reviews of the game, even pretty negative like Skills up.

Even the negative reviews of Steam wear this feeling. A player closed a long multi-sales joke about the defects of the game with “Keep at IT, the game has potential” and the promise to change their rating in a “thumbs up” when Heart Machine fixes the problems.

Heart Machine reacted to feedback on his great recognition with grace and humility. You quickly sent corrections and your public communication was first class.

Here is what one Heart Machine Dev wrote in response to the above review:

When you see things like that, you somehow have to remove for this team.

But the challenges that are ahead of Heart Machine are strong. It is Really It is difficult to turn mixed evaluation values. Kleinierer: It is rare. Every developer who starts in the poor or mixed reviews of becoming dreams of becoming dreams Nobody (2025), but most are intended to stay Nobody (2016).

But there is reason to believe Hyperlag Can be one of the rare exceptions from the rule. I wondered what would the next six months and next year look like if the Heart Machine team can deliver to the players as they want?

So I called last week Hyperlag The main producer Michael Clark to ask him directly.

An unusual thing about the Breaker The team is so open that it was their process that created the game. The team invited YouTuber Danny O'Dwyer and his team at a Noklip capture Breaker Evolution in a series of well -produced documentaries. As a result, the fans have a rare look behind the brevity behind the circulation Breaker Creation and the sometimes messy development process, which included a painful wave of layoffs The studio announced At the end of last year.

In the following you will find a mini documentary that examines how the game has shifted over time to an “open world” concept. It's worth it Breaker The team set up the game and went through several iterations that effectively changed its genre:

Hyperlag The senior producer Michael Clark says that this development was pulled by Heart Machine by the lessons from Heart Machine. Sunbash.

“We wanted to do something that was repeatable that was system -oriented because Sunbash Had many very specific content, ”says Clark. “So with Breaker It was as if we shouldn't create a lot of content that need to be reproduced radically – many levels. That brought us into the generation of proceedings right from the start. “

When this new technology of the Open World Procedural Generation was shown over a year ago in the Noklip documentation above, many players answered enthusiastically:

Nevertheless, other players seemed to be expected that such a dramatic change from Heart Machine's earlier games could take some time to get right:

Because of the openness of the Heart Machine team, their fans understand that they are trying to do something else. “I don't know any games that do something like this,” says Clark. “We don't try to play on the mass market – on the lowest common denominator. Our fans don't want that either. And so we want to listen to these people and find out what they are looking for. “

In their efforts to build something new, says Clark, the Heart Machine team trusts that their fans are players like themselves: “We have not sat there and looked at and go a number of charts and KPIs. In order, Therefore, the players will fall statistically. ” Clark says. “Instead, we are aimed at people who are very similar to us. And that gives us a really good focus group internally. “

Now that Hyperlag Is out and the player's feedback comes into play, the challenge for the Heart Machine team is to deliver his roadmap and at the same time react to the player's feedback. “The biggest focus is currently on smoothing on boarding and giving them more in the game,” says Clark. “We also expect that we triple the content in most areas of the game. Much more bosses, playable characters, new biomes, new everything. “

Clark said that part of it was expected of the complaints published in reviews – or at least not completely surprising. “I don't think someone in the audience said something that we didn't burn internally,” he says, “but it is nice to get this external confirmation of the important things.”

An outstanding example of this is Breaker Difficulty curve. Clark says that the team still optimized the difficulty “radical, even until the start”. He says that shortly before the start, you reduced the health available for the players because the team found the game too easy. “We were like: People shouldn't be able to sit down and make it for the first time,” he says. “But we clearly controlled it, and this is one of the things that are great for Roguelikes, especially for early access for Roguelikes. That is the reason why you can access early. “

Side bar: an 18 -year trip through the game industry

Many of the team members at Heart Machine are veterans of the game industry, and this also includes Clark, who has his start in games as an autodidactic artist Red Group Guerilla And Saints Row 4.

After the leader from weapon design SR4 And Clark rose through the rows to become a main artist and gradually developed into an art producer, which then became a main producer.

“I had the opportunity to touch a lot of different art, mainly props and vehicles, but a lot of different art in the pipelines there, which is great because they only get a broad understanding of things,” he says. “And then I was sold out and became a producer and moved to California and basically with a small chip on my shoulder. It was how, hey, do you know what? I could do that better. I could be better because I actually know the subtleties and details and my ADHD request to optimize things would be really useful here. “

After four years as a producer and game director of the VR Studio Survios, Clark came to Heart Machine in 2023. He speaks highly about the studio and in particular the simplicity of cooperation with creative director and studio head alx Preston.

“When I came here,” he says, “it was really about it: How do I build the optimal production environment for a creative direction that is quick and reactive, and it is not a slow committee with a cabal of directors who agree that must. “”

After the Heart Machine team spoke through the specific changes to carry out Hyperlag In the immediate time I asked Clark what he hopes to deliver to players in the next six months or in a year, or how long the game has been in an early access.

“We want to do things that are effective and good, and we feel better,” he said.

While I talked to Clark, the smoke from the recent fires of Los Angeles in the city where the heart machine is located was still in the air. “At the moment I'm looking for games to flee especially others,” said Clark. “We let the LA fire burn. I have to pay for rent and take care of cats. I know that a lot of people are looking for games to flee. “

Clark continued: “To tell stories, to entertain other people, to bring joy to others, is of fundamental value for the world. So we want our true believers to feel that their belief in us is rewarded … with something that arouses and entertains them, which gives them pleasure, gives them an escapism if they need it, give them a challenge if they It takes you everything you are looking for in games – because I think we have all searched for many different things at different times. We have a team that can deliver. We have fans who hungry and believe in us afterwards. So it is up to us to deliver. “