Heart Machine Ending Development on Hyper Light Breaker After More Layoffs

Despite having entered Early Access only earlier this year, Hyper Light Breaker seems to already be nearing the end of its lifecycle following another round of layoffs at its development studio, Heart Machine (Hyper Light Drifter, Solar Ash).

In a statement to Game Developer, a studio spokesperson announced that they will soon be ceasing development on the game. Specifically, they said they have one last update coming in January. Their full statement is as follows:

We still have something coming in January. We plan to deliver something meaningful and as polished and complete as we can given our current circumstances. We’re doing our best to refine what we can, complete key systems, and have the game culminate in a satisfying punctuation point,” said the studio spokesperson.

Given our limited resources with team members rolling off the project, we won’t be releasing any more updates or hosting any Q+As for the rest of this year. We want to make sure the team can focus fully on getting this next release into the best shape possible.

As for what the studio had to say about the layoffs:

As we wrap up our work on Hyper Light Breaker, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to part ways with a number of talented team members. This was not our ideal path, but rather the only one available given the circumstances.

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While this path will include a conclusion on the project, it reflects broader forces beyond our control, including shifts in funding, corporate consolidation and the uncertain environment many small studios like us are navigating today.

Hyper Light Breaker was released in Early Access on January 14 of this year, and it has received a mixed reception from both players and critics. It’s a roguelike set in the neon colored world of Hyper Light Drifter, where players traverse a procedurally generated open world while attempting to defeat a series of bosses.

Having played the game, it demonstrates some interesting ideas, like how it combines a run-based format with an open-ended setting, but it is extremely uneven, with brutal difficulty spikes, overly long runs, and massive punishment for failure. It seems players had issues with it as well, as it’s currently sitting at a Mixed 67% positive reviews from around 2,500 Steam reviews.

Heart Machine previously went through a round of layoffs last November, and at the time, the company said it was possible some of this staff could be re-hired if Hyper Light Breaker’s release went well, which unfortunately does not seem to be the case. Heart Machine is also currently working on Possessor(s), a promising search action game slated for November 11. While crushing layoffs are nothing new to a struggling game industry, hopefully, their next game will find an audience.