My Top 10 Upcoming Games of 2014
#1 - Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
Hyper Light Drifter is quite possibly one of the greatest things to ever happen in the gaming industry. The crowd-funded game comes from Heart Machine, a new small indie developer led by Alex Preston. The game’s conception came from Preston, who was the only Heart Machine member at the start of the funding period. The game began on Kickstarter with a paltry $27,000 goal and due to the devotion and organization of Preston throughout the funding period, the project became one of the greatest success stories in Kickstarter games, achieving its stretch goal in a single day and reaching almost $650,000 by the end of the campaign. The success comes from the clear, extensive list of stretch goals, some of which were the hiring of additional developers for the project.
Now, the full Heart Machine team consists of four members:
- Alex Preston (Heart Machine - Director/Lead Artist/Animator/Neo President)
- Beau Blyth (Lead Programmer/Combat Designer; also goes by his developer name Teknopants, creator/developer of Samurai Gunn)
- Casey Hunt (Worldmaker/Artist/Producer)
- Teddy Diefenbach (Systems Designer/Technowizard)
Needless to say, this is indie talent at its finest. The best way to describe Hyper Light Drifter lies within two qualities: the feel of A Link to the Past and the heart of Journey. According to their Kickstarter description:
“Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost technologies and broken histories. Our Drifter is haunted by an insatiable illness, traveling further into the lands of Buried Time, steeped in blood and treasure hoping to discover a way to quiet the vicious disease. Echoes of a dark and violent past from the dead eras resonate throughout and he can't help but listen.”
If that doesn’t sound classically enchanting, you might as well stop reading this write-up… wait, no. Instead you should totally keep reading and preorder everything Hyper Light Drifter-related on Heart Machine’s official site! It is difficult not to fall in love with the game, the art, and the team itself. Their resilient work ethic, undying enthusiasm, and respect towards their backers are unparalleled in the entire indie scene. The gameplay looks absolutely stunning in its 2D 8-bit and 16-bit form. The combat is exceptionally varied and the developers have stated that anyone can play the game, but it takes a great deal of practice and skill to master the combat system. The trials of gameplay in a retro-styled presentation has a nostalgic appeal for gamers who are old enough to remember the challenging aspects of 8-bit and 16-bit games. Despite the Heart Machine’s small size, their project’s art direction and sprite animations look more impressive than many triple-A titles releasing this year. The game had me sold just by it’s character design and atmospherically alluring presentation. If its originally planned form (at the start of the Kickstarter campaign) wasn’t impressive enough, the immense amount of funding is increasing the size and improving the overall quality of the game exponentially. The game was initially slated for a mid-2014 release, but was pushed to late-2014 because Preston, fearful of his health, was exhausting himself in the development process. That is serious dedication.
Hyper Light Drifter has a great deal of passion going into its development. The fact that the game was made financially possible by fans themselves will give players (especially backers) a deep connection to the game. It possesses heart, creativity, beauty, and sincerity, the most I have even seen in all my years of gaming. Heart Machine will launch Hyper Light Drifter on PC late this year and on PS4, Vita, Wii U, and OUYA shortly after. Please preorder this extraordinary title to support Heart Machine as they continue their diligent work throughout the year. For those who haven't already, the time has never been better to jump into the indie gaming scene.
I have two new concepts for future write-ups that relate to the long-term significance of Hyper Light Drifter, identifying quality Kickstarter campaigns, and the state of game development today. If these write-ups start doing well enough, I will try to make videos of these ideas instead of write-ups. So please support these write-ups with likes, reblogs, etc. Thanks everyone!
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