Hyper Light Breaker Highlights a Decade of Transformation in the Gaming Industry

Hyper Light Drifter hit the scene at just the right moment. When it dropped in 2016, indie games were starting to carve out a serious niche in the game industry. That year was a powerhouse for indie titles, with gems like Firewatch, The Witness, Inside, Cuphead, Enter the Gungeon, Darkest Dungeon, and the ever-popular Stardew Valley making waves. In retrospect, it’s easy to see why some people look back on 2016 as the indie game year. And if you peek at the couple of years preceding it, you’d also find standout indie hits like Her Story, Undertale, Downwell, Soma, Octodad, and Shovel Knight.

If you think about it, one thing that ties all these games together is that they’re much more about their solo adventures. Sure, Stardew Valley tossed in some co-op, but for the most part, these games were all about going it alone. That’s quite a contrast to what’s happening now with smaller live-service games, roguelikes, and other titles that seem built for endless play.

Reflecting on Hyper Light Drifter, and the rest of these decade-old games, it’s fascinating to see how its upcoming sequel, Hyper Light Breaker, represents just how much has changed over time. Back when Drifter was a Kickstarter darling, what drew people in was its sharp pixel art, its captivating synth soundtrack, and a world that seemed full of mysteries waiting to be uncovered. The game delivered on these fronts, inviting players to piece together its story on their own.

The main draw was its combat and world-building, elements untouched by today’s industry trends. Nowadays, there’s no shortage of developers hoping to create the next big thing, yet finding a self-contained experience among them is rare. Multiplayer is huge, live-service games are seen as the norm (even if many flop), and the number of roguelikes trying to catch a break is overwhelming. Considering the financial strains many face today, it’s understandable why developers would gravitate towards creating replayable experiences. Only the well-established indie teams—who might not be all that ‘indie’ anymore—can risk crafting those narrative-driven, single-player adventures.

So, it makes sense that Heart Machine would want to evolve the universe from Drifter into a roguelike, potential live-service elements and all. Is that move going to pay off? Hard to say right now. With Hyper Light Breaker in its early access stages, only the core mechanics are up and running. Drifter’s intense combat has transitioned nicely into a 3D space, though there’s room for tweaks in upcoming updates.

You can spot parallels with the soon-to-arrive FromSoftware game, Elden Ring: Nightreign, another roguelike featuring maps that change every time you play and fierce bosses to conquer—making for some decent company. However, Nightreign also underscores how much the gaming landscape has shifted over the years.

It’s a bit heartening and disheartening. We still have developers out there making games like Drifter and those other indie classics. While I wouldn’t say there are fewer of them—they’re actually more numerous—the challenge lies in their visibility in a market crowded with games banking on replayability for survival. Discoverability has become harder than ever.

That said, the shift isn’t shocking—it took Hyper Light Breaker to make me truly reflect on the extent of these changes. I’m not here to judge which direction is right or wrong; rather, I’m rooting for Heart Machine. If they can iron out the early access kinks, they might just have something remarkable on their hands.