Hyper Light Breaker Dev Talks Design Gear

The year 2025 has arrived and with it comes a lot of upcoming video game releases. Almost nine years after the original game was released, Hyper Light Breaker will launch on Steam Early Access later this month. From developer Heart Machine, the sequel chronologically takes place long before the events of Hyper Light Drifter and fully transitions from 2D to a stylish, fast-paced 3D roguelike.

It's an ambitious game that has a lot to offer both fans of the original game and newcomers alike. Players must navigate massive procedurally generated maps that grow stronger with each run as they work to bring down the Abyss King. Game Rant recently caught up with Heart Machine lead producer Michael Clarke to discuss Hyper Light Breakerand broke down what players can expect from the game in terms of lineup diversity and playstyles.

Hyper Light Breaker songwriter talks Roguelite music

Game Rant chats with Hyper Light Breaker composer Joel Corelitz about his approach to the soundtrack for the upcoming roguelite game.

Hyper Light Breaker will offer a lot of weapons and different buildings

The longevity of a roguelike is made or broken by the depth of builds offered to players, as too little variety makes repeat runs less compelling. Deeper customization that accommodates niche playstyles as well as more traditional, familiar archetypes is enough to keep players hooked for the next roguelike run. When discussing how buildings were designed in Hyper Light BreakerClark revealed the team's approach to creating diversity:

''We started designing our gear by envisioning a large number of specific archetype builds – tank, summoner, sniper, etc. The equipment that supports these builds is the initial pool, but this approach generates a lot of narrow-gauge equipment that you mix and match well – so once we have that pool, we'll start changing things to make things more flexible.''

Starting with traditional archetypes and incorporating more subtle gear is a smart approach and means players can spend as much or as little time tweaking their build as they want. Hyper Light BreakerThe weapon arsenal includes both melee and ranged options that form the basis of the play style. Meanwhile, various unlocks and upgrades help players master more specialized approaches to combat in Overgrowth.

The Heart Machine seems to anticipate Hyper Light BreakerThe player base will accumulate many hours in the game, some of which will be spent experimenting with different builds and equipment. Each cycle takes place on a procedurally generated map, and players can have several runs per cycle before the cycle ends and the map resets. Releasing the game in early access means that Heart Machine can improve and improve Hyper Light BreakerMechanics based on player feedback and user experience.