Indie studio Heart Machine has announced their Kickstarter funded RPG Hyper Light Drifter will be releasing on PC by the end of the year, as they need ”more time” to polish their stylised RPG.
The team had originally asked for $27,000 from backers, but were flooded with over $645k and ramped up the RPG’s scale, and so Heart Machine ”will not rush the project.”
The closed beta is currently aiming for around June which opens up a section of the world. Hyper Light Drifter will release for PC and Steam first later in the year.
”After heavy development, much discussion and examination, the team and I have decided that we will not rush the project. There’s an intense desire to create a polished, beautiful experience and we need more time to do so. We plan for the closed beta to come out near June, so you’ll still savage hordes of beasts and explore a section of the world in due time. The Steam + PC release are first, as they were the initial platform; we have our sights set on the end of the year holiday season. Other platform releases are planned to follow shortly thereafter,” read the latest update.
The huge funding for the game has let the original vision’s scope expand, and that means more people on the project and so more time needed to polish the game. ”We’ve spent these past months working incredibly hard - on weekends and beyond - scheduling, planning and budgeting how we can best utilize the resources you, the backers, have so graciously given us to create the game everyone deserves,” they continued.
”The original approximation of a June release was for a game developed with just myself and Beau Blyth, something much smaller; I would have been creating art for the next six months, with much rougher edges and animation. Since we have been given this remarkable opportunity, the project has evolved, requires polish and finesse that I was not originally afforded. We are able to make the experience whole, into the full vision I had wanted it to be.”
Hyper Light Drifter releases on PC first late 2014, with Mac, Linux, Ouya, PS4, Vita and Wii U soon after.
