Sweet Baby Inc. Infected 'Hyper Light Breaker' Developer Launches Patreon "To Survive" After Layoffs
Heart Machine, the developer of the upcoming Sweet Baby Inc. infected Hyper Light Breaker, launched a Patreon in order for the company “to survive” following layoffs in November.
Back in November, a report from James Batchelor at Games Industry revealed the company “dismissed a ‘portion’ of its workforce, although its unclear which departments this has affected.”
The company’s Community Manager Yiyi Zhang claimed that the layoffs will not affect Hyper Light Breaker’s release.
Zhang even appeared to imply that laid off employees might be able to rejoin the company depending on the game’s success, “In fact, a strong and and timely launch will rekindle opportunities for those affected as we look to evolve and grow the game throughout Early Access.”
Hyper Light Breaker was one of the games that Embracer Group retained after it sold off Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. back at the end of March.
The game had also been added to the Sweet Baby Inc. detected Steam curator group given Sweet Baby Inc. revealed it had worked on the game in regards to world building, story, story structure, and character development.
The company’s Founder and Creative Director Alex Preston had also shared in August before the layoffs that the company was delaying Hyper Light Breaker’s launch to Steam Early Access to sometime in 2025.
He explained, “After much evaluation and many conversations with our publisher Arc Games, we’ve decided that we need just a little more time to get the gameplay experience polished to our standards. Therefore, we’re now looking at an Early Access launch date of very early next year.”
Preston added, “We don’t want to ship a project, even in Early Access, that we’re not satisfied with on a number of fronts. Especially in the current state of the industry, we need to put as good a foot forward as we can.”
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Now, following these layoffs Preston announced the company has launched a Patreon in order to stay afloat. On the company’s official YouTube channel Preston stated, “So, state of the industry not great right now. Games are the greatest form of expression that humans have ever created. There’s a common saying in development that it’s a miracle that any games are made at all, let alone good ones. And now, it’s even more brutal.”
He continued, “Over the past two years, the industry has rapidly changed, flipped around and turned upside down. Funding for new projects is sparse even for successful developers. Everything is far more expensive to make. Paths we used to be able to take to create projects no longer exist.”
“You’ve likely heard about this on some front. It’s grim. 30% of all games developers have either been laid off or had their roles significantly reduced or affected over the past year alone,” he shard. “Studios have closed. Many have left. And we at Heart Machine are not immune, having gone through layoffs in November of this year.”
Next, he shared specifically why he and the company are launching the Patreon, “Since the old models are not enough, we have to adapt. So we're asking for support to help us continue to not just survive, but adapt and thrive. To help us prototype and build new projects, to help support us when the state of the industry has made it so much harder to exist.”
“Ever since we got started back in the Kickstarter days, we’ve been big on talking to our audience. And we think this Patreon is an opportunity for us to do more on this front while also benefitting.”
He then shared what he and the company will offer through the Patreon:
To give a more thorough and deep insight into our process and what it takes to make games. Sharing exclusive write-ups, videos, concept art, design documents and prototype gifs from all of our projects past and present.
To share more about the issues in the industry driving this state of turmoil. E.g. corporate consolidation, overspending, accelerating costs, and a changing market.
To reach a bigger audience with more transparency in an otherwise notoriously opaque industry in the hope we can share and do our part to help others to better navigate and survive.
Preston then concluded, “We all love games. We’re here because it’s an industry driven by passion. But it’s never been easy. We've been making titles we are extremely proud of for 10 years now, and we want to make sure we can stick around another 10. Approaches like this Patreon are part of what it takes to make sure of that, to get through the toughest times and come out ultimately better.”
The Patreon currently features six different supporter levels ranging from free to $100 per month. It currently has 390 members.
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Hyper Light Breaker goes into Steam Early Access on January 14th and will cost $29.99.
Preston said in a recent post on Steam announcing the date and price, “We’re thrilled to be a part of Day of the Devs: The Game Awards Edition and finally reveal that Hyper Light Breaker will be launching in Early Access in just a month. From all of us at Heart Machine, we really can’t thank our community, friends and colleagues enough for all of the support over the years and sticking with us as we’ve worked on our most ambitious project yet. Launching Hyper Light Breaker in Early Access will be just the beginning, as we want the community to be part of the game’s development journey. We really can’t wait for players to join us in the Overgrowth to bring Hyper Light Breaker to its full potential.”
What do you make of Heart Machine launching this Patreon?