It is not exactly a secret that many independent developers are struggling to maintain operations these days with economic gestures * vague on the world map. I will not act like this exactly a new concept, I have seen a few other developers, usually in size smaller or solo, try the same. But it still feels like a sign that Heart Machine needs a bit of enhancement to keep everything continue.
The founder of the Heart Machine Alx Preston recently talked to The Verge at GDC about the reason for the team after starting Patreon, giving some quite frank explanations. “Patreon there, really, to open to the community and talk about certain things when developing the game,” Preston said. “I think there are still many distances between the developers in the tradition and the audience consumes what they create – what we do – so finding a deep digging and having a conversation there is important.”
Obviously, money is also a factor – “the motivation of the industry has changed a lot, so the money is very difficult to achieve many ways,” Preston said, continuing, “whatever we can do to support ourselves and live longer than one important thing to look forward to.” Preston made the view that Patreon was not a large part of the studio’s revenue, but if “you continue to participate and continue to do more things there, then it is another model than going to publishers to make money at all times.”
Quite reasonable, he said that right now, it is “the testing phase of finding what F*ck works in these days.” To be honest, strength for them for giving something like this before. Having a game that accomplishes the same feeling as a miracle these days, so I hope the additional support will not succeed.
Right now Heart Machine is working on the Hyper Light Breaker mentioned above, a more direct service for Hyper Light Drifter 2016. When it debuted Early Access earlier this year, the overall package does not really work so well.
Personally, I have not come back to it since then, I am waiting for a few more updates to come, even if I am not completely sold when starting from the original game. The other game it is active, the owner, maybe a little more in my alley. Fingers overcome the team can keep everything happening!
