Hyper Light Drifter dev at risk of closing after laying off 'nearly everyone'

Heart Machine

Making games can be a brutal business, and another studio may have fallen victim to those struggles. Heart Machine Founder Alx Preston posted on LinkedIn today that the maker of Hyper Light Drifter has cut most of its team:

"We had been working on an unannounced title, funded by a publisher. This week, they decided to no longer move forward with it. Without this key income for the studio, any other immediate prospects or other funds, nearly everyone at the studio had to be laid off. It's devastating."

Heart Machine both developed and published Hyper Light Drifter, which launched to critical acclaim in 2016. However, the studio began working with external publishers beginning with its next effort, Solar Ash, and it announced plans in 2022 for Hyper Light Breaker. Work on the sequel to its debut game continued at the same time as the team also embarked on making Possessor(s), which may have stretched the team's resources thin. Although Possessor(s) did come out last year, Heart Machine ended development on Hyper Light Breaker and laid off workers in October 2025. Some of its remaining employees opted to unionize in March 2026.

Preston added in his missive today that "Navigating an increasingly challenging industry has been extremely difficult, and I'm not sure yet what's next for Heart Machine to survive." It's a sad possible end for a studio that won so many fans ten years ago.