HyperLightDrifter ArtBook Web

Copyright © 2017 by Heart Machine, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, without the prior
written consent of the publisher. Every effort has been
made to ensure that the artwork has been displayed as
intended by the artist.
First print edition: February 2017

Printed in the United States of America
Published by Fangamer (fangamer.com)

Printed by Bang Printing (bangprinting.com)
Produced by Heart Machine (www.heartmachine.com)
FOREWORD
by Alx Preston
I began work on Hyper Light Drifter early in 2012. For a long while it
remained nothing but an amalgamation of ideas and crude sketches, all
etched during a rather desperate period of my life: I had wasted away
to 90 lbs, mostly bedridden, and was unable to eat anything but prefab
medical goop through a tube punched in my stomach. It was a true
waking nightmare.
I kept alive and motivated by distracting myself, pouring what little

energy I had into this and other projects I loved. I could still draw, write,
think and be a productive human in some capacity.
In early 2013 the wonderful, brilliant and endlessly warm Beau Blyth
began helping prototype the game. His expert GameMaker knowledge
and incredible speed was like wizardry. I took the lead on animation;
cobbling together bits and pieces, learning on my feet, manually
animating in Photoshop and Flash, seeking out reference sprite sheets
from various classic games. We used a lot of crummy temp sprites to
convey ideas during our prototype phase: Beau had a knack for drawing
intentionally bad sprites that screamed “replace me!”, like the giant
cartoon steak you could pick up and throw at enemies, or the handsome
hotdog gun.
Once the Kickstarter concluded in late 2013 several folks joined the team
full time including Teddy Diefenbach -- incredible programmer, endlessly
thoughtful and a soothing voice of reason -- and Casey Hunt. Casey had
been a long time friend and confidant and became the cornerstone of
conversations for design, story, everything. He and I spent countless days
and nights discussing and sketching ideas for the game, slowly fleshing
out a world that was still early and rough into something intricate.
Casey’s skills in concepting, world building and his carefully considered

approach to design all contributed to shape the game in many ways. I
cannot imagine what the game and team would have been without his
thoughts and talent.
Sean Ward became our lead animator on the project soon after the
Kickstarter ended. Straight out of school and unfamiliar with pixel art,
he dove right in via contract work without hesitation. He came up with
incredible results. His ridiculous talent, determination and raw work ethic
afforded us some fantastically lush animations across this behemoth of
a game, hand-crafting thousands of frames for the main character alone.
(Who knows how many for every other creature, boss, NPC and object,
including all the dozens of variations of iterations we tried throughout
our two and half year development.) He may indeed be a robot, but I
can never be sure as his charming smile and humor are so disarming.
Cosimo Galluzzi joined us as a contractor late in cycle. For the last year
of production he was furiously working the final in-game art in tandem
with me. I had produced a massive amount, but holy hell was there a
mountain of it yet to climb. We burned through entire tileset rethinks
at such a rapid pace, huge amounts of labor was poured into our NPC
panels and then our bombastic cutscenes (which Sean, Casey and
myself all tag-teamed for months prior). Without Cosimo at the tail end,
I would have collapsed from sheer exhaustion, brains dribbling out my
ears. His unwavering support, incredible skill, attention to detail and raw
speed during such an extreme and critical time span was the crux for
art-completion leading up to launch.
We also had several key freelancers helping throughout the project on

the art and animation side: Paul Veer of Vlambeer provided his incredible
skills to us on a variety animations early on, many still in use by the end
of the project; Robert Lopatto contributed a plethora of perfect tile and
object work in various regions of the game; Ian Schlaepfer crafted some
supremely helpful prototypes of the Drifter and a few enemies we used
in our very first demo at Minecon.
Hyper Light Drifter is stuffed to the brim with art, ideas and passion.
Thank you to everyone who contributed and made this game possible
with immeasurable heart and spirit poured into each and every bit.
Please enjoy a small look into the making of our game and keep in mind
the lovely people behind it.
The Game
Alx Preston
The Game 009

Alx Preston
Matt Nava
010 Hyper Light Drifter

Alx Preston
The Game 011

Alx Preston
Alx Preston

The Game 015
Sean Ward

The Game 017
Alx Preston

The Game 019
Alx Preston

The Game 021
Alx Preston

Sprite versions by Johan Vinet
The Game 023

Alx Preston, Casey Hunt (bottom row), Ian Schlaepfer (top right), Nick Wozniak (top left)

Paul Veer
The Game 025

Alx Preston

The Game 027
Casey Hunt

Alx Preston
The Game 029

Alx Preston

The Game 031
Alx Preston

The Game 033
Alx Preston

The Game 035
Alx Preston

The Game 037
Alx Preston

The Game 039
Alx Preston

The Game 041
Alx Preston

The Game 043
Casey Hunt

The Game 045
Casey Hunt

The Game 047
Casey Hunt

The Game 049
Casey Hunt

The Game 051
Casey Hunt

The Game 053
Alx Preston

The Game 055
Casey Hunt

The Game 057
Casey Hunt

The Game 059
Casey Hunt

The Game 061
Casey Hunt (Drifter by Alx Preston)

The Game 063
Casey Hunt

The Game 065
Casey Hunt

The Game 067
Casey Hunt

The Game 069
Casey Hunt

The Game 071
Sean Ward

Animation by Sean Ward
The Game 073

Sean Ward

The Game 075

Sean Ward

The Game 077

The Game 079

Sean Ward
The Game 081

Casey Hunt

The Game 083

The Game 085
Casey Hunt

Alx Preston + Beau Blyth
The Game 087

Sean Ward

The Game 089
Sean Ward

The Game 091
Alx Preston + Cosimo Galluzzi

Rob Lopatto
Alx Preston
The Game 093

Cosimo Galluzzi
Casey Hunt + Alx Preston

The Game 095
Cosimo Galluzzi

Cosimo Galluzzi + Alx Preston
Cosimo Galluzzi
The Game 097


The Game 099

The Game 101

The Game 103
Alx Preston

The Game 105

Casey Hunt
Rob Lopatto

The Game 109
Rob Lopatto

The Game 111
Casey Hunt
Alx Preston

Alx Preston
The Game 115


The Game 117

The Game 119
Casey Hunt

Rob Lopatto
The Game 121

Alx Preston

Alx Preston
Cosimo Galluzzi
The Game 123

Casey Hunt + Alx Preston

Sean Ward
The Game 125


The Game 127

The Game 129

The Game 131
Casey Hunt

The Game 133
Casey Hunt

The Game 135
Alx Preston
Opposite: Cosimo Galluzzi + Alx Preston

Rob Lopatto

The Game 143

The Game 145

The Game 147
Alx Preston
Casey Hunt

Alx Preston
The Game 149

Casey Hunt

Cosimo Galluzzi
The Game 151


The Game 153
Rob Lopatto

The Game 155
Backers + Cosimo Galluzzi

The Game 157
Animation by Sean Ward, design by Alx Preston

The Game 161

The Game 163
Casey Hunt

Alx Preston
The Game 165


The Game 167

The Game 169
Cosimo Galluzzi

The Game 171

The story frames were an ongoing collaboration between
Alx, Casey, Cosimo and Sean—with some extra polish from
Rob Lopatto. Presented here are some of Cosimo’s early
color roughs.

The Game 175
The Game 177
The animations were again a joint effort of Alx, Casey,
Cosimo and Sean. Appearing here is Casey’s early
storyboard and animatic, the team’s later iterations and
some initial frames by Alx and Cosimo

The Game 179
The Game 181
The Game 183
Fan Art
Night Margin (Casey Gu)
nightmargin.com

Fan Art 187
Giannis Milonogiannis
www.milonogiannis.com

Khalkeus
khalkeus.tumblr.com
Mist-zunda
mist-zunda.tumblr.com
Fan Art 189

Erica Lahaie
twitter.com/aurahack

Luke ‘Mr. Jack’ Mancini
mr--jack.deviantart.com
Fan Art 191

Mike Chung
balloonwatchermikell.tumblr.com

Adrian Bloch
bloch-adrian.tumblr.com
Fan Art 193

Andojin
twitter.con/andojin

Fan Art 195
Eric Meister
meistermash.tumblr.com
Betu
betu.me

Francoyovich
francoyovich.tumblr.com
Fan Art 197

Mark Usmiani
markusmianiart.tumblr.com

Hud Duque
www.behance.net/hudduque
Rune F.B. Hansen

runefbhansen.blogspot.dk
Fan Art 199

Denis Matei
madarazero.artstation.com
Darren Rawlings
www.thinkmore.com

@9_ar7k
obsoletebrowser.net
Fan Art 201

Apple Paddle
applepaddle.tumblr.com
Mel Titcomb
puddingdrop.tumblr.com

Lotty
beamattack.tumblr.com
Fan Art 203

Tiffany Hayashi
almond-goddess.tumblr.com

Mayamei
mymyuh.tumblr.com
Andrew Philpott
www.behance.net/aphilpottdesign
Fan Art 205

Fred Studart
fredstudart.blogspot.com
AviaDelete
aviadelete.tumblr.com

Steelsuit
steelsuit.tumblr.com
J. Moses Nester
partthewaters.tumblr.com
Fan Art 207

Lake Hurwitz
www.demonui.com

Fan Art 209
Nicole Rodriguez
shnikkles.tumblr.com

Lo
lofrequency.net
Fan Art 211

Italktotherain Cosplay
www.facebook.com/italktotheraincosplay
Vagabond Photography
www.facebook.com/avagaphoto
Yokaiy
yokaiy.com

CREDITS
HEART MACHINE QA TESTING

Alx Preston Sean Ward The Research Centaur
Creator Heart Machine + Animation / Cinematics / UX+QA
Hyper Light Drifter / Art Lead / Design Assistance
Story / Design / Team Lead / QA Lead
Husk of a Human Disasterpeace Jay Fernandes
Music + Ambience
Beau Blyth QA Testers
Design + Code / Akash Thakkar Lucia Aldana
Combat / Prototype Sound Design Joshua Palmer
Larry J. Bolden II
Teddy Dief Lisa Brown John Micaud
Design + Code / Additional Level Design Design Assistance
Narrative Design / Producing
Cosimo Galluzzi
Casey Hunt Art Support / Cinematics
Story + World Building /
Narrative Design + Cohesion /
Level Design
Additional SPECIAL
Contributions SUPPORT
Baths Rob Lopatto YoYo Games
Kickstarter Trailer Music Additional Art Support
Mike Dailly
Aaron Melcher Ian Schlaepfer Peter Hall
Additional Code + Port Work Additional Art Assets Russell Kay
Mike Rennie
Paul Veer Jesse Balmer Stuart Poole
Additional Animation Additional Art Assets Ross Manthorp
Sandy Duncan
Kurtis Mitchell John Leffingwell Original Game Maker
Additional Ambience Additional Code by Mark Overmars
SPECIAL THANKS
Adam Robezzoli James Cox Rita Hunt

Adriaan de Jongh Jean Canellas Rob Manuel
Adriel Wallick Jeff DeMoss Rusty Moyer
Aileen Viray Jeff Lin Ruth + Rob Diefenbach
Akira Thompson Jeff Sjerven Sam Bosma
Alex Bennett Jennifer Wang Sam Farmer
Alexander Bruce Joel Burgess Sam Sher
Andrew Gleeson Joel Dreskin Samantha Hubshman
Andy Baio John Polson Sara Elmelah
Andy McMillan Josh “SaintConner” Ashmore Scott Benson
Angel Lyons-Labate Justin Yngelmo Sean Holaday
Anita Sarkeesian Kanye West Seiji Tanaka
Anne + Charles Camalier Kareem Shuman Shenghan Guo
Anthony Carboni Kat J. Park Sidonie Tise
Asher Vollmer Kellan Jett So Jeong Sarah Kim
Ashly Burch Kristy Norindr Spencer Hayes
Ben “Little Dizzle” Lane Kyle Pulver Steve Swink
Ben Bury Lake Hurwitz Tamara Bruketta
Ben Esposito Levi Hopkins Thomas Glenn
Ben Vance Lindsay Peck Tim Schafer
Brendan LoBuglio Lisa Camalier Timothy Broadwell
Brendon Chung Liz Ryerson Tracy Fullerton
Brody Brooks Luke Silas Tyler Hutchison
Bryan Cash Lynn Obermoeller Tynan Wales
Bryan Sharkey Lynne Qiu Wendi Chen
Carlos Lopez Maria Barnes Davis Will Wiesenfeld (Baths)
Casey “NightMargin” Gu Mark DeNardo Wilson Skomal
Charlie Logan Mark Essen Zach Gage
Chris + Bob Emmons Matt Boch Zef Schutt
Chris Charla Matt Nava Zoe Quinn
Chris Fung Max Palazzo
Chris Sweeney Maya Wagoner YoYo Games
Colin Diefenbach Megan Farokhmanesh Indie Fund
Davey Wreden Mike Birkhead IndieCade
David Kanaga Mike Diefenbach Indie MEGABOOTH
Della Martinez Mike Sennott USC Interactive Media + Games
Edwon Mulan Madden
Eric Hsieh My-Linh Le Glitch.City LA
Eric Itomura Nathalie Van Gerrevink
Erik VandenBerghe Nathan Vella A very special thanks to
Evan Goldsborough Nicholas Schauer Kickstarter and the 24,150
Faith Zeng Nick Suttner backers without whose
Greg Batha Nick Wozniak support, trust, and patience
Greg Kasavin Pen Ward this game wouldn’t have
Greg Rice Pete Morbacher been possible.
Heather Diefenbach Peter Bartholow
Helena Vissing Phil Fish
Hilary Diefenbach Rachel Sala
Ian Hinck Rami Ismail
Ian Snyder Random Couch
Jakub Koziol Randy O’Connor
James “JLewis413” Lewis Richard Lemarchand
Casey Hunt
Alx Preston

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HyperLightDrifter ArtBook Web

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Copyright © 2017 by Heart Machine, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

First print edition: February 2017

Published by Fangamer (fangamer.com)

I kept alive and motivated by distracting myself, pouring what little

Casey’s skills in concepting, world building and his carefully considered

We also had several key freelancers helping throughout the project on

The Game 009

010 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 011

014 Hyper Light Drifter

016 Hyper Light Drifter

018 Hyper Light Drifter

020 Hyper Light Drifter

022 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 023

024 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 025

026 Hyper Light Drifter

028 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 029

030 Hyper Light Drifter

032 Hyper Light Drifter

034 Hyper Light Drifter

036 Hyper Light Drifter

038 Hyper Light Drifter

040 Hyper Light Drifter

042 Hyper Light Drifter

044 Hyper Light Drifter

046 Hyper Light Drifter

048 Hyper Light Drifter

050 Hyper Light Drifter

052 Hyper Light Drifter

054 Hyper Light Drifter

056 Hyper Light Drifter

058 Hyper Light Drifter

060 Hyper Light Drifter

062 Hyper Light Drifter

064 Hyper Light Drifter

066 Hyper Light Drifter

068 Hyper Light Drifter

070 Hyper Light Drifter

072 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 073

074 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 075

076 Hyper Light Drifter

078 Hyper Light Drifter

080 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 081

082 Hyper Light Drifter

084 Hyper Light Drifter

086 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 087

088 Hyper Light Drifter

090 Hyper Light Drifter

092 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 093

Casey Hunt + Alx Preston

094 Hyper Light Drifter

096 Hyper Light Drifter

The Game 097

098 Hyper Light Drifter

100 Hyper Light Drifter