Hyper Light Drifter Delayed to End-of-Year Holiday Season

We've reported on Hyper Light Drifter a few times, as it looks like a highly promising action adventure that's on the way to the Wii U eShop along with a host of other platforms. With attractive visuals and a promise of retro-level challenge, it's certainly been on our watch-list.

Unfortunately the title is no longer set to make its PC début in June, with other versions to follow. Instead lead developer Alex Preston has decided, with his team, to push the target release window back to continue further work on the game, though backers should be able to access a closed beta on PC "near June"; the full game is now targeting the end-of-year Holiday season on PC, with console versions to follow "shortly thereafter". Continuing a trend from other extremely successful campaigns — it raised $645,158 despite a humble $27,000 target — the significant funds and expectation have led to the developer expanding the scope to aim for a more ambitious final result.

The following is from the latest Kickstarter status update.

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. 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.

The other major factor is health: I can't physically push myself to the brink; I live with limitations that most do not. The amazing thing now, after the success of this campaign, is that I have a team to support this project, to support me. This means that I'll have to pace myself to avoid crashing, a fact I was reminded of just this week. We're all working as hard as we can within reason.

I know some will be disappointed about a delay. For us it means creating as great and polished an experience as is possible. I remember yelling at Nintendo Power whenever Zelda: OoT was delayed, and now I fully understand why they did it and how it paid off in the end. In Miyamoto's words: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

It's perhaps wise to cite those famous words from Shigeru Miyamoto, and no doubt backers and intrigued download gamers alike will be interested in seeing how this project turns out. We may have longer to wait, but we can still enjoy the wonderful trailer for the title, below.