What aesthetic approach did you take with Solar Ash, and are there any particular games that influence the game's design or look? Hyper Light Drifter is very reminiscent of 8-bit and 16-bit games, and you've noted in the past the influence The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo had on the game.

Because Drifter was more constrained in a lot of ways, we wanted to be able to go pretty wild on our character control with Solar Ash and to open up the pacing of gameplay. Preston: We wanted to create a much larger, freer, and more believable world to get lost in. What spurred the decision to make that jump? This is Heart Machine's second game, and it makes the leap from 2D action role-playing to 3D action platformer. Really though, what's important is that you'll see how this is a Heart Machine game-the connective tissues between the games may not be direct in the sense of continuity with story and worlds and characters, but the style, the atmosphere, the tone, the importance of game feel will all be familiar to those who have played Drifter. Preston: It's more of a silly comment I made in that it can be a galaxy or ten away type of universe.

What does that mean in terms of how players should try to connect the stories, settings, characters, and creatures? Narratively, you've said that both Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash take place in the same universe, though they're not directly tied to one another. We chatted with Preston about the game's personal and canonical inspirations, how Unreal Engine helped give life to Rei's fluid gameplay, and why he's so happy with how the game's clouds turned out. This latest creation is described by the Epic Games Store as “ Jet Set Radio meets Shadow of the Colossus, with a bit of Super Mario Galaxy mixed in.” Both are powered by Heart Machine's artful touch and creative director Alx Preston's own desire to navigate trauma. Where Hyper Light Drifter saturates its contemplative RPG gameplay in a pixelated palette of vivid colors, Solar Ash delivers vibrant swirls of kinetic exploration on the skates of Voidrunner Rei. It's not story, worlds, or characters that bond the two together, but style, tone, and atmosphere. Both are colorful, explorative action games by developer Heart Machine, which-while they may share some form of distant related universe-are connected in different ways.

Think of Solar Ash as a sort of spiritual successor to Hyper Light Drifter.

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