Drifters! It's been a bit of time since last we posted an updated. We have been deep in the midst of development and planning for all the big events, so things became irregular on posting. We attended GDC (truly incredible), we announced support for a new platform, and we made some great new friends throughout the process.

Playstation

Sony has been an amazing group to work with since our Kickstarter took off, and they were gracious enough to provide us a spotlight on the blog (which contains some new footage, and our updated logo):

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/03/14/creating-the-world-of-hyper-light-drifter-on-ps4-and-ps-vita/

Sony made an announcement on GameMaker:Studio (and several other middleware platforms) mid-week here:

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/03/19/gdc-new-tools-middleware-coming-ps4/

What this means: it's far easier and less costly to release our game on the PS4 and Vita now. We had a screenshot of it running on Vita over at the GM:S booth at GDC:

http://heartmachinez.tumblr.com/

We're in good company with games like Samuria Gunn, Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers, Hotline Miami, Risk of Rain, Nidhogg and many other excellent projects showing off what's possible on this tool.

YoYo Games, the creators of GameMaker, have been vigilant in making certain they have the ability to port to these consoles as painlessly as possible. They know that small developers need as broad a platform base as possible to reach a wider audience, and they've been impressive in getting it together so far. We hope to see more great platform announcements from them soon.

HLD on Xbox One

Just in case anyone missed the announcement, we are indeed coming to Xbox One! This means you'll be able to claim a key for any of the platforms now. Whew! 

The ID@Xbox program has evolved rather quickly since the beginning of the year; they've begun reaching out to developers and making sure the platform is competitive for all types of games. Chris Charla has been the biggest proponent of small devs like us, and he pushes hard to get the program where it needs to be. We have a lot of respect for the man and what he's doing over at Microsoft.

Please check out the other announced titles for XB1 (Divekick!):

http://news.xbox.com/2014/03/games-id-xbox-games-first-look

We're beyond excited to be on all of the major platforms.

GDC

This was my first GDC, and it was kind of magical. I met a lot of wonderful people throughout the show, including amazing games journalists that I've followed for years, amazing developers that have my utmost respect, and amazing new people I can call friends.

The game was well received by everyone who played it, and we have plenty of notes on what to tweak after our first major showing. 

Here's a few links to some videos and articles if you missed them (there's one on PC Gamer and a few more coming up later next week):

http://www.destructoid.com/hyper-light-drifter-is-gorgeous-and-punishing-272124.phtml

http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/21/5527310/hyper-light-drifter-gameplay-video

http://www.mediaindieexchange.com/

We also had the opportunity to briefly play some inspiring games at the events; stand-out gems from the IGF booth, and the super-cool Night in the Woods:

http://www.nightinthewoods.com/

PAX East

Just to let people know, we will indeed be attending PAX East. We'll have further details in the near future - booth number, rewards, possibly a new screen shot or two. We're looking forward to meeting as many of you as humanly possible, after giving you the chance to play the game and talk about life and smashing things to bits.

Plushie

By the way, we have the Drifter plushie up for order now! Small run of 25, hand crafted by Rita Hunt:

www.etsy.com/shop/egabragcrafts

If this goes well, we plan to have a larger run soon.

T-Shirt rewards

Both tiers have been sent out, and t-shirts are all currently in production. We will send out the next set of surveys as soon as possible, likely closer to PAX East, and likely starting with the smaller tiers.

Final Bits

It's been a whirlwind week, and a heavy month. We still have a lot more to do prior to our next public event, but I'll try and keep everyone updated as quickly as possible. Please keep in mind that it's a bit of a crunch time, so messages/emails take a lower priority to allow us to concentrate on delivering a great experience. 

Have an incredible week, you lovely souls.