What would you do if you knew you were going to die?
If your heart was broken, beyond repair?
If you knew you would never grow old, and that any breath could be your last?
Alex Preston has faced this question throughout his entire life.
He has grown up knowing that, eventually, he will literally die of a broken heart.
Faced with the constant, pressing issue of his own mortality, he once kept his pain hidden
from the world – until one day, when he decided that if he was to die, he would leave
behind a legacy that couldn’t be ignored.
This is the story of Hyper Light Drifter, a video game that was born of pain and suffering.
This is the story of Alex Preston, and the weak heart that inspired a digital masterpiece.
[intro] Alex Preston has always known that he is not
long for this world.
Alex was born with a congenital heart defect, as well as a rare genetic disease.
As a baby, he underwent open heart surgery in an attempt to lengthen his life expectancy.
This early surgery worked, but it isn’t the only time Alex’s heart has gone under
the knife.
Throughout his life, Alex has suffered the pains of his illness.
He takes a cocktail of drugs on a daily basis just to keep himself alive, and he must stick
to a strict routine in order to ensure that he can keep his health up.
Any bout of sickness could be his last, and even something as simple as eating the wrong
food could cause him significant pain.
So how does a person live with the knowledge that their life will likely be cut short?
In Alex’s case, he uses art as an outlet for his struggles.
Alex studied an art degree at college, using his creative works to reflect his own personal
challenges and health issues.
While he later felt that his early art was pretty awful, Alex appreciates that these
early works were important for him to learn to express himself.
Creating terrible art is simply a rite of passage that every artist must pass through.
Upon his graduation, Alex moved on with his life as best he could.
He worked as a freelance artist, drawing when he was healthy enough, while also taking time
to rest when necessary as his illness periodically slowed him down.
When possible, Alex also made art for himself, which continued to draw inspiration from his
own trials.
He hoarded these, keeping them to himself, as he didn’t feel like he wanted to share
them with the world.
They were simply his own method of coping with the constant threat of death.
Throughout this, Alex maintained a keen sense of humor.
His doctors were amazed at how he would come into appointments, making wry observations
filled with dark jokes, even as he discussed matters of his own life and death.
Then, Alex hit a particularly rocky patch.
He was hospitalized, and for a while, things looked bleak.
This might be the end.
But as he lay there in the hospital, Alex decided that he wasn’t ready to go just
yet.
He realized that he needed the world to know who he was before he left.
If he was to go, he wanted to make sure he’d leave something behind that would make people
sit up and pay attention.
And so, Alex pulled through, and upon discharge, he began working on a plan to share his unique
perspective, and his own personal trials, with the world.
Alex decided that he wanted to make a video game; a piece of interactive fiction that
would put the player in Alex’s shoes so that they could feel, even in an abstract,
metaphorical fashion, a little of what he feels every day.
He started by making sketches and storyboards, and then trying his hand at using game engines.
This game would be driven by pictures and images, with no spoken dialogue.
He wanted things to stay ambiguous, but not so ambiguous that the meta-story wasn’t
apparent.
Things really ramped up when Alex began working with a programmer, Beau Blyth, at which point,
Hyper Light Drifter began to take shape.
The pair prepared for a Kickstarter, and Alex finally shared his story with the world.
In his campaign outline, he was completely honest about what was driving the project,
how he felt as a man with a serious heart condition, and why he wanted to turn this
experience into a fantasy video game.
Alex even named his fledgling game studio Heart Machine, succinctly explaining the focus
of his game, and the omnipresent issue within his own life.
To Alex’s complete surprise, the resounding response that came from the internet was,
“We hear you, and we want to know more”.
Alex had initially set a goal of earning 27,000 dollars in order to make Hyper Light Drifter
a reality.
By the time the funding window closed, backers had pledged over 645 thousand dollars.
This was incredible!
Alex hadn’t expected a reaction that was anything like this!
Something in his game pitch genuinely seemed to speak to people, and he now had the chance
to make his game the way he wanted.
Very quickly, the project ran into delays.
Part of this came from the generous funding that Heart Machine had received.
With more money came the opportunity to expand the game’s scope – and that meant that
things were going to take more time.
Hearth Machine grew, as many new team members joined the project, all under Alex’s direction.
Delays were also cause by illness.
All the money in the world couldn’t fix Alex’s heart.
They couldn’t erase his genetic condition either.
Alex worked when he could, and when he was sick, things slowed down.
There was no way around this.
At one point during development, Alex had to endure another round of surgery, as doctors
fitted a new artificial valve within his heart.
It helped to keep him alive, and that was the priority, so the game had to take a back
seat as he recovered.
Slowly, everything within the game fell into place.
Alex filled his creation with overt references to his disease.
The story follows a character with a similar, fatal illness.
While it is never clearly explained, the character is seen coughing up blood, and passing out
at different points in the narrative.
Alex and his team littered the game with beating heart imagery.
Meanwhile, he put his own story front and center as he talked to press and interested
gamers.
He wasn’t able to do everything he wanted to do.
There were events and expose that Alex would have liked to attend, but he simply couldn’t
handle the journey, and the time on the show floor.
The strain would have been too much for him.
Finally, Hyper Light Drifter launched, and gamers loved it.
This was clearly a game that was about something; a piece of art that was more than a simple
action simulator.
The game was nominated for many prestigious awards, both for its art, design, and its
music.
Alex enjoyed the praise that came his way, even if it was sometimes bittersweet.
He was offered the chance to travel to Japan to speak at a conference, but he had to decline
because the journey would be too much to bear.
Nevertheless, he was pleased with his creation.
Alex had set out to show the world his viewpoint; to make sure that people understood him and
the struggle he faced thanks to his illness.
He had achieved this, and had managed to share his story with the world.
To this day, Alex continues to be active in the gaming world.
He knows that his time is limited, but he intends to make the most of it.
The moral of the story is that heartbreak can lead to beauty.
Alex Preston took all of his pain and suffering, and channeled it into a piece of art.
He made something positive out of all the negative things in his life.
Alex’s attitude in the face of adversity – his ability to keep smiling and joking
when facing death – is to be commended.
This isn’t easy, and facing our struggles isn’t always pleasant.
Don’t give up hope.
No matter what you’re faced with, if you keep pushing forward, you may surprise yourself
with just how much you can accomplish.