The Score Ahead: The Music of Hyper Light Breaker
As Hyper Light Breaker approaches its early access launch, one element of the game stands out as a unifying force across its vibrant biomes, high-stakes combat, and cooperative exploration: its music. Composed by Joel Corelitz (JC) and Troupe Gammage (TEG), the soundtrack is more than just background noise; it’s an integral part of the game’s atmosphere, storytelling, and emotional resonance. Here’s an inside account by Troupe and Joel about how the music of Breaker came to life.
[h2]What is the overall theme and vibe of the music in Breaker?[/h2]
JC: Breaker’s music conveys hope and heroism in a desolate time and place. It’s ambient yet thematic, evocative yet distressed. It weaves its way into the fabric of the environment and shifts to match its purpose. In some areas, it feels like cultural music of the land’s inhabitants, while in others, it’s a melody carried by the wind.
Duality plays a significant role. I love intense music that also communicates deep emotion. One recurring motif, the Abyss King’s theme, embodies this duality—it’s intense, tragic, and heroic, carrying players from the title screen to epic battles.
[h2]How did you arrive at Breaker’s musical aesthetic?[/h2]
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JC: The discovery phase of composition is one of my favorites. It’s all about experimentation and play—finding what works and what doesn’t. We began with extended ambient pieces to evaluate in-game, iterating on elements like energy, theme, and production, particularly with different ways to “distress” the sound, until we landed on something that felt unique. Through that process, I think we created a really strong musical language for Breaker that is special and immediately recognizable - even if it’s just a simple piano chord.
[h2]How does collaboration work between composers?[/h2]
JC: There are two of us—myself and Troupe Gammage. We each focused on different areas for the long form pieces and composed complimentary components of various musical systems. Our collaborative process has been so seamless that when we play the game, we often can’t remember who composed what!
[h2]How is the music in Breaker similar to and different from Drifter?[/h2]
JC: It is an incredible honor to carry the Hyper Light legacy forward. We aimed to forge new creative territory, not simply create a replica of Drifter’s soundtrack. What I think made Drifter’s soundtrack so successful is the use of timeless, compelling compositions communicated with an interesting, original palette. We tried do the same thing, but completely unique to Breaker - drawing on a wide range of influences, from jazz fusion to neoclassical.
TEG: For Breaker, I wanted to bring Drifter’s inspirations forward in time. While the late 19th-century impressionist spirit remains core to the Hyper Light universe, I incorporated 20th-century idioms, like the jazz of Gershwin and Miles Davis and modernist influences such as Stravinsky and Reich. These styles felt appropriate for the improvisational nature of the game and its themes: cyclical rebirth, challenges to authority, and a grappling with technological progress.
The foundation of the Breaker score is electronic music. The destructive, self-consuming worlds of Fennesz and William Basinski in particular fit the tone of the game perfectly, and inspired a new, even gnarlier decayed Hyper Light texture that doesn’t feel derivative of the original game.
[h2]What considerations went into composing for a spiritual successor?[/h2]
TEG: Writing music in an existing universe requires fluency in its language—then writing poetry with it. It took a year to master Breaker’s musical vocabulary, and it was important for us to communicate fresh ideas. Thankfully, the shift to 3D and multiplayer added new dimensions, giving us space to fill with huge synths and reverbs that were out of place in Drifter’s labyrinths.
JC: The addition of 3D environments was a huge opportunity for differentiation. While Drifter was intimate, Breaker’s soundtrack is more expansive, though it still has poignant moments of intimacy. With this massive 3D world, we were empowered to fill it with grander textures.
[h2]How do you handle combat music?[/h2]
TEG: At Heart Machine, we avoid the “combat drums” aesthetic common in games with discrete combat states. Our gameplay is often fast-paced and transitions fluidly between action and exploration, which requires a more subtle approach.
In Breaker, we used a nuanced set of transitional layers and musical snippets to express the idea of tension, climax, and release during encounters. Some fights may never rise above the level of simple “tension” – just the anticipation before a jump scare in a horror film. A tussle with a few slime enemies may not even get a nod from the music system!
For larger battles, the music builds in intensity, roaring and receding based on the threat. We’re excited to add even more variety during early access, with unique layers and melodies for specific enemies. For example, larger more threatening enemies could have their own unique layers or melodies. An experienced player might hear a particular riff and think “uh oh, there’s a Leaper behind me…”
BELOW: Some examples of different in-game scenes with music / audio transitions. What do you think of how the music enhances or changes the actions occurring in each scene? Systems Music 1 Systems Music 2 Systems Music 3
[h2]How do you manage transitions between zones and events?[/h2]
TEG: Biome definitions and interactions evolved during development, so we needed a highly reactive music system. We used a hybrid approach with “short form” layers and snippets (5-25 seconds) that are triggered randomly, and “long form” composed pieces (1-3 minutes). These systems weave together seamlessly, reacting to player activity without getting stale.
Short form sections help provide a subtle, unintrusive baseline that reinforces the identity of the biome, and can transition quickly between regions and game states with no fuss. Long form compositions tend to get more specific tonally and emotionally, and provide a really nice peak to the short form valley. In moments of intense combat these tracks will subside in favor of the short form combat layers, and they can be stopped if the player transitions to a new biome or activity, like extraction.
We’re excited to add more depth during early access, tailoring music to elements like dense foliage or ruined cityscapes and layering in narrative surprises.
[h2]How does the hub music reflect player progress?[/h2]
TEG: Unlike most Roguelikes which have simple “win” or “lose” states at the end of a run, *Breaker* players experience ups and downs throughout the course of a single game cycle. Success and failure are a spectrum of states, not binary.
Our hub music changes to reflect the player’s performance on their previous run, which makes the hub feel more dynamic and helps reinforce the significance of key moments in a player’s journey.
In a procedural game, time spent in the hub is also one of the few opportunities for us to showcase uninterrupted music, which gives us a platform to delve into the cultural and thematic content of Breaker’s world.
BELOW: Some examples of different hub ambient music - how does each one make you feel? What do you think happened in the previous run?
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[h2]Looking Ahead[/h2]
As Hyper Light Breaker approaches early access on January 14, 2025, its music promises to evolve alongside the game. With its blend of heroism, tragedy, and experimental textures, the soundtrack is set to be as unforgettable as the environment it inhabits.
We hope that for fans of Hyper Light Drifter, Breaker’s music will offer a fresh yet familiar chapter in this beloved world, and that new players will fall in love with the soundscape of our universe.
