While designing Hyper Light Drifter, Preston originally wanted the game to feature speedy traversal elements. Everything is designed to emphasize the game’s primary selling point: high-speed platforming. The Uavoid is divided into various expansive biomes, fragments of the worlds that have been consumed over presumably eons. Solar Ash is a trippy visual delight that pops with color. Tree-sized mushrooms, sea anemone-like grass, and luminous orange rivers – all surrounded by a layer of thick green clouds – are just a few of the natural sights players will admire. Within the Uavoid lies a fragmented world of surreal alien beauty. To prevent this, she’ll have to dive head-first into the Void to uncover a way to save her planet.
![homeworld the beast homeworld the beast](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/2/2e/Island_beast.jpg)
She’ll need to be good at her job, because one particularly dangerous black hole known as the Uavoid threatens to swallow her home world. Preston describes Rei as a “very capable” voidrunner with a good head on her shoulders. What is a voidrunner, you ask? Think of them as cosmic spelunkers who explore black holes in search of resources. Heart Machine is still keeping most of the details about Solar Ash’s plot close to the chest, but we do know that players control a voidrunner named Rei. “My first few 3D games I truly loved, like Mario 64 and all that stuff, it just opened my eyes to a whole new world.” “I definitely at a certain point had ambitions beyond just 2D that I wanted to get into with 3D because that’s where I think games really changed my perspective on what was possible creatively,” says Preston. Unlike the 2D pixels that built Hyper Light Drifter, Solar Ash’s fully realized 3D environments give Preston the chance to craft the sort of worlds that provided an immersive escape for him during the advent of 3D graphics. Given that Solar Ash takes place in a beautiful abstract alien world, features tons of platforming, and pits players against titanic bosses, the description has merit. In Preston’s words the “stupid elevator pitch” for Solar Ash is Super Mario Galaxy meets Shadow of the Colossus. But what is Solar Ash? Heart Machine’s creative director, Alx Preston, took us through a tour of the game to discuss its origins, gameplay, and how he is coping with the fear of the sophomore slump. Solar Ash is bigger and bolder than Hyper Light Drifter in every way, from its switch to a fully 3D world to its new emphasis on high-speed traversal over combat-focused dungeon crawling. After eleasing the 2D Zelda-inspired Hyper Light Drifter in 2016 to critical acclaim, fans of the game clamored to see what was next and many were surprised to see something totally different.
![homeworld the beast homeworld the beast](https://www.curufea.com/rassilon/images/timebeast.jpg)
Solar Ash represents a dramatic leap forward for Heart Machine. Latest News Expanding Visions And Expectations – How Heart Machine Hopes To Wow Players With Solar Ash.