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My second day of GDC this year is a lot like the late Harold Ramis' romantic comedy classic Groundhog Day. I'm in an event space surrounded by a couple dozen indie games procured by a console manufacturer to show off how open and accessible its latest platform is. I have an interview with a man leading the initiative who tells me how developer friendly this latest platform is. Heck, half the people here I saw at a similar event at GDC 2013. Hey, is that Guacamelee over there?! Yes, I've done all this before exactly one year ago. Only then it was funded by Sony to showcase the PS4. This year it's a Microsoft event showing off its recently announced ID@Xbox program. The decor has changed from blue to green, but the song remains the same.I instantly gravitate towards a game I've been wanting to check out for ages, Hyper Light Drifter. Its impeccable pixel art and pulsating soundtrack are even more thrilling in person and I'm instantly in love - as were the 24,150 other people who backed the Kickstarter. So when did Microsoft pick up on this?
"I've been talking to them since before the Kickstarter ended," developer Heart Machine's Teddy Diefenbach tells me, referring to its crowd-funding campaign last September. And when did Sony express interest, I ask? "Sony contacted us mid-Kickstarter, so we were pushing for PS4 and PS Vita," he adds. Fortunately, it will work out for owners of both platforms as Hyper Light Drifter is aiming for a simultaneous console launch following its Steam release.
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