Solar ash physical copy
The result with Solar Ash is an ambitious and ethereal 3D action platformer where players control a Voidrunner named Rei trying to save her home. “If there was a more interesting way to do something, we did it.” “I would say we really painted the canvas evenly on interesting features,” Game Director Chelsea Hash tells Inverse. Solar Ash is shaping up to be one of the most exciting games of 2021, taking advantage of the PS5’s hardware in subtle yet effective ways. “A lot of good old-fashioned networking went into building these relationships.” “It wasn’t magic or happenstance,” Creative Director Alx Preston says of his studio’s relationship with Sony. Its first game, Hyper Light Drifter, was met with critical acclaim, and now the studio’s second title Solar Ash is a PlayStation exclusive featured in multiple Sony showcases.
Developer Heart Machine has been fortunate enough to find a solution. Just last month, several indie developers went on the record to disclose their struggles getting their games proper recognition on PlayStation consoles. Discovering a new indie game on PlayStation 5 can be a real challenge for gamers unless the developers have a way to truly make it stand out.