Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter News

The recently released gameplay trailer has allowed us to gather a healthy dose of long-awaited feedback. Truth be told, being the lead designer of the game and the director of the trailer as such, I was both overjoyed and anxious about the release. On the one hand, I wished that everybody could finally see it so we could gauge the reaction, but, on the other hand, one can never be 100% sure of their creations until the judgement is passed.

Thankfully, the feedback that we have received has been overwhelmingly positive and it is great to know that the vast majority of viewers enjoyed it and they are happy with the direction that we have chosen for the game. I would like to express my thanks to everybody who shared their opinions, both positive and negative, as that constitutes great help in refining and clarifying the vision for the game.

The sonar room - Real photo / In-game footage

The trailer, however, shows but a small dose of the whole experience and there is still a lot more to come, e.g. the sonar room. The stations located therein will be absolutely essential to hunting submerged U-boats, and trust me - they will submerge once they detect your presence (we are not planning Greyhound-style suicide runs, that’s for sure). Therefore, you will need to dedicate some time and effort to pinpoint their exact position, and it is sonar that will allow you to do so. However, the most crucial complement to sonar was the Tactical Range Recorder (TRR for short), which served to measure the so called ‘range rate’, i.e. the speed at which you are closing in on the target. As you can imagine, the TRR will give you a heads up regarding when to drop your depth charges, so it is a piece of equipment that you may want to know how to use well.

The sonar room - Real photo / In-game footage

The engine room, conversely, is still a little bit vague in the sense that we are not even 100% sure if we can squeeze that part of the game in without making the whole experience too complicated, but this is something that only extensive testing can prove. For now, we are up to our eyes in work regarding the CIC (which has a lot of different stations that need to work perfectly together) and once we are done with it, we will be following it up with the sonar room so that we can actually start hunting :) That being said, let me finish with a quick account of how things are going and where we are with the project, because that’s something that you would probably like to know.

The engine room - Real photo

OK, so the convoy, the escorts, and the first U-boats have already been set up. Basic pilothouse functionalities are in place, so you can steer the ship around. Next, we’ve got observer posts and their binoculars working, along with a 360 degree scale that allows you to make sure which direction you are looking. As regards the observers, they will simply act as your eyes on deck. This will facilitate maneuvering, but will also enable you to use searchlights whenever necessary, and it might so happen that you will need to rely on those searchlights to spot periscopes of those sneaky U-boats that have already managed to slip past your escort screen.

As for the CIC, we’ve got the radar up and running, so there is already a good view of what’s happening on the surface. Now, however, we are working on one of the more complicated devices and gameplay functionalities, i.e. the DRT (the plotting table). We’ve already got the light bug moving around in accordance with our destroyer’s maneuvers, and you can also reset it, if need be. At present, we are focusing on the Parallel Motion Protractor (the arm with the disc and ruler) that will enable you to do exactly what you saw in the trailer, which is to determine what sort of maneuver will allow you to cross the enemy’s path and how much time you would need to get there in order to unleash your depth charge attacks.

Apart from that, the DRT will also encompass a lot of different functionalities that you did not see in the trailer. Those, however, I will gladly discuss with you in the next devlog lest I have nothing new and interesting to report.

...which is very unlikely, but I shouldn’t be spending so much time writing these anyway, right? :P

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/

General quarters, general quarters!

The time has finally come to show you our gameplay trailer! While this short preview doesn’t even come close to showing the full extent of the game, it should, however, give you a rough idea of the result we are aiming for. We hope that you like it and that it will help you to make the decision to wishlist Destroyer!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We would also like to extend our thanks to Wallace B. ‘Mac’ Mackensen, Garrett C. Lynch Sr., and all the staff of the USS KIDD Veterans Museum who have supported us with their expertise. Without your help, we would have never achieved this level of quality.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/

I am pretty sure most of us have come across the picture (or gif) showing a ‘dramatic battle between two submarines’ as seen from the surface. Obviously, you cannot see a thing happening in it, as all that is visible is the surface of the sea. In case any of you missed it, here’s how it looks:



The reason I am bringing it up today is I think it’s about time we addressed the elephant in the room ;) And here’s what it is: in Destroyer, you will very rarely get to make visual contact with the enemy. While it may sound as if it wouldn’t do a game any good, it is at the same time one of the most essential aspects of submarine hunting. With that in mind, I would like to share with you a couple of my views on the issue of fighting an invisible enemy. Although I suspect that most submarine warfare veterans will consider the following as blatantly obvious, then again, I think that there may be people interested in our game who are relatively new to the subject and that it will shed some more light on what to expect of it. After all, Destroyer will be deeply permeated by this notion and getting it right (or wrong) can just as well make it or break it.

So here’s the main premise: rather than watching enemy maneuvers, you will be interpreting reports received from radar and sonar. This will allow you to ‘see through the fog of war’ in order to plot your attack approaches, so one of the main challenges in the game will be to learn where the enemy is, mark their position accurately, and then to infer from their current movement pattern where and when to attack. This will involve interpreting certain data, and then using dead reckoning equipment to convey the relative movement between vessels in the battlespace. Only then will you be able to come up with an attack plan that has a chance of succeeding, and its execution will hinge on precision, understanding of 3D space, and time.



While it may sound a little daunting, you can rest assured that you will have all the right tools for the job and that gameplay will not actually involve any complex calculations. One of the locations in the game, the Combat Information Center, is actually filled to the brim with 1940s technology devised to facilitate that. The difficult part, as always, will be to make the right decisions at the right time because let’s remember that we are not talking about one-on-one combat. We are talking about four escorts guarding a convoy against a whole wolfpack. Therefore, while keeping track of a single U-boat may seem relatively easy, then again, with multiple U-boats and escorts involved, things will get intense pretty quickly.



And this is only the tip of the iceberg, as we haven’t even delved into the details yet. For instance, due to how the sonar worked, you will virtually always lose contact with the enemy upon making a depth charge attack, and regaining it will be one of the most tense moments in the game. The decisions that you make at this point (how to perform the turn, where to focus with the sonar sweep to regain contact etc.) will make a big difference for this particular attack, and guess what - you won’t immediately know whether your attack has hit or not...

In summary, fighting an invisible enemy will require the player to make an active effort to find them, and then come up with a solid plan (both regarding your own attack, but also the overall tactical situation). Most importantly, however, I hope it will evoke uncertainty and strongly immerse the player in the game world. The uncertainty should stem from the fact that information on enemy presence might not be available and/or complete at all times, AND the fact that interpretation of that data will always leave some room for error. As for the immersion, we hope to achieve it through the use of authentic equipment, procedures, language, and more.



Right, this has gotten a little bit longer than I intended, so let’s wrap it up. Before I finish, however, let me assure you that you WILL get to see a lot of U-boats in the game. Perhaps not during gameplay as such, but we intend to make up for it in the game’s cutscenes, (although in a way which won’t tell you much about their whereabouts). Oh, and of course, let’s not forget about the biggest potential caveat that was actually the starting point of today’s discussion: if you ignore your training and come in unprepared, you might actually end up watching something along the lines of the ‘dramatic battle’ pic, enhanced by beautiful tanker explosions in the background ;)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/

Can you tell which ones here are our early, failed experiments? Hint: working with black & white photos wasn’t such a good idea after all :p

Our destroyer is moving closer and closer towards its christening and initial testing! As you already know, we went all the way from Poland to Baton Rouge in Louisiana to expand our knowledge of the Fletcher-class and get a feel of how it was to serve on a USN destroyer in the 1940s. Now, following further research, our 3D model is nearing its final configuration and we will soon be able to take it for a spin!

As you may remember, we have chosen the beautifully restored USS KIDD as our reference and time after time it has proved to be a great choice. However, the KIDD represents the 1945 configuration, whereas our game will be taking place a few years earlier, i.e. in 1942. Therefore, we had to keep that in mind at all times and make the necessary adjustments for our configuration to suit the exact time period that we wished to portray.

Ocean Gray System - Measure 14

First of all, we had to downgrade the anti-air capability to match the early Fletchers, some of which served in the Atlantic. The Pacific theatre, of course, called for a more potent AA capability, but early-production Fletchers did not have such a strong AA setup, and so we had to strip some of the guns and platforms, also downsizing most of the batteries from quad to twin, and from twin to single mounts. As always, it was great to be able to receive some much-needed help from our contacts in the United States, and, thanks to that input, we hope that our current configuration is as close to the 1942 setup as possible.

We have also been working on various paint schemes, and the fact that there are almost no full color photographs of early Fletchers did not make things any easier ;) Thankfully, our experts again gave us a helping hand, both in terms of pointing us towards the best resources and advising which patterns would be most suitable for the time period and theatre of operations in question.

Graded System - Measure 12 (modified)

What is best, however (at least in my humble opinion), is that you will be able to choose the camo pattern yourself! While there is still some work to be done (e.g. certain details and colors still need improving), we think that you will be happy to have that choice and that this little detail will add a smile to your face whenever you see your vessel proudly exhibit the camo pattern of your very own choice.

Navy Blue System - Measure 21

Last, but not least, please let us know what you think! Which pattern do you like the most? Can you tell which two are NOT historically correct (in the first screenshot with six different versions) and are nothing more than our failed experiments? ;) Is our 3D model missing anything? What do you think we can do to improve it? As always, we are very interested in what you think and we will do everything we can to make our game look, feel, and play as good as it can.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/

The release of our cinematic trailer took place just a few weeks before the Apple tv premiere of Greyhound. As it happens when such occasions coincide, there were voices which accused us of taking advantage of the premiere. Some even went as far as to say that the only reason we are making this game is to ‘latch onto Greyhound’s coattails’. So, what do you make of it? A simple coincidence, or a marketing ploy? Well, in all honesty, the history of Iron Wolf Studio is ridden with many weird (but mostly lucky) coincidences, and without those, we would have never even come close to making games like Destroyer. That, however, is a longer story which I will perhaps be able to share with you some other time. For now, let us see about Greyhound, both in terms of the aforementioned question and the movie itself.

Photo credit: www.greyhound.movie

In general, I have to say that I really enjoyed the film despite a few shortcomings. Firstly, it is a pity that we didn’t get a chance to see it at the movies, on a huge screen and with hair-raising sound. Secondly, while I personally think it is a rather solid offering, then again certain ideas did not work for me, like the U-boat captain taunting the escorts’ crews through the radio (completely ridiculous), U-boats making suicide runs instead of diving deeper to avoid attacks, as well as dozens of torpedoes wasted against escorts while they could have been put to much better use against merchants. Given the above caveats, the film probably won’t become an instant classic, but I think it still deserves a place among the most notable cinematic depictions of U-boat vs destroyer combat.

Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter cinematic trailer

Right, with the movie out of the way, I can now address the main question, which is whether Greyhound sparked the idea for the game and if we intentionally used its premiere to promote Destroyer. Well, the truth is that the first time we actually got to know anything about the movie was when we visited the USS Kidd Veterans Museum for our research - you can read about our trip here. The museum staff was, obviously, held back by an NDA, so they couldn't reveal any concrete info, but we managed to decipher a subtle hint which led us to believe that Tom Hanks had actually visited the ship. It wasn’t too hard to connect the dots, but still, the only thing we knew back in December 2019 was that something had been in the works. At that stage in the project, we were already half a year into game concept and research, and the script for the cinematic trailer had already been finished. So, if we didn’t know about the movie, then how did we come up with the idea for the game? Well, the answer to that question is rather simple - it was a very natural choice for us, because we had already made a WW2 naval warfare game, although a game of a different kind...

U-Boot the Board Game: www.uboottheboardgame.com

While it may come as a surprise, Iron Wolf Studio started as a board game company. Yes, you got that right - we initially set out with the goal of making tabletop games, and we produced a game entitled ‘U-Boot the Board Game’. It is a rather innovative blend of board game and submarine simulation, where the game is driven by an app. A lot could be said about the game itself, but I’ll keep it short: the first two print runs flew out the window, but most importantly, working on that game taught us a lot. Not only about the conflict in question, but also about making computer games, simply because our app for the game is actually pretty close to a U-boat simulator. With the success of U-Boot the Board Game, the next step seemed rather obvious - we decided to step up the game and start making full-scale PC simulators. We have our dev team working on Destroyer for some time now. The theatre of operations wasn’t difficult to choose either, as we had already researched the Battle of the Atlantic for more than three years, so it felt like a good idea to use that experience in our first big project.

All in all, I guess that explains the relation between Greyhound and Destroyer. It had nothing to do with our choices of the genre or the theatre of operations, and as regards the time of the release of the trailer… Yes, it was just a coincidence, because the trailer was supposed to release much earlier. It simply wasn’t ready, and we had to postpone the release several times before it was finally ready. If only all our delays could have such dire consequences... ;)

In comments below please share your thoughts on Greyhound! Did you like the movie?

In our next Dev Diary we will release more details about our gameplay. Stay tuned!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/