Cleared Hot News

Hello again!

You all seemed to like the "I f*cked up" post, it got way more likes than any other devlog. I guess my takeaway is: make more mistakes :)

Seriously though, thanks- it's great to have your support.

On to what we've been working on the last few weeks.

[h2]New Level[/h2]

We've been building a new level that will be a combat heavy high action mission. As the game progresses, the missions will be more focused around combat, and we're finding that heavily defended bases make for fun gameplay.




I'm really happy with the direction of this level, we're learning a lot about how these combat heavy missions can look and feel.

Big thank you to Mane aka @m4ndrill who I managed to hire after DMing him on reddit awhile back! He's been wrangling our 3d art and lighting on this new level. I'm really happy how this level came out, I can't wait to show you more. Mane would also want me to tell you this is a work-in-progress, despite it looking amazing.

[h2]Prototyping Gameplay Directions[/h2]

I find that development goes in cycles: prototyping, implementing, testing, bug fixing, repeat. Sometimes it's helpful to prototype things without any visual assets, what people call "gray-boxing".

Now that we have a handful of enemy units, and the core of things is generally working, we're exploring a few other game design prototypes to understand where our levels will go.

I consider the 5 second game loop to be just the core mechanics: flying, shooting, dodging, landing, picking things up with the rope. Those things are all pretty solid and feel good (although we will tweak these continously).

The 2nd level game loop is somewhere between 5 seconds and 1 minute. It's using the combination of core mechanics to do something a bit more complex. It's like, understanding the patterns or limitations of enemies and using that to your advantage.

For example, Desert Strike, near and dear to my heart, had you exploit a few things:

• Approaching AA guns from behind
  
• Shooting units from outside their range
  
• Using map knowledge to approach from easier directions
  

Since we have the benefit of 30 years of game engine and CPU/GPU progress, we get to expand on this a bit. We also have physics :flex:

In order to do this we're building up some quick tools to easily make builds with these grayboxed / prototype levels. I'm a kid of the PS1 era, so I always think of metal gear solid "VR" missions, where they basically gave you some difficult prototype missions that made you perfect all the mechanics.



Right now we're building up tools to allow us to make "playtest" builds that are just prototype levels, to play between the team and our friends, as we explore some different directions the game can go.

This was my first experiment, the UBER turret.


You can survive for about 0.3 seconds infront of this thing. It is however, fast to kill. It helps to really enforce certain behavior, and it actually feels really fun to go up against difficult enemies.

Things we're exploring:

• Altitude in level design: hiding from turrets from below or above
  
• Variations in turrets: extremely dangerous but slow to turn
  
• Missiles: making it more effective to shoot them down, and other strategies
  
• Using map knowledge to approach from easier directions
  
• Making NPCs a bit less random, and dangerous if not avoided
  
• Directional damage: making the player approach from behind
  

We're also exploring different ways to defeat the anti-air turrets. This includes new types of missiles, with different strategies to defeat them. Both dodging and shooting down the missiles should be feasible.

One strategy is to just redirect them back :D



[h2]Thanks[/h2]
Thanks for reading! Let us know if you have suggestions or ideas of gameplay you want to see prototyped!

As for what's next, we'll be working on gameplay until the next update, as well as the new teaser video. Stay tuned for more updates soon, or follow along on Twitter for more content.

Colin

Last week I posted about adding the Apache helicopter, but there was a problem.

It wasn't an Apache.

It was a Cobra.

In a game about helicopters, I added the wrong helicopter. Lol.



[h3]Why It Happened[/h3]
The simple answer is, I used the wrong 3d model. My policy is to use 3rd party assets when they fit the style of the game, modify them when needed, and then create our own for the rest. If we're doing this right, everything should look consistent.

I was working on a lot of different tasks for this new mission, and I didn't give the actual Apache model the attention it needed.

The Apache Cobra wreaking havoc

[h3]How I'm Fixing It[/h3]
We will be creating our own Apache model for the game, and I will update you when that is done. On an unrelated note, the game will now feature the Cobra as well. ;)

It feels a bit scary showing more of our process, but I think it helps build trust. I'd like you to come along for the ride with us as we build the game. We're depending on your feedback to help us get there.

On that note- thanks for being such a supportive community. Those of you who pointed out that it was actually a Cobra model, thanks for doing that in a clear way.

I'll be posting more frequent devlogs about the things we're actually working on at that time. This should work better for us, since we're posting about things we're currently thinking about, and it should be better for you, because you get to see a more transparent update on the game.

So let's try it, starting... now.



[h3]New Teaser Video[/h3]
Including the Apache is part of a larger effort to create a new teaser video. The video will show some new levels, and one of them will start with the Apache. I won't explain too much because I don't want to spoil that part of the story.

[h3]Free Camera Tool[/h3]
Ariel and I worked on updating a tool to take screenshots in the game. This tool allows you to pause the game and move the camera around, change field of view, and take high-res screenshots.



We can run the game in slow motion from this viewpoint, which is pretty fun.





[h3]Trigger System[/h3]
Ariel added a trigger system to the game, to control actions within a scene, similar to the system used in Starcraft map making, or even in the command & conquer editor.

Ariel's gamedev wisdom appears in moments like this, where he's able to pick the right level of complexity for the task. The trigger system lets us make actions happen within a scene, without writing custom code for each scene, and it's all done within the Unity hierarchy.

This is huge because it's quick to add things, and you can create new high-level behavior while staying in the Unity editor.

We're using the trigger system to build a cinematic shot for the upcoming teaser video, and to use for new missions.

Here's a quick example, using the trigger system to launch NPCs:

A trigger configuration to eject any passengers and... fling them.

This trigger set up allows us to eject all the passengers to what we call "hand-holds", basically a spot they can hang from on the helicopter. Then it takes over control of the helicopter and sends control input to it, to simulate a hard strafe.

This will be helpful for us to test certain physics interactions with consistent input, as well as making fun gifs...

Thankfully there is no fall damage... yet.

[h3]What's Next[/h3]
This week we're working on a new level + mission that will be featured early in the game, which includes an entirely new area. We'll be shooting more video for the teaser, and updating the screenshots on the steam page.

We're also exploring how to expand what is destructible in the game, in a way that is efficient for us to develop, and keeps the performance high.



Thanks again for your support, and thanks for being patient. This game wouldn't be the same without you. I'll be working to keep you updated.

-Colin

Welcome back, faithful wishlisters. I have news for you, Cleared Hot now has twice as many helicopters to choose from :)





After playing the game with only the littlebird for a couple years now, it is really cool to experience it with a new helicopter.

As compared to the Little Bird, the Apache is:

• More powerful (heavier main cannon, more advanced missiles)
  
• More armor / can take more damage
  
• Accelerates more slowly
  
• Can only carry 1 passenger (co-pilot seat)
  
• Bigger range
  
• Flies at a slightly higher altitude (but this can be controlled)
  

[h2]New Cannon: 30mm Gun[/h2]

This thing packs a punch. It feels a lot chunkier when shooting it, and it will kill any ground troops in one shot, including any nearby splash damage. It's also effective against lightly armored vehicles.



[h2]New Missile: AGM-114 Hellfire[/h2]
This is the base missile on the Apache, and does more damage than the standard Hydra missiles on the Littlebird. The missiles start out at a slower speed, but accelerate as they fly. This was actually non-trivial to add for a few reasons.



Spawning a missile at a slow speed could result in the player running into his own missiles :) This was fixed by processing collisions on the missile more manually- allowing us to check what it hits and selectively ignore whatever is shooting it.

Getting the missiles to hit directly where they were aimed didn't come "out of the box". Most everything in the game is physics based, so flying fast and shooting a missile would result in a different missile path than firing it when not moving.

This is a gameplay decision- but for now, I wanted the missiles to hit the spot they were aimed when you fired them. It also is possible that for higher damage missiles, maybe they should be a bit harder to aim. You might have to consider which side of the helo they're firing from, and your speed.



[h2]New Environment: Classified [/h2]

These gifs are recorded on a work-in-progress level that I will write more about soon. It involves a more combat mission that happens in the beginning of the career mode.

[h2]Thank You![/h2]

As always, thanks for your support, it really does help. We have a lot more coming, new vehicle features, a vehicle passenger rework, lots of NPC updates. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year ! I'd like to thank you all again for your support. Two years ago I announced Cleared Hot, and the reception has been incredible. I still feel so lucky to be working on this game.

There has been a lot happening in the last few months. I think we're getting close to a beta build that we can start sending out for feedback. Not quite there yet, but closer. Let's get right into it.

Passenger System

One of my favorite parts of the game is being able to carry soldiers around in the helicopter. I loved doing this in Battlefield, and RS2 Vietnam. There's something about flying into enemy territory and dropping off soldiers as you dodge enemy fire. Maybe its because the stakes are higher, or the teamwork, or both.

The Passenger System in Cleared Hot needed to be updated after my last NPC system update. It actually came back together pretty quickly.





The other key part of this is that the NPCs can shoot from the helicopter.



And yes, the guy riding shotgun is shooting across the pilot! I think for the time being the pilot doesn't have any way to register damage, so you're safe. :)



The cool thing about this is, it's only a small tweak to how the NPCs typically find and shoot enemies. So they maintain all their same properties while flying in the helicopter: they just look and shoot at whoever they can see.

It feels pretty good- they tend to spot enemies that you didn't see, and they actually get a lot of kills. This makes me REALLY want to add a blackhawk with a door-gunner.



No new feature is without it's quirks :) Right now the NPCs run full-tilt towards the helo when it lands, and they don't check if it's full until they arrive. The result is, they run into the side of the helicopter at full speed.



Another update we can include eventually is a better way to sort out which seat they run towards. Right now they all query the helo at the same time, and then all run towards the same seat. They get distrubed evenly once they arrive, but it would be cooler if they could understand that the guy infront of them is going to get the closest seat first, and adjust their target.

I want to explore having a "squad" in missions that you can also upgrade and equip separately from the helicopter. The gameplay is so fun that I think it's worth trying some new directions.



I'd also like to announce a new member of the team: Ariel Coppes. He's working on the development side along with me. He joined the team towards the end of 2023 and has been making my life infinitely better since. After working solo on the code for so long it's incredible to have some backup.



Ariel has 14 years experience making games and we have similar development and teamwork values. He's been team lead and lead engineer on some larger teams, and has a lot of experience improving the tools and workflow of those games. Even being a small team he's already implemented some tools that make our development faster. Check out Ariel's work and blog here: https://arielcoppes.dev/

When you start your own project, you gain a lot of learning opportunities, since you get to work on everything, but you also lose the ability to learn from a team. As the team grows I'm stoked to be able to learn from others more often.



Thanks again for your support. Things are gaining momentum, I can't wait to share more updates with you soon.

I want to hear from you! Any questions or ideas? Email me: [email protected]

Hello faithful wishlisters, friends, gamers!

After getting our Texas Desert map to where I liked it, I started to work with Eron, our 3D artist, on exploring some other biomes. We put together some ideas and references and decided on an environment for the next level: The Arctic !




We collected a ton of references of environments, vehicles and characters we could use. The movie Inception has some great snow scenes to reference, including some interesting vehicles and such. There were also a couple scenes from the various Bond movies in the arctic.




Building the home base seemed to be the best way to get our bearings here. This is where you'll select missions, upgrades, etc.




Next up was building the semi-procedural terrain. We decided that an arctic ocean coastline would be the major feature of this map, and that the rest should be relatively flat snow covered terrain.





It really helps to fly around the terrain, it gives you a sense of how the terrain will be visible during gameplay.


After sorting the terrain, Eron got started on cranking out vehicles. We wanted to have some distinct units on this map, the enemies here will be more powerful than the ones encountered on the West Texas level.

Just a few of the planned vehicles

We're also planning to have aquatic vehicles in this... boats, ships, and subs!



These are all works in progress, I'm looking forward to sharing more once we start building missions in the artic!


As always, thank you again for your support. Making a game is challenging, but your comments and emails motivate us.

Make sure you're subscribed to the email list if you're not already: https://clearedhotgame.com/email-list/ This is where I will send out the beta build when it's ready.

Thanks and see you again next time!