Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

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Hi everyone, we hope you are in good health at the moment. At Barbedwire studios everyone is okay, and we are still working hard to produce the best game possible.
Today’s update is about two subjects. First, project decisions and second, methods we use for producing content.
We are aware that people are a bit anxious about the future of our project - that’s why we want to tell you more about what we’re up to.
We also know many people would be interested in making content for GoH, so we also want to give you an insight in our methods that will make Gates of Hell rather realistic, independent of engine choice.


Since announcing our move away from our publisher we have been rather quiet. We were (and are) not yet ready to tell you the path ahead because we have to make important decisions first; hence the long radio silence. First of all, we are still very determined to publish our game. The process of engine choice is now under way. We are working hard to get this over with! We will announce this in June. These are tough decisions to make and we want to make absolutely sure that we get it right.
We want to thank the community for all the support we have received, in whatever shape. It feels great to have so many supporters. We will not let you down!


This part will be a little bit like the popular Discovery Channel programme that shows how stuff is made. Since we will offer full workshop support - regardless of which engine we will use - this might be nice to know for those that intend to make mods and other content for our game.


First step is to come up with an idea for a mission that seems achievable as a historically correct scenario. We have a number of elements to check before we start:
- Did this story actually happen?
- Can we view the historical location, in person or using Google?
- Has this story been covered by other games?
- Can a scenario be made that is entertaining?
These and other factors are used to decide whether we want to make a mission on the subject.
We start up with a shared document for use within the team. This document is then used to collect all data, visuals, historical annotation and anything else that is related.


Every scenario we develop needs research. There are many elements that we need to find out. First off, we use documentation from our own library and augment that with whatever information or images we can find in online sources.
- Find out all dates and times
- Find out which unit numbers and names are connected
- Find the historical location
- Find out the equipment used in the battle
- Find related photos of the battle
If we can check these boxes, we have an idea how to make things look.
Many times, reality is almost beyond imagination and we absolutely need that look at the real thing.

This is one of many photos we used to compare ruins of Stalingrad


We create all our models according to modern industry standards. This includes a variety of optimization techniques to ensure maximum performance and beauty are achieved.
All objects in game are modeled with use of real life references, with extensive attention to detail. For some objects in game we use the so- called photogrammetry technique.

This tree stump was made using photogrammetry


When the history and location have been approved, we can start making a map that is as close a copy of the real location as possible. Also, we need to look at the battleground and decide which part of it will be in our map. Nobody likes a featureless map with no cover, so we select the interesting parts of the historical battlefield.
To make sure things look natural, we then find out what kinds of vegetation and what kinds of housing/ buildings are common in the area. Not every region has the same trees, bushes and houses, so we take a close look at that to make sure the natural part looks right.
We also use old photographic material as much as we can, reproducing elements from those like road pavements, village layouts, bridge shapes and the like. Sometimes we can even model specific buildings that can be found in real life, because they survived the war.

The Tikhvin locomotive shed still stands today, making for a perfect example which we worked from

The next step is to make the map and the environment look like the real thing as closely as possible. To achieve this, we need all of the things we mentioned earlier, plus a height map of the area.
The height map, obviously representing the landscape perfectly, is then imported into the engine and used for further development, offering maximum realism.

height maps can be imported in the editor, using external data like from Google

When the map is finished, it is time to implement the scenario that turns it into a mission. We do that by combining the map with the assets and the right kind of units - according to a scenario, which in turn is based on the historical events. This basically allows us to re- enact whatever took place in the real location as closely as possible.
The result is a finished mission, representing something that actually took place 75 or more years ago.
Using these methods, we want to achieve a very important quality level, because we want Gates of Hell to play out on real locations, based on real historical battles.
What’s more; as we mentioned, we plan to offer full workshop support! This means you could use part of these methods (or all of them) to recreate battles that you want to bring to the attention of the world.
So, this is “how we do it”. Does this make you look forward to it?


We want to make the next announcements in june. After that, our next devblogs will probably be about things like features (a feature list) and the path ahead. We will also launch our own Discord server, probably this summer. This all depends on what we decide and on what happens next, of course. We are still on it, and we will publish. Despite the move away from our publisher and the hard road ahead, we are trying our best to make sure we release this year as planned.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it yet, subscribe and follow us on social media to make sure you miss nothing. Click on as many links as you want:

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That’s it for now. Thanks for your support! Stay safe, and stay tuned.

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In today’s world, people will tell you they strive for independence. They want to call all of their own shots, make their own decisions, market their own products, manage their own timetable, find their own way.
That’s quite logical, isn’t it? Being the master of your own fate feels quite good most of the time. Independence rules, right?


Well, for us, independence means something else. As you may already know, we’re an independent studio, poised to release our own game - which is also our first. We make our own calls on all of the scenarios, gameplay, sounds, features and anything that will make it more realistic than any similar RTT/RTS game that came before it.
The only 2 big dependencies are about the game engine, for one because it would take us years to make our own and none of us would want that, and otherwise we depend on the amount of spare time we have as a team to work on this project. It’s a good thing we don’t need money to develop!

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At the same time, and because we develop in our spare time, we are extremely dependent on our community.
Fortunately, ours is a very supportive community. We receive support and positive reactions on a daily basis. We have some great supporters who voluntarily help us moderate community reactions - which is fantastic, considering we have never even asked them to do so.
Apparently, we have struck a chord with these great individuals and they seem to like the realism concept and they also seem to understand just what it takes to develop a game. Awesome.

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We get so many positive reactions we sometimes have to pinch ourselves. Of course, and about 1 in 250 reactions, we get negative comments as well. But generally speaking, we love getting your comments and suggestions.


So yes, we depend on you, the community, because we’re independent.
Yes, we are thankful to the community. Keep the comments going, positive and negative.
No, we don’t mind a bit of salt here and there. It keeps us awake.
No, that will not kill our resolve; we will push on until we’re done making the most realistic and beautiful RTS game you have ever seen.
With the backing of our community, we are unstoppable.

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Hi everyone, it’s time for another update! With the end of the year in sight there’s some things we want to tell you. We also promised to show you some new animations, so let’s cut straight to the chase.


Right now we are very busy with behind- the- scenes decision making and planning. This needs to be done before we give you any dates and roadmaps. Our previous two development updates showed you the “visual catalog”. In the past 18 months we also showed you the kind of mission and the kind of realism you can expect from us. This devblog gives you an idea of the new animations. All in all, we are getting closer to early access every day.


We’ve been working on some nice features, such as the use of smoke dispensers on tanks.
Several ways of generating smoke to protect tanks were used in WW2. Some used launchers that were fired from inside the tank; some had smoke grenade launching canisters outside the tank; some tanks had “smoke candle” installations. We will portray all methods that were used.
These will feature on tanks that had them in real life, so this is not a general thing for every tank or every faction. This represents our goal of realism in the game; it would be wrong to have smoke dispensers on every tank, or to make them available for scenarios in any year of the war. Maybe you know which tanks will have these? At least the one below does:

https://youtu.be/0Vz3Gm_iv94
Tell us what you think, is this any good? Would you use this feature in- game?


https://youtu.be/9gbJTtxhy5w
(From ‘Allo ‘Allo)


On to the next subject, which is also about really new stuff we’re putting in Gates of Hell.

As we announced earlier this year, we are using MOCAP to create a complete set of all- new animations. We are very glad to have a nicely ambitious developer as our dedicated animator.
His work will give Gates of Hell a refreshing bit of realism to speed up getting rid of same old animations for 14 years. For instance, soldiers will not always simply fall over when killed; sometimes their struggle lasts a few moments and movements will occur until they are virtually dead.
Another one is that AI will know how to use a bayonet, but you may already have seen this in our YouTube channel.

So let’s show you a few of those new animations. Please keep in mind that these can be incorporated into the game at any point, so the fact that we are making these with the MOCAP software is not delaying early access. Here is a selection:





Remember that these are WiP, with some polishing here and there being planned. That is a difficult process by the way, but we will show you more animations very soon, without waiting for a devblog to show them to you.
So tell us, what do you think? Would you welcome the first new animations, after all those years? Do you like the idea of smoke screens?


We thought you might also want to see some recent modelling that came from the 3D department. Here are a few renders for you; can you correctly guess what these are? You’ll have to look really closely:

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Let us know in the forums!

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Thanks and see you next month!

Devblog #86: Visual catalog part 2


Hi everyone! Here we are, one more month has passed and it’s time for another update.
We have some “regular” progress to report, as always; besides that, part 2 of the visual catalog is due.


We’re quite busy and the results keep coming in. In the past month we’ve tested our new enumerator (the process that puts numbers and/ or text on a tank when it spawns) and it is NICE. For instance, on a tank turret it might read “for the motherland” in cyrillic, like in the photo below. We have a wide range of texts which will appear on Soviet vehicles.

T-34 tank at the Tiraspol Memorial of Glory

Meanwhile, we’re putting in some finishing touches on the missions, with some late textures and 3d objects becoming available. We’ve tried several weather types and we’re quite confident you will really like our missions and scenarios. If you’ve been following us on social media (see the links below), you may have seen the occasional screenshot already.


Let’s move on to the main topic. We’ve shown you a visual catalog of Soviet forces last month; this time, we put the German forces on display.
Generally speaking, we have had to model more German vehicles than Soviet vehicles in some of the categories; this may be down to the fact that German standardisation was rather rare compared to other nations. The Soviet army had better standardisation, which is illustrated by the difference between part 2 and part 1 in this catalog. So let’s get on with it!

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That’s it for this catalog! Our next devblog will appear in about four weeks. In the meantime, make sure you don’t miss a thing by following us on social media:

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Hi everyone!

It’s time for another update. In this issue, we want to tell you about development in general and besides that, we want to start giving you a catalog that simply shows you some of the assets we plan to include in the Early Access version of the game.


This week we announced that we will be going MOCAP. This will impact the way our game will look and with it, we will add something that will feel really new and look really good.
We also added new objects, reviewed mission scripts, refined the bug ticketing system (has to be perfect when we start the beta) and modeled some special railway assets. We will probably show this in a nice comparison between the real thing and the objects in- game, so keep an eye on social media (you can find the links at the bottom of the article).


How many times have people said that Gates of Hell “is just a repaint of MoW”? We don’t remember, and - to be honest - we shouldn’t care about such comments, because we know better. So we will repeat the same old statement with which we answered such comments: all of our 3d models in the finished game will be new.

Other assets such as houses, barns, industrial buildings, trees and all kinds of objects such as wood piles, water tanks, bunkers, AT objects, trenches, foxholes, fences and many more things also will all be new.


The original idea for this devblog has existed for a while. After the previous devblog was written, it was time to get going on this one - because we want to keep our promises as far as possible.
We wanted to show you what assets are there so you can get an impression of the equipment you will be getting to play out the missions we have told you about in many of our previous blogs.
The good news is that we have too much stuff to put it all in just one development update! That is why this one is called “part 1”. In this one we limit the catalog to Soviet vehicles, we will show you more in the next one.


So, let’s get on with it; we split part 1 in a few categories. You see the different objects in the screenshot, with a description below. Please be aware that we only show the ones that are finished today, and a last dozen is about to be added shortly pending texturing.

HD link 1) A group of armored and support vehicles. The T-20 and ZIS-30 will be added later

HD link 2) Artillery and the SU-76 SPG, more to be added later

HD link 3) Light tanks. The BM8-24, ZSU-37, BT-2, BT-7a and 4 more subtypes of the T-26 will be added later.

HD link 4) T-34

HD link 5) A trio of SU’s. The SU-152 will be added later

HD link 6) “Large” tanks, actually 1 medium and 3 heavy

HD link 7) WiP equipment. Note the early IS-2 (KV-122) on the right

So here it is! Do you like what you see? We hope you do, and we’ll be working on part 2 in the meantime. The plan is to show that next month. At some point we will also make a listing of missions, as we are preparing for the next phase. If you like to stay tuned and see the stuff we don’t put on steam, make sure to subscribe to any of our social channels:

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Thanks and see you next month!