Hello faithful wishlisters, I have some big news: We have a publisher: Microprose!
Microprose has published well known games like Civilization, Xcom, and Falcon 4.0, and recently have been publishing a lot of flight + action games.
Announcement Trailer
What this means for you
The game is getting additional support, through development, launch, and after launch. So basically, the game will be better, and you can have a higher confidence in it.
What this means for Cleared Hot
We get a lot more help, which allows for us to focus on the game. Microprose will help with funding, marketing, press outreach, translation / localization, along with some dev, art, and moral support.
New Content
Enemy Strafing Runs
We added a new enemy jet that does strafing runs on your position. It is especially challenging for our new mission where you need to carry some explosive containers back to your base.
You might want to change directions...
New Jungle Biome
We redid the jungle biome with our new terrain system, including a dense tree canopy. It's nice to see some more green
Quadcopter Prototype
Why? Because on Saturday I drank two coffees and said f*ck it, I wonder if I can add a drone to the game. Maybe it will appear in a special mission or two. Yay or nay?
I can hear this gif
25 Years In The Making
Signing with Microprose completes a story that started 25 years ago, when my mom bought me Falcon 4.0 and a joystick that BestBuy had mistakenly priced at $20.
Twelve year old me read that if you learned how to fly in the game, you could fly a real F-16. This gave me a feeling of agency in my kid-life that I had never felt before.
Well, I got home and the game didn't run on our PC. Aaand my vision sucks. Spoiler alert, I'm not a fighter pilot. But, I still read the manual and the feeling of agency stuck with me. I think a lot of us felt empowered by video games when we were young: they provided a challenge that we could tackle on our own.
So, it feels pretty f*cking crazy to be signing with Microprose, 25 years later. And you know what, I have all of you to thank for that (and my mom). Without your interest and wishlists, this would not have happened. Seriously, this is life changing for me. So thank you!
- Colin "cfinger" and the Cleared Hot team
Gifts From Above
Hello Pilots,
Since we last spoke, we've been hard at work on creating air drops, supply crates, using a new terrain tool.
Oh and if you're missing the gifs in this update, you have Steam to thank. I can't upload gifs larger than 1.2MB right now. So I guess we'll do a youtube video instead.
Air Drops + Supply Crates
We were playing around w the idea that rescuing NPCs should give the player some kind of reward. At first, we tried just spawning health or ammo crates on the ground.
But then I realized that isn't the Cleared Hot way. We have physics.
We updated the Ammo crates, and added a new Health crate to the game. We also added some UI indicators, that give the player info on what's in the crate.
New Terrain System
Over the last months, I started to notice how clunky it was for our artist, Mane, to modify the terrain. It was a procedurally generated, which works great once you have it set up, but if you want to move a hill over by 10 feet... forget it. You have to regenerate the whole terrain.
This made it especially difficult to adjust levels for gameplay reasons. So on a whim, we decided to take a couple days to investigate a new tool and see if it would be better. I was pleasantly surprised.
You use "Stamps" to define terrain features, or vegetation, and it updates in real time.
800kB gif... you can't stop me, Steam
After experimenting, we replaced the terrain in our current Desert scene. It went really quickly, and gave us some more variation in surface and how we textured the ground.
I've learned that the quality of art you get from artists is directly proportional to the quality of their tools... Plus, iterating quickly is something all of us want (devs, 3d artists, sound... etc).
The screenshots from the Apache update already show the new terrain, with mountains in the background.
Thank You
As always, thank you for your support. This game wouldn't be getting made without your interest and wishlists, so thanks.
I've been interacting with people who joined the email list, thanks for all your kind / excited emails. We're not far from starting to do some beta testing. More on that soon.
- Colin "cfinger" and the Cleared Hot team
Meet the (REAL) Apache!
Today, we announce the REAL Apache. For those that don't know, the previous Apache announcement turned out to be a Cobra announcement. Oops.
And let's just say, it slipped by totally unnoticed.
Thanks to Semper Scrotus and Major Borngusfluunduch8694, nothing gets past you guys :D
It was just a test to see if you were paying attention. Anyways...
The Real Apache AH-64 Gunship
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
Longer cannon and missile range
Flies at a slightly higher altitude (but this can be controlled)
The best thing is, it actually feels a heavier in-game. This is why I love having physics based movement in Cleared Hot. You just increase the mass, and maybe the center of mass, and it instantly feels different.
I hear you already, Seargent Scrotus- "but wait, there's only 2 seats in the Apache, why are 3 NPCs running towards it?"
Anything is a seat if you're brave enough
I was updating the passenger system for the Apache when I started wondering, has anyone ever sat on the outside ledge before?
To my suprise, this has been done in real life. I did some research and went to the discord for feedback.
Feedback received.
Whoever drew the short straw can throw down a little return fire themselves.
New Missile: AGM-114 Hellfire
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.
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.
Blessed by the Youtube Gods
I uploaded the new trailer to our YouTube channel, that had maybe 13 subscribers. I really didn't expect anything. Well, to our surprise the trailer took off. We're now at 337,000 views, which is INSANE.
I can't tell you how exciting and motivating this is for us. Thanks for all the likes and comments.
Join the Email List
If you're just joining us, sign up for the email list here: https://clearedhotgame.com/email-list/
We will be using this list to release small playtest builds. We don't have a date for this yet, but people on the email list will get it first.
As always, thanks for your support. We are really cranking away on things and can't wait to share more with you soon.
- Colin "cfinger" and the Cleared Hot team
New Trailer Goes Viral On Reddit!
Hey Everyone,
Today we released our new trailer! There's a lot of new content in this one. Grab the popcorn and have a watch below.
Feedback
We want to hear your feedback! What were your first impressions? Ideas? Thoughts? You guys are our hardcore fans so we want to hear from you.
We Went Viral On Reddit!
We posted a gif from parts of the trailer on /r/gaming this morning, and it has been BLOWING UP. It is a little surreal. It has been at the top of /r/gaming all day and it's now in the top 25 of r/all.
This is pretty much our best case scenario for increasing awareness of the game. I am sitting here refreshing like an idiot. I will get back to work Monday, okay.
Updated Steam Page
We've updated all the screenshots and gifs on the main page, along with the descriptions and tags. I've received feedback from some of you about the text + tags, and that has been super helpful.
Pitch Ya Game Event
We're also tweeting the new trailer as part of a twitter event called #pitchyagame, which is followed by players as well as publishers. Every like + retweet helps!
Thank You
You all have been amazingly supportive. Some of you have been here for over 2 years! That is hard to believe. Thank you. Making games is hard, but your support makes it way more motivating.
Lately I feel as if we're gaining momentum, especially with the help of a really solid small team. This trailer feels like an important milestone, I hope you enjoy it too. All of your interest and wishlists have got us this far, so thank you.
Colin
New Level + Prototyping (+ the UBER turret)
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.
New Level
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.
Prototyping Gameplay Directions
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
Thanks
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
I f*cked up
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.
Why It Happened
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
How I'm Fixing It
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.
Devlog
New Teaser Video
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.
Free Camera Tool
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.
Trigger System
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.
What's Next
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.
Thank You!
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
Meet the Apache!
Welcome back, faithful wishlisters. I have news for you, Cleared Hot now has twice as many helicopters to choose from :)
Meet the Apache AH-64 Gunship
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)
New Cannon: 30mm Gun
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.
New Missile: AGM-114 Hellfire
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.
New Environment: Classified
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.
Thank You!
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.
New Year, New Features, New Hire
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.
Bugs
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.
Future Additions
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.
Ariel Joins the Team
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.
Thank You
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: cfinger@cfingergames.com
Get in, we're going to the Arctic
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 !
I've been looking at desert color tones for way too long, so I was STOKED to get some freaking new colors in the game.
References
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.
Arctic Base
Building the home base seemed to be the best way to get our bearings here. This is where you'll select missions, upgrades, etc.
Terrain
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.
Vehicles
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!
Thank You!
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!
Theme Announcement!
I've always been a gameplay-first guy. I've button mashed my way through many a cutscene. My development of Cleared Hot has followed the same principle: Gameplay first. Find out what's fun, fill in the blanks later.
However, I reached a point where I needed a more specific visual style. What should the enemies look like? Where are these battles taking place?
I want the game to be reminiscent and nostalgic for people like me who grew up playing the Strike series, Battlefield, etc, but offer something new. I didn't want to make another "war in the middle east" game, for so many reasons. But I didn't want to lose that nostalgia.
Then one day I was talking to a friend and we had an idea. It has been 30 years since Desert Strike came out. What would the pilot from that game look like 30 years later?
We started imagining him as a grizzled, dusty old pilot, living in West Texas. Retired, but getting pulled back in to his old life.
Suddenly we both felt inspired. This felt like the right combination of grit, dry humor, and 90s action movie tropes. The main character's situation in life could mirror some parts of ours: we're revisiting our Desert Strike memories 30 years later. A bit older, a bit grayer (in my case) but maybe we still got it...
As far as how he gets pulled back in to the action, and what the specifics are, I won't spoil that yet.
Visual Style
As part of this theme, we created a new level, basing it on rural Texas / Arizona. Thankfully this coincided with hiring a 3D artist, which was a huge milestone. I've been using pre-made 3D assets for the game up until this point, just in interest of faster development. But now I had an idea of the theme I really wanted.
Luckily, I took part in a game jam with some friends a few months back and met Eron. After the jam we talked a bit and he decided to join the team. We have very complementary skillsets and he's helping me a ton on all kinds of visual aspects of the game.
New Level - West Texas
This level is still a work in progress, but we have a functional level we are building new missions for.
We also built a new homebase, pictured earlier, which is where you'll upgrade your helicopter and choose missions. It's a safe area that will change as the game progresses.
New Vehicles
What's a new level without some new vehicles?
Unmarked Sprinter Van
This beast-of-utlity serves to drop off enemies around the map. They roll up, screech to a stop, and 5+ enemy NPCs get out.
Quad Bike / ATV
Fast and nimble, but has low health.
It comes with 2 NPCs onboard: a driver and a gunner.
This is the first vehicle to feature NPCs using their own logic + decision making while onboard. The gunner runs through their standard behavior tree and decides if and when to fire their weapon.
This is the first step to having NPCs that can decide to enter vehicles and control them on their own. Imagiine seeing a bunch of NPCs run to get into a parked tank...
You can actually shoot the NPCs off the vehicle as it's driving. You have no idea how happy I was to get this working.
Thank You!
Thanks again for all of your support! There's a lot more content coming soon. This re-theme was a ton of work and will allow us to really get the feel we're going for. I can't wait to share more about the direction of the missions and story.
Don't forget to join the email list for additional info and beta releases https://clearedhotgame.com/email-list/
