Finally, we have a lot to tell you in this dev diary post. The most important thing is that we have already finished the most challenging and time-consuming works, and transfer to the new version of Unity is almost completed. There are still a few things to do, but we expect to begin internal testing pretty soon.
One of the most noticeable changes that Enhanced Edition will bring is updated visuals. Since Heliborne was released in 2017 (and spent several more years in EA before that), we wanted to freshen it up with a more up-to-date look.
The first thing to do—update the environment. You might remember early screenshots from when we've been working on new terrain shader. A lot has been improved since then. Terrain shader and textures have been updated with new ones. We have also remastered original foliage and environment textures so they would better work with physically based rendering. On top of that, we've added post-processing to improve visual experience and give a unique atmosphere to every map.
It took quite a lot of time and nerves, but the result was worth it:
The next step was to make better-looking objects and update them in line with terrain and flora. So we've created new, more realistic shaders for helicopters and ground objects.
All that work not only makes Heliborne look better, but also lets us continue with console ports. And this is how all that looks in action:
We hope that you love those changes just like we do! Please let us know what you think about them in the comments.
One more thing. Every AMA, you ask us what will be next helicopters. Here is a work-in-progress untextured model. Can you recognize it? Over and out!
[Special Promo] SKYHILL: Black Mist available now + loyalty discount!
Hi folks!
SKYHILL: Black Mist is out now! We are so excited! The waiting is over!
To celebrate this long awaited moment Klabater has just set up a special discount for owners of any of Klabater's games:
🔥🔥Complete Skyhill collection (Skyhill & SKYHILL: Black Mist) with -20% discount
🔥🔥If you own other Klabater games - get ADDITIONAL -15% for SKYHILL: Black Mist
Delve inside the world of isometric survival-horror. Craft your way through the building filled with bloodthirtsty creatures, sneak behind them, set traps or use brutal strength. It's only up to you if you will survive!
In SKYHILL: Black Mist nothing is as it seems. Where did the mysterious Black Mist come from? Who summoned it and why? Try to distinguish reality from illusion. Find out what’s real and what’s not.
Thank you for your support!
Mandragora and Klabater team
*) Discounts multiply!
HELIBORNE RELOADED! FREE WEEKEND ON THE WAY!
Pilots!
There’s a lot of going on lately and we have even more news for you today! We have planned a special Free Weekend from 8th May, 10 AM (PT) to 11th May 10 AM (PT)
As you know, we plan a special Enhanced Edition of our game to be released around Fall this year. This is why we would love to welcome new players to our community and gather additional fresh feedback. In the same time, we already received detailed feedback from you, our long-time veterans, during streams and AMA sessions. We are extremely grateful for that!
So, here are some details regarding our plans for the upcoming weekend: From 8th May, 10 AM (PT) to 11th May, 10 AM (PT), we will launch:
A Free Weekend on Steam
A free Navy Seals Camouflage Pack DLC available for all Heliborne players! It’s our gift to you guys. The new camos are really, really cool – see examples for yourself below
We have also planned additional community-dedicated events for this free weekend: • Stream with Heliborne veteran players (Friday, May 8th) • AMA session with developers on Discord (Sunday, May 10th) • Q&A for beginners with veteran players on Discord (whole weekend) • Tips and Tricks for beginners
NAVY SEALS CAMOUFLAGE DLC During Free Heliborne Weekend, we will release a special DLC Navy Seals Camouflage Pack which will contain new camos for the following Helicopters:
Screamin' Indians camo on MH-60s HSC-6
Red Lion's camo on MH-60s HSC-15
Eightballers camo on MH-60s HSC-8
Black Jacks camo on MH-60s HSC-21
Sea Knights on MH-60s HSC-22
Below please find selected screens for MH-60s HSC-6 and MH-60s HSC-15 new paintings:
NEXT STEPS FOR HELIBORNE BRAND
As if that is not enough, please check this detailed infographic explaining what kind of content will be released for Heliborne in upcoming months😊
Thank you for your support, justified criticism (yes, we appreciate it!) and faith in Heliborne. Heliborne Team
Maintenance Time
Hello,
The game will be down for maintenance between 21:00 CET today and 5:00 AM CET tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience.
SKYHILL: Black Mist will debut on PC May 28th
Hi All!
It’s Klabater team here! We wanted to share news about another amazing game coming from our portfolio, developed by Mandragora Games. Hope you will find it interesting!
We are pleased to confirm that the isometric survival-horror, SKYHILL: Black Mist, will debut on PC on May 28th this year.
We will soon reveal gameplay trailers and raw footage from the game. We also plan live streams closer to premiere! Stay tuned! Below please check new screens from our game!
As you may know, SKYHILL: Black Mist is a follow-up to unique Skyhill game from 2015. A simple idea wrapped in 2D comic-book graphics appealed to thousands of players around the world, instantly becoming an indie bestseller with 200k units sold!
SKYHILL: Black Mist, the second installment of the series, is a combination of classic horror and gameplay straight from survival games. The game loosely parallels the original concept, but gameplay-wise it's a revolutionary step forward. This time the developers moved from 2D to 3D, presenting the action in an isometric view. The game mechanics have been significantly enhanced with stealth elements and solutions known from metroidvania-like games, including the ability to re-explore already visited locations to find previously inaccessible items and information. An important element of the game, also improved compared to the original, is a crafting system that allows players to craft items that will help them survive in the most difficult conditions.
he story in SKYHILL: Black Mist is inspired by the classic horror cinema, while also introducing mysterious and paranormal elements that we associate with such series as Stranger Things. The player cannot be sure what is true and what is an illusion. Locked in a haunted luxurious building complex owned by the mysterious corporation Skyhill Inc., he tries to understand who or what stands behind the eponymous Black Mist that turns people into mindless monsters.
Here’s short note from Eugene, head of SKYHILL: Black Mist project:
"I think of the first Skyhill as a kind of an introduction to what we're creating now for Black Mist. We had time to significantly improve and expand the main concept; only the haunted building was left from the original game. The scale and the scope of this new adventure are incomparably greater, both in terms of gameplay solutions and due to the transition to extensive 3D locations that can be freely explored. It's a big game, full of surprises and plot-twists. I hope both fans of the original game and new players will like it."
To sum everything up, please check the main features of the game below😊
Non-linear exploration
Discover the secrets of the SKYHILL Corporation building, its nooks, crannies, and hidden passages. Black Mist lurks everywhere, in the school building for the local kids, in an abandoned shopping center, as well as in the cinema you've recently visited with your daughter. SKYHILL: Black Mist is a combination of horror and metroidvania-like exploration game.
Survive at any cost
The Black Mist covering the area has poisoned your body and soul. You have to constantly look for medicine to survive, and analyze the situation all the time so as not to go crazy. You must stay alive by collecting and managing resources. Create new items and weapons, all for the sake of surviving long enough. Try to do all you can to turn from prey into a hunter!
Play your way
It's up to you how you handle the hardships you face and the opponents who try to kill you at every step of the journey. Take advantage of the surroundings, set traps for enemies, sneak behind them or use brutal animal strength. You decide.
The secret of the Black Mist
In Skyhill: Black Mist nothing is as it seems. Where did the mysterious Black Mist come from? Who summoned it and why? Discover the secret behind it and try to distinguish reality from illusion. Find out what's real and what's not.
Sooo, we are very close to release and you can expect more info about the game in upcoming weeks!
In today’s Dev Diary we would like to share some news from Heliborne’s hangar from the last 2 weeks!
Map updates in Heliborne: Enhanced Edition
In Heliborne: Enhanced Edition we plan to tweak all maps. Those are the first screenshots from the new The Gulf of Tonkin! As you can see, new textures, better lighting, and color saturation! Hope you like what you see!
Navy Seals - New DLC available in May!
The most important information from the last 2 weeks is that during Free Weekend of Heliborne there will be a premiere of new DLC for the game! Navy Seals, because it will be the name of it, will consist of new camos for your helicopters! Here you can find some screenshots of them!
Screamin' Indians on MH-60s HSC-6
Red Lions on MH-60s HSC-15
Eightballers on MH-60s HSC-8
Black Jacks on MH-60s HSC-21
Sea Knights on MH-60s HSC-22
Share your opinion with us!
Over and out!
Dev Diary #1! AMA and Streams announcements, Free weekend comming soon!
Pilots!
We know how curious you are about Heliborne: Enhanced Edition. That’s why we decided to create more content from the dev team in the upcoming weeks!
Since today, every 2 weeks we will be posting “Dev Diary” in which you will be able to gain firsthand knowledge about the planned Enhanced Edition!
What’s more, every 2 weeks we are planning AMA sessions for you! If you have any questions about the game, save it and ask it during this Q & A sessions. Starting on the 16th of April on Heliborne’s Discord channel. At the first fire goes Roman, Game Designer of Heliborne!
Furthermore, during the recent AMA session in January, you asked how are we going to increase the number of players in the game. We told you that we are planning loads of actions and promos in the game. And the time has come! We would like to invite all of you to join us during first-ever Steam Free Weekend for Heliborne! During this weekend all Steam users will be able to download the game and play with you! We are planning loads of activities both for new players and veterans. And of course, you will have a chance to win some cool prizes during the whole weekend! Save the date in your calendar - 8th to 11th of May!
Last but not least, LIVE STREAMS! First one - 14th of April on Heliborne Steam card. This time, we will be playing some PvE missions :)
And now, the main thing! Update on Heliborne: Enhanced Edition works and development!
1. Improved multiplayer engine and a matchmaking system
In our survey form, in which we asked you to let us know about the most anticipated changes and improvements, many among you mentioned multiplayer engine update in the first place. We decided to focus on this feature What’s more, we decided to add matchmaking to make PvP even more competitive. In our plans there is also a new rank system, but we will confirm it in more details later.
2. Moved the game to a newer version of the engine (new Unity)
Upgrade for new Unity engine is mostly required to port the game for consoles. That’s the main advantage of this point development-wise, but let’s not forget that the game obviously looks much better already thanks to this change.
3. A new UI project has been created - we are currently implementing it
Some of you reported that UI is good enough, but many stressed the fact that we should modernize it a bit as it is already visually outdated. Sooo… We made it more clear readable. You will be able to see the results of our work on our Facebook and VK pages this Saturday on #ScreenshotSaturday!
4. Optimization of existing maps, change of lighting system and post-processes - ongoing
Heliborne has never been a challenging game for your PCs, but we received reports, that in some areas your FPS drops. That’s why we decided to check all maps and polish them. On some, we changed the lighting system. With those changes and new UI Enhanced Edition will look gorgeous!
Hope you will like this kind of messages and see you on stream!
Over and out!
Community Update!
Pilots - salut!
We know that You are curious about the future of Heliborne. So, we have decided to post this new announcement, to let you know that work is in progress and that we are heading in the right direction with already announced Enhanced Edition of Heliborne. Here it is!
We plan special AMA session dedicated solely to Russian community (we already had one in English but we plan next session soon). We will try to answer all your questions. This session will take place on our Discord channel:
We are delighted to announce that from now on we have a new member in our team. Please welcome @Mindoug who was working with Heliborne since its beginning as a part of JetCatGames team. He knows your main concerns and worries and now he will become Klabater team member! We hope that Mindoug will help us build the bridge between ‘old’ Heliborne and the new one. His presence is dedicated mostly to russian-speaking community management. He will be also running AMA session on Wednesday.
As for the status of announced Enhanced Edition, here is a small summary of our current works (if this will rise any questions, please keep them for AMA session :)
- Transferring the game to the new Unity3D 2018 engine - Improved graphics: a new level of graphics and special effects * Volumetric lights * Fog * Weather effects: ** Rain ** Snow - New intuitive interface: * Complete change of UI * Controller navigation option * Easier navigation through the interface * Adding animation and sound effects to the menu - Sound: * New game soundtrack * Additional 40+ music tracks * New SFX UI and in game - Multiplayer * An improved version of online gameplay * Block of cheating, exploits and unfair practices. * New server locations: USA, Western Europe, Russia, Australia, Asia - New units and new animations of current ground units. - Game port for current and new generation console platforms * XBOX / Scarlet PS4 / PS5 and Switch - Cross-platform gameplay - New maps, new modes, new scenarios
Here you can find some screens showing how the game looked until now and how it looks now on unity:
And here’s one of the new screens and artworks that will be shown as loading pages in EE:
Thank you and see you during AMA session on Wednesday!
Klabater team
Play the demo + Support Help Will Come Tomorrow crowdfunding campaign!
Friends!
We are happy to let you know that today we’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign for Help Will Come Tomorrow, a true-born survival game and another step in Klabater’s bold journey in search of meaningful, story-driven games.
You will find our campaign here: klabater.com/HWCT_Kickstarter
We encourage you to support the game! :)
We soooo are happy to finally unveil more details about Help Will Come Tomorrow. The game was shown during Gamescom 2019 previously, and we are now in a much more advanced stage of development. This is why we decided to add a demo, to let everyone know that Help Will Come Tomorrow is already in a good shape. We really think that we have found our own unique approach to survival game formula, with a more narrative-driven and psychological touch.
Help Will Come Tomorrow crowdfunding campaign is supported with many new game-related materials, among them screens and artwork, but above all else we encourage you to check:
Exclusive demo (first 3 days in the game, available on Steam Card of the game)
Help us spread the word and share this news if you can :) Our fellow devs from Arclight Creations are now at the finish of development, but Help Will Come Tomorrow definitely requires extra help. Thanks to your support creators will be able to secure a top notch quality for the release!
Arclight Creations & Klabater
Celebrate the Year of the Rat! Steam Lunar New Year Sale
Happy Lunar New Year!
The Steam Lunar New Year Sale starts now! Celebrate the Year of the Rat with us and buy Heliborne with the BIGGEST discount EVER! It won't be cheaper anytime soon so... what better time than now!
