The battlefields of Inari are changing in 2026...
Thanks to all the community feedback, playtesting, and bug reports, we've been able to make a lot of progress with features, fixes, and content over the past few months. We're still as limited as ever, with scant resources, a small, newly-formed team whose members are balancing multiple commitments, and all the curve-balls one might (or might not) expect from indie game-dev being thrown at us. Yet, despite the obstacles and frustrations, SteelFront is in some ways exceeding our original expectations, and is shaping up to be something we can really be proud of.
Now that we're going into the new year, we're excited to show you what we have in store for the near future!
New Maps
Introducing new locations showing the world of SteelFront!
We're building new maps offering more varied layouts, encouraging more strategic play, creating more interesting and dynamic battles to watch or control, and fully realizing the planet of Inari, the continent of Atlea, and the nations and factions that call it home. Deploy to battlefields ranging from the nightmarish slum labyrinth of Shuguang's Dreg Strip, to the natural rocky bastions that jut out from the vast steppes of the New Gherris Salient, to the hyper-industrialized concrete deserts of AMDEC's interior. Get a preview of yet more battles to come with playable grayboxes and WIPs, and expect even more variety as we experiment with different layouts and locales!
Unit Selection and Orders
Take control over the flow of battle!
SteelFront may not be an RTS, and we don't plan to make it one, but with so many commanders crying out for a chance to actually command in at least some capacity, we just couldn't help but agree. You can now redirect units to alternate objectives by selecting them, and click-dragging their waypoint markers. We're also looking into even more ways to expand and exploit this feature, such as adding movement waypoints along their routes to create flanking maneuvers and overlapping fields of fire, and new objectives requiring different approaches, either for the player to control themselves, or leave to their units' own judgement.
Improved Placement
Streamlined placement with multiple related bugfixes.
We ditched the big cubes in favor of a simple, easy-to-read grid, prevented placement inside structures and other impassable areas, and fixed a number of bugs that could make the placement phase more of a hassle than it needed to be.
Improved Ragdolls
Ragdolls no longer curling up into stupid little balls!
Ragdoll physics have been overhauled, fixing a bug where ragdolls would scrunch up. Dead soldiers now splay out in spectacular fashion as they are cut down in droves by gunfire or thrown around by artillery, as war machines uncaringly, unceasingly carry on their grim functions around them! Don't worry, humans are abundant and replaceable!
Better Turrets/Aiming
Mounted mechanical turrets and weapons on all tanks/mechs/etc rotate and aim correctly.
No more flipping or pointing the wrong way. Units with mounted weapons will also now only engage targets that are within the range of movement of their weapons.
Load/Save Battle Presets
Saving and Loading of custom battles is now implemented!
Tired of manually placing both sides' units every time you go into battle? You can now save unit placements for a given map, and then load them when you start a new game! We're also looking into ways to further gameify this new feature, such as gamemodes focused around deckbuilding, commander characters with their own preferred compositions, or community-driven challenges to see who can make the most unbeatable composition under given restrictions or budget.
Top-Down View
Press G to get an overhead view of the battle
Some of the new maps we've been cooking up can get pretty large or complex, so it may be tricky to keep track of everything happening at once with just the standard cinematic view. To give commanders a complete picture, we've implemented a top-down camera, enabled with the G key.
Updated Unit Cards
We're updating unit info cards with individual weapon slots and new data.
While unit loadout customization is still firmly in the "Cool Idea" stage, we're overhauling the stats section of cards to individually list all a vehicle's mounted weapons, and all the weapons carried by members of infantry squads. We're also looking at ways to get more detail on individual weapons, including in-universe descriptions and specifications.
Technical Fixes
We're turning the tide in the battle against crashes and compatibility issues!
A steady stream of useful feedback from the community has allowed us to identify and address a number of bugs, technical problems, and general inconveniences, including some that plagued the original demo release. Some of the major items include:
UI improvements: Numerous small improvements and changes to UI visually and functionally in various parts of the game
Camera/mode switching: A bunch of updates and fixes to the cam and mode switching stuff, fixing some bugs and issues
Projectile trajectories are now under control and hitting targets as expected
Scene loading has had a number of structural changes to prevent some problems on different systems
Vehicle movement: Implemented a ReedsShepp stage to vehicle pathfinding which allows them to turn/reverse/turn when trying to path through tight spaces with limited turning radius ( for example LAVS ). This should improve vehicle movement realism. It's not yet perfect and needs a bit of tweaking but the basics are there and it works.
Unit destroyed prefabs now show up as expected for all units ( needs pfx added back in )
Sound: We have some new weapon/vehicle sounds! Added subtle pitch/volume randomization to sound instances
Graphics settings ( Ultra/High/Med/Low ) have been updated and some issues fixed there
Lots and lots of other refactors and fixes on the code side as we move towards where we want things to be for Early Access release.
More to Come!
Internal comms are abuzz with new ideas as we move forward.
While we've been careful to reign in our scope with SteelFront and avoid the pitfalls of feature-creep, more progress has yielded new possibilities for what we could add. As we busy ourselves with getting the game to a more fun and functional state, the ideas we've been swapping with each-other have been keeping us motivated, including:
Team selection, budget systems, and challenge modes to compliment the current sandbox experience
More ways to directly command units, while maintaining the overall hands-off battlesim gameplay
A Homeworld Sensors Menu inspired "TacMap" view option for increased visual clarity, reducing visual noise and allowing commanders to focus on the nuts and bolts of a battle
New gamemodes, ranging from lengthy battles of attrition allowing belligerents to spawn in new units by capturing objectives, to quick missions focused on target defense or destruction, to asymmetrical assaults
Specialized infantry teams, including mortars, snipers, and railguns
More mechs, from infantry-scale exo-rigs, to quadruped heavy mechs
Customizable unit loadouts and variants
Deployable fortifications from tank-traps to fighting positions
Overhauled damage system, including immunity zones to prevent infantry rifle fire from damaging tanks, and allowing specialized weapons like anti-vehicle EMP devices.
Off-map support options ranging from precision air strikes to cruise missiles
Naval warfare and amphibious landings
More detailed post-battle reports
Brigador-inspired unlockable lore entries, granting commanders more access to information as they continue to sustain the carnage.
More ways to engage with the world of Inari, its history, its inhabitants, and the nature of humanity's rapid expansion and sudden stagnation among the stars