Hello everyone, welcome to our third Dev Diary! June was a very interesting month, and we made big progress! We introduced new game mechanics and equipment, reworked the customization menu, and made big progress with level design. Let’s jump into it!
New Stun System
This month, we greatly expanded our stun mechanics and implemented new types of stun grenades in the game. This update introduces Stun Types and Stun Immunities. Each crowd control tool functions with a specific Stun Type (Flash, Gas, Chemical, Kinetic, or EMP), while armors can provide immunities to specific Stun Types (a gas mask makes you immune to Gas-based crowd control, ear and eye protection makes you immune to Flash, and so on). This makes loadout selection much more important, as you need to figure out what types of equipment will be effective based on the mission briefings, and you will also need to pay a lot of attention to each enemy’s immunities while planning.
Grenade Effect Area Preview
While working on new grenades, we also felt the need to improve the way they are handled by the planning tool. Up to this point, when throwing a grenade, the planner provided a ‘preview arc’ for the grenade throw and an impact location. However, this arc was very unreliable, and players had no way to know what area of effect the grenade would have. The new system shows the exact grenade path, so you can plan throws very carefully, while also showing a preview of its area of effect based on the grenade's ‘diffusion method’. Flashbangs and Stingers are based on Line-of-Sight, while CS Gas and Smoke are based on Gas Diffusion, for example. You can see the new preview system in the video below!
Dynamic Gas and Smoke
Among the newly implemented grenades, there are Smoke and CS Gas. We wanted gas-based tools to work realistically instead of just having them fill an area around them with smoke, so we developed a diffusion system that simulates how gas would actually spread through the environment. Gas and smoke will move through doors, bend around corners, and fill rooms based on their ‘diffusion energy’ and distance from the source. This way, smoke will only be generated where it's realistic for it to reach, and won't clip through walls and doors. This makes CS Gas function very differently from Line-of-Sight-based grenades like flashbang, allowing you to stun enemies even if they are taking cover. You can see smoke mechanics at work in the video below!
Reworked Customization Menu
As we were developing new game mechanics, we felt the customization menu was not effective in providing the player with clear and comprehensive data on their operators’ stats and performance. So, we decided to heavily revamp the menu! As you can see in the screenshots below, the customizer now shows a lot more data, including the new Stun Immunities. Many stats are now conveyed as percentage variations instead of absolute numbers, and specific measurement units were added where necessary. We feel the new version is much better for accurate planning!
Level Design
After completing the two Level Blockouts we shared last month, we jumped straight into fully developing the first one. This map, set in a high-end suburban villa on the hills overlooking the city, is now almost complete! We are still working on the backdrop and writing detailed lore for all the characters, but it should be fully playable in a few days!
And this is all for the month of June!
If you want to follow us more closely and get more frequent progress reports, sneak peeks, and behind-the-scenes content, feel free to join our Discord or to follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and X!