Hi, long time no see!
In this post we will provide some information regarding the next free update for Hell Hire, and regarding the development in the future months as well.

THE NEXT UPDATE

Hell Hire was initially developed on a GameJam, we had 10 days to create the game, so in order to release the game within the time limit, we had to cut some corners in terms of gameplay and engine features, some of them were already replaced, like the projectile system. But there’s still a few things that need to be implemented in this order:

World Collision

Currently, all walls are regular, you either collide with them on the horizontal, or in the vertical, we plan on adding support to allow collisions with irregular surfaces, such as “slopes”, allowing the level design to be less blocky, providing smoother movement and more convincing areas, another feature is to provide dynamic collision, where some walls can be destroyed to create new pathways.

Different materials

This one is tied with the feature above, we plan on adding different kind of materials besides concrete and metal, some materials will be less resilient and you’ll be able to shoot through, like thin metal sheets, or wood, and some weapons, may even be able to shoot through concrete. And as mentioned earlier, some of the materials will even be able to be destroyed with bullets, or explosions, allowing you to create new paths for you and your enemies to go through.

AI

The current AI is pretty bare bones, they just charge towards you at any time and open fire when you are on their field of view, we plan to make an overhaul of the AI, to more realistic, by allowing them to investigate your position, through their FOV and sounds made by you, and their team mates, allowing for a simplistic Stealth System with Slow walk button, and Silenced Weapons.
The combat AI is also being improved of course, we plan on adding different behaviours to enemies, some enemies may be cowards and won’t charge at you at all, while some others will charge recklessly, and others will only charge when there’s a teammate nearby. They movement during combat will also differ, some will seek for cover more often while others will try to dodge your projectiles with strafing. Improving the AI should provide a more fair challenge to the player, due to the possibility of creating strategies with enemies behaviour. This AI system will also allow us to create special enemy types more easily too, we’ll talk more about them when we mention the 2 new enemy types that will make their debut in this version.

Permanence

We want implement a system where your actions are permanent, you destroyed a wall? In the next wave it will stay destroyed, regardless if you just returned from another wave, or you did it 2 weeks earlier.

Closed Test Build

After all the listed features were properly implemented, we’ll roll a Closed Build exclusive to our Discord members, where you can test the new AI system and provide feedback and suggestions for the new features as well. If you wish to participate, just join our server: https://discord.gg/9VuJYjr

After polishing those features with the help from our Discord members, we’ll add some content for you to mess around with, including a Silenced Pistol, a Sniper Rifle, 2 new abilities, and the new version for Farm (1920), it’s very likely that the other maps will be removed due to them not being backwards compatible with the new collision system.

This update will take a long time to be developed, but we expect to release it before Q1 ends, but don’t be alarmed if it takes longer, as there’s a lot of work ahead, and I (Jaqueta) am the only programmer, and may end up being caught in some personal issues on the way.

With those features out of the way, we’ll work towards the next ones: A new Lighting Engine, an XP and Skill System, an Overhaul for the Shop, the rework the Hell Segment, and of course, the Return of 1950 and 1980, More information about those features at a later date, so make sure to follow and stay tuned.