What's behind door #1?
A useful piece of cover!
We just implemented the ability to cover on open doors!
Just don't forget, not all doors materials are created equal though, make sure it will actually stop a bullet!
A small but very requested new feature was just added.
You can now control the power of your throw. No longer will your grenades be yeeted into oblivion!
Be careful with your newfound explosive power though, friendlies may be in the way.
Cringe commentary, reminding me of those cringe AAA presentations during big conferences.
Project Haven: Developing a Sci-Fi Turn-Based RPG
Code Three Fifty One, the developers of Project Haven, have discussed the development process behind the game, talked about implementing game mechanics, and shared some advice regarding the marketing of the game.
Introduction
80.lv: Please introduce yourself. Where did you study? What companies have you worked for? What projects have you contributed to?
Hey! We are Sérgio Gil and Joana Dimas, a couple from Portugal with different but complementary work backgrounds.
Sérgio: I left college to pursue my dreams of working in the games industry back in 1999, on a game called Tactical Ops that launched way back in 2001. I then went on to work on several other titles throughout the 2000s, eventually joining the VFX company Video Copilot in 2009 as their Technical Director, where I had the chance to work on all sorts of titles.
Joana: I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science with a specialization in artificial agents, after finishing my Master's degree in Psychology. I’ve always wanted to expand my knowledge in this field, especially when it comes to improving how computer characters enhance a player’s experience. So, in this instance, that’s through a combination of cognitive science and game design; both of which are big passions of mine.
Project Haven
80.lv: How and when did you start developing Project Haven? What inspired you to create the post-apocalyptic-style game?
Sérgio: Project Haven’s development began in 2015. The biggest inspirations for the game are genre classics such as Jagged Alliance 2, Silent Storm, and the original XCom series. Its development came about after a frustrating and failed attempt at playing JA2 using a co-op mod. With us being a huge fan of the tactical genre and as we both like to play cooperatively, we decided Project Haven would become something we’d both enjoy making.
Joana: As for the setting, we’ve drawn pretty heavily from classic films such Johnny Mnemonic, Blade Runner, and other sci-fi staples. We really wanted to bring a gritty dystopian feel to the turn-based strategy genre. We’ve always loved movies and storytelling, and both of us have a huge appreciation of good cinematography. We always had a very strong vision of how we wanted to present our game’s story and setting.
Art Style
80.lv: Please tell us about the game’s art style? How did you form it? How did you approach character design and create the game’s city?
Joana: Thanks! The art style really draws from movies that inspired us, as we wanted the game to be fairly grounded, not only in terms of its gameplay but also in its aesthetic. That said, we also wanted to have a little bit of sci-fi/cyberpunk flair throughout the game to allow us to tell our particular story. As for the city, it was important to us that players felt part of an oppressive, dystopian world, where characters are forced to deal with or accept challenging situations. With Project Haven and its city surrounded by a plasma shield, and with no means of escape for the player; this fits the sense of entrapment, and needing to face the impact this has. Like many things in the game, the character and the city design process have been highly iterative. In terms of process, we build something, evaluate it, and eventually refine it until it reaches a level of quality we’re happy with. In Project Haven, we wanted our characters to be unique, not only with their personalities but also with how they look. Fundamentally, players should feel a connection to the characters they’re interacting with.
Tech and Mechanics
80.lv: What tech do you use to develop the game? What tools help you bring your ideas to life?
Sérgio: We’re using Unreal Engine 4 for the game’s development, and it's been invaluable in bringing our ideas to life. As a tiny indie studio with big ambitions, it would be hard to justify spending huge amounts of resources on creating an engine from the ground up when we could spend that time actually building the game itself. For the art side, we use Blender as our DCC (Digital Content Creation) tool of choice. Blender has reached the point where its usability and feature set is great for game development. Lastly, we also use Substance 3D Painter, Designer, and Photoshop for the 2D art.
80.lv: Could you discuss gameplay mechanics? Why did you decide to choose RPG style?
Sérgio: With Project Haven, we wanted to return to what made classic titles so popular, but also include modern elements that players have come to expect. The game uses an AP system with highly controllable characters, something that hasn’t really been done since those aforementioned classics, but we’ve also included unique features like third-person aiming and a gridless design. The RPG elements in the game are also a great fit because as the player progresses through the storyline, the characters improve with new skills and abilities. It gives the player another tool to play the game in their own way, with the freedom to adjust their strategies as the game progresses.
Animation
80.lv: Please also discuss animating characters and the world. How did you work on different animations and make the world come to life?
Sérgio: Animation is an interesting subject for us because we’re not animators, but we knew we wanted to make the game feel fluid, with strong cinematics. This led us to motion capture, and while that’s notoriously expensive and time-consuming, we actually improvised pretty heavily here. We ended up using an HTC Vive tracker-based mocap setup in our studio, and while it requires a fair amount of cleanup compared to a typical optical system, it was great for us.
80.lv: Please describe how did you work and what tools did you use to create bright explosions in your game?
Sérgio: Working with a VFX company like Video Copilot actually gave us a bit of a leg up on this one. Knowing what makes a great explosion is something VC is definitely known for!
With all the marketplaces available now, developers are fortunate enough to have access to great-looking explosion and fire elements. From there, it’s simply a matter of bringing it together in the in-engine particle system (Cascade and Niagara in our case), with a sprinkling of some proper camera settings to really add those finishing touches.
Business Side of Things
80.lv: It’d be also great if you could share some details on the business side of things. How did you promote the game? How do you work with the community? What are the biggest challenges?
Joana: Marketing a game is probably 50% of making an indie game, and it’s definitely the biggest challenge we face and any indie studio faces. We try to attend as many events as we can, and we have a fairly active social media presence. Discord is our main platform for engaging with our community, where we can consistently communicate with our player base. We also have fairly regular playtests as we want to gauge their feedback and gain input on how the game is progressing. A lot of good ideas for the game came from discussions we’ve had with our community. It’s an invaluable tool. As for challenges, with hundreds of games being released every month, it’s very important to try and get the game out there in front of people. That’s our biggest challenge for sure. It takes a lot of time to keep up the constant marketing, being a small team with limited resources it takes quite some time away from development, but it’s something that’s paramount to the success of the game.
Conclusion
80.lv: As a small studio of just two, how have you found the development process? Has it been all-consuming, or is there something particularly enjoyable about working together in such a personal environment?
Sérgio: It’s definitely been a long process and a lot of learning. We both enjoy making games though, so it’s definitely been enjoyable most of the time, particularly when receiving feedback from players, it’s very rewarding.
Joana: It's been a challenge, that's for sure, but being such a small team also forces us to do a little bit of everything and deepen our knowledge and learn new areas that are needed for the game. I always enjoyed a great variety of areas and being able to work on several different things throughout the game's development makes everything more motivating and exciting.
80.lv: Has it taken you by surprise at how popular Project Haven is, and how much demand there has been?
Joana: Project Haven started as a small project that we would both like to play. So when we put it on Steam Greenlight to gather people's interest in the game, I was really surprised to see that it was accepted so quickly and successfully. Since then, we’ve been steadily growing our community, but it was only after 2020's Gamescom that we saw people talking about it across social media or producing videos and streams. I think that’s when it finally sunk in: we were doing something more than just a game that we both liked to play.
Sérgio: When we started developing the game, we only knew of a small subset of gamers that could be interested in this particular type of game – the classic TBS (Turn-Based Strategy) fans. So reaching such a large audience has been a humbling experience.
80.lv: For anyone thinking of starting out in game development or the industry, and knowing what you know now, what would be your best advice?
Sérgio: I’d say to someone trying to get into game development, to keep things small. Game Jams are a great way to not only hone your skills, but to also meet new people, and most importantly, it forces you to finish an idea. It’s very common for people to keep starting new projects because they thought of something better or they’ve learned enough that they feel like it’s better to just start over. However, if you never finish an idea, you’re never learning how to finish a game, just how to start one, and I can tell you from experience that finishing a game is definitely the hardest part!
Joana: Especially if you are starting out as an indie dev, I would also like to add that you must be willing to learn a lot, and for that, you’ll need to leave your comfort zone and you’ll make mistakes. So try not to let these things be a frustration to you, and instead see them as a process that is part of the learning and development process.
When all you've finished thus far are female civilians, every night is ladies night!
A field we’re making major leaps forward in is our #Character #Art pipeline. Check out our final art for Fang below!
As a tiny indie studio we're super proud of the quality we've achieved! Let us know what you think!
https://t.co/QS4Wou6Vsj
#ScreenshotSaturday #3D #Blender https://t.co/kxXqxdHfis
This page currently has 3 different robot bozos spamming shill news posts
April Development Report
Hello Steel Dragons!
We’re alive!
Yeah, it’s been a bit since our last dev update. Months, even, but don’t mistake the radio silence for inactivity. We’ve just been down in the code-mines, working intently on Project Haven to the exclusion of everything else. We probably should have come up for air a few times, but we’ve got SO much we want to show you now.
A lot of our work has been on finalizing late-game content that we want to keep under wraps until launch, but there’s still plenty more we can show you. Let’s dive in!
Level Design
Game design is an iterative, experimental process, and we’re constantly learning new tricks and skills along the way. So that we’re not saving all the best for last, we’ve been revisiting some of our earlier missions, making visual and mechanical improvements to better match the quality of the later maps.
Check out the before/after comparison below! If you’ve played the Project Haven demo previously, you should recognize the environment, and just how much it has improved.
Characters
Another field we’ve made major leaps forward in is our character art pipeline. Previously, our character models were a bit of a compromise, trying to squeeze out the best designs we could from a relatively limited system.
Since our last update, we’ve completely overhauled how we handle character art, and the result is more distinct designs with more personality but produced in a fraction of the time - given that we’re a tiny independent studio, that’s an enormous boost in productivity for us.
You’re sure to see the improvements made across the campaign, and especially in our cinematic cutscenes, but also in the increased variety and quality of background characters like civilians. Still, the most striking improvements will be seen on our main cast. Here’s Fang after his makeover:
Everyone’s favorite (or most loathed) cyber-meathead hasn’t changed fundamentally, but we feel his updated face has a lot more character, better fitting his voice. The 3D mesh of his clothing has been updated as well to be cleaner and more efficient. This rework was done much quicker than the original character modeling process, thanks to our new art workflow.
For those wanting a deeper peek at what’s changed, take a look at the wireframe comparison below:
One of the biggest improvements we’ve made is a modular character art system, allowing us to create more varied minor NPCs by mixing and matching heads, bodies, clothes and more. You can see the improvement immediately in the nightclub scene below, now with a much less strict dress code:
UI
Whew, that’s a lot of art improvements! Our improvements are more than just skin deep, of course, so let’s talk gameplay next.
As with any squad tactics game, a good, clean user interface is essential. After several rounds of iterations (taking all our user feedback into account), we’ve overhauled the UI. It’s now cleaner, sleeker and more functions are easily usable without having to memorize hotkeys.
Before:
After:
A key focus of our redesign has been accessibility. Useful for many, but especially those who play turn-based tactics games due to their more mouse-friendly interfaces. We’re proud to announce that every feature, mode and toggle is now fully accessible using just the mouse.
Combat Gameplay
As well as making all the basic functionality easier to access, we’ve added a few highly requested features to your tactical options.
Now you can manually control the power of grenade throws (for when you want to land the perfect trick shot), and use open doors as cover. Just remember that thin wood isn’t going to stop a bullet.
And that’s it for now, but by no means all the improvements we’ve made to Project Haven over the past few months. We’ve plenty more to share over the next couple updates, so make sure you wishlist and follow the game on Steam!
If you’re still hungry for content and are still catching up on all things Project Haven, check out this narrated gameplay video over on IGN from December, featuring some of the changes and improvements we’ve talked about here.
We also made the cut for Kotaku’s ‘25 Exciting Indie Games To Wishlist Right Now’ list - a great-looking crop of games that we're happy to share the spotlight with!
And we talked with the prestigious art-focused industry site 80.lv about Project Haven’s development where we show some
previously unseen
behind the scenes! There’s even a French translation for any francophones reading this!
And of course, if you want up-to-the-minute updates on Project Haven and all things Code Three Fifty One, give our social media accounts a follow. In-between big dev-logs like this, we post regular small updates to Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. And if you want to really get down in the trenches with us and the rest of the Project Haven community, join our Discord server.
Until next time!
Code Three Fifty One
Presenting the Iron Dogs, a rival mercenary group the player was once part of but now sees themselves fighting against. Don't let their stylish glasses fool you, they're as deadly as ever! Wishlist here: http://bit.ly/PHWishlist #ProjectHaven #TurnBasedGame #ScreenshotSaturday
July Development Report
Hello Steel Dragons!
Welcome to another Project Haven development update!
This time we have quite a few gameplay additions to show you, some art updates and more, so let’s get straight into it.
Gameplay
One major task we’ve finished since the last update was reworking the whole action system backend. While it’s not particularly visual or exciting, it allows us to more easily add complex gameplay systems. It was also designed with modding in mind. In fact, every action in the game is done with the exact same tools and system modders will have available to them! We hope to see some really cool things from the community!
After finishing the system we quickly recreated all existing actions iterating and implementing a few new actions to help flesh out the gameplay:
MOVABLE OBJECTS:
Characters with enough Strength are now able to push some objects to gain access to otherwise unavailable paths, allowing for more interesting strategic decisions on your character selection and level up!
CARRY DOWNED TEAMMATES
There’s some situations where healing your downed merc in place is just not an option and moving while downed is a slow affair. You can now carry downed teammates to safety before reviving them.
CARRY DEAD ENEMIES
In the same vein as the previous system you can now carry dead enemies to prevent others from spotting the body. We’ve also included handy containers where you can dump them, though if all else fails a secluded corner will work just as well!
IMPROVED ACTION POP-UP
Along with all the backend system improvements we also improved the UI, the action popup (right click) now contains more information and is better organized, allowing for smoother interactions!
Art
Gameplay doesn’t get all the spotlight in this update though, as we’ve continued our upgrade of the character art.
Here’s just a couple of them:
Bubbles, everyone's favorite Steel Dragon’s hacker in service, sporting an updated look.
Iron Dogs mob, a brand new foe you’ll find in the streets of Haven. Don’t let his looks fool you though, they’re tough nuts to crack!
One of the main reasons for updating existing characters was to give them all new facial rigs to allow for higher fidelity facial animation, here’s a sneak peek at Daisy’s updated facial animation:
Level Design
We can’t really show much here as we’re mostly working on very late game content. But we did get back and did some updates to previous levels, fleshing out the gameplay and art.
You can see the different lighting styles in the image below representing different areas of the city.
Graphics
For those with supporting cards we’ve also added Raytracing. Make those rain puddles shine!
And to lighten all that GPU load or just to improve performance we’ve also added DLSS and FSR2 support!
With all the changes the game underwent we’d like to have you all test the game and give your feedback. Throughout Project Haven’s development it’s been extremely helpful reading everyone’s ideas and suggestions. As such, we’re planning on having a new Demo as soon as we have a stable build, stay tuned for details!
And finally we’d like to thank all the community for your support, we know you guys are eager to get your hands on the final product. We’re a small team doing our best, and we want to make sure your experience is as good as it can be. We’re not cutting any corners, so while things sometimes take a while to develop we believe it’s for the best in the end. We hope you guys understand.
Thank you! And see you next time!
Code Three Fifty One
Tl;dr yesHey bros, what’s the tldr on:
Ballistics modeling
Destructive environment
Reaction shots
Ammo handling and ammo type
Saving equipment loadouts
Stat and skill progression
Base mechanics, including defense
Multiple bases
Hello friendHey bros, what’s the tldr on:
Ballistics modeling
Destructive environment
Reaction shots
Ammo handling and ammo type
Saving equipment loadouts
Stat and skill progression
Base mechanics, including defense
Multiple bases
Hey bros, what’s the tldr on:
Ballistics modeling
Destructive environment
Reaction shots
Ammo handling and ammo type
Saving equipment loadouts
Stat and skill progression
Base mechanics, including defense
Multiple bases