October Development Report

Eyes up, Steel Dragons!

We know things have been quiet on our side for the past few months and we appreciate everyone who's been checking in, waiting, and wondering what's next. The good news is: yes, development is very much alive.

Developing a game is tricky especially since we announced Project Haven very early on. Back then, we wanted to gauge how much interest there would be in a game like this. And honestly, we didn't really expect it to get this much attention! We've always loved tactical games and were set on making one no matter what, and we're truly grateful to everyone who's been part of the conversation since. However, showing our work so soon has brought extra challenges and expectations, which have sometimes been hard for us to fulfill.

The truth is that it's been so many years that we've been through just about everything: from true excitement seeing players enjoy the game, to burnout, to life getting in the way and everything in-between. We may not have a fixed release date just yet, and we know we’ve missed past estimates. Given where things stand, it’s clear that our current timeline for a 2025 release is not realistic. We’re genuinely sorry for breaking your expectations. But rest assured, we’ve never stopped making progress, and we want to make it clear: the game will be released.

So let's dive into what's new!

Enemy Class System Overhaul

In our last devlog, we teased the new class-based system for enemy factions, and that system is now fully functional in-game:

• Each enemy class now has a distinct look, with variations across both male and female models.

• Each class comes with its own behavior and AI scripts: Shotgunners rush, marksmen hold angles, and brawlers close the gap. So now, they not only look the part, they act the part too!

• We’ve also added UI icons that indicate each enemy’s class: No more zooming in to squint at someone’s weapon to figure out what kind of threat you're facing.

We see this as an important step toward better gameplay clarity. Being able to quickly tell what you’re up against makes a big difference in tactical decision-making, and this work really helps support that.

Character Models

Our work on the game’s character models continues - and with such a big cast, you’ll probably be hearing about this again.

Here’s a look at the new Brotherhood models, now fully represented across all classes and genders.

We can also share a look at the Iron Dogs, currently still in progress and shown here in their high-poly form (detailed 3D versions we create before optimizing them for the game), and once we move on to the low-poly and texture passes, they’ll be ready to join the other factions already implemented in-game.

More characters were made (some still only in high-poly others already in low-poly), but we’ll keep those under wraps for release!

We’ve also been updating older character skeletons and fixing long-standing issues with modular meshes (particularly with civilians).

It’s not the flashiest task, but it’s a crucial one. These updates fix persistent animation issues we’ve been dealing with and help streamline the entire animation and cinematic pipeline for both main characters and background NPCs.

Merc Skills

If you’ve played previous demos, you probably noticed some skills were still unimplemented or marked as placeholders - well, we’re finally addressing that.

We’re reworking the mercenary skill trees: adding what was missing, removing what no longer fits, and refining the structure to better support tactical builds. It’s a major