In the last few updates, we have been talking about influences and, most recently, logos. Today let’s get back to the meat of it, namely the guns. 

Weapons have always been an important aspect of UFO games. On the surface it’s pretty obvious – it’s the guns that kill the invading aliens, of course they are important! 

But they did more than that. Weapons progression was an important narrative device. We started the game with the best humanity could throw at the alien threat. Best rifles, over-the-top portable canons. All high caliber. All futuristic, bulky, and looking ridiculously powerful. Who didn’t think “this will blow these aliens out of the water” when looking at his arsenal for the first time?

And it all was not enough! This highlighted how hopelessly outmatched we were in that war. The juxtaposition between our agent futile firing his bulky rifle at a diminutive grey alien hiding in wheat only to be critically wounded by a blast from said alien’s tiny plasma pistol contributed to the overall feeling of dread and despair. Which we all loved. 

We aim at recapturing all these experiences in some ways. Getting guns right is important. When designing their cardboard counterpart we tried to preserve the bulkiness. Which isn’t as simple as it sounds when the guns are made of cardboard and paper! As you can see in the progression animation below, we focused on two aspects when designing kinetic starting weapons. 

• Bulkiness to convey the power of the guns. This is especially visible on the pistol. Pistols are not very imposing or impressive by themselves, so we struggled here a bit. Eventually, someone came up with a brilliant idea to add a sound suppressor to it. This made the pistol look much more deadly, and impressive, and made it easier to recognize by the outline on the battlefield.  
• Making the guns themselves more interesting visually than simple flat cutouts. This resulted in more parts being tilted with respect to the core bulk of the gun, like the beforementioned suppressor or magazines.  

Other News

Book of Aliens team is also part-time helping the Hellcard team this and the next few months. Hellcard is gearing up toward a closed beta and since we are a rather small company they do need a hand as the work gets more intense. This impacts the pace at which we work on the game, but in a few months, the situation should reverse with the Hellcard team giving us a hand. 

Meanwhile, you can pass time helping us and considering participating in Hellcard Demo Closed Beta! You can sign up for keys and get more info on the game itself in this news: https://thingtrunk.com/hellcard-august-22-dev-update/

As always, take care and never hunt aliens in wheat by night! 
Konstanty