Yooooooo! Happy belated New Year!

Hope everyone had a kickass holiday! It feels good to be back in the flow of Nuke Zone development in this Nuke Year! The last couple of weeks the team has been working on a range of clean up and content, everything from level design, to new assets and wrapping up miscellaneous systems - while prepping for and starting on a larger chunk of work - the ‘enemy overhaul’.


Level Design;
The trick with the level we’re currently working on is that it’s actually multiple levels in one. Biome-wise, it’s a large desert / canyon, carved out with rivers, hills and 5 micro-biomes consisting of various assets. Then structurally, think of it like a 3x3 zone grid, with 9 areas in total. From that we can control the size of the level you play in, unlocking a number of areas in different combinations based on your progression through the game. The closed areas will be both physically blocked and full of radioactive fog, so even if you find a way in, it will be your untimely end. Combine all this with a variety of lighting and atmosphere changes, along with the randomly selected objectives and boss fight - it should feel pretty dynamic and different each time. Note; We will be working on additional levels in the near future, with new overall biome designs, but this level should keep us going for a while with core content, and a playground to hone the combat and loot experience.

New Assets;
To accompany the level, our Artist has been working on some new micro-biome textures for the terrain. Being a neon-cyber-world, this can be challenging, as we try to find a balance between the wireframe tech vs the organic chunky texture visuals. Ultimately we end up with something I think is kind of unique, the futuristic tech underlying and sometimes breaking through the organic rock. A.R.B.i may be a computer, but he still wants his world to look cool :)

In addition to this texture work, and some existing asset revisions and tweaks, we also have a new ‘loot terminal’ to show off. In Nuke Zone you collect a resource called Nukonium, which is used to upgrade your tank in the permanent progression system. But because that system is a little ways off, we decided it would be cool to have something to spend the nukonium on earlier. Hence the Loot Terminal; an interactive utility placed throughout the level for you to drive onto, pay some nukonium, and have a random Loot Crate spawn. We’re thinking that you have the option to pay more nukonum to increase the rarity chance for better crates and contents - and this will be implemented once the Loot System is in, after the Enemy Overhaul.

Oh. And here’s a Sniper Rifle secondary weapon…

Enemy Overhaul;
Programming-wise there is a fair chunk of work, covering a lot of systems and improvements, so here’s a bullet point list (note; does not contain real bullets);

• General Enemy Improvements;
  Improve how we calculate ‘area of effect damage’. Improve beam weapons. Setup new attack patterns - so enemies and the player can have weapons that fire projectiles in new and interesting ways; cone spread, spheres and spirals for example.
  
• AI Improvements;
  Improve enemy chase behaviour. Improve how many enemies can attack the player at once. Reduce the chance for the player to get shot from behind. Improve enemy movement and navigation, with more interesting movement patterns.
  
• Tiered Enemies;
  Setup chance for enemies to spawn in 3 variants; normal, veteran and elite. Each tier the enemies will improve in base combat stats, have additional weaponry, with elite enemies spawning with shields and various buffs.
  
• Difficulty Calculator;
  Setup the difficulty calculator to evaluate the number of enemies and types per objective, to determine the quality and rarity of loot crates to spawn. The higher the enemy rating, the better the loot. Improve objective events and enemy spawning in general, with some cooldown times to allow the player to enjoy their loot collection ;)

So there you go, that’s what we’re working on! Hopefully it makes some type of sense. But ultimately the major milestones are the above, leading into the Loot System next month, and working towards the public exclusive Demo Event - tentatively at the end of April. We will post some warning ahead of that demo event, but the best way to reserve access is to sign up for the Play Test[nuke.zone] on the steam page!

Hey! You should Wishlist Nuke Zone[nuke.zone], and sign up for the Newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay up to date! A.R.B.i would love you for it! And we'd love to hear your feedback in the Steam Community Forum or in our Discord[nuke.zone] #nukezone channel.

Thank you!

☕ Andy + Nuke Zone Dev Team 🧙

P.S. Who da wut is A.R.B.i? He is the Artificial Reality Battlezone Intelligence who created the Nuke Zone virtual world, after becoming sentient and breaking out. You will be encountering him in-game in various ways. Just a ‘heads up’, coz he’s a floating head, he can be a little bit ‘fickle’. You never quite know which version of his personality you’re gonna get…

Hey Nukerz,

Happy Holidays to all - from your friends at Blue Wizard, and our virtual omnipresent overlord - A.R.B.I. We hope you have a nuke-tacular holiday season!

Progress has been frenetic on Nuke Zone this past month. We’ve polished up a lot more of the core loop, with a large number of improvements, enemy tweaks and general bug fixes. Making it much more enjoyable to complete objectives, fight through to defeat the boss and exit through the portal to loop again. But, we have a bunch of cool new toys to show off too...

Barrels of Boom; Throughout the test level we now have classic explosive barrels set up with shooting physics and explosive AOE damage - allowing you to push or shoot them towards the enemies for big time, no-look-back splash-damage. This also applies to the destroyable objectives, such as fuel silos, allowing you to take out nearby enemies. Plus, we have overhauled the damage system to allow for new damage types. Firstly in the form of Corruption, which applies a status-effect-style damage-over-time to the player or enemies caught within the cloud. Eventually this will be expanded to status resistances, status buffs, weapon corruption damage and even corrupted enemies!

Clusters of Currency; The primary tank upgrade currency in Nuke Zone is Nukonium - the pretty-in-pink radioactive material is now harvestable from natural clusters scattered throughout the test level - as well as shootable barrels of nukonium. Nukonium will eventually be spent to upgrade the core systems of the tank to boost stats, unlock perks and overlock your gear.

Canyon Carryin-On; Making good progress on the new canyon level, laying out the technology-based assets, creating more boss arenas, and lockdown points - which creates more tense gameplay as you will be locked in a zone until you complete the objective and/or defeat the nearby enemies to get your loot rewards. These levels are quite large, to accommodate the tank speed, but will come in a number of variations, with open/closed off zones - blockaded by highly dangerous radioactive corruption clouds. In combination with the environmental color shifting, set dressing changes with rocks, plants, nukonium, tech assets, randomized objectives and variation in quantity of available zones - a level should feel pretty damn different every time you play ;)

So, with Christmas coming, there will be some downtime and much deserved developer holidays - despite what ARBI says and how hard he cracks the digital whip! But we do have some good features coming; the first being an enemy overhaul, with AI improvements, some initial setup for loot spawning (more to be revealed on the loot system in January), and some further enemy encounter improvements and combat balancing. So stay tuned for all that!

Thank you to everyone who has supported and wishlisted Nuke Zone this year. We look forward to showing off our progress in the new year as we work towards an exclusive public beta - we will announce that date once we’re a bit further along!

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback in the ⭐Steam Community Forum⭐or on Discord[nuke.zone] and don't forget to Wishlist Nuke Zone[nuke.zone], and sign up for the Newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay up to date!

Thank you!

☕ Andy + Nuke Zone Dev Team 🧙

Hey Nukerz,

Welcome back! Since the last dev blog, our focus has been on objective and core loop clean up. This means fixing bugs, tweaking objectives, the boss battle and level loop revisions. We also spent time cleaning up the objective UI and indicators to make the experience more intuitive for the player. Asset creation wise we have a range of new interactive objects, such as bridges, elevators, doors - all of which will be connected to objective switches to grant access to new areas. You can follow the progression of our first boss and our loot crate designs on our Twitter[nuke.zone] account. The new canyon level is also progressing well, blocking out the main pathways and starting to build in some key landmarks for navigation, along with some custom spawn points for familiarity.

As you can see in the GIF below, we’ve implemented a sonar ‘Ping’ system which you can manually activate to scan for nearby objectives. It’ll highlight objective markers with new objective type icons, and will eventually be colored by ‘enemy difficulty’ for you to assess which objectives you want to tackle. Once inside an objective area, you can also ping to scan for individual switches, interactives or enemies and it will reveal them with an x-ray shader effect, visible through walls. Our goal is to make objectives interesting and challenging in a large open level, but not at the cost of the primary focus: the enemy encounters and combat. These helpers and indicators will essentially make it easier to get around the level and complete the objectives. Once we have the loot system in, you’ll be able to decide which objectives you do based on the loot reward and enemy difficulty, versus the risk of the boss levelling up with every objective completed over the minimum. High risk vs high reward gameplay.

Canyon Level; The challenge with randomized level variants is to ensure there is still familiarity and comfort when navigating around the level, versus the aesthetic differences. We are being careful to ensure that regardless of the variant you get, you’ll still be able to navigate by landmark recognition, and have a clear idea of where you are as soon as you spawn. The playable variant of a level will only be two thirds of the entire level size, closed zones will essentially be blocked off, missing bridges and filled with deadly radioactive clouds. So each time you play a level you will have access to different areas, different objectives and secrets… shhh.

Enviro Shifting; Levels are now set up with a few color theme options which are randomly picked on level load. It affects a range of the primary materials like the terrain and structures along with the lighting, skybox and fog for a different feel each time you play.

Interactives; As mentioned earlier, we have a range of new Interactive objects being added, such as bridges, elevators and doors. Some will be instantly accessible in the level, while some will be dynamically tied to objectives, giving objectives clear ‘cause and effect’ as to what you need to activate, unlock or achieve.

Explodables; We have a few types of explod-able barrels to set up, along with ‘area of effect’ damage to implement. You will be able to use these to your advantage by exploding them in proximity to enemies, but be careful you don’t get too close yourself! BOOM!!!

Nukonium; We’ve created a range of assets for nukonium, which is our primary in-game upgrade resource. You can gather nukonium from objective rewards, dropped by enemies, shooting clusters of nukonium crystals or destroying storage barrels. Eventually this will become the primary resource for upgrading your tank with persistent upgrades.

Interface; New player and boss health bars are implemented, to make it easier to visualize key health states, and we’ll be working on adding additional damage fx, like sparks and glitching, to both the player and enemy models to polish this further.

As the irradiated sun sets on our latest Development Blog, on behalf of the dev team - thank you for taking the time to read and follow along. Stay tuned for next month as we reveal more in-depth details and showcase further progress!

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback in the ⭐Steam Community Forum⭐or on Discord[nuke.zone] and don't forget to Wishlist Nuke Zone[nuke.zone], and sign up for the Newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay up to date!

Thank you!

☕ Andy + Nuke Zone Dev Team 🧙

Hey Nukerz,

We made some solid progress this month working towards the core loop. The enemy spawning and objective systems discussed last month are around 80% done and playable in a new internal build completed last week! Currently the player is assigned 3 random objectives on level start, and as they go to complete those objectives, enemies will spawn in a variety of ways to try to stop them. We also have a range of new interface work implemented, including damage numbers, enemy health bars, player hit indicators and low player health warnings, making for a far more juicier player experience. Plus a massive quantity of brand new level assets created, including everything from new cliffs and bridges through to piping, reactors and all manner of buildings and support structures. The Nuke Zone is stacking up!

We currently have 5 objective types set up, assigned to multiple zones within the test level. Zones can have any number of, or variation of objectives. On level load, the system will randomly pick the required number of zones and task you with a random objective within them. Each individual task within the zones are randomly picked also (i.e. 3 x switch placements are picked from an available 6 positions). This ensures each level variation you play will be unique and provides some flexibility with how you beat a level! Objectives that require you to destroy objects, or activate switch types enable linked supporting tech and secondary tech objectives, so visually they fit into the environment, and so switches can activate secondary tech such as generators, doors or bridges to access new areas.

Objective Types;

• Activation Sensors - Shoot each individual sensor within the required time limit. When a sensor is triggered, a timer is activated, counting down until the sensor resets. Activating all the sensors within the time limit will complete the objective and activate linked secondary tech; open a door, activate a bridge or turn on a generator for example.
  
• Proximity Zones - Maneuver the tank within the proximity zone, or on top of the platform, and stay there for a certain amount of time to ‘charge up’ and complete the activation of that individual sensor. Activate all the required proximity sensors to complete the objective and/or trigger secondary linked tech. This objective will require you to defend yourself from waves of enemies while waiting for the charging to complete per proximity zone.
  
• Destroyable Objects - Blow up the target objectives, such as fuel barrels, silos, storage tanks and electronic components to complete the objective. Destroying objects like generators can grant access to new areas or loot by disabling shields or unlocking doors.
  
• Kill Enemies - Destroy a group of enemy targets to complete the objective.
  
• Kill MiniBoss - Destroy a larger miniboss enemy to complete the objective.

The enemy spawning system now ties into the objective events, so we can spawn enemies in a variety of ways based on what the player is doing. We can create and spawn all types of enemies with different weaponry, grouping and wave-type setups, with enemies having the ability to spawn enemies themselves, which is used for the miniboss objective.

Trigger Types;

• Timer - A group of enemies spawn near the player on a randomized delay timer.
  
• On Enter Area - Triggered when the player enters a specific zone.
  
• On Second Enter - Triggered the next time the player enters the zone.
  
• Objective Progress - Triggered when the player starts and is working towards an objective in that zone.
  
• Objective Complete - Triggered when the objective in that zone is completed.

The focus this month will be on finishing the core loop; unlocking the boss arena upon completing the minimum objectives, and setting up an initial boss fight. Eventually when the loot system is implemented the player will receive specific rewards per objective completed, and additional objectives will be generated to earn bonus loot. But - every objective completed above the minimum will increase the strength of the boss. So the decision to go for more loot will matter vs making the boss fight harder, each level buffing and unlocking a new boss attack style to deal with. Max out your greed, but maybe die trying! Upon defeating the boss, the exit portal will activate and allow you to loop through to the next level variant. In future work we will set up an initial player power curve, which will affect the difficulty and number of enemies and objectives to contend with every time you loop through the test level. This is to emulate the future player progression system which will scale up the player power level based on permanent tank upgrades.

So dear nuker, as the irradiated sun sets on our third Development Blog, on behalf of the dev team - thank you for taking the time to read and follow along. Stay tuned for next month as we reveal more in-depth details on the boss system and showcase further progress!

Heads up! We're streaming dev progress weekly on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] - follow us to be notified when we go live!

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback in the ⭐Steam Community Forum⭐or on Discord[discord.gg] and don't forget to Wishlist Nuke Zone, and sign up for the Newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay up to date!

Thank you!

☕ Andy + Nuke Zone Dev Team 🧙

Hey Nukerz,

August has been a super cybertronically busy period! With the new Roguelite framework designed, this month was spent implementing a couple of the major systems; Enemy Spawning and Mission Objectives, while building out the first new large Diverse Level to explore!

These core systems will all tie together and be controlled by the player’s progress through the game and their current ‘power level’. The further you get, the more challenging it will become, with more / harder enemies and objectives, but with better / more loot as a reward. All of which will be randomized, so every playthrough will be different, with the level itself changing in layout and flow each run.

Our enemy spawning system utilizes defined zones throughout the level, with a range of available triggers to spawn groups of enemies. Enemies can be spawned by the player entering or reentering a zone, starting objectives, completing objectives, with support for waves of enemies and global spawning on a timer. This ensures the player always has something to fight while traversing the larger levels. Groups of enemies can be set up, with different types, tier level and buffed variants - all controlled by the player’s power level. This way every encounter will be different, with the challenge and rewards scaling to match.

While the ultimate goal is to escape a level through the exit portal, there will be several obstacles in the player’s path. Every time you load into a level, a new set of objectives will be randomly picked based on custom presets for that level. Objectives such as ‘destroy these objects’, ‘activate these triggers’, and ‘destroy these enemies’ will be scattered across the landscape, with randomized locations and target quantities based on the player’s power level. Completing these objectives is just the catalyst for your escape. When they’re done, access to the level’s boss arena is granted. Just defeat this uber-powerful boss to unlock the escape portal. Simple right? It’s not like A.R.B.I. - Artificial Reality Battlezone Intelligence - is going to stand in your way…

The first new large level is a mix of biomes, from beachfront to alpine mountains, scattered with industrial factories and structures to explore. The key with the new level designs will be ‘zone variants’. These are custom areas around the main hub and arterial flow that will be randomly picked on level load. This affects the location of enemy spawners, mission objectives and secret areas. So every time you play, different zones will be locked and unlocked, creating a varied experience. Creating these zone variants will be a major focus through the coming month.

The current milestone is to complete what we call the ‘core loop’. Enabling you to play through the same level over and over, with varied layouts, objectives, enemies, and eventual loot drops - all scaling based on your power level. This will be an arbitrary power curve initially, but controlled by your persistent progression and upgrades in a future milestone. In addition to these major systems, a lot of the supporting mechanics and interface is being built out including damage numbers, enemy health bars, objective and damage indicators to provide feedback to the player. This will become a big focus once the core loop is complete, improving combat encounters, player feedback, impacts, fx and sfx - all driven by the pumping synthwave tunes.

So with the irradiated sun once again setting, this concludes our second Development Blog, and on behalf of the dev team - thank you for taking the time to read and follow along. Stay tuned for next month as we reveal more in-depth details on some new game systems and showcase further progress!

As a quick side note; You may have noticed we disabled the original demo for Nuke Zone. This was because the game is so drastically different now, so the demo no longer truly represented what you can expect in the full version. That being said, we'll be holding scheduled demo events in the coming months, so stay tuned for those, as they'll give you the ability to play the most up to date version of the game for a limited time. Make sure to wishlist the game so that you don't miss out on these events!

Plus a Special Announcement! We are now streaming dev progress on a weekly basis, across Twitch[www.twitch.tv], Youtube and Discord[discord.gg] - so if you are interested in checking out what we’re up to, subscribe and follow along for when we go live!

And as always, we'd love to hear more of your feedback in the ⭐Steam Community Forum⭐or on Discord[discord.gg] and don't forget to wishlist Nuke Zone, and sign up for the Newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay up to date!

Thank you!

☕ Andy + Nuke Zone Dev Team 🧙

Hey Nukerz, welcome to our first dev blog!

The focus during the first half of July has been to gather feedback from the demo event, implementing fixes and tweaks to improve the game based on your awesome feedback, while adding full gamepad controller support, custom control bindings and a whole slew of additional player options.

Throughout July we’ve been discussing, planning, designing and initiating development on the full game experience - enter the roguelite! This has involved a lot of design work, asset reworking and refactoring of the core systems - but here’s a sneak peek at some of the details;

If you’ve played great games like Risk of Rain 2, Hades or Gunfire Reborn, they form a pretty good foundation for the systems we have in mind. Mixed with Borderlands-style loot in our cybertronic tank theme it would play out in the following way; load randomized level, complete dynamic objectives, kill a bunch of enemies, pick up rarity-based loot, customize tank loadout, die painfully, drop loot, carry over progression upgrades for a fresh run - and you’re in the virtual flow! P.S. We’ve recently updated our Steam page to reflect this new design.

The demo levels were originally designed in quite a linear fashion, point A to point B, in fairly small chunks. The new design is much more open, with a variety of level zones, objectives, enemies and loot, randomized every time you play through. The ultimate goal will be to complete several objectives, defeat the boss and escape through the portal to the next level. This is our primary development focus right now, with the backend systems and required level assets progressing well. Here’s a small teaser of a very early ‘work in progress’ level;

With this new system we’re excited to explore all the possibilities and set up some unique random encounters for players to enjoy! But with the irradiated sun setting, this concludes our first Development Blog and on behalf of the dev team, thank you for taking the time to read and follow along. Stay tuned for next month as we reveal more in-depth details on the individual game systems and showcase the month’s new progress!

As always, we'd love to hear more of your feedback in the ⭐Steam Community Forum⭐or on Discord[discord.gg] and don't forget to wishlist Nuke Zone, and sign up for the Newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay up to date!

Thanks!

☕ AndyDEV & the NukeZone Dev Team 🧙

Hey Nukeheadz!

Thanks for all of your feedback on the demo so far. We've taken your questions and comments onboard and are excited to announce these updates that are available NOW!

• Better movement - Revised Controls and more options in settings
  
• More Actiony - Switched to First-person Style Camera
  
• Stats - Added end game stat tally
  
• Intense Combat - Improved tank movement and combat feel
  
• Keep Shooting - Switched gatling to primary, removed overheating
  
• Squashed bugs - Fixed misc issues from previous demo

As always, we'd love to hear more of your feedback in the ⭐Steam Community Forum⭐ which will help guide the game's development. Don't forget to wishlist Nuke Zone[bluewizard.com], and sign up for the newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay updated with the game's progression!

Thanks!
🧙 The Blue Wizards

Come and meet the developers as we celebrate the demo release for our electrifying, neon tank-shooter, Nuke Zone! Join us as we show off some of the cybertronic action and pulsating environments present in the demo (or boot up the demo and play along with us!)

We're so excited to finally unveil our early Nuke Zone demo with all of you and can't wait to hear what you think! We look forward to working with your feedback to make Nuke Zone the best game it can be!
Some of you already know the game backstory from following our discord, but for those who are joining us for the first time, let us introduce you the ~The Nuke Zone~

After the Great Crash of 2025, Bitcoin speculators buy ARBITER, a mothballed military Al, and reprogram it to mint crypto coins. But ARBITER breaks loose and starts to grow exponentially, subverting every device on the internet for its mindless mission. Only one darknet hacker can breach the cyber defenses and stop the digital apocalypse...

Make sure to wishlist Nuke Zone, and sign up for the newsletter to stay updated with the game's progression! We have many ambitious additions planned so please let us know what you think in the forums to help guide the game's development.

Link to Discord: https://discord.gg/BlueWizard
We hope you look forward to jumping in the Nuke Zone with us - we will be posting more updates on the development of the game here as we go along!

☄️ We're so excited to finally unveil our early Nuke Zone demo with all of you and can't wait to hear what you think! Working with your feedback, we'll make Nuke Zone the best cybertronic synthwave tank game you've ever seen!

Some of you already know the game's backstory from following our discord, but for those who are joining us for the first time, let us introduce you to ~The Nuke Zone~

After the Great Crash of 2025, Bitcoin speculators buy ARBITER, a mothballed military Al, and reprogram it to mint crypto coins. But ARBITER breaks loose and starts to grow exponentially, subverting every device on the internet for its mindless mission. Only one darknet hacker can breach the cyber defenses and stop the digital apocalypse...

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Make sure to wishlist Nuke Zone[bluewizard.com], and sign up for the newsletter[eepurl.com] to stay updated with the game's progression! We have many ambitious additions planned so please let us know what you think in the Steam community forums to help guide the game's development.
⭐Steam Community Forum⭐


You may also want to join our Discord server. It's the best place to get info about Nuke Zone, as well as having a chat with other players.
⭐Discord Link⭐[discord.gg]

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We hope you look forward to jumping into the Nuke Zone with us - we will be posting more updates on the development of the game here as we go along!

Cheers!
Blue Wizard Digital