Operation: Harsh Doorstop

[Bluedrake42]

What's up guys, it's me.

Been a while since I've posted here, but it's starting to be about that time where it makes sense to. There are a number of you here that are already aware of this project, but for everyone else... I'd like to introduce a project we've been working on for the past few years.

Visit Operation: Harsh Doorstop on Steam or Support the Operation: Harsh Doorstop project on Patreon

What is Operation: Harsh Doorstop?

Operation: Harsh Doorstop is a free tactical shooter built on Unreal Engine 4. Do not be confused, this is not a "free to play" game. There are no micro-transactions, no paid expansions, or any other in-game monetization schemes of any kind. This is a truly free project (similar to the Project Reality project) built in Unreal Engine 4. It will be released on Steam, and will also include a modding "source development kit" available through the Unreal Engine launcher.

If you are interested in reading more about our source development kit for the project, you can read about it here.

Is there any gameplay footage of Operation: Harsh Doorstop?

Yes. This is an important thing to make clear. Operation: Harsh Doorstop is currently entirely playable. We have implemented all of the basic mechanics required for a "Project Reality" inspired game, and are now focusing entirely on new features.

Advance and secure game-modes, equipment kits, proximity VOIP, and other essentials are all currently in-game and working. We have support for a minimum of 64 players, with a maximum of 80. We are planning on pushing towards 100 players, but only after implementing vehicle and other mechanics (which are nearing completion.)

You can view some of our more recent play-tests of Operation: Harsh Doorstop here.

Why are you making this game when there is already Squad/Post Scriptum/Hell Let Loose/ArmA/Red Orchestra/etc.

We plan on being the first non-commercial entry into the existing "current generation" tactical gaming catalog. Squad is currently 39.99$. Our game is free. Our objective isn't to make a game that has never been made before. Our objective is to make it for free.

I personally believe that there are a myriad of untapped opportunities that are available to free projects that aren't available to traditionally commercial projects. There are other commercial games that will always have their place. However Operation: Harsh Doorstop is the free alternative. That is our role, and we're sticking to it.

My objective is for our project to be the Linux of the tactical gaming world.

Imagine what a modding community could look like for a game with no price tag, with a public SDK, on Steam, and on a modern engine.

That's what we're pushing for.

When will the game be released?

We have made announcement videos explaining our release timeline, as well as other features. If you're interested in learning more, I recommend watching it.

I started this project with a group of our community members nearly four years ago now. We've completely scrapped and rebuilt the entire project three times, this latest release being the third iteration. We feel pretty confident in our current iteration of the game, and we've decided to push forward with it.

The core development team is composed heavily of original DRK members, including many members of our original Project Reality "Scenario Sundays" projects, our "Return to Battlefield" map packs, as well as our Free Candy Van server and community launchers.

However we have also received a huge influx of support and assistance from a number of other development team members and alumni... including alumni (and a few active members) of the Project Reality development team, the (disbanded) Project Reality 2 development team, developers from New World Interactive, Tripwire, and Offworld Industries (including one of the original lead programmers of Squad... Garrett, who embedded with us and helped develop our vehicle framework for six months.)

Anyways, there is quite a bit more that I could talk about... but I will leave that for future updates. I merely wanted to officially announce this project here, as obviously the Project Reality family (for better or for worse) is close to my heart and a big influence on our work.

I've always wanted a free, community-driven, mod-supported "Project Reality" inspired tactical shooter on a modern engine... so that's what we're making.

Let me know if you all have any questions, and yes... we are always looking for more help. If you want to get involved, consider joining our development Discord server here.

https://discord.gg/BNEHh54

Cheers guys. Also congratulations on 1.6. It's incredible.

[AfterDune]

Looking good! It's a pretty interesting project, with it being entirely free and moddable - and on a modern engine. Let's see where this goes .

Best of luck to you and your team!

[[R-MOD]Nate.]

Nice initiative BD! How do Warfare-1944 and Harsh Doorstep relate to each other?

[[R-DEV]​Rhino]

Very interesting that you're making it a totally free game. The big advantage of it not being for profit is creativity has the freedom to do what it likes without the constrints of "what will players buy". Do you and the rest of your team plan to be making any money off of this, and if so how? Or are you going about this the same way how PR is done, with all donations only going into supporting the servers & infrastructure of the development, and nothing going to any of the developers themselves?

Best of luck, will be interesting to see how this plays out!

[Danesh_italiano]

Bluedrake finally became a DEV (for real this time). Congratz!

[PatrickLA_CA]

This looks interesting. I understand this game will be built mostly as a framework for other community projects, but what factions/theaters will come with the vanilla thing?

[Bluedrake42]

Originally Posted by AfterDune

Looking good! It's a pretty interesting project, with it being entirely free and moddable - and on a modern engine. Let's see where this goes .

Best of luck to you and your team!

Thanks Afterdune <3 I've always appreciated your positivity =P

Originally Posted by Nate.

Nice initiative BD! How do Warfare-1944 and Harsh Doorstep relate to each other?

I think I did a pretty good job of discussing that in the announcement video.

TLDR Warfare 1944 is basically a fundraiser to help Operation: Harsh Doorstop along, and to keep the lights on. It's also kindof a showcase of how flexible OHDCore is, and that we can make different games using the same Unreal framework.

Originally Posted by Rhino

Very interesting that you're making it a totally free game. The big advantage of it not being for profit is creativity has the freedom to do what it likes without the constrints of "what will players buy". Do you and the rest of your team plan to be making any money off of this, and if so how? Or are you going about this the same way how PR is done, with all donations only going into supporting the servers & infrastructure of the development, and nothing going to any of the developers themselves?

Best of luck, will be interesting to see how this plays out!

So if you watch the video, that kindof explains a lot of the business model.

We actually do really well on Patreon, and that funds a lot of development. We do pay contractors and our own developers through funds raised through those outlets in order to help development along, but most of us work at extremely low rates (or even volunteer) since the objective isn't really to make Operation: Harsh Doorstop our primary revenue stream. We have other projects that do that for us.

The idea is that Operation: Harsh Doorstop is our "charity project." We have other games built in Unreal Engine 4 that are entirely different that help us make a living, but OHD and all of it's updates are considered to be sacred ground.

Basically my whole opinion on all of this is... it's not going to be possible to sell "realistic" games for too much longer, because all of the intellectual property (the guns, equipment, etc) is all public domain... or if it isn't public domain, it definitely isn't owned by the studio.

So anything related to Operation: Harsh Doorstop or any other "realistic" theaters that we release for it in the future are planned to stay free, because eventually I believe that that's how it is going to be anyways.

Any commercial games we make outside of OHD will be in-house intellectual property... like Subnautica style... or Halo... or even things like Warfare 1944, with stylized art-styles. If we do any commercial projects that are realistic... it'll probably be future settings or any other setting that actually requires us to make proprietary IP.

That's the current plan.

OHD + any historic/realistic settings always free.

Maybe other games that are stylized/completely original will be commercial, and will keep the lights on. However those funds are largely put back into OHDCore currently. Since OHDCore kindof helps everyone.

Originally Posted by Danesh_italiano

Bluedrake finally became a DEV (for real this time). Congratz!

Well I can't take credit for everything, a lot of people came together to make this happen. I appreciate it though <3

Originally Posted by PatrickLA_CA

This looks interesting. I understand this game will be built mostly as a framework for other community projects, but what factions/theaters will come with the vanilla thing?

We're doing a fictional proxy conflict between Russia and America in Afghanistan as our first "proof of concept" theater.

OHDCore (our SDK) isn't completed yet, but we've been giving access to modding teams who have signed up. They've already been working on a variety of other theaters that we haven't announced yet, including World War 2 and Vietnam. However those are only just now beginning development.

Cheers guys <3

[InfantryGamer42]

Sounds good. Lets hope it will be optimized good, because that is always issue whit me and UE4 games in general Good luck to you and your DEV team.

[Hokunin]

Quite unusual game title. How did you come up with it?


Very noble to make it completely free, I do hope your project would be a success and it'll have controllable jets, all the authentic weapons and vehicles and stuff, and who knows, would become PR next gen in a way.

[Bluedrake42]

Originally Posted by Hokunin

Quite unusual game title. How did you come up with it?.

Full disclosure.

We originally didn't want anyone to know what we were working on. So Jordan (one of the lead programmers) just used a random word generator to create a random phrase. So originally the game was just called Harsh Doorstop.

But then like always... the name stuck, and we couldn't agree on a new name because everything is either taken, copy-written, or stupid. However... everyone thought my videos that were titled "Operation: Random Stuff" to avoid demonetization was interesting at the time... so we agreed to call the project Operation: Harsh Doorstop. We figured that was still an appropriate way to title the game, without really changing the name, while still keeping things original and lore-appropriate.

Since then we've had a bunch of developers decide to use Harsh Doorstop as the name of our premiere "fake history" operation for the game, and now has an entire backstory involving a NATO intervention of Russian expansion into the middle east.

So "Operation: Harsh Doorstop" is now the first theater of war the game will take place in. It will be set in roughly the "Gulf War" era, and will include an "anti-expansionist" Afghanistan campaign against the Russians.

We have a few mod teams who are currently working on "Operation: Rolling Stone" (Vietnam) and "Operation: Overlord" (World War 2) so... that's just our thing now I guess.

So that's literally the entire true to god story, for anyone who wants to know.