Hello everyone, and happy 2026!
This Dev Diary comes with a slight delay, the end of the month was quite busy on our side. The studio has nevertheless kicked off the year in great shape, and we’re currently working full steam ahead on two major goals: preparing an upcoming playtest and getting our Kickstarter campaign ready.
By the way, if you haven’t done so already, don’t hesitate to follow us on Kickstarter to be notified as soon as the campaign goes live. It helps us a lot in terms of visibility and only takes a few seconds.
So, what happened in January? 👇
We’re making progress on a third mission, aiming to offer longer play sessions and bring fresh content to those who have already tested Rescue Ops: Wildfire.
As part of this work, the developers have reworked our fire system, making it possible for a mission to start with a fire that is already well established. Until now, fires always began spreading at the same time as the mission started.
And during these adjustments, the developers had some fun drawing with fire. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we couldn’t resist declaring our flame…
On the UI side, two new visual effects have been added:
a water effect on the camera when the player gets hit by water
a red outline when an element cannot be interacted with
We’re also working on our settings menu.
The artists are currently focusing on decorating the fire station:
adding flags outside
desks, maps, posters, and various decorative elements inside
At the same time, we’re preparing the visual assets for the Kickstarter campaign. But more importantly… we’re working on a gameplay-related surprise that we should be able to reveal next month 👀
Project update to Unreal Engine 5.7
Added a flashlight on the firefighter’s helmet
That’s it for the start of 2026! Thank you again for your support and patience. We know you’re eager to see more, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming.
We’ll keep you posted very soon about Kickstarter and the next playtest. Have a great week!
❤️ Rescue Ops: Wildfire team