IRONBORNE

The drill rig is constrained by three main resources:

• Health – overall rig integrity

• Fuel – required for movement

• Cargo – limits ore capacity

Visibility underground is managed through a cursor-aligned flashlight and thrown glowsticks.

Glowsticks emit short radar-like pulses on impact that reveal nearby ore and rock structure.

The combination of drilling, divebombs, explosives, and glowsticks allows different routing

approaches and terrain shaping.

Between descents, the player interacts with four facilities at the surface outpost:

Arms Dealer:

Supplies three weapon types (shotgun, gatling gun, rocket launcher) with infinite

ammunition. Defeating each boss unlocks higher-tier variants for purchase.

Mechanic:

Provides upgrades to engine speed, fuel capacity, cargo capacity, hull health, and

drill speed. Defeating each boss unlocks higher-tier variants for purchase.

Servo Station:

Refuel, repair, and purchase items such as: Jerry cans, repair kits, explosives, and teleporters. Dynamite and C4 mine ore, damage enemies, and break otherwise unbreakable rock. The cost of certain consumables increases with depth.

Refinery:

Converts collected ores into cash.

The location of ores, caves, enemies and POIs are different every playthrough as they are procedurally generated at runtime.

IRONBORNE is the antagonist and provides the dichotomy that enables the story's undertone of cognitive dissonance. The game include three boss fights, all of which are IRONBORNE's iterative upgrades of his own Drill Rig. 

Defeating each iteration unlocks stronger upgrade and weapon tiers and moves the story toward its conclusion, where the player is asked if they will choose to follow

in IRONBORNE’s footsteps or continue to serve corporate directives.

IRONBORNE has three difficulty modes. Typical sessions last between one and three hours, with potential for shorter completions as the meta develops.

Casual:

On death, the player respawns. The cargo bay is emptied, but other progression in the save is preserved.

Normal:

On death, the player is prompted to load from a previous save (or autosave) or restart the run. Upgrades and unlocks remain specific to the active save.

Hardcore:

Treated as a traditional roguelike mode. Death requires a restart, and loading after death is not allowed.

Additionally, fuel consumption per second increases with difficulty.

There are no separate menu-based challenge modes. Speed-runs and challenge variants (such as hitless runs, glowstick-only runs, melee-only runs, or equipment-limited runs) arise from player constraints rather than dedicated modes. 

The game takes place on a Mars-like planet owned by Obsidian Core Technologies. The

player acts as a freelance miner under a low-commission contract, piloting the drill rig

under corporate oversight. The tunnels and much of the underground infrastructure were

created by IRONBORNE prior to the current events, rather than naturally occurring caves.

Key figures:

IRONBORNE:

Antagonist and boss identity, holding hostage the planet’s resources in spite of the company and to avenge his brother.

Karl:

IRONBORNE’s deceased brother, a miner who died after his distress signals were ignored to avoid evacuation costs.

Bommy:

A small robot built by Karl that continues to treat any and all other entities as if their name is Karl due to simple programming.

Obsidian Core Technologies:

The corporation (also known as 'The Company') that contracts the player and frames the experience with corporate messaging.

Narrative information is delivered through various means such as IRONBORNE’s dialogue, corporate messages, artifact descriptions, and interactions with Bommy. Themes include corporate exploitation, worker disposability, abandonment, and personal responses to systemic harm. The ending prompts the player to question their perspective after learning the true nature of the ordeal.

IRONBORNE uses a stylised low-poly art style with a 2.5D perspective. The environment features a Mars-like colour palette, vibrant ore textures, and dynamic lighting from the flashlight, glowsticks, projectiles, and effects. Particle systems are implemented using Niagara to create sparks, debris, and all kinds of energy effects. Terrain is destructible via drilling, and various explosive types.

Sound design focuses on clear, punchy feedback for drilling, explosions, enemy interactions, and UI. A synth-wave soundtrack becomes active when underground. There is no voice acting; narrative is presented through text and environmental elements. Music tracks are licensed and listed in the main menu.

  • Keyboard and mouse support

  • Key remapping available

  • Partial controller support (menu navigation is a work in progress)

  • Fully dynamic auto-scaling user interface for different resolutions and aspect ratios

  • No dedicated colourblind pre-sets currently

  • 18 Steam achievements for progression and varied actions

  • No cloud saves

  • System requirements listed on the Steam store page

  • Intent to work towards a playable/verified state for Steam Deck

• Gabriel Emblard – Creative Director, Programmer, Marketing

• Samuel Williams – Systems Architect, User Interface, Modelling

• Jamie Williams – Modelling

Post-launch plans include focusing on stability, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements.

If IRONBORNE's success warrants merchandise, expectations include small trinkets, plushies 3D-printed drill rig figurines, and various on-demand third-party merch such as shirts and mugs. 

The next project has already passed major development milestones and will be a team-based PvP physics game. 

Stay tuned.

  Steam:   https://store.steampowered.com/app/3983690/IRONBORNE/

  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Tres_Interactive

  Discord: https://discord.gg/axbZqmpCGU

  Email:   admin@tresinteractive.com

  Website: https://tresinteractive.com/

  No embargo. Monetisation of gameplay videos and streams is allowed.

  Additional game keys can be provided upon request for recording and editing setups.