Armored operator overlooking a burning futuristic desert stronghold beneath a red moon.$1.99PLANNED
In development

Top-down extraction shooter / action campaign

Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol

Six desert operations. One stolen core. Extract through a campaign that keeps escalating after the shooting starts.

Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol is a top-down extraction shooter built around readable pressure and route decisions. Fight through six fictional desert operations with six weapons, grenades, dash invulnerability, armor, pickups and destructible objectives while a dynamic director reacts to progress, health and combat momentum. Persistent field doctrines shape builds without turning later weapons into straight upgrades.

Planned price$1.99
Session8–20 minute operations; six-mission campaign
DemoProduction campaign build exists; Snack Break hosted demo integration pending
DRMNone

Checkout remains disabled until a tested commercial build and final product details exist.

WHAT IS BLACK HORIZON: CINDER PROTOCOL?

You are the operator sent into a collapsing desert operation to recover the Cinder core and fight your way back out with it.

Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol is a top-down extraction shooter built around readable pressure and route decisions. Fight through six fictional desert operations with six weapons, grenades, dash invulnerability, armor, pickups and destructible objectives while a dynamic director reacts to progress, health and combat momentum. Persistent field doctrines shape builds without turning later weapons into straight upgrades.

Best for: Players who enjoy readable arcade action, expressive movement, quick restarts and short missions.

WHY IT IS DIFFERENT

Six desert operations. One stolen core. Extract through a campaign that keeps escalating after the shooting starts.

  • Six authored operations with distinct biomes, objectives and a real final extraction.
  • Dynamic reinforcement pressure, elites, medics, drones, shields and mission mutators.
  • Six weapons with deliberately different tactical jobs instead of linear upgrades.
  • Production-only atlases and fail-closed visual loading with no placeholder fallback.

HOW IT PLAYS

From first decision to completed run.

a complete mission demonstrating production atlases, dynamic director waves, doctrines, mission objectives, authored combat guidance and final extraction logic.

  1. 1Read the operation and optional objective
  2. 2Move, aim, fire, dash and manage ammunition under dynamic pressure
  3. 3Destroy or secure mission targets and adapt to mutators
  4. 4Recover the core or reach the operation objective
  5. 5Extract, receive a rank and invest in persistent field doctrines

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

A complete arc, not an endless grind.

Dust Knife, Green Mirage, Broken Crown, White Horizon, Black Glass and Cinder Vault form a six-operation escalation ending in core recovery and a southbound exfil.

Eight field doctrines adjust damage, armor, mobility, scavenging, explosives, reload and combo play while mission ranks and optional operations reward cleaner execution.

CONTROLS & ACCESSIBILITY

Clarity and assists are part of the design.

WASD or arrows move, mouse aims, standard gamepads use dual sticks and triggers, and touch receives an analog movement stick plus combat buttons with nearest-threat aim support.

Four difficulty modes, strong off-screen objective guidance, high-contrast production UI, robust focus-loss input release and controller disconnect recovery keep combat state legible under pressure.

WHAT YOU DO

  • Six authored operations with distinct biomes, objectives and a real final extraction.
  • Dynamic reinforcement pressure, elites, medics, drones, shields and mission mutators.
  • Six weapons with deliberately different tactical jobs instead of linear upgrades.
  • Production-only atlases and fail-closed visual loading with no placeholder fallback.

THE FREE DEMO

Production campaign build exists; Snack Break hosted demo integration pending

a complete mission demonstrating production atlases, dynamic director waves, doctrines, mission objectives, authored combat guidance and final extraction logic.

QUICK ANSWERS

Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol FAQ

What kind of game is Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol?+
Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol is a top-down extraction shooter built around readable pressure and route decisions. Fight through six fictional desert operations with six weapons, grenades, dash invulnerability, armor, pickups and destructible objectives while a dynamic director reacts to progress, health and combat momentum. Persistent field doctrines shape builds without turning later weapons into straight upgrades. Its central hook is: Six desert operations. One stolen core. Extract through a campaign that keeps escalating after the shooting starts.
How long is a session of Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol?+
The planned play pattern is 8–20 minute operations; six-mission campaign. The first browser demo is a production campaign build exists; snack break hosted demo integration pending.
What is included in Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol?+
Dust Knife, Green Mirage, Broken Crown, White Horizon, Black Glass and Cinder Vault form a six-operation escalation ending in core recovery and a southbound exfil. Eight field doctrines adjust damage, armor, mobility, scavenging, explosives, reload and combo play while mission ranks and optional operations reward cleaner execution.
Will Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol be DRM-free?+
Black Horizon: Cinder Protocol is planned as a complete $1.99 DRM-free download for Windows, macOS and Linux, with a separate browser demo and no proprietary launcher.
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