Devlog | Milsim Cooperative Sandbox game

Borderline Dictators (Probably a placeholder name)

Hey everyone! After two months of steady work, I’ve decided to open up a Devlog for the new project I’m building (I’m calling it a project for now because I’m afraid to call it a game and then abandon it, so… project it is!).

I’ll do my best to post updates every few weeks, hoping to gather enough interesting material worth sharing. I’d be very happy to get your feedback—both positive and negative—so the game can be as good as possible!

Important to note: The game is still in a very early stage.


What is Borderline Dictators?
Borderline Dictators is a cooperative milsim sandbox shooter (up to 4 players). You and your friends will join forces, deployed to an island to combat terrorist forces while also exploiting the island’s resources and navigating the challenges it presents.


Preview of two enemy squads attacking the players base.


Core Gameplay Features

  • Cooperative Multiplayer
    Up to four players can team up to fight and conquer the island together.

  • Dynamic Territory & Village Control
    You’ll be able to capture territories and villages to strengthen your military power and territorial reach. Every village under your control allows each player to recruit soldiers who will fight under their command. You can send them on missions, deploy them to the village, and command them directly.

  • Diplomacy & Reputation
    Maintaining good relationships with neighboring villages will let you recruit more troops and collect taxes. But if you harm, kill, or damage the village or its inhabitants, you’ll damage your reputation, which could lead to the villages joining your enemies side in the war.

  • Weapons, Vehicles, and Combat
    The game will offer a wide variety of basic and advanced weapons, as well as vehicles and combat tools (technical trucks, military vehicles, fighter jets, helicopters, boats, and drones for frequent reconnaissance, etc.).
    You’ll need to maintain and refuel these vehicles carefully—every mission requires you to decide which vehicles to take and whether it’s worth the risk, since repairs or buying new ones will cost you dearly.

  • Living, Breathing World
    The enemy learns and adapts. If you attack them too much, they’ll learn your tactics and respond accordingly. Show weakness, and they’ll exploit it—sending suicide bombers to your villages, planting IEDs, launching missiles at you, and trying to sabotage your efforts in every possible way.
    The enemy is constantly upgrading and innovating. If you don’t act, they’ll be there, waiting to surprise you. Cutting off their supply lines is crucial—but without investing in intelligence and weaponry, you’ll never get there.

  • Base Building and Management
    You can build and design your base however you like. Every territory you capture lets you build structures that give you an advantage.

  • Persistence Sandbox World
    Every playthrough will be different. You choose how to play, launch an all-out assault with your army, act stealthily with your squad or a war of attrition.

  • Dynamic Mission System
    The high command will request different missions based on the evolving world state, like hostage rescues, Elimination of a terrorist squad preparing for an attack or holding a specific area in preparation for an assault. These aren’t fully scripted they emerge naturally from how the enemy is behaving.



Preview of a random village (the design isn’t final its only for testing currently)


Early footage of the world map (Would probably be bigger at the end currently just for testing)

That’s all for now!
Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!.

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Here’s an example of the new animations I created for the assault rifle.
(Note: This is the first time I’ve ever made first-person animations, so I hope it’s good enough for the first version!)

Lately, I’ve gone back to working on the first-person system and the overall feel.
I felt like I jumped too quickly into other topics and somewhat forgot the core of the game — which is a shooter.
So now I’m focusing on finishing the gameplay and the feel of shooting, movement, and responsiveness, as well as the overall user experience.
Only after that will I move forward.

Hey there @zack33,

Hope you’re well and having a wonderful week so far :slight_smile:

I have to admit - I had to Google what “Milsim” is. But I’d definitely be interested to learn more and watch as this develops. Will this at all be similar to games like a PvE Tarkov?

Happy developing until next time :smiley:

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Thanks! I actually haven’t had a chance to play it, but from what I know, there are some similar things.

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Totally fair :slight_smile: I can’t wait to see more as you update. Happy developing until next time!

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Hey there guys, haven’t stopped working in the game yet!

Recently i’ve got back on working on the Enemy AI more and actually remade it twice already since then.

I’ve started to implement the Platoon and Squad system (a squad under “Stress”; a squad that is alone in the field and started losing a lot of solider will contact the platoon and ask for reinforcement)

Also a morale system is in the making:
Basically after losing many friend in battle will have much more realistic effects, if before the Enemy AI would fight till the end now they most likely start retreat from the battle back to their bases and hideouts up until they are ready to go back in fight.

Also new debugging tools for making the development and debugging the AI system more easily has been added as can be seen on the footage above: lines showing the squad leader in command in the squad.
The platoon, squad and soldier ID and roles icons (Currently only showing infantry and squad leader (will later be showing more roles types))

The Enemy will go forward based on the squad leader position and wont be passing him basically positioned at a V Formation.

Hope this small update was interesting i promise to keep updating with more interesting information soon! thanks for reading!