Planets, planets… they are great, right? Well, with the Rude Awakening update they will look even better! And before you ask… No, we are not introducing planetary landings in Hellion. Hellion is about space, that unique feeling that you get when you turn off the lights, take a deep breath and jump into the Black… And we want to keep it that way.



Now back to the planets... As you all know all planets in Hellion, excluding Bethyr and its moons, were simple placeholders. Now, with the new update, we have decided that it was about time to give all those celestial bodies a fresh new and somewhat exotic look. Whether you are an explorer or a scavenger, think about taking that vacuum proof camera with you making a few nice screenshots while visiting distant locations . Here’s a short overview covering some of the “other gas giants” and their moons.



In case you couldn’t tell from the image, this is Athnar, along with its two moons the dark one known as Ulgorath and bright red Tasciana. Athnar is what you would call a “scorched” giant, a planet that is now too close to the blazing inferno of its parent star. Long time ago Athnar lost much of its upper atmosphere during Hellion’s helium flash, a runaway fusion reaction that drastically increased Hellion’s temperature. This calamity lasted for only a few brief minutes but it was enough to completely destroy Nimath’s atmosphere all the way to its carbon core. So, in a way, you could say that Athnar and its moons got away easy.

Today this gas giant continues to bathe in the searing heat of Hellion and its ever burning atmosphere gives it a bright orange look.

But not all planets suffered as Nimath and Athnar. For some Hellion’s transition into a red giant proved to be quite beneficial. And that was the case of Hirath and its three moons, Iblith, Calipso and Enigma. The added heat and radiation coming from a once distant star melted this frozen giant’s cloud cover turning it into a hotbed of activity with powerful hurricanes and massive thunderstorms dancing in its night sky. But what of its moons?

Without any atmosphere to speak of, both Iblith and Calipso experienced little to no change and essentially remained just as they were in eons past.

But Enigma on the other hand, changed profoundly. Once frozen solid it began thawing during Hellion’s transformation. Nowdays it is located well inside Hellion’s “habitable zone” and shielded from excess radiation by its parent’s powerful magnetic field. With its vast oceans and moderate cloud coverage it remains the number one terraforming candidate in Hellion, with water covered Teiora coming in at close second and Eridil in the third spot with its toxic high pressure atmosphere.

That would be all for today. So long, and thanks for all the fis… erhm… planets.

Zero Gravity

As you all know by now, the upcoming Rude Awakening update will bring a ton of improvements and fixes but its main focus will be Hellion’s narrative. With that in mind we had decided to use this chance to refresh some of the lore and history behind Sol, Altcorp, SDS and of course, the Expedition Project. This will be a lengthy post intended for the more “lore hungry” audience. So... sit back, relax and read on.


So lets start of with Hellion itself. This unusual red giant is located 1700 ly away from Sol and is in many ways an atypical red giant. Its radius is considerably smaller than what one would expect from a dying star with a mass comparable to our Sun. The second phenomena that makes Hellion interesting is the strength of its magnetic field which is several times more powerful than would be expected.

So by now some of you may be wondering why would mankind pick such a “problematic” star for a colony? Well, there are two reasons. The first is the abundance of raw resources necessary for setting up orbital infrastructure, most notably He-3 which is used in most Expedition fusion reactors. These resources would significantly cut down time necessary to establish basic orbital infrastructure in Hellion and reduce the overall mass of supplies that would need to be transported from Sol. The second reason are several promising terraforming candidates, Enigma, Eridil and Teiora. And as it turned out, many people prefer having a planet to live on or to visit occasionally, even in the age of orbital habitats.


Venturing into space had always been the dream of mankind, “the final frontier” that inspired countless generations. The space race of the 20th century turned that dream into a reality, but only briefly. For the next 50 years humanity remained grounded on Earth, until reusable launch systems, developed by private enterprises, shifted space exploration from large national agencies towards privately owned companies. This was the beginning of a “new space race”, a period of brutal competition for energy, resources and stock market shares between various rival companies.

Earth’s orbit became home to numerous businesses that dealt in large scale orbital construction, energy production, mining and transportation, as well as smaller enterprises that dealt in research, agriculture, consumer electronics and even entertainment and tourism. As more and more companies ventured into space in search of profit, conflict followed in their footsteps. Distance between celestial bodies became one of the largest obstacles and turned any potentially valuable near Earth object, whether it was a comet or an asteroid, into a priceless commodity that many were willing to fight over. Disputes over Lunar mining rights and safety regulations became common and many companies sought ways to circumvent the painstakingly slow courts of Earth and UN bureaucracy. Various private security companies seized the opportunity and began renting their services to space based businesses and started zero gravity training programs for their personnel. Private Military companies followed soon after and with them large international arms manufacturers and government weapon contractors. The number of incidents involving bribes, scandals, corporate espionage, sabotage and open conflict increased exponentially as more people migrated into orbit.

This situation was largely tolerated due to political instability on Earth. Breakthroughs in fusion technology during the late 21st century and the rapid transition from fossil fuels and nuclear power plants to clean, fusion based, energy sources nearly caused a complete collapse of the Earth’s economic system. Over time Earth’s leading nations became increasingly reliant on the extraterrestrial supply of He-3 for most of their energy needs. This had a severe impact on many of the world’s economies, especially in less developed countries, resulting in increased political instability. As the gap grew exponentially the world witnessed an unprecedented rise in poverty, terrorism and armed conflict. Furthermore these new crisis regions created ample opportunities for “less reputable” companies and PMCs, as well as weapons research.

For the most part, leading governments were content to let corporations have their way beyond Earth’s orbit as long as they provided vitally needed economic support and rare commodities for the elite. This situation changed drastically after the “May 23rd incident”.


On May 23rd 2116 a prototype asteroid mining barge “Atlas” lost control while returning to Earth from its maiden voyage in the asteroid belt. The colossal vessel plummeted towards ground at 12.6km/s and exploded during re-entry. While many of its components burned away or crashed into the Pacific many large fragments had to be intercepted by ground to air batteries. Still, several found their way into populated areas and caused devastation, panic and massive loss of life. The incident prompted the UN Security Council to immediate action.


Within a year a new international space agency was created and placed under the command of the newly reformed UN Government. A special task-force was assembled and charged with restoring order and policing the orbit to prevent any future incidents. Backed by the collective economic power and resources of Earth’s leading nations the new Space Agency quickly established itself as the dominant political power in orbit and launched investigations into various illegal corporate activities and human rights violations. Multiple smear campaigns and lawsuits were directed at prominent corporate figures in an effort to discredit and reduce their influence. UNs bid for power and trials that followed quickly turned into a witch hunt that ultimately resulted in dissolution and confiscation of property for many space based enterprises, regardless of their actual involvement. In addition, the UN government imposed new restrictions on all companies operating at and beyond Earth’s orbit. These new regulations for space travel, resource shipping and construction operations, were especially hard on smaller companies and soon many smaller enterprises found themselves pushed out of business by companies with large government subventions.


One problem that plagued the new UN government during its takeover was the issue of numerous private military companies and large weapons manufacturers still operating in orbit. During lawsuits, confiscations and scandals that followed UN’s rapid rise to power, the legal system that allowed these companies to operate was completely shattered. The new government used this as leverage holding PMCs responsible for the events that led to the May 23rd disaster. Threats of legal prosecution and several military actions, backed by strong public opinion pushed PMCs into a corner. So when the new UN agency offered amnesty in exchange for information and military service, many companies jumped at the opportunity to legalize their operations and avoid prosecution.

Since the new Agency was assembled in haste and initially lacked training and capable personnel, experienced mercenaries filled the gaps perfectly. In addition UN made similar offers to several major arms manufacturers and government contractors, thus compensating for its lack of reliable space equipment. Most of these companies were simply contracted by the UN government. Only a handful were given permanent positions in the new military hierarchy.

Once the situation was under control the UN administration began dismantling private military providers as it no longer had need of their services. History was repeated when many PMCs once again found themselves facing prosecution for crimes, illegal missions and atrocities. This time, the ones committed during the UN’s lengthy takeover campaign. They still had their ships, weapons, training and manufacturing facilities, but without legal backing they would be little more than outlaws waiting on their sentence.

Several major players refused to take the UN takeover lying down and set in motion a series of events. Ultimately these events would lead to the creation of a force that could rival UN's supremacy. The first two factions to emerge from this turbulent time were: Altair Corporation and Skyline Defense Solutions.


Even during the massive reshuffling of the orbital infrastructure that followed the May 23rd incident, several large companies managed to retain their positions of power and influence by maintaining strong ties with prominent Earth governments and businesses. These companies began strengthening their position by buying out former competitors. Ultimately this ended in a series of corporate mergers that resulted in the birth of Altair Corporation, a massive corporate entity with vast holdings in orbit as well as on Luna and Mars.



Shortly after its founding the company started the first completely independent orbital colonization effort and began construction on a massive orbital habitat designed to house over 60.000 people. The project gradually gained popularity, as the new corporate entity encompassed experts from various fields of science, from agriculture to energy production. The initial station layout was finished in record time and “Hesperide Station” became home for 46.000 company employees and their families. Following the successful completion of their first major endeavor, Altair Corporation started a global recruiting campaign, offering new and exciting opportunities to people of various backgrounds, from scientists and engineers, to restaurant holders and artists.

By the time UN agency finally solidified its position as a political and military power in orbit, a large number of people already lived and worked in space. Altair Corporation was a massive entity that could no longer fit into any existing legal framework. The company owned several large orbital habitats, mining rights across the Solar system, long standing contracts with Earth’s governments and employed over 1.5 million people, of whom 600.000 lived on company stations along with their families. Additionally, AltCorp had contracts with numerous smaller enterprises that provided everything, from security to education and healthcare, to its employees. It had proved that the Earth’s laws and regulations were inadequate for handling an extraterrestrial civilization.

From the standpoint of the reformed UN government Altair Corporation was an anomaly, one that had to be brought into an existing legal frame by any means necessary, but the UN bureaucrats found themselves at a loss. Obvious solution was to give AltCorp special status, but doing so would create a precedent and create countless future problems. After many long debates Security Council finally opted to slowly erode AltCorp’s influence with new treaties that were aimed at gradually diminishing the giant’s power base. Altair Corporation found itself standing at a threshold.


In January 2136 AltCorp’s representatives began negotiations with various independent space companies that were still outside the UN’s sphere of influence. The negotiations were held in preparations for a summit that would discuss the current UN restrictions, legal implications and Earth’s impending monopoly over orbital energy reserves. These efforts did not remain unnoticed and UN began mobilizing its troops to intervene by force should their diplomatic initiative prove insufficient.



On April 14. 2136 remaining PMCs, security companies and arms manufacturers announced a merger and the founding of “Skyline Defense Solutions”. One day later the new security behemoth signed a long term defense contract with Altair Corporation. Birth of SDS was the final piece of a plan Altair Corporation’s founders set in motion eight years ago. According to the terms of its contract SDS was tasked with protecting AltCorp’s interests against any and all foreign threats. But its true purpose was to serve as an armed deterrent against further UN intrusions. The UN Security Council was caught off guard by the treaty and unwilling to act, as in doing so they would be risking an unprecedented war in Earth’s orbit.

The grand summit took place at “Hesperide Station” on May 24th 2136, exactly 20 years and a day after the fateful May 23rd incident. The UN government officially recognized Altair Corporation and Skyline Defense Solutions as sovereign and independent political entities within the Solar System. After several months of negotiations UN, AltCorp and SDS signed the Outer Orbit Treaty, a document detailing mutual responsibilities of all three sides within Sol.

As time went by both AltCorp and SDS changed and evolved into entities that resembled independent states far more than the mega-corporations started from.


On September 14th 2148 a small test vessel “Boundless” makes its historical journey from Lunar orbit to Saturn in under an hour, using the newly developed Warp drive, an FTL propulsion technology based on theories from the early 21th century. This breakthrough enables rapid transit throughout the Solar System and the construction of smaller and far less fuel dependent spacecraft. During the following decades mankind spreads across the Solar System, with terraforming projects underway on Mars, Venus, Ganymede and Europa. As part of the Actaeon program multiple unmanned probes are sent to gather information beyond our Solar System.

On September 23rd 2226. deep space listening outposts finally received first survey information from the Actaeon 34, a probe sent to the distant Hellion system.


Following a lengthy analysis of survey data collected by more than 100 automated probes, Hellion was finally chosen as the site for colonization due to its abundance of natural resources and multiple terraforming candidates.

The Expedition project was a colossal undertaking that took 64 years to complete and consumed more resources and manpower than any other endeavor in human history. The center of the project was a massive flagship “Daedalus”, a giant vessel over 12 km in length, that used micro-singularity as its power core. Safely stored inside its vast hull was all the equipment the colonists would need to establish orbital infrastructure in an alien system. Everything from science, construction and terraforming gear to self-replicating machinery.



Due to its sheer magnitude the project required extensive collaboration from every part of the Solar System. As the pioneers of space exploration Altar Corporation and SDS contributed most towards the project and came up with a number of solutions and systems that were ultimately incorporated into the fleet’s design.

Colonization effort was broken down into four stages.

Stage 1 would start by waking up mission critical personnel, conducting on site survey to confirm probe data, Actaeon 34 probe retrieval and initial deployment of necessary orbital infrastructure. Towards the end, additional engineering personnel and basic security would be brought out of cryo to establish in system production and make Expedition independent of Daedalus’ supplies.

Stage 2 covers the construction of advanced orbital infrastructure comprised of large scale installations including shipyards, habitats and research facilities.

Stage 3 is the beginning of actual colonization including sequential waking of the colonists by priority, such as scientists, engineers and the remainder of military personnel. These people would be tasked with initiating and overseeing the terraforming of potentially habitable worlds, as well as expanding the orbital infrastructure in order to support additional colonists.

Stage 4 is the final phase and includes deployment of support infrastructure on now habitable worlds and the waking of remaining colonists from cryo-sleep.

On April 11th 2292 Earth standard time, the expedition fleet, carrying almost a million colonists, embarked on its 78 year long journey towards Hellion.



Well this indeed was a long read, but we hope you found it entertaining and informative, but there was also another reason for it. Up until this point we’ve read many user submitted stories on the forums. And one thing that we’ve found was that they always lacked an appropriate frame of reference, a “proper setting” if you would. This wasn’t for lack of imagination or creativity, but rather lack of information. After all, it’s kind of hard to role play a character without any context.

This post was in part aimed at correcting that little problem and now with the complete history of Sol, Expedition and Hellion out in the open, we are certainly looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the mater and of course, reading some new and exciting stories!

Until next time fly safe and watch out for those stray derelicts...

Hello Colonists,


We've got lots of changes coming in the new update, and as such, we thought we needed a change in the way that we go about testing the new builds. As such, we'll be cleaning out both the Steam and Discord groups and starting fresh. This comes with a huge thanks to the old testers in regards to their service to the community and the stability of Hellion.


Going forward, the Testing Squad will be split into two groups. The First Stage, and the Second Stage. These represent the core tasks of all testing, the First Stage testers are hand-picked community members, they've shown a dedication in the past, and continue to work with excellence. They will be undertaking the task of finding and reporting all game-breaking bugs, as well as giving input on the functionality of systems within the latest builds. The Second Stage, formed on previous merits and recommendations from members of the First Stage, will undertake the task of finalising the new changes, making sure they're user-friendly and streamlined. While they have vastly different tasks, that does not mean one is more valuable than the other, both Stages are vital to the development of Hellion.

The only true difference is that admittance to the Second Stage will not be permanent, with the personnel changing for each build. Regardless of their stage, each tester needs to be actively testing and contributing to the betterment of Hellion.

Now, this comes with the responsibility of being a representative of the community, upholding the rules, and behaving appropriately to the same degree as the Moderators, and helping as much as they can within the Steam and Discord discussions.


Fly Safe,

Hellion Moderation and Development Teams

Hello everyone,

Do you still remember that counter ticking down until Hellion’s Early Access release back in February 2017? For us at Zero Gravity, it marked the beginning of an adventure in a solar system many light years from Earth. It combined the thrill of exploration, discovery with all the dangers of a space for us and thousands of colonists that woke up amidst the ruins of mankind’s first interstellar colony. Thank you our dear colonists for helping us stay on track through your feedback and for taking part in the creation of this truly unique gaming experience.

Today, we want to announce the next step in Hellion’s development: “Rude Awakening” update that is coming out on November 29!

Starting next week we’ll begin warming up for the upcoming update and revisit all the important, interesting and fun facts related to the Hellion star and the world revolving around it, unique game mechanics, extreme survival, and many more. Stay in the loop by following us on Twitter and join our community on the official Hellion Discord server.

Fly safe,
Zero Gravity

Hello colonists,

Zero Gravity’s small team is silently forging the future of Hellion. For all of you who appreciate a unique gameplay experience Hellion has to offer, we’ll try to make it even more compelling by adding an important spice - the story that lies behind.



Our next update will be called Rude Awakening and it’s coming out in November.

We have updated our roadmap so you can follow changes that will be introduced with Rude Awakening. With each step of its development, Hellion is becoming better and richer game. We would like to thank our fantastic community for providing us with important feedback and for being patient during this space journey.

Thanks a ton,
Zero Gravity

While our programmers are working on a multitude of bugfixes, optimization and even some new features we are not yet ready to reveal, our creative team puts its back into fleshing out and implementing the story of Hellion. So today we are going to talk about the way narrative will be handled in the upcoming update, scheduled to leave warp in November.



In our last blog we briefly touched on our decision to implement the story and also mentioned what the players can expect from the narrative. This time we are going to shed some light on the structure, mechanics, work we are putting into it and of course the story telling method.

Hellion’s narrative is broken down into chapters, or episodes if you like. Each episode is part of the larger main story and is thematically linked to certain locations within the Hellion system and told by characters that played a crucial role in the events that preceded the player’s awakening. Thus each chapter will be a story in its own right, but only a piece of the larger puzzle in the overarching plot. With each game update a new episode of Hellion story will be introduced.

Quests or missions represent the basic building blocks of the season and are centered around important characters and major events that shaped the Hellion system. Note that these are past events, rather than present ones and that they occured while many of the colonists were still asleep in their cryopods. Players waking up now are faced with the aftermath of those events, but that doesn’t mean that they are unaffected by them. The past still shapes the present and many of the problems players will be expected to face and overcome stem from the actions of important characters from the past. Understanding why they did what they did will play a crucial role in solving these problems.

To further help you in immersing yourselves in the world and its lore, all of the stories will be fully voiced. In addition we are adding voice overs and a plethora of new sounds to various interactions, warnings and events. Whether it’s a breach, power loss or a deadly debris field you will hear about it!



Quests come in many different shapes and sizes. From an immersive tutorial that will guide new players step by step, to large and complex plots where understanding the world and game mechanics will play a key role in figuring out what to do next. In case of the later category going an extra mile (or several thousand) may reveal details that would otherwise be missed, details that might prove crucial in the future.



Since Hellion is not a classic RPG, but rather a survival game, we wanted to inspire players to go into full role-playing mode by giving them a believable world to explore. Also, unlike the single-player action adventure games with a linear story-based experience, the world in Hellion is open for creative players that want to tell their own stories. This is why the story of Hellion will serve as a framework in which the gameplay occurs.



We are still talking about the 0.3 update because the official name is yet to be discovered during our long brainstorming sessions. If you have any blank suggestion, without knowing the content of the update, share it with us, maybe you’ll hit the target. :)

Fly safe,
Zero Gravity

“John was still deep in sleep when the first wave of pain washed over his body, then came the second one and the third until all he could feel was just sharp unrelenting pain. He opened his eyes and tried to scream but no sound came out. After what seemed like an eternity, the pain receded and his whole body loosened up as his dormant lungs filled up with air, for the first time in a century. Doors of the chamber opened and he stumbled onto the cold floor coughing. Emergency wakeup procedure, he remembered. He was still dizzy, from all the steroids in his system, but at least he was alive. The floor felt slippery beneath his fingers and it took him a lot of effort just to stand up. When his eyes finally focused, what he saw sent chills down his spine. The air was cold and thick mist shrouded the room while the flickering emergency lights gave it a hellish glow. Pieces of ruined wall padding and glass shards littered the floor while thorn cables hung loosely from the ceiling along with what remained of the covering panels. Cryopod to his left lay crushed against the opposing wall, thrown probably by the same force that almost tore open the module’s hull. He immediately knew why the floor was wet, there was no need to check for vitals.”

But who is John? What’s his background, how did he end up in this situation? How many characters opened their eyes inside a cryochamber and asked themselves, how on Earth did we end up in this mess, only to realize that something is missing? After all, it’s hard to roleplay when you don’t have a proper setting. What is the Expedition, what is Altair Corporation? How are they connected to SDS or what was their agenda? But most importantly, what the hell happened in Hellion? What could have caused such system wide devastation and why are we only waking up now after everything had ended… Or did it? What if there is yet a purpose for the survivors of Hellion? What if it was all part of a plan?

Up until now Hellion was but a blank canvas on which stories of many players were painted. We’ve enjoyed reading them on forums and we knew that if this sketch of a world enthralled so many players that we were probably on the right track. But we never forgot what we had promised when we announced the game. A story, a deep narrative permeating all the places you can explore and a history behind every doomed outpost and every derelict you’ve come across.

So far our development team has been working primarily on basic gameplay mechanics and the story was left on backburner. Starting with 0.3 we are bringing this aspect of Hellion into focus and starting the work on proper mission and progression structure as well as quests that will guide you as you uncover the events that preceded the first moment you opened your eyes in Hellion and saw a world in ruins.

We had never intended Hellion to be a one-time experience, where you get in the game, take a ride, kill some enemies and than leave. We had envisioned it as a unique experience that stays with us long after we’ve logged out and keeps playing in the back of our minds until the moment we log back in. We wanted to depict the frightening situation where people would wake up to find themselves all alone in the vacuum of deep space. A place where the future world became the world of doom. Survival was taken out of classic context and set in the most unforgiving environment imaginable, the one that none of us are familiar with. After all the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

Implementing a narrative in Hellion’s environment represents a big challenge for us, since our goal is to both paint the world and allow players to create their own personal stories within it. We hope that you will enjoy this new experience that will be coming to Hellion with the next update.

Until then, fly safe
Zero Gravity team

Hello everyone,

Every time we publish a devblog players reach out to us asking about the roadmap updates, while others criticize us for adding new features without care for optimization or existing content. So, this time we’ll try to explain the logic behind Hellion’s development process.



When we initially envisioned Hellion as a game, we had this grand idea of a game we always wanted to make. As we began putting ideas and concepts together it became obvious that an ambitious multiplayer open-world game like that might just be beyond what a small team like Zero Gravity could deliver. So we gradually began toning down the scope of Hellion. That’s when we decided to go with Early Access model after we thought of all the benefits it would include. First one was feedback directly from the player base, since we believe that players should be the ones to decide if something is suitable for the game or not since they are the ones who will be playing it for hours. This model also helped us iron out some of the major flaws in our development process, as some features did look great on paper and seemed to fit perfectly into the game world, when in actual gameplay they felt totally out of place.
So we’ve learned to adapt and listen to each other and most importantly to our players. We have also decided not to plan every single thing from start to finish and always leave room for changes based on feedback. After all we are not making a universe, but rather a game that is fun to play. So if there is a feature that we believe would be great for Hellion, we now first consider player submitted suggestions to try and see how well it would fit in with the current level of gameplay and existing mechanics. This often leads us to a conclusion that other features need changes or improvements before the new options can actually add to the player experience rather than take away from it.

Since our plans frequently change as the result of what is often called emergent development (concept borrowed from creators of ARK), we plan to start sharing mostly things that are planned for the next update. One of the things we most certainly do not want to do is over promise and then face backlash for not being able to deliver. This does not mean that we have given up on our “vision”. That vague but nevertheless grand outline is always with us and we believe that we are slowly moving towards it, one update at a time.
So, here’s the updated Roadmap containing mostly things that were already announced. For more, you’ll have to come back and check it regularly.


Most optimization techniques that are frequently used in games like Occlusion Culling, Light Baking, Static Batching, etc. require that the scenes that make up the game world be static. Since in Hellion everything is in the state of constant motion and each module is a scene in the engine, most of those techniques were simply inapplicable. In order to optimize Hellion we had to write our own solutions from scratch.

Dynamic lights (along with dynamic shadows) had the most impact on the GPU and we always knew we would have to do something about that. Baking light onto the textures of the level is the most efficient way of making the scene look good while reducing the number of dynamic lights. Unfortunately for us, Unity only supports light baking for static scenes, so we had to modify our shaders as well as our pipeline (not an easy task by any account) to support pre-baked lightmap load in runtime. However, once we were done, it allowed us to drastically reduce the number of dynamic lights per module. And since lightmaps retain shadow information and apply it properly, they also remove the need for lights to cast realtime shadows.
Just for reference, a command module before the light bake had more than 20 dynamic lights with most of them casting shadows and after the light bake the same module has less than 10 lights with only 2 of them casting shadows. The final look is more or less the same. The only downside is that in some specific parts of the module you might notice that your character is not casting a shadow, if you look closely. On the upside, the light looks more realistic with calculated global illumination and even illumination from emissive surfaces. But the most important thing is the huge performance boost.

Another thing that we kept putting off and finally found time to mess with is the Texture Density. Texture density is the relation between the size of the pixels in the texture and the pixels on the screen. The object that most of the time occupies a very small portion of the screen needs to have its texture resolution reduced to correspond with the size on the screen. So we had to go through all the models that exist in Hellion and set the appropriate texture resolution for each of them, and there was no way in doing that automatically. In the end it also brought us an additional few frames per second, something that Hellion always needs.

The last thing that we have yet to do is the implementation of a custom Level of Detail and Occlusion Culling system. While we know that it can never be as efficient as it would be in a static environment we believe that it will also bring better performance especially for larger stations.

That’s all for today, folks. We’ll be at Gamescom next week, so if you want to meet us, be sure to ping us on Discord.

Fly safe,
Zero Gravity

What’s up space survivors how’s the vacuum these days? We know that some of you probably wonder why the silent treatment over the past weeks? Well, we have decided to leave this plane of existence and transcend, leaving our mortal…Wait, wrong script! Ok jokes aside, there was a good reason for the silence as all of us have been rather busy working on the next update, aptly tagged 0.3. Why do we say aptly? Because it represents a substantial step towards the idea of Hellion that was in our minds when we started this project.



Major improvements are on their way and we are about to start revealing them one by one in this and future devblogs. Due to the sheer amount of work that is going into the 0.3 features (old and new) it might be some time before the update arrives at Hellion, but it will be worth it!


As mentioned in our last blog we had decided to take the old inventory system apart. We kept the good parts, threw away the trash and introduced fresh concepts and ideas, many of which have been suggested and requested by the Hellion community for a long time. We analyzed the feedback, mixed in some of our own ideas and the result was the Inventory 2.0, a complete visual and functional overhaul of the original system.

“Redesigning the inventory did not include just simple interface changes, but rather a complete re-work of both item functionality and the way character interacts with them.
Looking back to 2016 when we designed the first version, we weren’t aware of the full scope of requirements a game like Hellion would put on the inventory system. So when we started working on the overhaul, we realized that the entire system was so hard coded that it forced us to go back to the beginning. We had to start thinking about how the interface in a survival game should function and then added Hellion’s unique requirements. If I had to say which game mostly inspired this rework, it would be Rust, due to its simplicity and the amount of information it provides, Stefan Lolic said, Hellion’s UX developer.
Abandoning the old radial menu gave us a lot of space and allowed us to use inventory not only as a tool for transferring items, but to also help players understand the systems and items around them in a simple and easy way.
Probably the hardest part of refactoring was adding new features onto an old base and avoiding mishaps that could have compromised entire base functionality. So we had to tread very carefully.
But as we started writing the code from scratch, we began finding new options and solutions that would have been impossible with the old code. And that’s how we got to transportable crates, proximity item slots…”, Stefan concluded.


Time to show a few short clips of the new inventory in action. Let’s start with an old annoyance that has tormented many a space miner since their arrival in Hellion: Mining Drill and the infamous canister/battery swap.


Ahh, much better now, thank you!

As Stefan mentioned, the old radial menu is gone, replaced with a more intuitive breakdown of item slots and upgraded with a character view and a simple drag and drop system which allows for much easier item management.


This was one of the much requested features. As many players noticed, looting items from shelves was far easier than putting them back in, making sorting your storage a rather time consuming process. With the proximity system in place, looting can now be done directly from the inventory and allows players to add or remove items from any nearby item slots. Of course, the old interaction system is still there and you do not have to open inventory to take or place items.


Let’s just take these…


...and put them where they belong.


Next on the list are suits and their inventory slots. As before players will still need to equip a suit in order to gain access to various item slots, like helmet and jetpack, however it is now possible to remove an entire suit along with all of its equipment at once, as well as equip it. This allows players to create “sets” with the equipment they want to use for specific tasks, like mining, repairs, etc. Or to use suits as portable item containers.

When looting a fallen enemy, you can choose to take only the items that you need, or take the entire suit with everything in it.


I need your clothes, your helmet and your motorcy… ehrr, ship.


Finally lets talk about storing all those items. Shelves and lockers are great when you need to quickly gear up, but sometimes you just need a way to store items you come across without putting them on display. This is where transportable crates come in. These large storage containers can be taken on a salvage run to increase your carry capacity, or on a mining run, to hold all those extra canisters. They can also be placed in ships and modules for extra storage space.


That’s one heavy box, better put it down…

We know you are all waiting for some news and updates on development, and we appreciate your patience. Piece by piece, a big picture of what the new update is all about will be revealed.

Fly safe,
Zero Gravity team

How’s it going you crafty colonists? Has the single player update been treating you well? Or do you find the emptiness of the void unbearable without some proper orbital piracy? Well whatever the case we’ve got some exciting things in store for you in the upcoming months.



In our last Let’s Play video we mentioned a few changes coming to Hellions economy. Our goal here is to make every activity in Hellion worthwhile and give players a sense of progression. However, before we start discussing resources and crafting we need to take a step back and turn our attention towards something that precedes them.


Ever since Hellion launched back in 2017, inventory remained mostly unchanged. As any seasoned asteroid miner can tell you managing items in your inventory can be tedious, to put it mildly.

At the moment we are working on improving the inventory management system and make it a lot easier for players to access, store and use various items they come across. New inventory screen will show your character, your equipped items and inventory slots as well as any additional information relevant to your character. The following image is still work in progress, but should give you an idea of what we are aiming for.



Since our goal is to improve the way inventory works as a whole we are also expanding its functionality to allow players to loot, store, equip and refuel items in a much more intuitive and user friendly manner

Since inventory is directly tied to your equipped suit, picking the right suit for the job may become paramount as different suits will have a different distribution of equipment slots and offer different levels of protection, speed, oxygen supply, but more on this topic at a later date.

That’s all for today colonists. Until next time, fly safe and see you in Hellion!
Zero Gravity team