Steel Executor

About this game

Latest news

• Patch Notes·3 Aug 2026Official

  2026 DEV UPDATE

  Hey everyone, After long radio silence, burnout, and many a perturbation in my personal life, I am back, and so is Steel Executor. No better time for a comeback than the Steam Cyberpunk Festival! CHECK OUT ALL THE NEW VIDEOS AND SCREENSHOTS ON THE STORE PAGE! A word of explanation: I’ve wasted an immense amount of time and effort trying to get *any* sort of support for my game. The conclusion is that I am 16 years too late to the party. But that’s alright, it is what it is. Paradoxically, for you, the player, this is great news. Since I am no longer restrained by any tight budget or schedule, and since I no longer intend to please anyone specifically to get something in return, Steel Executor is going to be exactly what I imagined it to be in the very beginning. As unfiltered and raw as it can get.Buckle up and grab a rocket launcher, introducing…TOTAL DESTRUCTIONFrom this moment on, I would like every comparison to Hotline Miami clones to politely exit the room.ANY SORT OF EXPLOSIVE ORDINANCE IN STEEL EXECUTOR NOW HAS THE ABILITY TO DESTROY (ALMOST) EVERY SINGLE ENVIRONMENTAL OBSTACLE IN THE GAME. See that wall? You can blow it open. Except unlike Todd, I’m not lying.You can now level levels. I’m not saying you *should*… but you *can*.Introducing: Grenade Launchers. Grenades will bounce off walls and drop to the ground, then explode after a short delay (in a slightly smaller radius than a rocket explosion). If an enemy walks over an active grenade, it will explode immediately.Definitely not a suitable weapon for close-quarters urban combat… would be a real shame if I gave you one immediately upon game start, in level 1, and made it cheap…Let me know in the comments if you like this direction and how far you want me to take this. What you see is the moderate approach.UNLOCK AND BUY WEAPONSImproved gun accuracy, faster melee weapon swinging, extra lives during hacking… Permanent gameplay modifiers are cool, and you already get that in the form of robotic body upgrade...
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• Announcements·11 Jun 2024Official

  Deep Dive #1 - Guns & Guts - Part 2

  Hello everyone, Continuing right where we left off in Part 1: While pistols, revolvers, and rifles shoot your good ol’ regular bullets (albeit with different damage values due to caliber), other weapons carry more capable and specialized ammunition. ROCKET LAUNCHERS If there’s one thing that I feel is severely missing from this type of game, it’s the explosive volatility that comes with ridiculously powerful weapons. They often get discarded during the design phase or get nerfed into obscurity, deemed disruptive to the intended proper player progression. Sometimes they get thrown in as a fun one-off for a short while. Steel Executor is all about the ridiculous and unlikely power fantasy scenarios. It’s entirely up to the player how they want to approach each level, stage, and encounter. If you want to methodically stealth through the stage with melee or silenced weapons, that’s just fine. If you want to literally break through (some of) the level walls and blow up every enemy with it, the game has the tools to achieve that. https://i.ibb.co/gz7p8xk/DD2GIF1.gif It’s your choice how fast and how easy you want to make it for yourself. Plan, prepare, and execute. There is never “just one way” to beat a stage or a way to softlock your progress because “you didn’t bring that one weapon with you”. SNIPER RIFLES I always thought there’s room to expand the concept of gunplay in a game of this type, and one of these aspects is introducing sniper rifles and sniper bullets - low ammo count, high damage, piercing cleanly through enemies and ballistic shields alike. Near-pinpoint accuracy (unless dual-wielded), but that goes without saying. In a game filled with tight rooms and corridors, sometimes one well-placed shot is all you need. Make it count, sniper rifles’ low fire rate means you may not live long enough to take the next one. https://i.ibb.co/4szWcQp/DD2GIF2.gif SHOTGUNS Being a long-time video game enthusiast, I fully understood the brevity of the task before me, that i...
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• Announcements·4 Jun 2024Official

  Deep Dive #1 - Guns & Guts - Part 1

  Hello everyone, I’ve been very busy lately working on some cool stuff behind the scenes, but now it’s time to get back into (public) action with Deep Dive #1 - Guns & Guts. To make up for the lost time, it’s going to be a real informative one! — Looking at a game like Steel Executor, you might think there’s not much to it. There’s some dude and he shoots a gun and a projectile flies out, so what’s the fuss about? We’ve got plenty of top-down shooters already! The fuss lies in the intricate details that amount to the whole gameplay experience in Steel Executor - doubling down on aspects of planning, preparation, and execution, as well as the visceral feeling of frantic close-quarters combat. My idea is that realistically speaking (and that’s probably the last time I’ll ever mention realism when referring to the game), shootouts are rarely prolonged battles with thousands of bullets flying around, and both combatants’ imaginary HP bars slowly draining down from 100%. Usually, everyone takes cover immediately and is very much aware that sticking any part of their body out may very well mean their death. Usually, once someone gets shot, they become unable to continue sustained and precise firing. It’s not a spectacular show with wild close-up camera shots and evading bullets by somersaulting through the room. Usually, once someone gets shot, they go down. That’s it. No bullet time, life ain’t Hollywood. I wanted that kind of volatility in my game… but I also wanted a fun video game, which stands in stark contrast to this notion of exaggerated realism. How can these two worlds meet logically and sensibly, but also retain a degree of fun arcade-y ridiculousness associated with video games? The design philosophy behind Steel Executor entails (among others ): One Hit - One Kill - the consideration of fragility of life in a shootout/lethal brawl, the player included Freedom of player approach and choice; providing the player with plenty of weapons and ammunition (because sho...
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• Announcements·6 Feb 2024Official

  Steel Executor Announced! F.A.Q. #1

  Hello everyone, After many perturbations and several gut-wrenching delays, I’m proud to finally lay all the cards on the table and announce Steel Executor – a volatile, fast-paced, techno-fueled 3D top-down shooter set in an original post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world, and my debut solodev title. The title, description, and trailer should say it all, but some things are better explained in detail, and there’s plenty of time to fill between now and the game’s launch. I’ll try to post updates on various areas of Steel Executor’s development every once in a while, including stuff like tidbits about the story and setting. I thought it would be best to start the dev update series with FAQ #1, beginning with an elephant in the room… Q: So this is basically just cyberpunk Hotline Miami, right? A: Hell no. While the game certainly takes inspiration from this timeless classic (I think it earned that title), you’ll immediately feel the difference in Executor’s movement controls and mechanics once you get to play. Armored enemies, lower and higher ammo calibers, sharp and blunt weapons, hacking the environment, blowing up walls within stages, shooting through doors and destroying them, instant acceleration, freeform dual wielding – all of these contribute to the overall freedom of approach and providing additional gameplay layers of split-second tactical challenges, which are some of Steel Executor’s main design principles. Many amazing games came in the wake of Hotline Miami’s legacy, but the vast majority of them went in the direction of granting the player HP bars and other “additional chances”. This, in turn, affects gameplay with the assumption that the player can get hit and hurt a bit, and be forgiven for it later on with a medpack or repair station… which directly affects pacing and the feeling of increasing “stakes” as you progress through the stage, knowing you can mess up a bit. Even Steel Executor is guilty of this (after prototype testing among friends), although on...
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