Burned Horizons™ is a turn-based tactical sandbox set in the early 2000s — where nothing resets and every decision leaves a mark. Operators progress through what they do — missions, choices, survival. Experience opens new pathways and specializations. But not every moment fades when the mission ends.
You don’t just run missions — you run squads. Multiple teams across entire theaters, hired, supplied, and rotated through Regional Deployment Commands. Gear isn’t fluff, it’s survival. What happens in one AO echoes into the next, victories and failures carrying forward across the map.
SCARS & Flashpoints
Some experiences linger as flashpoints — small marks that build over time. Enough of them, and they harden into SCARS.
Some sharpen reflexes, others break trust.
Some strike instantly after an extreme event — like surviving when your whole squad is wiped.
Others emerge slowly, flashpoints stacking until they crystalize.
SCARS can even combine, twisting into new effects that reshape how an operator thinks, fights, or holds the squad together.
Regional Deployment Commands (RDCs)
And those operators don’t fight in snapshots. They fight inside Regional Deployment Commands (RDCs) — entire theaters of war, each about a million square kilometers.
Every RDC breaks down into sprawling Areas of Operation (AOs), each averaging over 83,000 km² before scaling to a massive 20×20 km tactical map.
These aren’t skirmish zones. They’re living battlefields where terrain, logistics, and past actions define the fight.
Victories shift front lines. Failures ripple outward.
// RDC-TRIDENT (2002) Ukraine at the start of a brutal Russian invasion.The theater spans the entire country and extends into Belarus, Russia, Moldova, Poland, and the Black Sea littoral. TRIDENT is the first theater to come online — other RDCs will open as the campaign expands worldwide.
Combat
Combat runs deep: action points, suppression, overwatch, interrupts.
Switch perspectives — top-down, isometric, or third-person.
Operator stress and SCARS can steady a trigger hand or shake it, harden resolve or fracture it, changing how they act under fire.
Modding & Player Agency
You shape the rules of engagement.
Sliders. Toggles. Full modding support.
Q2 2026 Deployment — SITREP
BURNED HORIZONS deploys in Q2 2026 into Early Access.
EA opens with the foundations of the campaign:
The opening tactical loop
Early medical and contact systems
Initial operator management
First elements of the RDC-TRIDENT theater coming online
From there, the war expands.
Early Access is where the deeper layers of the operation take shape:
Logistics and supply networks
Wider AI behaviors
Strategic movement and maneuver
Advanced operator systems
Vehicles and mobility layers
Deeper wounding + SCARS integration
Expanded Areas of Operation
Full persistence framework
These systems will come online phase by phase as the campaign unfolds.
EA isn’t the end of development — it’s the beginning of the long war.
Players step in early, and the world grows, shifts, and scars itself around them.
EARLY ACCES: APRIL 2026.
TARGETED EXIT FROM EA Q3 2027
//---
This isn’t war-as-a-skin.
It’s war with weight.
You build it. You live it.
And you carry it forward.
//---
HOLD THE LINE. ALWAYS FORWARD
// WISHLIST + FOLLOW | BACK THE KICKSTARTER (JAN 2026)
[NOTES]
All of the 12 planned AO's of RDC-TRIDENT will be added by the time Burned Horizons exits EA. Additional RDC's are planned post 1.0 release. // BH is also being built with hooks for modding support — players will be able to create their own maps beyond those in official RDCs
Current visuals are early concept work — a mix of original art, heavily edited renders/composites and other assets. The goal is to replace all placeholders with original art by 1.0. Nothing is used unedited — every piece is integrated to match the world and tone. Multiplayer and self-hosted server support are planned features, targeted for the 1.0 release or shortly after.
