OPERATION: BLACKFILE

OVERVIEW

Operation: Blackfile is a procedurally-generated stealth game. Every run generates fresh floor layouts — no memorization, no safety net. You have one life. Getting spotted or making physical contact with a guard terminates the mission and locks your score.

The facility is divided into 5 sectors of escalating difficulty, each containing multiple floors. Sector 5 — the Director's Office — has no end. Each run is a race to see how deep you can push before you're compromised.

CONTROLS

Movement uses axis-separated collision with corner-assist — the agent will automatically slide around wall edges when you're close. Diagonal movement is normalized to prevent speed exploitation.

DETECTION SYSTEM

Each guard projects an amber vision cone in the direction they are facing. The cone is raycast — walls block it. Entering a cone causes the detection meter to fill. If it reaches 100%, you are COMPROMISED.

When no guard can see you, the meter drains at a constant rate. You can re-enter cover and recover — but a fast-filling meter (VETERAN mode) leaves little margin.

DETECTION RATES BY MODE

GUARDS

Guards patrol between two waypoints on straight-line corridors. When they reach a waypoint they pause briefly and sweep their cone. After the pause they reverse direction. Guard speed, count, and vision range increase as you progress through sectors and floors.

PHYSICAL CONTACT

Walking into a guard's body is instant death — no detection meter, no warning. The contact radius is ~20px. Guards do not react to footsteps or sound; only direct line-of-sight within their cone triggers detection.

GUARD PARAMETERS BY SECTOR

Speed values are before the mode multiplier. VETERAN applies ×1.15 to guard speed. Guard count and speed escalate per floor within each sector.

INTEL FILES

Intel files appear as gold folders floating with a subtle bob animation. They are placed by the generator at positions far from spawn, spread across the floor, and never adjacent to the exit hatch.

Walk within 18px of a file to collect it. A brief screen flash confirms the pickup. The HUD updates the FILES LEFT counter. Once all files are collected the exit hatch unlocks.

Files per floor range from 2 (Sector 1) to 5 (late Sector 5), scaling with sector difficulty.

EXTRACTION HATCH

The exit hatch is placed at the BFS-farthest reachable tile from your spawn — guaranteeing a meaningful traversal distance of at least 16 tiles. It is rendered as a small square marker.

While files remain, the hatch displays LOCK and is outlined in dark blue. Once all files are collected it transitions to EXIT with a green glow. Reaching within 20px triggers floor completion.

SECTORS

The facility is divided into 5 sectors. Sectors 1–4 have a fixed number of floors. Sector 5 generates floors indefinitely — the only limit is how long you survive.

MODES

Modes are run modifiers applied on top of natural level difficulty. Levels escalate the same way regardless of mode — modes change how you play, not what you face.

SCORING

Floors cleared is the primary driver — depth matters more than speed. The time penalty subtracts 20 points per second of active play time. The clock only runs while you are actively playing — it pauses during briefings, floor-clear screens, and the caught screen.

SCORE EXAMPLES

Score is recorded at the moment of compromise — when you are caught. Submit your initials on the COMPROMISED screen to enter the Hall of Ghosts.

HALL OF GHOSTS

Global leaderboard — top 10 scores across all players. Scores are stored server-side and persist across sessions. Updated in real time.

PATCH NOTES