Dev Blog #12
Hello!
April has flown by! Our team has been hard at work on our daily tasks over here at Beawesome Games. We have a lot of cool new things to share with you as well as some big news. But first, here is the Big Hamster himself...
[h2]A Word From Our Lead Developer[/h2]
Greetings Hatchlings,
Another month is behind us and we have been putting the work in and getting a lot done. One of the areas we were bottlenecked in was the area of animation as we only had one part-time animator. Today we are happy to announce that we have added a new fulltime animator to our team who has been working in the gaming industry for many years, Bret Church. You can read more about him below, and check out the latest Spined Scrab video to see Bret's work in action.
The past 12 weeks I have been busy working on design and artificial intelligence. The AI update just hit the test branch yesterday with bug fixes going out today. Things are looking really good and the testers have enjoyed watching the AI hide from them behind rocks and trees. (They get scared cuz they tiny.) It's been a lot of work but I think you will all like it. I decided to design the AI system from the ground up for Genesis 1.0, the old AI system in the Alpha used a third-party plugin for the AI behavior mostly designed for humanoids. Our new AI system of my own design is very robust and fun to interact with. I also designed and built a AI spawning system that stores AI in memory in a dormant state when players are not nearby to save on resources, then when players come back in the area, it wakes the AI back up, this is very similar to how ARK does it and necessary when you have maps as big as ours with AI everywhere. I'm sure you will all love our new AI system when you get to try it in the Genesis Open Test.
Speaking of the Open Test, now with AI out of the way, I am focused on integrating the Shadow Scale with all of its animations into the game along with Flight v2. After that, I will be integrating our newly designed particle FX (thanks Flicker). Once the build passes QA, we'll be pushing it to our public servers for the Public Open Test. We will then focus on adding the Elemental, Flame Stalker, Inferno Ravager, and Spined Scrab. Once all of the characters are in and everything is working well, we'll push out the Day of Dragons 1.0 Genesis update to Steam for all to download, after which the Alpha version will be deprecated.
It's all going to happen quickly and will be here before you know it. I think we're in for an exciting Summer. Thank you all for your support and enjoy our dev blog.
- Jon Slabaugh
Lead Developer of Day of Dragons
[h2]Introducing Our New Animator![/h2]
Some of you have already seen our new Youtube video, featuring the Spined Scrab. What you might not have known was that the Scrab was rigged and animated by our new full-time animator! We are happy to introduce to you our new animator, Burt (aka mbcburt).
"Hello everyone!
I am a new animator on the dev team. I am now working on creating amazing animations to bring these cool creatures and dragons to life. I am excited to be apart of this game and community! I have worked for many years in both the film and games industry on all kinds of projects ranging from first person shooters, to racing games, role playing, and horror adventure games. With all the types of animations (humanoid, animal, creature, mechanical) that I have had the opportunity to work on, my favorite for sure that I am super passionate about is creatures, especially Dragons. So this is super exciting for me to be animating on this project and I will show that passion in my work and look forward to seeing them the game! :) "
-Burt
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
With the Spined Scrab now completed, Burt will now be focusing on the Magma Elemental. Expect new updates on the Magma's development in the next Dev Blog!
[h2]Shadow Scale Update[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
All but one of the Adult Shadow Scale animations are now complete! Up next we will be making the baby animations which will be a much faster process, since the baby animations are edited versions of the already existing adult animations.
While the baby animations are being created, we will move to testing the new flight system, adding status effects, and adding the visual effects as well.
Drinking Animation
Eating Animation
[h2]AI Update[/h2]
The first version of our custom made AI system is complete! Right now. our Closed Testers are taking a bite out of these bugs. The Thornbacked Crawler will be the first in the game and will join the Shadow Scale and Acid Spitter in Open Testing. Check out a behind the scenes look at how these creatures think.
[h3]How AI Think[/h3]
Pictured above, you can see the AI's thought process as it decides which location to travel to. Being a passive AI, the Thornbacked Crawler wants to avoid all players (aka his predators) and it needs to decide the best course to go to avoid getting eaten.
The green dots show the best choices while the red, yellow, and orange are less favorable. The AI uses distance and cover to determine the best course to take. If available, the AI will be more likely to choose a locations that blocks it from the player's line of sight and thus can hide behind rocks and trees.
[h3]Other Mechanics[/h3]
Like the deceased Acid Spitters, the Thornback Crawler corpses will have a rag doll effect, making them limp when carried. Large enough dragons will be able to carry whole AI carcasses to bring to their young or just save for later.
However, Thornbacked Crawlers are not a free meal. These bugs are toxic and eating one will take a hit to your stamina. Make sure you are in a safe place before chowing down on one of these creepy crawlies.
AI Carrying
[h2]VFX and Modeling[/h2]
As always, our other departments are also working hard to get everything ready for Open Testing and beyond. Check out what they've been up to.
[h3]VFX[/h3]
Inferno Ravager and Flame Stalker fire attacks
Flicker has been focusing on the fire attacks of the Inferno Ravager and Flame Stalker along with the beam of the Singe Crest. We plan to make the bile attacks of each dragon unique which is why you see a big difference between the fire of the Flame Stalker and Inferno Ravager.
Inferno Ravager fire attack rotating
Singe Crest cauterizing beam
[h3]Models[/h3]
While Hao works on the concept of the Ice Behemoth (likely coming in the next Dev Blog), Brigade has been working on the fish AI that will be joining the game with the Singe Crest. The fish is inspired by Bichirs and Catfish and will be the perfect size to fit inside of its main predator's mouth.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more development news in next month's dev blog.
[h2]Dev Q&A Livestream[/h2]
Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be!
[h2]From the Community[/h2]
Each blog post, we pick some of our favorite screenshots and artwork posted by the community to showcase here. Want a chance for your submission to be showcased on our next blog? Post it in the appropriate channels on our discord!
[h3]Some of our favorite recent screenshots...[/h3]
by Minatrix#6615
by Stupid Discord#2668
by Papillon Petit#9342
[h3]Some of our favorite artwork from the community...[/h3]
by Flame#5312
by Milo#3392
by Mossrium6157
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more development news in next month's dev blog.
~The Day of Dragons Development Team
Don't want to miss out on updates? Follow us on our social media accounts or become a patron to get updates before they are released!
Discord | Twitter | Youtube | Instagram
April has flown by! Our team has been hard at work on our daily tasks over here at Beawesome Games. We have a lot of cool new things to share with you as well as some big news. But first, here is the Big Hamster himself...
[h2]A Word From Our Lead Developer[/h2]
Greetings Hatchlings,
Another month is behind us and we have been putting the work in and getting a lot done. One of the areas we were bottlenecked in was the area of animation as we only had one part-time animator. Today we are happy to announce that we have added a new fulltime animator to our team who has been working in the gaming industry for many years, Bret Church. You can read more about him below, and check out the latest Spined Scrab video to see Bret's work in action.
The past 12 weeks I have been busy working on design and artificial intelligence. The AI update just hit the test branch yesterday with bug fixes going out today. Things are looking really good and the testers have enjoyed watching the AI hide from them behind rocks and trees. (They get scared cuz they tiny.) It's been a lot of work but I think you will all like it. I decided to design the AI system from the ground up for Genesis 1.0, the old AI system in the Alpha used a third-party plugin for the AI behavior mostly designed for humanoids. Our new AI system of my own design is very robust and fun to interact with. I also designed and built a AI spawning system that stores AI in memory in a dormant state when players are not nearby to save on resources, then when players come back in the area, it wakes the AI back up, this is very similar to how ARK does it and necessary when you have maps as big as ours with AI everywhere. I'm sure you will all love our new AI system when you get to try it in the Genesis Open Test.
Speaking of the Open Test, now with AI out of the way, I am focused on integrating the Shadow Scale with all of its animations into the game along with Flight v2. After that, I will be integrating our newly designed particle FX (thanks Flicker). Once the build passes QA, we'll be pushing it to our public servers for the Public Open Test. We will then focus on adding the Elemental, Flame Stalker, Inferno Ravager, and Spined Scrab. Once all of the characters are in and everything is working well, we'll push out the Day of Dragons 1.0 Genesis update to Steam for all to download, after which the Alpha version will be deprecated.
It's all going to happen quickly and will be here before you know it. I think we're in for an exciting Summer. Thank you all for your support and enjoy our dev blog.
- Jon Slabaugh
Lead Developer of Day of Dragons
[h2]Introducing Our New Animator![/h2]
Some of you have already seen our new Youtube video, featuring the Spined Scrab. What you might not have known was that the Scrab was rigged and animated by our new full-time animator! We are happy to introduce to you our new animator, Burt (aka mbcburt).
"Hello everyone!
I am a new animator on the dev team. I am now working on creating amazing animations to bring these cool creatures and dragons to life. I am excited to be apart of this game and community! I have worked for many years in both the film and games industry on all kinds of projects ranging from first person shooters, to racing games, role playing, and horror adventure games. With all the types of animations (humanoid, animal, creature, mechanical) that I have had the opportunity to work on, my favorite for sure that I am super passionate about is creatures, especially Dragons. So this is super exciting for me to be animating on this project and I will show that passion in my work and look forward to seeing them the game! :) "
-Burt
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
With the Spined Scrab now completed, Burt will now be focusing on the Magma Elemental. Expect new updates on the Magma's development in the next Dev Blog!
[h2]Shadow Scale Update[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
All but one of the Adult Shadow Scale animations are now complete! Up next we will be making the baby animations which will be a much faster process, since the baby animations are edited versions of the already existing adult animations.
While the baby animations are being created, we will move to testing the new flight system, adding status effects, and adding the visual effects as well.
Drinking Animation
Eating Animation[h2]AI Update[/h2]
The first version of our custom made AI system is complete! Right now. our Closed Testers are taking a bite out of these bugs. The Thornbacked Crawler will be the first in the game and will join the Shadow Scale and Acid Spitter in Open Testing. Check out a behind the scenes look at how these creatures think.
[h3]How AI Think[/h3]
Pictured above, you can see the AI's thought process as it decides which location to travel to. Being a passive AI, the Thornbacked Crawler wants to avoid all players (aka his predators) and it needs to decide the best course to go to avoid getting eaten.
The green dots show the best choices while the red, yellow, and orange are less favorable. The AI uses distance and cover to determine the best course to take. If available, the AI will be more likely to choose a locations that blocks it from the player's line of sight and thus can hide behind rocks and trees.
[h3]Other Mechanics[/h3]
Like the deceased Acid Spitters, the Thornback Crawler corpses will have a rag doll effect, making them limp when carried. Large enough dragons will be able to carry whole AI carcasses to bring to their young or just save for later.
However, Thornbacked Crawlers are not a free meal. These bugs are toxic and eating one will take a hit to your stamina. Make sure you are in a safe place before chowing down on one of these creepy crawlies.
AI Carrying[h2]VFX and Modeling[/h2]
As always, our other departments are also working hard to get everything ready for Open Testing and beyond. Check out what they've been up to.
[h3]VFX[/h3]
Inferno Ravager and Flame Stalker fire attacksFlicker has been focusing on the fire attacks of the Inferno Ravager and Flame Stalker along with the beam of the Singe Crest. We plan to make the bile attacks of each dragon unique which is why you see a big difference between the fire of the Flame Stalker and Inferno Ravager.
Inferno Ravager fire attack rotating
Singe Crest cauterizing beam[h3]Models[/h3]
While Hao works on the concept of the Ice Behemoth (likely coming in the next Dev Blog), Brigade has been working on the fish AI that will be joining the game with the Singe Crest. The fish is inspired by Bichirs and Catfish and will be the perfect size to fit inside of its main predator's mouth.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more development news in next month's dev blog.
[h2]Dev Q&A Livestream[/h2]
Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be!
[h2]From the Community[/h2]
Each blog post, we pick some of our favorite screenshots and artwork posted by the community to showcase here. Want a chance for your submission to be showcased on our next blog? Post it in the appropriate channels on our discord!
[h3]Some of our favorite recent screenshots...[/h3]
by Minatrix#6615
by Stupid Discord#2668
by Papillon Petit#9342[h3]Some of our favorite artwork from the community...[/h3]
by Flame#5312
by Milo#3392
by Mossrium6157Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more development news in next month's dev blog.
~The Day of Dragons Development Team
Don't want to miss out on updates? Follow us on our social media accounts or become a patron to get updates before they are released!
Discord | Twitter | Youtube | Instagram