Welcome to another Dev Blog. This past month our team has been focusing on making the transition to Unreal Engine 5.0 along with creating content for the big 1.0 update. While the UE5 migration is now complete, we still have a lot of work to do before we are ready for 1.0. Let's turn to our Lead Developer, Jon, to hear more about what's to come...
A word from our Lead Developer
Greetings Dragons and Hatchlings,
A few days ago I did an impromptu Dev Q&A as I showed off our dragons in UE5 with Lumen Global Illumination on the old Dune Desert landscape from Alpha. I absolutely love Lumen and the new features in Unreal Engine 5. I wish UE5 was already out 2 years ago when I began to work on the DoD Beta. It's got some great features that we are going to make full use of such as Lumen dynamic global illumination, large world coordinates, world partition, level instancing, dynamic data layers (which allow us to change the world after a quest event without changing it for those who did not progress that far yet), and a new dynamic water system - to name a few. But as I mentioned in the video, the UE5 migration is complete, and I am just working on fixing up a few minor issues, such as UI, before sending the UE5 version of the UE4 version of DoD to the Test Server to see if I missed anything.
We plan to make the UE5 version available for open testing once the closed testers comb through it to make sure everything is working as intended. Since our UE4 mega map used World Composition (which has been deprecated in UE5), we'll be bringing back the old Desert Dunes landscape from the Alpha for testing purposes (and only on the test version) until the Mega Map is ready, which will then replace it for map testing. The map is huge, 40km x 40km, if you include the Ocean. Such a large map is quite an undertaking but we're happy to have Branton with us full time working on bringing the world of Jrakhon to life.
Update 1.0 will mark the end of Early Access for Day of Dragons and the official Release for the game we decided to make post-Kickstarter and we hope our years of hard work will speak for itself when you play the release update which will be our biggest update ever. Release will include the Mega Map; new UE5 features including Volumetric Clouds and new Lumen lighting; new dynamic weather system; the new Elemental faction; new playables such as Magma, Inferno Ravager, Blitz Striker, Bio Dragon (KS exclusive); new AI such as the Swamp Snapper, Dune Weaver, Whiskered Paddletail, and the giant Sandslayer Worm; new Quest system; New loot system (dragon pearls); New skin crafting system; Improved Genetics, new Elder progression mechanic, changes to stats, and much more.
For those of you who missed the announcement in Discord, we are excited to announce that we have hired a Comic artist from our community (you might know her as Ztarli) who will be working with me and Katie in creating a Day of Dragons comic called, "Legends of Jrakhon" which will be published to our Patreon for Dragon tier subscribers. This comic will explore the lore and backstory of Day of Dragons starting in the late First Age when the Elementals arrived. Check out the cover page below.
We're excited to be working with Ztarli on creating this comic and hope our comic/lore fans will love it. To all the Patrons reading this, Thank you for making this comic possible. ːsteamhappyː
The best days are ahead of us for Day of Dragons, and we're only getting started. Following the 1.0 update we will focus on adding in the stretch reward dragons from Kickstarter and continuing to update our game and Mega Map with each major update. Thank you so much for your patience as you wait for more updates (and the big update) and thank you for believing in us when so many others doubted. We appreciate your support!
Remember, this is DoD and we have DRAGONS!
- Jonathan Slabaugh
Lead Developer for Day of Dragons
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Now onto the blog...
Mega Map Update
Branton has been hard at work creating the height map data and greyboxing the landscapes for our upcoming Mega Map. This giant map will feature a variety of biomes including temperate forests, grasslands, tropical forests, tundras, deserts, volcanic wastelands, burnt forests, and ocean environments.
Our Level Designer, Zaicho is now moving on to blocking out the points of interests and large landmarks of the different biomes. Once the areas have been blocked out, he will go back and rebuild the landmarks and add detail to the overall environment. We are very excited to see this massive landscape coming to life.
Here are some of the points of interest we have begun blocking out.
Animations
Our animation team is working on bringing to life the remaining creatures for the 1.0 update. Please keep in mind that all of the animations are WIP and not yet finalized.
We have come into more complications with the Inferno Ravager, so it will be a little time before we are able to show its tweaked animation set. However, Karly has begun working on the Bio Dragon. The Bio Dragon's movements are inspired by deer and hares as you can see in the two animations below.
Bio Dragon Walk Animation
Bio Dragon Trot Animation
We are also working on bring some of the AI creatures to life, including the dangerous worm species and the passive Dune Weavers.
The Sandslayer worm and the Dune Weaver will both be found in the Dangerous Dunes of the Mega Map. The Dune Weaver is a passive AI and its only defense will be curling into a ball and hoping its hard armor like scales will be able to protect it. The Sandslayer worms, however, are another story. These large, carnivorous worms will hide under the sand and snatch up any dragon who comes too close. Only the bravest dragons will dare travel into the worms' territory to reclaim the treasures they hold.
Slayer Worm Idle Animation
Dune Weaver Roll Up Defense Animation
Dune Weaver Walk Animation
Models and VFX
The next dragon we will be adding to the model room is the Ice Behemoth. This will be the biggest dragon to join the line-up yet.
Up until now, the model and images you have seen of the Behemoth has been of a female. Males of this species will sport a dangerous set of horns used to spar for the attention of the extremely rare females and to fight the Snowslayer Worms that live in their territory. We are still in the process of designing these deadly weapons.
Check out the image below for some of the possible ideas.
Our VFX and Model team has also been working hard on perfecting and feathering the Feathered Zygovo Dragon. This micro-class dragon will be completely covered in feathers. To give the feathers a realistic feel, our VFX artist, Flicker, has created a unique set of feathers for it and will be placing each feather card by hand. This will be a lengthy process, but will be well worth it for a natural looking feather placement.
(be nice to him, he's naked in this picture)
Check out the images below to see just a handful of the feathers Flicker created for the Zygovo.
-<With the large ocean waters of the mega map, one fish will not be enough. Our Concept Artist, Xilev, designed an oceanic species of fish and our Environmental Asset Artist, Brigade, created its model. This new fish species is inspired by real life salmon, tuna, and dolphin fish. It will be found in the coastal waters that boarder the continent and will be the main food source of the Singe Crest.
That is just some of what our team has created this month. We will continue working towards the 1.0 update and we thank you for your patience. Game development can be a very slow process and we couldn't have done any of this without your support! Check out the community spotlights below and see you for the next dev blog!
Dev Q&A Livestream
Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be!
From the Community
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!
Some of our favorite recent screenshots...
by grapesoda#4398
by Jeckoiriii#6969
by Dark Mink#2670
Some of our favorite artwork from the community...
by ghosteater#5611
by ♦ Layka Nima ♦#6353
by Thar#3493
Thanks for reading!
~The Day of Dragons Development Team
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