DESCRIPTION

Guide a small group of hatchling dragons to safety as the Dragoness, a veteran of wars whose honor compels her to adopt them but whose temperament doesn't exactly fit into the mold of a parent. A short (free) game I'm putting together to get myself started in the indie game development world and to build out the systems needed for the kinds of games I'd love to make.

FEATURES

• Play as a dragon(ess); you can pretty much melt everyone's face(s). Punting is encouraged.
• Enjoy a short and humorous story about a dragoness that's faced the challenges of war but is not prepared for the challenges of parenting.
• Hatchling dragons doing cute things.
• Lots of jokes about escort quests, such as a buff that lets you yell at the hatchlings to get them to (temporarily) go faster. Don't yell too much though, that's just mean.

SCREENSHOTS AND GIFS

https://i.imgur.com/dXyA6O7.mp4

https://i.imgur.com/fo6bSEP.mp4

PLATFORMS

PC at the moment.

DEVELOPER

IndieDragoness is the name I typically go by online. :)

WEBSITE

• Indiedragoness.dev

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Twitter: @DragonessIndie (Most frequent updates)
• Reddit: Indie_Dragoness
• Imgur: IndieDragoness
• Youtube: Indie Dragoness
• Discord: Indie Dragoness

Demonstration of A.I. enemy progress:

1) Enemy wanders when there's no target
2) Enemy has a detection range for enemies (in this case the player dragon)
3) When detecting enemy, seeks them out
4) When in range, uses weapon

The way I set this up can be used for ranged weapons to, just need to set the stopping distance + weapon range parameters to the appropriate range. The current target is chosen using a threat-based system where each enemy is given a base threat level (for example, a dragon has a higher base threat level than a small foot-soldier) which can be modified in real time to make any entity more or less threatening (think 'Taunts'). All Entities now have a stat block as well, which is where threat/health/mana/enemy factions/ally factions etc. are all stored making it easy to manipulate any value (such as making an enemy friendly or a friend an enemy).

Next up: Setting up the damage systems so things can get harmed. From the Skeleton's perspective this means applying damage to a target. From the dragons perspective, this will mostly just mean punting enemies in a single hit (Dragons ARE rather strong after all!)

Just uhhh.. ignore all those errors popping up in the console at the bottom <_<

Update 7/22/2020:

First bit of actual playability has been reached!

Setup a generic 'Entity' that can be customized to fit any humanoid faction;

1. Each entity has a block of stats that describe it, from 'Health' to 'Faction'.
2. Each entity seeks out targets within its detection range that are listed as enemies.
3. Each entity is also aware of all allies within range (Healers and buffers can target friendlies later on, and hatchling dragons will be aware of the player dragon when she is within range).
4. Collision detection for attacks ignores allied factions and strikes enemy factions. An attack can be a cleave (one swipe harms all enemies in the path) or a blow (the first enemy in the path of the swing is damaged but no one else is until the attack completes.
5. Ranged enemies can now be setup with proper settings to enemy detection, and range of attack. I can add damage components to their projectiles.
6. Each entity (including the player) has a base 'Threat' value that can be used for targeting logic. The highest threats are targeted first.

To do next:

1. I need to add a multiplier so that enemies that are closer receive a higher threat rating than those that are further away. For example, a skeleton with a base threat level of 3 would have a final threat level of 9 when within attack range, and a final threat level 1 when far away.
2. Need to fix some of the ragdolling not looking right when the dragon attacks (sometimes the dragon pounds them halfway into the ground..)
3. Need to setup dragon A.I. (Ground). Hatchlings should be able to fight too.
4. Need to setup logic to deal with dragons that are flying. Maybe enemies switch to ranged weapons?

Funny bug of the week:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1285665176390434818

I've decided to dive into Bolt Visual Scripting now that it's free on Unity! As part of my documentation efforts, I am creating micro-tutorials (which also serve as documentation for my code) on my website https://indiedragoness.dev/.

This site will also serve as my portfolio in the future for employment, and for referencing where you will find demo's/my games once they are completed!

I hope some of these tutorials will be useful if you also happen to get into Bolt as a game developer; many of these are ones I'm encountering immediately, like how to setup an interface between C# Scripts and Bolt Variables.

For players, this is a way I can show that I am making progress even when it's code-based and difficult to visualize. :)

Bolt has felt like a wonderful way for me to visualize code and organize my project. I'm a very visual person, so scripting has always been difficult for me. You can find Bolt here for free if you want to try it out too.

There's some stuff that's a little more fun than a menu test in here, but that's the primary focus. :)