Dragon Survival Game: The Drakconian Project

The Drakconian Project

Links
Website | Youtube | Twitter | Infinite Spawn Asset | (Test Build Coming Soon) | Patreon​

The Game​

Hello and welcome to the thread on The Drakconian Project! This thread is devoted to both the project as a whole, and the assets I build to support it (and to share). The Drakconian Project is focused on survival as a dragon in a desert fantasy setting, as Dragon Hunters pursue you and your hatchlings across the scorching sands. Balance your food and water needs with the need to keep moving onward.

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Scope and Milestones​

In order to manage scope, I am focusing on building parts of the game I eventually want to put together as standalone parts. One example is the Infinite Spawn Asset; it is its own project that, when done, will go to benefit not only my game but hopefully others as well. My hope is that when the game is complete, it will serve as the foundation for future ideas. Basically what I am saying is I realize this is a years long project.

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Feedback Items​

I am very open to constructive criticism, and I've tried to define a few of the points that I would love to have input on. I am also working out how to ask the right questions.

• Impression of the game so far (this is limited to youtube videos until I get the next test build working)
• Feedback on the Infinite Spawn Asset; do the features below sound viable and helpful for a terrain that continues to generate? (Link to MapMagic Post)
• What inspires you about dragons?
• (More to come)

About Me​

I am a Software Engineer and Veteran, with three degree's and three years experience in industry as well as eight years of experience in the military.

Infinite Spawn Asset​

I have the prototype working and spawning infinitely and randomly around the player, I just need to build it out to have more robust features. Here's what it can do right now:

• You can choose as many prefabs as you like to be spawned via an array in the inspector. You can then use a second array to set the time interval that the prefab spawns at.
• You can scale the area that the script covers around the player up easily by simply scaling up the plane that the script is attached to
• You can set a terrain layer mask so that the spawn only uses the terrain layer you have set with MapMagic, and you can also set an obstacle layer where you don't want things to spawn (think rocks, inside tree's, etc.)
• If its time to spawn something and the script can't find a good spot, it will hold out until a good spot becomes available
• Gets the normal of the terrain at potential spawn points and ignores them based on how steep the terrain is (Customized in the Inspector)
• Has an adjustable boundary around the player to prevent spawns from occurring inches from the players nose

Here's what I want it to do in the future:

• Return any tags and layers from the terrain it encounters (so that the developer can set 'Zones' and use different spawns for different zones) or even have a 'safe' area where the spawner stops
  • Alternatively, be able to randomly change the tag of a terrain tile in order to change the spawn in that area.
• Figure out a way to handle AI pathfinding AFTER the spawn (this may be a little more complicated and beyond the scope of just spawning the prefab, but I need it for my game so I might look into the options)
• Keep track of what has spawned and handle this to avoid overwhelming player. Or maybe even have options to set when spawns become more numerous or difficult based on situations or events in the game.

Here’s a picture of the purple plane that handles spawning over the player. This is what you scale to increase/decrease the area that spawns occur, and the plane follows the player no matter where they go, maintaining a distance above the player. Those brown ‘spikes’ you see in the picture are things the script spawned (I used them for visibility).



Thank you for taking the time to read this enormous post!

-SkyeDragon

 

Pretty interesting concept, though to me just being in a desert environment is an odd choice.
I picture most dragons living in desolate mountainous areas far away from other forms of life, unless they desire it or need to feed. Though - I guess this could also be similar to certain desert regions.

I think the sand is a little too shiny and has a bit too much texture. Less shiny and less small texture imo would increase the visual appearance.

This is my most favorite animal ever! So - I like the ageless-like ability of the dragon to live generations and gain hidden, long lost, and future knowledge and abilities from that knowledge that mere mortal humanoid races can not ever wish to attain.
I really like the theme of the dragons being very clever and entertaining other life forms for there sole entertainment to prove they are more clever than any other. The dragon riddle is always a fun gate to put in the players way.

And magic - the great wyrms should be the most powerful mages ever - because of above reasons.
I like to think dragons mate once every millennia and commonly end up killing one of the participants in the violent, earth trembling act. That's why there aren't very many.

 

theANMATOR2b Thanks for the feedback! I agree with you on the terrain, texture artistic capability is not one of my strong points.

I'm kinda cheating by using the desert terrain; for performance reasons the terrain generation does much better with an environment that doesn't require much (such as forests and grass)! The second reason is I was considering what environment would actually be dangerous enough to warrant a dragon being in danger of starvation or thirst (considering they are extremely capable creatures).

Also your answer to the inspiration question is amazing. XD

 

Good looking Dragons I'll be watching this thread, as this looks like a good looking game!!

 

Haha, they are the best looking dragons! Thank you so much for giving Dragons some love on the Unity Asset Store!

Goes to drool over more SF Bay assets... <3

 

For those interested in a rudimentary spawning system that can work with map magic (see my earlier post), I put together a free asset that you can find here. The unity package includes a demo scene that takes a quick moment to set up (instructions on the page), and if you scroll down there is a lot more documentation on how the code does what it does including picture diagrams.

Was great practice for me, and I hope it helps some folks out!

Note: I added tool tip descriptions of variables in the code too, so don't forget to hover your mouse over the variables to get an idea what they do in the Inspector view. The aiSpawnPlane is the object that the code is attached to.