Monthly Update March

Good morning, afternoon and evening everyone-! This is the first Monthly update we have done on steam in a very long time due to our error , so i hope that you enjoy it-!

The end of the month is here and it's time to take a look at what the team has made and prepared during March! Programmers have finished Engine and plugin upgrades to Unreal Engine 5.7, been working with the UI, setting up dragon customisation system.

Our artist team has been wonderful and active at work with new skin designs, skin production and we have some cool renders to show off!

NOCTURNAL SKIN CONCEPT SHOWCASE

This month we have been looking into completing crowdfunding skins. Noctural -skins have been in active progress. Below you can see Nika's wonderful skin concepts for the crowdfunding backer exclusive skins: Icy Crown and Dustrius.

WORK IN PROGRESS GILDED ICY CROWN

Nika has also begun working on another crowdfunding skin concept. This time next one coming up will be the Gilded Obsidian -skin. Disclaimer: this skin is still work in progress (WIP) and not yet fully finished. There are details and adjustments missing from the design.

PROGRAMMER STATUS: ON-GOING

From our dear and talented programmers: as stated above the project has been transported into Unreal Engine 5.7. with plugins and systems looking a-OK!

With the new UI that our lead artist Vitaerris has created, has been finalised a little more and has been implemented into the project itself. New UI for dragon health, stamina, element, thirst and hunger bars. Including the new dragon selection UI, chat UI and new font. We have also begun to implement flight abilities for Icy Crown.

Backend work for upgrading and re-enable UnrealGameSync for the development team. Our senior programmer is working on networking, creating settings and main menus.

LEVEL DESIGN AND MAP WORK

Noa is working out optimization for both Lumen and our world assets, as we're trying to figure out the style and feel for our world. We've got a few hints that some of the plants and materials may not have translated correctly and making weird shadows or in general having some issues. Currently they're not hitting the spot nor the visual feel that we'd like for the game although we're narrowing it down actively.

BACKER WARDEN SKIN UPDATE

Some might remember our original 'Woodland Warden' -skin concept, which was originally added as an extra skin available to all our crowdfunding backers. After thinking we wanted to give this skin the flare it deserves as a backer exclusive skin! So we handed it out to Vitaerris and they came up with this natural, yet beautiful skin concept. One that can camouflage, glow and give away that mythical woodland spirit energy~!

Below you can see how the new warden skin looks like on Icy Crown!

NEW UI MOCKUPS - SETTINGS, SERVERS, REPORT

Additionally on top of the new glorious skin work. Vitaerris has completed some more mock up UI. Here you can see how the in-game will look when you watch your settings page, server list and report page.

NEW UPCOMING DRAGON SKINS

Now to showcase the newest completed skins. Snowy has been hard and speedy at work with new skins. A new crowdfunding backer skin was completed on Icy Crown, and Dustrius has received its Patreon exclusive skin.

— Cosmic Icy Crown —

The crowdfunding backer exclusive Cosmic -skin has been made and completed for Icy Crown! This gorgeous skin has bioluminescent and glowing areas. This skin will be obtainable from the future Kickstarter -campaign.

— Vampiric Bloodmoon Dustrius —

The Patreon supporter exclusive Vampiric Bloodmoon -skin has been completed for Dustrius! Since Dustrius is not a flying dragon, its unique anatomy introduced interesting challenges when we began to create skins for it. This skin also has bioluminescent and glowing areas - see them in highlights later in the update!

— WIP William Dustrius —

We also have a work-in-progress images for the crowdfunding William -skin on Dustrius. Disclaimer: the skin does not have all of its details yet!

DUSTRIUS ATTACK CONCEPT SKETCHES

Vitaerris has also been helping with sketching out visual examples of how Dustrius' abilities and attacks will work. Here is an example of the power-up punch and tail attack animations!

BRAND NEW SOUNDS

Our highly skilled partners from Omnisound have finished a new patch of fresh sound effects. The new Dustrius tail combo attacks and Icy Crown’s different crash-land animations, and the new sniffing animation were given sounds. Let us know what do you think!

Sadly i can't post them here on steam as it only allows gifs unless we add it to Youtube which is just a hassel sorry for that. You can listen to them over on Discord -!

NEW ANIMATIONS IN BOUND

Our amazing and beloved SadEch has been working hard on bringing new animations to the table. Today we are showcasing four new animations: the two different variations of landing, which are a visual guide for players to come down safely to the ground. Including a first look at the baby climbing from an egg, and a new combo attack for Dustrius. Let's take a look!

— Perfect Landing Animation —

You know that you have nailed a landing when you get a nice and smooth touch down. Since the velocity is going to play an important effect on how safely players will return to the ground. It is important for us to have visual signs that tell players when you have succeeded and where things start getting dangerous. Disclaimer: the following animation is a work in progress (WIP). Not fully finished.

— Near-Perfect Landing Animation —

Now let's add a little bit more speed into the landing. Your dragon will indicate and feel when you come to the ground too quickly. Here is a visual indicator of when you are starting to waver. It will not cause damage (yet), but it will add distance into your stumbling comeback. If you go any faster than this though, expect to hit more than just your toes. Disclaimer: the following animation is a work in progress (WIP). Not fully finished.

— Dustrius Tail Combo Pattern —

During one of our latest development live streams over at YouTube. Our viewers got to see SadEch work through the tail attack combo animations for Dustrius. With the heavy armoured and blade-like tail, getting hit by this thing is going to hurt! Like a cherry on top the combo finishes with a heavy slam against the ground, creating a small area of effect (AOE) shock wave.

— Hatching a Baby Icy Crown —

DISCLAIMER. What you are about to see is a very rough work-in-progress (WIP) animation. As we all know babies are not very graceful. A large majestic beast like Icy Crown starts a little wobbly when it wakes up to the new world around it.

— Icy crown Sniff —

[c]Forgot to write this one up and its last minute so here you go[/c]

SADECH'S DRAGON RENDER GALLERY

Would you believe that we already have 10 skins finished for the Icy crown? Within the past 3 months, Snowy has created a total of 8 skins for Icy Crown alone — not including skins for Dustrius. That is absolutely fantastic! Please give her some well earned praise too.

— Exclusive Skins for Icy Crown —

There are a total of four (4) exclusive skins completed for Icy Crown as well. These are the three (3) crowdfunding skins and the Patreon exclusive skin. There is also another additional render showcasing the additional skin effects: bioluminescent shown in the darker light.

[c]Night time shot with bioluminescence.[/c]

— Vampiric Bloodmoon Dustrius —

The Patreon exclusive 'Vampiric Bloodmoon' skin has been fully completed for Dustrius. Below you can see a turnaround render and couple shots: one with daytime and one with nighttime showcasing the highlighted bioluminescence.

[c]Rendered turnaround video~![/c]

— Customisable Skins for Icy Crown —

There is currently a total of four (4) customisable skins game-ready for Icy Crown. These skins have already been set up so that it is easy to add them into the project once the skin system itself (with the new UI) has been implemented and set up.

— Pigment Mutations in Progress —

One of the highly expected features are the pigment mutations. Below we showcase Albinism and Melanism Icy Crown skins, which were showcased earlier this year. These are just two of a few different pigment mutations planned for the game.

That about wraps it up , now obviously this is not all we have been doing behind the scenes as somethings have to be a secret or we consider to be to boring to show. However i can share that we have started work on a LORE trailer explaining a bit more about the games history, we won't be sharing that till its done-!

But thank you for reading or just looking at the images , if you want to see the updates early and maybe with additional stuff head over to our discord or you can head over to our Youtube for Developer streams every Friday-!