Welcome to Dev Blog #10! We hope you all had a lovely February and are staying nice and healthy. This month we have a lot of exciting things to share with you all. Our team is growing with the addition of Flicker, our VFX artist who we already have working on particles and decals, and Brigade, our 3D Environmental Artist who has been hard at work making Dragon nests. Starting off, we'll let them both introduce themselves...


Hi, I'm Flicker, Beawesome's VFX artist! I'm actually also a 3D generalist, so I can do a little bit of everything: modeling, texturing, rigging and animating; however, I was chosen as staff for my technical side, and work directly in-engine to create a variety of effects, from acid projectiles to dripping blood!

I like reading, watching movies and shows, and gaming. I really, really like gaming, so much so that I decided to make them my life! Also, as a bonus, I love dragons.

I first discovered Day of Dragons as a fan and, through a series of chats and fun moments, decided that being able to make this game, this dream, a reality could be fun. I'm super excited to be on the team, and am looking forward to playing with everyone!

Click here to follow Flicker on Twitter.


Hey! I'm DragonBrigade, but some of you might already know me as Brigade- or Brigs, or Bridget, or- you get the point. I'm working on creating 3D environmental assets, with the focus currently being on unique nests for each dragon that will be added in the Genesis update. I have a formal education in game design and graphics, with a focus in 3D modelling.

Some stuff about me: My favorite animals are chickens, I like purple, and I love heavy metal- like, a lot. But most importantly: I've loved dragons for as long as I can remember, and Day of Dragons is my dream game that I've always wanted to play- and work on. I'm super excited to be on this team, and I can't wait to see everyone curl up in some cozy nests :) Keep an eye out, there might just be some spooky scary things around the corner...

Click here to follow Brigade on Instagram.



With introductions done, lets get into what we've been working on in February...



If you've read our last announcement, you are aware that we have once again begun creating new concepts for future dragons. The first, and personal favorite of Bad Parrot, is the Micro Feathered Dragon. This dragon will join the game in an upcoming (after 1.0) update as an unlockable dragon for all players. Kickstarter backers will recognize this dragon as the $500k Stretch Goal reward, meaning that all Kickstarter backers who activated their "Original Backers Rewards" keys will have the Micro permanently and automatically unlocked for them on all servers they play on. That's just one of the great perks to being a Kickstarter!




With the Micro concept now completed, we have turned our attention to the greatly anticipated Bioluminescent Dragon.





As you know we are currently in the pre-beta testing phase which is open to Kickstarter beta access backers and owners of the Acid Spitter Drake. Once we get the Shadow Scale to an animated playable state, we will open the Beta to everyone (Open Beta) so the Shadow Scale continues to be the focus of our animation team.

Check out some of his newest animations with more coming in from our animation team each week.


Diving


Sitting


Lay Down to Sleep




The rest of our team has been working hard on their projects as well. Brigade and Flicker are working on creating the effects and structures needed for the next big update.

Now that we have completed all of the Genesis 1.0 Update creature models (meaning they are waiting to be rigged and animated), Jia Hao, our 3D Creature Artist, has moved his attention to the dragons coming in the v1.1 "Helping Herbis" Update, namely the Singe Crest (Healer) and Nurse (Name TBA) dragons.




The first dragon being worked on for version 1.1 is the Kickstarter Healer Dragon, now officially named the Singe Crest. The Singe Crest is a small support type dragon that will be able to heal his group members and stop their bleeds using its cauterizing flame and healing pheromones. As of this writing, the Healer is all but completed, just awaiting final 3D model and texture approval from our lead developer.

Hao is currently focused on modeling the Nurse Dragon.





Brigade has finished her second custom nest. The Shadow Scale's nest is made of stick and twigs collected in the Forgotten Forest. The trees in this area have a special coating that makes the resistant to fire and high temperatures, making them the perfect material for Plasma nests.

Up next will be the Flame Stalker's nest, which is be quite unique compared to the other finished two.




Flicker has been busy with a variety of VFX effects. She has finalized the Acid Spitter's Acid Spit attack and has also finished the Shadow Scale's Plasma Blast attack. Now she is turning her attention to environmental VFX. Check out some gifs of what she done this month below.


Plasma Blast


Acid and Plasma Hit Decals


Landing Dust Cloud




Greetings Hatchlings,

February has come and gone. Ever wonder why they didn't just take 2 months with 31 days and shorten them to 30 and give February 2 more days so it has 30 like every other month? It always goes by so fast! Speaking of fast, we are working fast on getting all the particles and nests we need for the "First Five" coming to Genesis 1.0. Flicker and Brigade are doing outstanding work and we're glad they joined our team. They were both fans who displayed some amazing talent so we hired them. After getting access to our development, they were very impressed by the work we have been doing... even stuff you all haven't seen yet. Shhhh.

I have been working on AI and implementation. There's a lot of implementation to do. As you know, in Genesis 1.0 we plan to have AI for players to kill and eat. As time goes on and more updates come out we will expand on both the number of AI and the complexity of the AI. I've also been working on the Shadow Scale and getting it playable, integrating particle FX, polishing the nesting system, and working on the flight mechanic. 2021 will be an awesome year for Day of Dragons.

We have been getting a lot of questions about when Genesis 1.0 will be out, we can confirm that the full release with all 4 dragons will not be out in March as we are currently only finished with 1 of the 4 dragons. Shadow Scale is on schedule to be in a playable state sometime this month, but the Flame Stalker and Inferno Ravager are both still awaiting their turn to be animated. So Genesis 1.0 will not be out in March, but the Genesis Open Beta Test (consisting of the Acid Spitter, Shadow Scale and AI) is still on schedule for Q1 2021. The good news is that the Shadow Scale dragon rig being completed will help to speed up the Flame Stalker and Inferno rigging and animations. But we can only work as fast as development allows, and we are working as fast as we can while maintaining a high standard of quality that you all have come to expect from us.

We're also working on the Bio Concept, the Nurse model (we haven't named her yet, got any ideas for us?), and then 1.2 modeling content. After the Bio concept is done, we'll be working on the Behemoth Ice Drake concept... and then that does it for Kickstarter concepts! Yay! All Kickstarter concepts will be finished this year. The models are being worked on now. Healer - check. Nurse - on it. Micro - next. Then Bio/Hybrid/Ice Behemoth/Ice Wyvern/Blitz after those (in no particular order) followed by Fire Behemoth and more Elementals.

We have a lot in store for you all, Day of Dragons is not a sprint project, it is a marathon, and each lap will bring more and more content to our fans. Thank you (especially our Kickstarters and Patreons) for supporting us!

- Jon Slabaugh, Lead Developer


Thanks again for reading!




Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be!





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!



by Raster#1589


by Luka Karito#8755


by Halofan523#1506





by WithoutRhymeOrReason#5008


by Ztarli#7786


by ✪That Darn Plague Doctor✪#4724




~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!


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As we did a year ago on this day, Day of Dragons is again on sale today for 44% OFF in memory of our Lead Developer's late father who lost his battle to cancer in 2016. He was born on this day in 1944. Each year going forward, we will continue to offer Day of Dragons on sale at a discount of 44% OFF on February 17th as a tribute to the man whose passing inspired his son to follow his dream.

Introducing the $500k stretch mark Kickstarter Dragon:

The Micro Feathered Acid Dragon.

The smallest dragon so far, the Micro Feathered has Acid Bile which is even more potent than that of the Acid Spitter. He uses this bile to melt open the hard shells of the dragon eggs, which are his favorite food source. The Micro's tail has adapted an underside similar to that of a gecko's foot that allows him to grabs eggs otherwise too large for him to carry.



The Micro's special ability is "Preen". During this, the dragon will groom itself, leaving a thin layer of its saliva on its delicate feathers. This protective coat makes him temporarily immune to bile attacks and gives him "one-shot" protection.


This dragon does not yet have an official species name and will be joining the game in update 1.5 of Beta.

Hello again, everyone!

We hope you are all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The first month of 2021 is almost over and we've been hard at work on the Genesis Update. We have some very exciting news to share with you as well as our thoughts on how our first Open Testing Event went.




Screenshot by the Gyldenfyre clan

Overall, our first Open Testing Event was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who came on and helped us figure out how many players our servers can withstand! We were able to reach around 165 players on the server before the lag became a big issue. We then rebooted with 100 player capacities and had zero issues with lag and stability. The servers are much much improved over the alpha servers and with all the new server configs, players will love hosting their own. Going forward, official servers will run at 100 players per instance which is what we recommend for all shared server instances, but the hard cap is set at 200 to allow dedicated private servers with the hardware and bandwidth to run double the normal capacity.

We enjoyed playing with you all and seeing everyone test out the new Acid Spitter model and map. A huge thank you to those who made online media content, such as youtube videos of the event, and to those who have shared their thoughts with us. It was fun and informative to hear everyone's opinions and feedback on the direction the game is going.

The open testing server is currently still available to those who own the Acid Spitter DLC or backed the kickstarter at a tier with Beta Testing. Once the Shadow Scale is in a playable state, the Open Testing Branch will be permanently open to everyone. If all continues to move smoothly, we expect this to happen in the next month or so.

We will continue to work hard and create a beawesome game. Thank you again!




Our development staff took a much needed break during the holidays, but we are back to work and are very happy with the speed of development. Karly has been working very hard to bring our dragons to life.



idle

The Shadow Scale is now the focus when it comes to animation. As stated above, we hope to have the Shadow Scale in a playable state within the next month so we can permanently open our testing server to the public. Check out some of Shadow Scale's work-in-progress animations below!


Trot


Run


Glide


Flapping


Hover


The Acid Spitter is nearly 100% animated! There are just a handful of animations that need to be completed. Once they are, we will begin to polish those animations.



We are also developing some new mechanics for phase four of closed testing. Once all major bugs have been worked out, they will join the Shadow Scale in the open testing branch.




Some of you may have already spied our first custom AI creature to be joining the world of DoD during the Open Testing Event. Not only will Genesis feature custom AI models and animations, the code will also be custom. Like the nesting seen in Open Testing, Jao is creating an AI creature mechanic from scratch.

We are planning of having at least two AI species ready for the Genesis Update; the Thornbacked Crawler and the Bulbous Spined Scrab.


Thornbacked Crawler


Bulbous Spined Scrab


Crawler Walk


Crawler Idle

We will have more information on the behavior of the individual AI species as their development progresses.




Adult dragon players will now be able to pick up any appropriately sized hatchling even if they are not in their group. However, hatchlings will be able to fight back against unwanted attention or attacks using the struggle mechanic. Struggling will cause the holder to rapidly lose stamina and result in the baby being dropped once the holder's stamina has reached zero. The baby will then have a period of time to escape or without pursuit while the adult regains its stam.



We have some exciting news to share with you. Our team is growing once again! We are happy to welcome our new VFX Artist as well as our new Environmental Asset Artist. Check out what each of them has been up to so far.




Our VFX artist has started working on the Acid Spitter's signature spit attack. She will be making custom bile attacks for all the creatures along with other effect such as blood splatter and more.






The first task of our Environmental Asset Artist is to create custom nests for the dragons. Each species will have their own unique nests that match their needs and bile type. The Acid Spitter's nest is made from river stones and just big enough to hold their clutch size of five eggs.






Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be!





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!



by Keller1500#3964


by Kezran#0001


by Gilded#2408


by Heidi#6281


by Darkida#0001





by Ztarli#7786


by Jirvey#7996


by ProwlerPaws#1414


by Nihil#0404


by Thaigra#6281



Again, thank you all for your support.

~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

The Beta Branch is now live with the Open Testing Servers!

If you need help getting onto the server or want to know more about this Open Test, go here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1088090/view/5366567019611727774

Players who have played the Alpha will want to delete their AppData save directory generally located at "C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Dragons\Saved" especially if you experience issues with your player camera - The AppData folder might be hidden so you'll need to view hidden folders to unhide it.

The Acid Spitter Drake DLC is also now available on Steam to purchase or add to your wishlist. It is on sale for 30% off but is free to play and try out during the open test. The link is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1174110

Lastly, please understand that DoD Genesis is a work in progress and not all features are fully developed or implemented, but we're happy to give all of you the opportunity to play it to experience our development progress for yourself.

We will try to hotfix any bugs today but will be unavailable on Christmas Day but will be back again for the rest of the event.

We hope you all enjoy our Holiday Open Test Event and we wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy DoD-tastic New Year!


~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

Hello again everyone!

We hope you are as excited as we are for the upcoming Open Testing event to Stress Test the Genesis Servers. The test branch will be available for everyone to test on Dec 24th to Jan 1st. Before the servers open, we'd like to go over what to expect and what our goals are for the upcoming Stress Test.

But first, if you haven't grabbed your copy of Day of Dragons, now is your chance! Day of Dragons will be on sale during Steam's Winter Sale event from December 22nd to Jan 5th. This will last the entire Open Test and is a great chance to grab your copy and join in the fun.





In this first Open Test of the Genesis update, the Acid Spitter will be the only playable character and will be free for all players to try out. If you enjoy playing him and wish to be able to spawn in as him once Genesis is released, the DLC for the Acid Spitter Drake will be released during the Open Test on sale for only $5.59 USD!
Please note: Players without the DLC will be able to still play as the Acid Spitter in Genesis if nested in by other Spitters.



The Open Stress Test will take place in an early version of the Forgotten Forest. This map is 16x16 and will be a very diverse landscape containing lakes, forests, plains, snowy mountains, caves and more once it is finished. Players are encouraged to explore, but please remember the map is still a work in progress and not near completed.





The version of Genesis you are about to test is not the finished product and still has more work to be done before it is ready for release. Some animations are not yet in place/finalized and not all mechanics will be available to test. The features you will be able to test during this event will include: Clans/Groups, Nesting V1, Basic Survival, Basic Combat (bite), Dynamic Growth, and some others.

Please keep in mind that there will be bugs, some bigger than others. We encourage players to report these bugs at our official discord server in the channels provided. Again, this is an early version of the coming Genesis update and not a final product.

The main focus of this first Open Testing event is to test how many players the servers can handle at one time without having lag issues or crashing. There will be four servers running on the test branch with a capacity of 200 players each and we encourage players to try fill them. This test will help determine what player capacity the servers are set to when Genesis is released.

To join in the Open Test, you will need to switch your game over to the "Beta" branch. To do this, right click on Day of Dragons in your library. Then click "Properties" from the drop-down menu. This will bring up a popup and select the "Betas" tab. Then use the drop-down menu to select the "Beta" branch from the list. Click close and the game will automatically begin updating.





We can't wait to see you on during the Open Test and we hope you all enjoy our creation so far.

Happy testing!






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!


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Join us tomorrow, December 4th at 4:00 PM EST for our Anniversary Livestream Event on our Youtube Channel!

We will be showing off a preview of the anticipated Genesis update as well as answering questions from our community. Some lucky viewers will also receive an Acid Spitter DLC which will allow them to spawn as the Acid Spitter Drake when the Genesis update goes live.

See you there!





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!


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Hello Dragon Fans,

Steam is hosting a contest where users can nominate their favorite game for "Best of" categories. We'd like to nominate Day of Dragons for Best Soundtrack of 2020. Our Soundtrack is original, emotional, touching, and created with real instruments by Rey Fernandez Jr. and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.

If you agree that DoD's Soundtrack is Steam's Soundtrack of of 2020, cast your vote for us today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We'd like to wish our American supporters a Happy Thanksgiving. We hope you are able to enjoy this holiday of giving thanks with your family & friends. On this Thanksgiving day, we'd like to give thanks for each and every one of you. That said, there will be no dev blog for November, but we still have some important news to share with you!




December 4th will be the one year anniversary (our first birthday) for the launch of our Day of Dragons Alpha version on steam. We are extremely thankful to all of our Kickstarter supporters and all the supporters who came after. Genesis is going to be an amazing update and we couldn't have made it without your help.

To celebrate our anniversary, we have some treats in store for you all.


First, we'd like to announce our Anniversary Sale. This is our biggest sale yet. From November 26th (Thanksgiving Day) to December 5th, the game will be 44% off! If you haven't purchased the game yet, this will be a great time to add it to your collection or to pick up a second copy in case you want to nest your own dragons. Purchasing Day of Dragons now not only allows you access to the alpha version before the Genesis update is released, but it also allows you to play DoD Genesis during our upcoming Open Testing phases including our first open test starting on Christmas Eve. Once the Genesis update has been released live, the Alpha version will no longer be playable on Steam.


To celebrate our Anniversary, we are going to host a Livestream on our YouTube channel to share with you, our community, a sneak peek of what Genesis will be like. Join us to see our new and adorable baby Acid Spitter Animations, check out what we've been working on this month, and ask the developers your questions. We'll also have some Acid Spitter Drake DLC keys to give-away to a few lucky viewers!

The Developer Livestream will begin on December 4th at 4:00pm EST on our YouTube channel. We hope to see you there!




Earlier this year, we released the Day of Dragons Original Soundtrack that will be featured in the Genesis update. The soundtrack was beautifully composed by Rey Fernandez Jr. and recorded by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. It features 15 original tracks that capture the emotions and feeling of the game to come.

We love the music and, if you do too, we would be honored if you would cast your nomination for Best Soundtrack of 2020 to the Day of Dragons Official Soundtrack in the 2020 Steam Awards. To vote for DoD's OST, just go to our store page and click the gold nominate link to help us win! We believe our soundtrack is the best OST of 2020 with its real instruments, emotional highs and lows, and unique score.

The Day of Dragons Official Soundtrack is available on our Steam store page (currently on sale) or can be listened to free on Spotify. A collectors edition CD with concept art booklet is available here on Amazon.




We are thrilled to announce the official date of our first Open Testing phase for the Genesis update! Starting on Christmas Eve (Dec 24) and going through New Years (Jan 1), everyone who owns Day of Dragons will be able to download our test branch and play Day of Dragons Genesis on our Official Servers. This is technically a stress test where we see (with your help) just how many players we can get on our servers and still be stable (we're hoping for 200). Each server will have a 200 player capacity and with your help, we hope to fill each one!

During the Open Stress Test, the Acid Spitter Drake will be playable for everyone who owns Day of Dragons to test out and enjoy, even those who do not own the Acid Spitter DLC! If you like the Acid Spitter, you can purchase it on Steam as it will be hitting the Steam store on December 24th for $7.99 $5.59 (-30% OFF during the Open Stress Test week). This will be a great time to pick up your copy of the Acid Spitter DLC at a 30% discount. We know you are going to enjoy it!

The stress test will feature the Acid Spitter Drake along with full server persistence, clans, groups, eating, drinking, nesting, swimming, sounds, and limited combat. Admins will be on and notifying players of any test events or server restarts using the new admin toolsets. It's going to be awesome and we hope you will test it over the Christmas and New Years holidays.

We will have more information about how you can access and download the Open Test Branch later in December.

November 26 - December 5th: Day of Dragons Anniversary Sale event

December 4th @ 4:00pm EST: DoD's 1st Anniversary Livestream on YouTube

December 24th - January 1st: Day of Dragons Genesis Open Stress Test

December 24th - December 31st: Acid Spitter Drake DLC Launch Week Sale Event (30% OFF)


Thank you again for all of your support! It has been a long year and on this Thanksgiving Day, we are extremely thankful for all the support from our community and could not have done any of this without all of you amazing people. So write down these dates and prepare for a BEAWESOME month of December!

This is DoD, and we have DRAGONS!


~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

BOO!

Welcome to a spooky edition of our Development Blogs (not really spooky). We hope you are enjoying yourselves and are going to have a safe Halloween, whatever that means during this pandemic. We've been hard at work adding new content and continuing to work towards our large "Genesis" update. Check out all the exciting and (not) spooky work we have done this month.






Many of you have been asking, so we've updated our roadmap! This amazing roadmap, made by the talented Nicole Steinbacher and edited by our own Lead Dev Jao, shows our plans for the next round of large updates. We plan to add the dragons and creatures we already have concepts for before starting on the rest. We will keep updating this roadmap in our future dev blogs.

Click the thumbnail below to see the full size of the image.







A monster with the taste for dragon flesh, the first Elemental will be entering the world coming in DoD "Genesis". Players will have the chance to unlock these beasts to terrorize the local environment, consuming everything in their path. Only an alpha dragon has any hope against these monsters.

What do you need to do to unlock these beasts? Well.... we aren't going to tell you. It will be up to the community to find out.




Once you have completed the requirements for unlocking it, you will be able to select the Elemental in the Character Select Screen by changing your Faction. Like the dragon species, your Elemental will be saved until you die, even if you switch to another saved creature. Once you die however, you will need to complete the unlocking requirements anew before you can play the Elemental again. Elementals are not just Alpha-class terrors, they also have their own end-game mechanics as well.




Speaking of Elementals, the Magma rig has been finished and is now being animated by Russel Chou, one of our new animators, who is tasked with bringing this creature to life. Russel is no stranger to animating beasts like this and has done so in many AAA movies.



To make sure the rig works before animations start, we had Karly make test animations. These are basic, unpolished animations to get the overall feel of the model's movement capabilities. Above is a fun little video of the Elemental's test walk animation. The true walk animation will be created by Russ.

By the way, did you enjoy the image at the end of the video? Jao made the pose and it was edited by several of our lovely testers. Here is a free copy of the image you can use as a background or such to show your hype for the upcoming update!



Click the thumbnail below to download the full sized image.






We are late into the third phase of our progress for our "Genesis" update! This phase focuses on everything survival related, a core part of the game.




We've done hunger and thirst in a new way. The level of hunger and thirst will be shown in your Character Info panel as a red bar, ranging from 0-100%. As the bar increases, you will become hungrier/thirstier. As you consume water and food, these bars will decrease. You don't want these bars to reach 100%

Unlike other survival games, having 100% hunger or thirst does not slowly drain your health until you die. Instead, it will increase your torpor. If your torpor reaches 100%, your character will be forced to fall asleep and getting up before the torpor is drained will cause damage. You have a choice, get up to find food/water and take damage, or sleep your torpor off while remaining vulnerable to hungry predators.




No more are the days of having difficulty eating due to small hit boxes on the corpses. DoD "Genesis" will include prompts to let you know when you are in the right position to eat or drink.



Characters will be able to drink from any water source on the map, but age also plays a factor. While a tiny puddle won't be worth the effort to an adult dragons, hatchlings may find these sources ideal and mothers may even want to choose their nest site near a puddle instead of a pond or river.






Instead of a sudden black screen upon death, players will now see a "death screen", where the camera zooms out and shows your body following to the ground. This will allow players to get an idea of what killed them and be a smoother transition.



Players will be able to carry corpses in the game. Corpses now have "ragdoll" effect, making them limp and interactive with the enviroment. The size of the corpse will dictate how fast the player can move while carrying the corpse, if they can carry it at all.

Corpses will also leave a blood stain where they died. So if you are wandering around and see a red stain on the forest floor, be wary; something was likely recently killed here and the killer may still be nearby.




While swimming was already included in the alpha version, we have added some to it in the upcoming "Genesis" update.

Players can now dive underneath the water. This will allow them to hide from potential threats, wait for unsuspecting prey, or claim a corpse at the bottom of the ponds. Just make sure to keep an eye on how long you are submerge. Dragons can't hold their breath forever.




The final addition in Phase Three with be a core feature in the game; nesting. Genetics and nesting play a huge role in the world of DoD and we are excited to make a unique and engaging system for you all to enjoy.

After nesting is completed, Phase Four will begin. Expect to see news regarding this phase in our upcoming Dev Blogs. Lots of new mechanics will be added and we guarantee Phase Four will leave you soaring ;)







OKAY!

We know, we know. We keep saying, "This will be Shadow Scale month." It's been a bumpy road getting here, but the Shadow Scale rig is complete! We've also finished the texturing its skin and are excited to watch it come to life.




Karly has already made some AMAZING test animations. Like the elemental, these are not the final animations and are just used to test the rig before we send it to our new animator, Keira Kao who will be animating the Shadow Scale. Test animations or not, we think they still look pretty beawesome!






You know we think the upcoming "Genesis" update is going to be BEAWESOME, but we thought you might like to hear some other opinions as well.

We've asked our Closed Testers to give us their thoughts on what they think of the progress we've made up to Phase 3. Check out what they say and find out for yourself before the release of "Genesis" by applying to become a Closed Tester by filling out this form!

~

Hi, tester here, been playing around for a few weeks in the upcoming Genesis update. So far, the game feels much better, movement glitches out less and I don't get stuck all the time like I used to in the alpha. Picking up corpses and interacting with the world is now much easier (all done with one key!), and seeing Jao push updates and bugfixes every few days (and sometimes hours) is very satisfying and encouraging. I'm really excited about nesting and the way hydration and hunger will work - it'll be more realistic and refreshing, compared to how most survival games do it. It's also amazing to see how much the devs listen to our input and suggestions, and how responsive they are when something needs fixing. I've also had a LOT of debates with testers over these past weeks, and it's been fun to brainstorm how mechanics could be changed or improved. See you all in Genesis!

~

The closed beta is an absolute beacon of hope for Day of Dragons. Every mechanic from the Alpha has been fine-tuned to a much more enjoyable state. Movement feels so much better, picking up the corpses and interacting with food/water is smooth, and the biting and hitbox is incredibly accurate. The clan and new social panels make such a difference as well as compared to the Alpha, your gameplay isn't dominated by worrying about group members and things. Even the little things like interactive foliage make a huge difference. Us testers give both positive and negative feedback as well as bug reports and everyone involved is doing their best to make the game great with very open communication. The streams in discord really don't do it justice-- you'll all have to play it yourself to feel just how much more responsive and user-friendly it all is once testing goes public. I really look forward to it

~

I’m gonna be honest, my faith in this game has not always been the greatest. After the situation when the Kickstarter ended I thought the game would lose its momentum and eventually fade into nothing. Let me tell you right now I was completely dead wrong in thinking this game would ever lose its momentum. The devs are constantly hard at work getting out new stuff for us to test. The game ALREADY feels ten times better than the game you know movement wise and the quality is more than just the streams show. All of the testers here are hard at work finding everything we can, and giving as much feedback as we can when not online bug testing to make this game the best that it can be. From what I’ve seen so far, I’ll say that when genesis hits the live branch you will have a dragon survival game unlike any other I’ve seen.


As always, thank you for reading and for your support. Without our supporters and fans, we never could have done any of this. A special shout out to our beawesome Closed Testers for helping supply images and feedback for this month's blog! We look forward to sharing more behind the scenes details with you in our next dev blog.






Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be! It will surely blow fans away with all the progress reveals so keep an eye out.

And now for a word from our Lead Developer, Jonathan Slabaugh.






It's that time again, another month has gone by and we've made a lot of progress. Day of Dragons Genesis is getting very close, we're in the final two weeks of Phase 3 closed testing before we move on to Phase 4 where we will be adding in Sound FX, AI, Magma, and the Shadow Scale and other items on our focus list. Then when Phase 4 is done, we will move on to our final phase of closed testing, Phase 5 where closed testers will test v1 of the Mega Map with the Forgotten Forests and Lava Lands biomes. Once Phase 5 is finished, we'll move to Open Testing where all players will have the opportunity to test DoD Genesis 1.0 before it goes live, which it will once it is polished and the Flame Stalker and Inferno Ravager have been added.

Both biomes in Genesis were made by myself using Gaea and the Unreal Engine with Environmental Assets created by Willie Hammes of Mawi United who has been doing fantastic work for over 25 years. The mega map will include caves, spawn locations, explorable areas, and nesting sites. The Shadow Scale, & Acid Spitter will both spawn in the Forgotten Forests, while the Flame Stalker and Inferno Ravager will both spawn in the Lava Lands, home of Magma, the Fire Elemental. The other two biomes will come later in future updates to the game as seen on our new Roadmap.

The Roadmap will give you an idea of what major features to expect in each update. We're confident version 1.0 "Genesis" will release in Q1 2021, with the other updates following just as soon as we can pump them out. We don't know what quarter of 2021 each will release it, only that they will release as soon as they are finished. Other dragons and elementals will come after v1.4 starting with the Bioluminescent Dragon, the Behemoth Ice Drake, the Micro Feathered Dragon, & the Behemoth Fire Dragon along with more AI creatures, the Lightning Elemental, the Ice Elemental, more skins, a Singleplayer feature mode, Localization for some non-English languages, and much, much more!

I have a lot planned for this game and as I said back in Kickstarter, I'll keep updating it and expanding on it as long as you, the fans, keep playing and supporting it. This is the dragon game we've always dreamed of playing, where you get to be the dragon and survive in a dangerous world, make friends and enemies, explore, learn to fight and fly, and even become part of a clan.

This is DoD, and we have DRAGONS.

A special thank you to Parrot for putting this devblog together, our developers because I couldn't do this without you, our closed testers for making the game better, and our beawesome fans for believing in us. As we get closer to Thanksgiving here in the US, I want you all to know that I thank God for each and every one of you. You are BEAWESOME and we will talk to you again in the next Devblog!






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!



by |JD| Tt#2554


by Death Wing#1646


by Breezy_Wheezy#0001





by mickeyrose97#3400


by Milo#3392


by Kezran#0001




~The Day of Dragons Development Team



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