Devlog #3 June 2026

It's time for the third devlog, and we have some pretty cool (or, uh, hot) things to cover so let's get to it!DragonfireThe fire effect used in the first flight demo works pretty well for aerial bombardment but quickly breaks down in more complex scenes where the muzzle moves around erratically and the fire needs to conform to various situations, as is the case on the ground. A rather ambitious goal since the beginning has been to eventually transition to a fire effect that is simulated in real-time, instead of being baked or faked as is the usual approach in games. The benefit of doing this is that the flame will be highly dynamic and react realistically to the environment, similar to how it looks in movies where they typically do this (or just use a real flamethrower). There were a few experiments from last year that were quite successful, so this month I went back to working on that to see if I could push the visuals and performance to the point where it could be included in the next version. It went surprisingly well, so unless there are any unexpected blockers it will replace the old fire effect in the next version.

The smoke that gets created from the impact is a much cheaper volumetric effect that is not part of the simulation. It is pretty low res but can cover a large area, so the goal is for such smoke to persist for a long time after an area is scorched so the air on the battlefield gets progressively thickened with soot and black smoke.

Dragon MovementThere have been various improvements across the board to improve the realism and feel of the dragons, making them feel more weighty and alive with more relaxed motions and new secondary jiggle dynamics. The wing arms now adjust their extension based on the forces on the wings, and in these clips the wings also have new simulated wing membranes that vibrate and move in the wind. I'm not quite happy with them yet but might keep them if I can resolve some of the issues. The wyvern-style ground movement for the custom dragons has also had a first pass, it's pretty basic for now though and the wings fold kinda weirdly but it works.

EnvironmentThe goal for now is to reuse the same map as the flight demo, but an issue with that map is that it was designed for flying, so it doesn't look very good at ground level. We've started working on some improvements to make it more suitable for the new dragons.

Dragon CreatorThis month we started working on a second dragon skin variant, which will let you swap the current lizard/dinosaur-like skin for a different overall look. This is a substantial task because of how many different pieces it touches, but the goal is to build out the skins library over time, starting with a variant that has this pointy scaly look.

We also finished a library of 'tendril growths' for a lack of a better word, as well as another spike set with a new pyramidal style, both of which we'll use to make some interesting and unique dragon features later.

A new horn option:

We've also continued with a kind of standardization of the dragon creator authoring workflows to make sure all assets follow the same procedure to get the most out of them. Here's an example of how much more detail is now visible on the previously rather flat looking ventral plates after being adjusted.

Many thumbnails have been added or updated, here are some examples:

The previously shown talon legs have now been fully added to the creator: