**NEW: Version 8.90**

*Wohoo! Major Update!* Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes! We're excited to present the following patch notes. We also released a short "Let's Dragon" video you can watch here. *Each dragon now has its own character file! Unique profile, stat lines, equipment, history, achievements, and inventory for each dragon. Previously all dragons shared the same character file.
*New Sound effects are in! Walking, running, flying, biting, and eating have sound effects. Hear villagers flee in terror. Blows to your armor ring and most NPCs, animals and animals have sounds now or will soon. *Morale, Fear, and other NPC Emotes: NPCs will panic, yell, flee, and exclaim when confronted by your dragon. This is a precursor to our next dialogue and quest updates. *Two new draconic races: Gold and Purple dragons have arrived in the lands. *Gorey critical hits: Deal enough damage and you'll literally smash through your enemies. *Capture NPCs by dropping them off in a lair or shelter you control. *Physics base combat update! Slam and Trample: Knock your foes aside, push through crowds, and send your foes hurtling through the air by slamming your body or tail into them. Fun and effective! Hold control to move faster and cause collision damage to what you run into. Great for pushing throw a crowd or trampling things smaller than yourself. *Level up System: The game will prompt you to upgrade when your dragon reaches certain thresholds. Falling damage and animations: Squeal with draconic delight as you drop your foes from the sky and watch them plummet to the ground.
*Damage, armor, stamina update: Armor and stamina are displayed correctly.Stamina is required to use your breath attacks, to sprint/charge, and to jump. NPCs now correctly use armor as well. *New villagers: Militia with spears (long reach), Militia with heavy armor.
*Distant trees and grass now load in at the correct distances. *New weapons for NPCs: Maces, warhammers, axes and spears. Each weapon has its own profile of damage, armor piercing, reach, bleed effects and stamina drain. *Capture NPCS: Animals and villagers dropped at your lair or shelter are now captives and will remain in your base. *Terrain streaming code. Terrain will stream in around you based on your altitude. Proxy terrain will be loaded for far away terrains. *Flight controls: Can now bank, roll, dive and flip while flying; use S,A,D,and X keys. *New momentum and dive physics. Swoop down upon your prey. Use The X key or angle your dragon downward, while flying, to accelerate. This is still a little buggy. New Eating, Belly, and Growing/Crafting Mechanics. Press and hold 'E' to eat. Spend points on new body parts, armor, abilities, and upgrades *New Health and Total Growth (your dragon's exp) bars. Open your dragon's hoard, profile, and growth menus for more. *Responsive HUD update. Equipped weapons now display correctly. *New breath weapons: Chill Breath (Cold), and Scalding Spittle (acid).

Bug Fixes

*All major "Crash to Desktop" bugs are fixed. Please let me know if you have any CTD, lockups, or blue screens of death. *Fixed a bug that caused your dragon to repeat attacks again and again. *Fixed falling through terrain bugs. *Fixed bug that caused archers to shoot at you after you've killed them. *Fixed bug that caused some buildings to hover in the air or too far below the ground. *Some performance issues as new optimizations must occur. *Fall damage may or may not apply. *Some wonky sliding and physics effects, as we dial in the code. *Greatly improved archer's aim. *Streamlined character creation GUI

*BUGS TO WATCH FOR*

*We're tweaking the dragon's controller and enabling falling damage; if you hit the ground hard and fast enough to take damage, you may fall through the terrain! **You may need to use the mouse or the S key to angle your dragon to land on its back feet.** *NPCs may also clip or fall through the ground. *Trees don't die: Most trees are much larger and stronger than small dragons. If you need to destroy a tree and hits aren't registering, run directly away 20 feet and then come back. This will reset which trees can be interacted with. *Towns and cities are being reset for the new terrain, they may float above or below the terrain as well. *You can reset your improvement points and growth points by manually tweaking the files. Our systems are not balanced and will be tweaked countless times. Change the dragons.json and improvements.json files found "C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataLocalLowRed Level GamesDragon The Game_ Early Access". *Your armor indicator may not fill completely or correctly. Breath and claw damage may not update correctly.

What's Next

I'll spend the rest of the week polishing this version, reading your bug reports, and will release Dragon's next patch around the 15th. We'll also be doing some livestreams in the coming weeks, as well as releasing a "How to Dragon" intro video, highlighting the games major changes and features. To the skies!

[ 2016-10-11 20:59:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Experience dragons in their proper role as the monstrous, complex, and epic protagonists that they are.

In this open world action role-playing game you will bring your dragon's story to life. As you eat, age and hunt your dragon will develop allowing you to improve and customize its wings, tail, claws, and breath weapon.

Become a terrifying or benevolent dragon powerful enough to threaten city states and reshape kingdoms. Inevitably you will face other dragons, giants, trolls, orcs, liches, and other beasts as you leave your mark on the history of the world.

Curious? Follow our progress:

• Join our weekly Livestream development sessions at http://www.twitch.tv/redlevelgames. Tuesdays at 11:30am PST, Thursdays at 12:30pm PST.
  
• Like us on Facebook for weekly social media updates. https://www.facebook.com/DragonTheGame/.

WARNING: DRAGON IS IN EARLY ACCESS ALPHA. IT IS NOT A COMPLETE GAME. Please do not purchase unless you want to actively support development and are PREPARED TO HAVE FUN DESPITE BUGS AND UNANTICIPATED PROBLEMS. Thank you for your support, Early Access makes this game possible!

The completed game will include...

• Hunt and feast on tribute as you grow more powerful through the years.
  
• Hoard gold, claim a lair and expand your dominance through-out a dragon-sized sandbox fantasy world.
  
• Choose who to help and who to eat. Choose which cities will benefit and thrive under your protection and which will burn...
  
• Customize and improve your dragon. Choose its color, face, look, and abilities. Customize and upgrades your weapons and armor such as scales, breath weapon, bite, tail, and wings.
  
• Single and multi-player modes for all of your dragon co-op and PVP needs; work together in peace or find out whose the top dragon.
  
• Users Mods - There is no way we can make this game great without tapping into the creativity of our players. Integration with Steam Workshop is planned as well.

Planned Early Access Features...

• Single and multi-player Co-op and PVP
  
• Save and load your dragon
  
• Moddable dragons and maps
  
• Basic combat and RPG mechanics
  
• Fire burns trees, villagers, and wooden buildings
  
• Physics based flight
  
• Real time day-night cycle

Development Roadmap

Dragon is currently in early alpha and we've got a long way to go to make Dragon the game it deserves to be. All features and plans listed here are subject to change, we may add or remove features as we learn more about the community's needs during our Early Access.

• More monsters, wildlife, and fantasy races to populate the world
  
• Quests, story lines, and lore
  
• More and larger worlds to explore and conquer
  
• Randomly generated worlds
  
• Expanded combat and improved NPC AI
  
• More destructible and intractable environments and objects
  
• Additional breath weapons and magic
  
• Updated graphics and physics
  
• Improved sound and music
  
• Awesome new dragon models. Play as different "species" of dragon
  
• Additional RPG mechanics and customization options
  
• Weather effects and natural disasters (volcanoes, tornadoes, etc.)
  
• Expanded mod support
  
• Additional languages and controller support

At this point we think Dragon will reach retail version 1.0 in nine to 24 months; depending on funding and the amount of content in the final game.

About Us

We're a small and inspired group of gamers and dragon enthusiasts who couldn't stop ourselves from making this game. We've been juggling full-time jobs, family commitments, and nights and weekends to bring you Dragon. Please support Early Access so Dragon can become the incredible game that AAA studios will never be able to do correctly.