Epic Dragons - Teaser Feb 2014

bugo

Hey,


Our game is now LIVE! Go have a try and let me know what you think:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ThinkHugeInc.EpicDragons

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This our work in progress video of our dragon defense game.
You will be able to create your own levels and share with friends, as well as play the game story.

We should release the game soon! Help us indie developers to get the word out there!

LATEST TRAILER:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKorfMMFY0"]Epic Dragons - Gameplay Trailer - Sept 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

NEW DEV UPDATE VIDEO:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePBxHSFjcP4"]EpicDragons - dev update July 2014 - Think Huge Games - YouTube[/ame]

GAMEPLAY VIDEO:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZL2DHn9eKU"]EpicDragons Gameplay - March 2014 - ThinkHuge Games - YouTube[/ame]




Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpicDragonsGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Epic-Dragons/202727769767407
Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCnCeYn3sC4

I'd like to hear more from you. Ideas, comments, what you liked more, etc.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCnCeYn3sC4"]Epic Dragons Teaser[/ame]

bugo

Too many posts here! Please stop! I can't take it! :P

(and flappy birds gets all the attention, haha)

Stormfreek

Haha this is awesome dude, loving the art style! If I had to pick a feature that really stood out it was the editor and ability to make your own levels on mobile, that was cool

bugo

Thanks for the kind words sir.

moose

This is pretty cool! Dig the art, super polished and clean. Level builder is a cool idea!

My only comment would be about the sound design could use work. The dragon shooting & impact sfx sound a little too familiar, and too "fleshy." Almost like they are shooting spit instead of fire or ice bolts (and also very similar to Starcraft). It is a sound the player will hear often, and need to recognize quick, but i feel like a firey "FLOOOSH!" would make more sense than the current "SPLOOSH!" sound.... if that makes sense

Also, the harp rip that plays seems out of tune/key to the rest of the music, is very jarring and unsettling. It may be its start & end, but the notes do not fit the music. Think the effect is good, it just needs to start and end in the same key as the music.

When a dragon is placed, an egg crack sound is played, which is noticable, but maybe not quite a good impact or feel. Feel like it'd be better as a THUD, bass-y sound, then in time with the music and gameplay crack open when the dragon appears. The crack is a jarring sound, but as it happens now, its just a static egg. If there was a THUD - egg appear & wobble, then "crrrack!" and maybe dragon squeal (subtle), it'd further emphasize and provide more impact & weight to dragons spawning, as well as give the user a greater satisfaction with the feeling they're really "laying" dragons.

bugo

You are so right, and we are working on those still, those sfx are actually all temporary, we are using this video to get interest from publishers, etc. So nothing in there is actually final.

The egg! Such a great feedback, thanks so much! We will sure work on it! It will definitely make a huge difference, thanks for noticing such details, and I appreciate your thoughts.

bugo

Here's some of the dragon models:

bugo

some animations:

unit187

You could probably improve these animations. Give just a little bit of movement to hands. Torso just rotates in place in unrealistic (even for a cartoon) fashion. Mouth could use a little work too - it looks like they are talking
Anyways, looks good, need polish.

bugo

Hey! Thanks for the feedback unit187, the only issue is that to render all the amount of dragons we plan on the screen, I can only use 7 bones per dragon. In order to move the hands I would have to use another one. The mouth is one bone only, they are super small on the screen, so it won't actually show too much of the mouth itself.

Lamont

What are you using for dev? Unity right?

bugo

Indeed, Unity. The Dynamic Batching isnt enough.

easterislandnick

How many dragons are you planning on having onscreen at once? When we made Total War Battles for ios on unity we had easily over 30 characters on screen with a bone count of over 15 each?

bugo

Although we plan to have 50+ creeps/dragons on the scene, we will also plan to have 5 different dragons, and 12 different creeps. That would be 18 different things getting dynamic batched.

bugo

Here's our new alpha gameplay video (dont mind the temp SFX, it's terrible)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZL2DHn9eKU"]EpicDragons Gameplay - March 2014 - ThinkHuge Games - YouTube[/ame]

DWalker

Have you considered having as infants and gradually growing larger as they level? You could even carry this further, by having the player breed different dragons to create new types.

Having the knights heading towards the dragon's lair would at least provide some justification for the combat.

The path seems very arbitrary, and there are no apparent restrictions on where dragons can be placed.

The square grid gives a very blocky feel to the entire layout. Hex grids really lead to a more natural, organic feel with only a little extra work for the programmers... Failing that, try adding some rounder corner pieces to smooth things a bit.

The menu & UI elements - especially in the editor - don't really match the aesthetic of the rest of the game.

The obstacles feel very limited at the moment. Add some bushes, flowers, and rocks to the lonely pine. Also, consider having a few variations, or even making the tree asymmetrical and rotating it each time a new one is placed.

bugo

Thanks for the comments DWalker, it's quite funny, we thought about them growing larger, although since it's just me as an artist, doing that would require me doing 3 dragons for each one. Therefore we won't be able to, maybe in the future.

The knights are actually poisoned by a witch in the story, the witch created the portals, they are traveling through the isles of the dragons, because the witch wants to get the precious crystals in the core of the islands. You are using the crystals to get the creatures outta there

I've not seen any hexagon tower defense before. But I'm sure it would be a good idea. You can personally give the idea to the programmer if you want, lol, he will probably yell out loud at you, haha. I personally wouldn't like to redo my game :P Too late.

Yeah, editor, we already decided we need a whole clean in it. You are right, it's extremely lacking quality there. And we will.

The more we do, the more we have to finish. The core is to have gameplay and the whole work of interface, etc done around it. After we finish it, I can add little things like you said. The trees are supposed to rotate, I guess we forgot to implement that, thanks for the catch. Bushes, flowers will always be welcomed too. We also want to add a bridge, caves, holes, and much more.

Reminder this is a mobile game, the more we implement, the more it takes on memory and draw calls. We want so much, but we are only 2.

Still, all in all, great feedback. I need more of this.

Here's a mockup of the battlemenu for now:

bugo

new development update video:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePBxHSFjcP4"]EpicDragons - dev update July 2014 - Think Huge Games - YouTube[/ame]

Fnitrox

wow! i missed this thread!

Loving the art style and it's nice seeing some different takes on tower defense with the path controlling as a clear objective.

I don't konw if i missed it somewhere but which platforms is this comeing out to?

bugo

Hey, thanks for the feedback. We intend to ship for iOS and Android first. So that pretty much sums most android phones/tablets, iPhones and iPads.
Later on we will try PSP vita and Steam. No promesses
Maybe windows phone.

bugo

Hey, just wanted to post a new trailer: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKorfMMFY0"]Epic Dragons - Gameplay Trailer - Sept 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

bugo

Our game is now LIVE: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ThinkHugeInc.EpicDragons