New character, new name and gameplay prototyping

While I'm still struggling with allocating time between improving my financial situation and working on the game, I can't control myself when the inspiration hits! So for a couple last weeks I've been doing nothing but a lot of much needed design decisions for the game. Now I have a much clearer picture my game's world and what it should offer for its players!

Name of the world

After a lot of constant back-and-forth behind the scenes, I finally came up with a name for the world! Above you can see a work-in-progress, rough sketch of its logo as well.

I needed to come up with a name that some random furry/scalie/otherkin potential player will notice when idly browsing lists of games. It was a big challenge since names have to be kept very short, while still describing the game, its world and its setting.

Gateway of Realities is still the name of my "company" so to say, and it has a much more obscure (internal) meaning. But it is simply isn't descriptive enough for the game to say "hey, our game has sexy Dragons in it" to an outsider. Thus this new name makes much more sense from a marketing standpoint.

Likely the name of the game will go something like "Dragotheria: Sensual Haven" and other in-universe creations will be just branded as "Dragotheria". So there is some rebranding to do in the near future - better sooner than later.

The word "Dragotheria" also has a lot of meaning in it: 

• It is a mix between Dragon + Therian (a taxonomical subclass for all mammals). 
• It ends on "A" as in lots of names for locations and fantastical places. 
• And also has same letters as in "Aether", which makes sense since the world is set on an Astral Plane.
• It is now also the in-universe name of the world where Dragons and their kin live!

Dragonkin 

Since the beginning, I was referring to all lifeforms as "creatures" or "species". However It always felt too generic. Fortunately, recently I came to a decision how they should be referred to, all thanks to some recent worldbuilding I've done. 

Dragotheria is the plane of god-level Dragons and their descendants. Together they created lands of physical stability within the immaterial wilds of Astral. Every living being there has to carry at least a hint of Dragonic essence, otherwise they'd simply become incorporeal spirits.

Thankfully, Essence is what produced (and transmitted) during any pleasurable interfacting act! Dragonkin may pass it onto (or, rather, into) other lifeforms, who are coming to Dragotheria from different worlds. When a lifeform is exposed to the Essence, they will gradually start changing their form, taking on some Dragonic features. Essentially, everyone in Dragotheria is a Dragon hybrid of various purities - the Dragonkin! 

New Character Design

I've worked on an anthro-dragon before, I really didn't enjoy how his body turned out - way too bulky for my tastes. I planned to release him as an avatar for VR as well, but I just didn't feel like making him my first proper VR model - it's supposed to be my flagship! 

So, recently a couple of my stars aligned: I got a new display-tablet, finally retiring my old wacom intuos 3 after 10+ years of service. And I saw some extremely sexy dragon designs out there that just hit me in the crotch with inspiration 

If you don't know me, "horny" and "inspired" are pretty much synonyms for me. I use "horny" to help me create images and models, it gives me strength and creative energy. This time my inspiration was very powerful - I haven't felt this horny in a long time! So, naturally, there was only one thing to do - draw, of course!

And so I did, and that turned into what I think my best character design to date. I combined some of my previous designs. All that I learned over the years culminated to this! And I'm extremely happy! I almost drool when I look at him - he's my perfect anthro dragon of DREAMS! I'd take him as my exclusive sona, but I'm giving him away for everyone to enjoy as well.

Now, I only gotta model him and not mess up all the sexiness... Easier said than done (but I did that before many times, so no worries). I will be modeling two versions of this character: first one for the game, then another one as an avatar base for Neos, VRC and Blender.

Oh, and also - the colors and some other elements will be fully customizable (It's easy to swap colors, no need to have complex systems). The cyan-white colors are just default because they represent the powerful Dragonic Essence.

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While I plan to keep the adorable robo-dinosaur YoYo, and that Kobold concept I drew, I realized that in a Dragon-focused game the player should probably be a Dragon right from the start (all the Patron-polls we had point towards that as well).

Thus, this Dragonkin should be the default player character from now on! There is a possibility of later adding an ability for player to shape-shift into other forms as well (but let's talk about some other time).

Here is an uncolored version (with transparent wings).

So, you might be wondering about the "stats" written on the left side? You see, with the whole shape-shifting idea in the air (no commitments yet though!) I'm thinking of giving each Dragonkin different features. It wouldn't be a stretch to include a Pokémon-like "collect them all" motivation for the game also... But again, that's something for later.

Meanwhile, let me explain those stats I included:

• Type: since almost every dragonkin is a hybrid with a Therian, Saurian or an Avian, origins would be listed here. This one is Pure, however, not a hybrid at all!
• Size: Medium is about 2m in height. Small would be 1m, Big would be 3m.
• Posture: How they hold their spine. "Orthograde" means upright. Theropod dinosaurs are "Pronograde". "Quadruped" will be used for 4-legged "ferals".
• Interfaces: The organs between the legs. Since regular sex/gender differences don't make a lot of sense in Dragotheria (as it is simply just a matter of one's preferences), the masculine ones are called "inserter interface" and feminine shaped one is "receiver interface". The process of using them is called "interfacing" as it links the bodies and minds of two (or more) Dragonkin in a highly pleasurable interaction that ends up in release of Essence from all the participants (regardless of interface type they have).
• Internal Capacity: Very few use bags and backpacks in Dragotheria. Dragonkin prefer to swallow items (or insert them through the rear), keeping them safe and comfy inside. With their advanced organs and internal muscles, they can easily retrieve them through any orifice. Capacity measures how much they can fit inside. Some transport-oriented Dragonkin can fit other creatures inside themselves.
• I-O Ports: The orifices which can be used to access the internal tunnel of the Dragonkin. Typically they are the just mouth and tailhole, but some might feature a cloaca instead or a tailmaw in addition.
• Features: additional remarks about the Dragonkin.

Camera and input prototype

Not a lot of people were fond of the game returning to its fixed-camera origins, but even less were finding platforming a fitting gameplay for it - understandably, neither did I. I simply tried it in the YoYo game-jam to see how it will be (and cause I couldn't come up with anything better in just one month while being very sick).

Eventually I wanted to focus on other mechanics, and just have platforming as a side-activity, but apparently, just because of how camera is positioned, people started assuming that it is, specifically, a platformer. Because of such genre staples, some people started having some specific expectations of other systems as well (e.g. how combat should be like). 

So, considering all that feedback I got, I got back to the drawing board. I don't want to carry the baggage of expectations.

You see, the reason why the game has to have a fixed camera is that I decided that most assets have to be 2D sprites, just like in old games. Of course, characters, NPCs and other things that actually matter are all 3D, but grass, items, trees and bushes can be simplified to these cardboard cutouts. And. technically, if camera never rotates, players won't even notice that they're flat!

The decision to make sprites was made because of speed considerations - it's much faster to draw a sprite than make a 3D model. And since I'm the only person who does graphical things for the game, I need to save all the time I can if I wish to ever release the game. I also just want to draw more and improve my skills.

So, here is a list of what I tried:

I thought I could add some depth to the levels. They don't have to be flat, and character can actually move on all three-dimensions. They can go away from the camera, deeper into the level to ascend stairs, enter doors, etc. Beat-em-up games do something like this apparently (never played that genre though).

But then I rotated the camera 45 degrees, almost making it look similar to good-old isometric RPGs (though it's still in perspective). Additionally, I added 5 different camera zoom levels, for easy toggling between up-close character inspection (such as when they do naughty things), and a large, "strategic" overview of the play area.

What's important for me to keep is that player always sees the horizon line (this is not the case with top-down games like RPGs and RTSes), and just a little bit of the sky. I feel like in a game themed around Dragons and sexual freedoms, having eyes on the sky is quintessential. And especially so because I spent so much time designing its alien, Astral look! I could put some flying Dragonkin there to really sell its utopian atmosphere.

Changing camera like that will, of course, make platforming much worse (if not impossible), but since I don't care about it, it could open up some other avenues, such as more immersive exploration of the playable spaces.

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Then I realized that camera can still be rotated without giving the 2D sprites away (they aren't present on the GIF), but only if it's very fast, snappy and incremental; so, I settled for 45 degrees increments. There are some other considerations for letting player rotate the camera (biggest one is performance), so I don't know if it makes sense to keep it yet. But definitely something to explore.

The objects that end up obscured by foreground objects (like, the player hidden away by trees or walls) can be hidden away with a transparent cutout shader.

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Then, I tried to make navigation akin to action-RPGs (Diablo, Path of Exile), where you click to move in a direction. This helped it to further differentiate it from platformers, and I think it overall makes more sense for this camera angle. 

Right click to move, left click to interact with the world. Can even maybe make it so the game can be played one-handed! But speaking of interactions...

Gameplay plans

Ah, look who's here: my "favorite" topic! The very point where I suffer and suck the most and let others suffer with me... Fuuun! Anyway, while I could definitely do better in this regard, I'm trying all I can to remedy this problem. I'm getting us all unstuck, but its a gradual process, I still have a lot to learn...

And all I can say for now, is that I have a main gameplay mechanic in some heavy designing right now, soon will be figuring out how to prototype it as well, and thus make it presentable for you!

I have some good feelings about it, but I won't unveil it just yet. It's simple - just as simple as shooting a gun or swinging a sword in most games. However I had a lot of problems coming up with it - I wanted to do something as engaging and action-driven as combat, however, completely non-violent and sensual in nature. There is almost no games to look for an example of that, so I had to do a lot of soul-searching to really find that one thing I was looking for... Hope it works out, so please, stay tuned!

Meanwhile I made a sketch of how the game could look like with the camera I set. I didn't finish the image because I didn't want to spend 2 more days polishing the painting just to present it. I already got everything I need from it, and can begin modeling and drawing actual assets, like the one here:

But still, take a look at that sketch as if it was a screenshot... Maybe squint your eyes a bit at it. What do you feel like you'd be doing there as a player? What sexy things your character will be able to engage with? Tell me your ideas in the comments, maybe we can come up with something neat I didn't consider already!

Conclusion

Thank you for reading! I feel like I'm on track to where I'm supposed to be with my beloved Dragotheria. I hope you like my new designs, lore, names and experiments. And as always, there more to come!

With lots of Dragon Love.
   - Salireths.