For a solo effort, this is very very impressive! The game concept and graphics are great. I did feel let down by the controls though. If I tried to play with keyboard and mouse either the camera was never where I wanted it or the dragon movement felt wrong. Also not a fan of the ascend/descend buttons being mapped to page up/page down. I think Q and E would work better.
Viewing post in DragonMail public beta
Thank you, and thanks for the feedback! Have to admit I struggle with all keyboard+mouse game controls, so working out a mapping was a bit hit and miss. I totally get what you're saying about Q/E -- that goes on the list for the next bugfix release. & at the very least I'll put a mouse sensitivity adjustment in. (Fully mappable keyboard controls are on the long-term wishlist. Input mapping and UI work are possibly the most painful aspects of working in Unity.)
Much better! The controls could still use a little fine-tuning, but you're definitely on the right track now.
And I know I mentioned this before but the graphics are really good! The reflections on the water are especially nice!
I was also able to deliver a letter to someone. With that being said, I only found the right animal by sheer luck. I've been a bit curious about the arrow in the upper right of the screen. I feel like it should be pointing to the next mail recipient, but it always points in the same direction, no matter where I'm facing.
A money counter would be nice to have too. After delivering my first letter it said I earned $10 but I couldn't see anything that kept track of my earnings.
I managed to figure out that the orange bar on the far right is your altitude but couldn't figure out what the blue bar next to it was. Adding some labels would be helpful.
So, still work to be done, but you're definitely making progress. I just recently started experimenting with 3D game design so I can sympathize with the difficulty involved. I struggle just getting objects to snap to the ground properly lol.
What sort of fine tuning for the controls were you thinking of? Are the control sensitivity settings not making enough of a difference?
The arrow in the upper right is time of day (straight up is noon, straight down midnight). It was the compass surround I've always thought confusing. The two bars are different measures of altitude: orange is height above the ground where you are, blue is height above the deepest point of the deepest lake, which affects how fast "superspeed" (shift) flight is. I guess the icons aren't clear enough :( OK, HUD labels all round.
The in-game menu (del) shows you how much earned, but I think I need to change the colours (again). It also gives you a list of all the places you've got letters for, and who in each location to deliver to. Figuring out where everything and everyone is is supposed to be part of the "exploration" aspect of the game, but the names should tell you what sort of animal they are, so unless you get *really* unlucky (I got a castle full of rabbits the other day) you don't need to talk to *everyone*.
The water is UnityProDaytime, and the reflection calculations it does are a significant fraction of the render time, so I'm glad it's worth it!