Dronefall- 2/11/2026-2/28/2026
Pre Production
Note (optional)
This game was created for a school project and was never intended to be published. This game was a dummy project for creating reusable systems for my future, more complex games. It was mainly to start being smart about game development and to make a project template that had everything I normally use in my projects.
Description
Dronefall is a roguelike with randomly generated terrain where you need to place drones in the water and aim them at the many king's towers to kill the king. There are enemy towers scattered throughout the island that will try to attack you as your drones approach the island.
Mechanics
Middle Mouse Button: Place Drone.
Left Click: Adjust Drone Height.
Left Click Release: Fire Drone.
Right Click (while adjusting height): Cancels height and allows position adjustment.
Right Click hold: Pan around the island.
Scroll: Zoom In/Out.
My Contribution
I worked on this game as a solo developer; the sound effects were not created by me, and the animations were sourced from Mixamo.
Post Production
Game Links
Feedback
Problems & Failures
For this game, there were not a lot of notible problems or failures despite all the new stuff I worked on. There were a few problems here and there with the terrain colors. I just ended up using vertex colors that I accessed through the shader graph. Originally, I was using a texture and changing the UV coordinates, but that caused a lot of problems, and didn't really match the style I was aiming for.
The most notable problem was with the Rigging. I tried countless different attempts, using Mixamo, that didn't work, trying it manually, and weight painting, which did not work. I tried automatic weights, didn't work. One solution that did end up working was AccuRig; however, there sekelton was far too complex, though, and I could get animations from Mixamo to work, also editing the bones caused a lot of problems, so I could just use that as a base, then change stuff around. What ended up working was using the 3D model generator MeshyAI, there where some issues with this solution, but it worked exactly like mixamo where I just drag and drop points, and the rig was also exactly like Mixamo, so it was just compatible.
Fixes & Improvements
For this game, I don't think there's anything I can think of that needs changing. Potentially, the audio manager system can use some simplification, and also some lifetime management. The only other thing would be the actual game; it's a cool concept, but I don't think it has much replayability, nor is it that fun. The game was made in less than two weeks, and I didn't make this game for the game, so I don't see a reason it should be improved, but maybe layer down the line I can take the concept, and make it much better.
Strong Points
The visuals, the modeling, and music are, in my opinion, some of the best Ive ever done. The UI could use a little bit of work; it was my first attempt at this new style, not sure exactly what the name is; however, it's where there is a thin outline slightly inside of the UI background. It looks good, it could look better, though.
What I learned
I learned an incredible amount from this session, another reason this game is not "good" as my previous games is because i've been learning how to prevent burn out, and I just decided to take breaks, when I get addicted to working on a project, I work on for 6-8 hours a day, and over 2 weeks, rougly 100 hours, that gets me burn out, and makes me not want to work on the project.
This session I worked on two projects: a game engine, and I worked on this game. The game engine was worked on for about 2 weeks as well. The whole session was about a month, roughly, a little less but pretty close. The game engine taught me a lot about architecture. I also learned what a style guide was, so that solidified how I write code. This game specifically told me that I need to start planning before I start writing. My next session is in a week and a half, roughly, and that's the game to hopefully get me into the state competition, and from everything I learned this year, I have a super great feeling about this next game. Hopefully, it's something special.
Personal Reflection
Overall, this game was very fun to make, and I'd actually consider working on it again, just because the concept seems fun, and there may be some replayability if I can pull it off correctly.
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