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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game

@lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social
2K followers 1.3K following 253 posts

We're Lindwyrm Studios, the indie team behind The Last Sanctum, an upcoming dragon survival game! See our pinned posts for links. Send a DM for inquiries :)

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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Biweekly Newsletter October 02/2026 (2 images) #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #unrealengine #animation #blender #3dart #terrain #map
The semester start has hit the programmers like a truck... should be more progress next sprint!


Map & Misc

Explored UE's cinematic camera for future videos.
Created a large cave under the Blue Forest with foliage, water sources, rocks, and crystals.
Further worked on large rock features in the Blue Forest.
Experimented with getting a foliage utility feature working for mapmaking QoL.
Finished the outside of tutorial map rock spires (may or may not be a cave inside to fill out still ;)  )
Created and finished one of the islands in the tutorial map.
Here's a small look at some of the tutorial map islands!
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
We're working on a large underground cave system. What do you think? (Still WIP) #dragon #gamedev #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #UE5 #map #terrain
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Biweekly Newsletter September 18/2026 (3 images) #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #unrealengine #animation #blender #3dart #terrain #map
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
We're finally touching upon the Lindwyrm concept! We've redone the lineart (still no default skin) and started its base model (WIP). Does it look like a huggable baby? #dragon #gamedev #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #blender #blenderart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Biweekly Newsletter September 04/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Transitions/Broadcast Link: imgur.com/a/mDV23FP #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #unrealengine #animation #blender #3dart
Code & Misc

Reworked ground animation logic to flow more smoothly between movement states. 
Now interpolates between states linearly (within the state) using a piecewise function rather than scaling only from idle->state or smoothly across the entire graph
Still needs some tweaking, but feels closer to a finished-for-demo product. Now it looks more like realistic movement! Here's a clip showing off the change:

Implemented the turn-in-place animation and blending.
Updated turn-in-place based on feedback to rotate more smoothly and have a smaller angle before moving (to avoid a sense of not quite going the direction you expect).
Fixed some minor ground movement bugs related to turning in place transitions.
Fixed NPCs to correctly walk away when the player is close.

This sprint onward we started and will continue working on networking (multiplayer logic). It's a bit scary and where a lot of games have trouble, so wish us luck! Also, keep in mind that as we work on this, there might be fewer code-related visuals to show as we focus on backend stuff.
Began work on core physics replication logic.
We're using custom movement logic, and so physics replication needs to be updated substantially to simulate client-side correctly without killing networking bandwidth.
The basic infrastructure is very similar to the default Character, but requires non-trivial adjustments for the flight system, climbing systems (particularly latching), and ground movement logic (particularly rotations and permitting carrying objects).
We are currently deciding not to use Iris for various technical reasons, but leaving the door open if needed.
The current approach, based on initial testing, should scale to our target low-end computer / player counts, but the engineering here is being kept open to change depending on performance analysis down the line.
Did some exploratory work on managing NPCs at scale on the server.Did some work on the game's main theme!
Animated Iceclaw's Broadcast. This is a bit simpler than the others because Iceclaw's Broadcast is intended to be "spammable".You can also hear the call for the first time. It also has at least one variant at the moment (shown). Keep in mind that the call still needs a polish/audio quality pass! (WIP)
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Here's a heavy WIP of the initial VFX for Levin's Static Field ability. Still going to work on it a lot more! #dragon #gamedev #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #wyvern #vfx #blender
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Biweekly Newsletter August 21/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Skin Link: www.youtube.com/shorts/_hD_W... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #unrealengine #animation #blender #3dart
This sprint was also light like the last one, sorry! Devs have been on the tail end of a vacation, dealing with pet issues, mental health, etc. We should be a bit more back to normal next sprint. Here's the small list of what we did this sprint:

Imported Pain and Death animations for all playables and NPCs.
Imported other animations such as Bite (adjusted), Iceclaw Climb Start and End, Levin Air Grab.
Worked on the lightning ball VFX for Levin's Ball Lightning ability.
Started work on static VFX for Levin's Static Field ability.
Started colouring the current loading screen art.
Did some preliminary work/research on implementing our polished UI menus.
Finally finished Iceclaw's Broadcast call!

As a small visual, here's Levin's Seaglow skin in action:
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Here's a WIP of a loading screen art based on a community member suggestion! Is the flock friend or foe? We will soon find out… #dragon #gamedev #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #2dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
What do you think this art will ultimately depict? Discord members who participated in the loading screen art event will have some advantage guessing. #dragon #gamedev #speedpaint #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #2dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Biweekly Newsletter July 24/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Iceclaw Friendly: www.youtube.com/shorts/BP9BZ... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #drake #map #terrain #unrealengine #animation #blender
Coding

Updated basic ground movement logic based on playtesting feedback.
Made turns much more responsive.
Improved the acceleration/deceleration logic.
Improved logic to help with paws "sticking" to the ground rather than sliding.
Ground movement has been a sticking point for awhile, and we're happy it's feeling better! (Even if only to prevent testers from going insane from slow turning @_@)
Added in basic Venna logic and spawners again to help with playtesting.
Tested basic networking starting points -- currently it's failing tests (as expected), though with fewer breaking points than we anticipated (it's probably fine to have a bug that crashes the game any time a player leaves the server, right?)
Did most of the work for camera effects when diving, namely a small FOV change that enhances your feeling of speed. Note that you will be able to disable camera effects in the game for motion sickness.
Minor movement bugfixes.
Falling now should "stick" less to objects.
Falling-> Walking is a bit less temperamental (though it still needs some debugging).


Art & Audio

Started cleaning up the 2D concept of a Scoria skin to make it ready for 3D painting.
Did some concept work on future post-demo wyrms.
Made more progress on the loading screen event art. It's in the detailing phase and will soon begin colouring!
Finished up the audio for Iceclaw's Friendly call! We might still tweak the timing of it. Which real-world animal do you think inspired the call and animation?
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The Colossal Cetapod has perished... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #3dart #blender #blenderart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Biweekly Newsletter June 26/2026 (2 images, 1 link) Flight Turning/Swamp Preview: imgur.com/a/jFrGnly #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #drake #map #terrain #unrealengine
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Wyvern Model Speedpaint! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVLu... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragon #dragonart #survivalgame #dragongame #blenderart #3dart #substancepainter
youtube.com
Wyvern Model Speedpaint! (Dragon Gamedev)
YouTube video by Lindwyrm Studios
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Biweekly Newsletter June 26/2026 (2 images) #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #drake #map #terrain #unrealengine
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Announcing a new cosmetic Levin Darter Skin: Echo Storm! Based off an old scrapped wyvern concept. #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragon #dragonart #survivalgame #dragongame #conceptart #2dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Biweekly Newsletter June 12/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Fire Breath: imgur.com/a/nKHu8RC #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #drake #firebreath #vfx #BlenderArt #unrealengine
Coding & Misc

Reworked an old 2D Levin skin concept for 3D painting. You'll see it tomorrow if you attend the livestream! https://discord.gg/ahadmezw?event=1511847576951984431
Edited some VFX to be in line with our size scale changes (unscaled VFX is scary).

Our first draft combat framework is almost in a state where we consider it "done"! In this case done doesn't mean all attacks or wyrms implemented or anything, it just means that the base system is in place to accomplish everything we want to do. However, it might still be changed significantly as we do playtesting. Building the system is always a tricky part of development and we're happy that the broad strokes of such a big system are almost done!
Refined attack cooldown/interaction logic.
Still a bit of a WIP pending testing, but cooldowns are now modifiable, while attack blocking is per-attack and fixed outside of animation cues.
Improved the code quality some for extensibility.
Improved hitbox/hurtbox logic.
Melee attacks can now choose multiple versions based on camera angle.
Attacks now correctly sync up with the limb attacking and better match animations.
Currently tested only on JuviFireDragon, so may need more work with other wyrms.
Implemented first-pass status effect logic.
Tested with burn damage, applied periodically.
Currently accepts integral stacks, but more work is needed to handle more-complex status effect logic.
Implemented basic breath attack logic.
Breath attacks run as long as they are pressed and resources aren't depleted. Note that breath attacks currently cost nothing for ease of testing
Breath  attack start/stop synced with animation correctly.
Breath attacks currently hitscan for damage on a timer (needs refinement).

You first saw our fire breath VFX awhile ago, and now it's finally implemented! Here it is, along with some melee attacks as well. Some disclaimers: very very WIP of course. The range might seem a bit long, but that's subject to change. Visible damage numbers are only…
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Dragon roar behind the scenes! #dragon #gamedev #sounddesign #dragongame #indiedev #survivalgame #TheLastSanctum
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Join us on our Discord server on June 13th for a skin painting livestream with the developers! discord.gg/thelastsanct... #TheLastSanctum #3dart #blender #blenderart #dragons #wyvern
discord.gg
Join the The Last Sanctum | Official Discord Server!
Official server for The Last Sanctum; an upcoming multiplayer dragon survival game! | 3150 members
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Biweekly Newsletter May 29/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Climb End: imgur.com/a/M8lkLcQ #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #drake
Coding

Added in more complex attacks and attack interactions.
This is internally working for Scoria's alternate attack.
Implemented a semi-flexible global cooldown system basics (e.g. you can only have one attack animation at a time).
Implemented basic damage testing and hitbox/hurtbox logic.
Works only for melee for now.
Naive animation-based hitbox logic, which should be powerful enough for demo at least (performance cost analysis pending).
Implemented some boring systems work on combat.
Added infrastructure for various elemental/physical damage types.
Implemented interfaces for multiple damage types on the same attack.
Attached cooldowns to an attribute set, which permits dynamic cooldown adjustments (e.g. from artefacts or status effects).
Improved the debugging infrastructure to provide more visual feedback when combined with native GAS debugging.


Art & Misc

Continued work on placing foliage in the swamp biome.
Made the first pass on a sketch for one of the loading screen event arts!
We've added a composer @callione to the team! He's been working on a song that will play when you fly for the first time. It's sounding really good and we're excited!
Started work on Iceclaw's Threaten call and Friendly call.
Animated Iceclaw's Friendly emote. Audio will be ready soon(tm).
Finished the Climb End animation for Iceclaw. Here it is!
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
We just finished the calls and animations for both the juvenile dragons! Reminder that these are both juveniles, so their calls are intentionally less unique and lower key. We save the interesting calls for the adult T4 wyrms! #TheLastSanctum #gamedev #ue5 #dragon #survival #blender #roar #audio
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Biweekly Newsletter May 15/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Bite Hitbox: imgur.com/a/TymLlYj #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
We've finished up painting the Poison Dart skin! What do you think? #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #blender #blenderart #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Biweekly Newsletter May 01/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Animation: imgur.com/a/tbIr7MG #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
The next wyrm on our hit list is Levin 🔫 #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #funny #animation
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Biweekly Newsletter April 17/2026 (2 images, 2 links) Obstacle Course: www.youtube.com/shorts/bZrC0... Community Skins: imgur.com/a/U6bgdAN #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #substancepainter
Coding

(This is all pretty tricky to understand, sorry!)
Attributes now (mostly, still debugging) have macros associated with them to construct delegates accessible throughout the codebase.
This is very standard GAS attribute logic, but specifically modified to support movement submode stat logic (e.g. flapping while flying).
These constructions also permit "clean" clamping of core stats, while permitting changes to maxhealth and etc through artefacts.
Updated NPC logic to no longer be broken after refactor (still needs work).
Generalized NPC code slightly for later updates.
Set up extremely basic NPC animations again using the new system (still needs work).
As an aside, here's a humorous demonstration of what we mentioned before about flight being difficult. Practice makes perfect! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bZrC0ZwG4AY3D Art

We're finally ready to show you some of the first officially accepted skins submitted by the community in ⁠skin・contributions!  We're very grateful to the community for showing their creativity in this way. We have some more community skins in the works, but these are what we've done so far. If you've already submitted a skin and haven't been contacted by us, don't be discouraged! We picked certain skins due to various circumstances, and we still might circle back and grab older ones.

Finished painting an overlay inspired by a submission from @Lucien ! We've made a few changes to the concept. 
They originally submitted it as a skin, but we've turned it into an overlay instead. The wing markings will be usable on any skin for the wyrms that have this overlay. Scoria is using a black skin in this preview to show the comparison, but you can put it on any skin!
We extended the marking slightly because it looks better for Scoria's broad wings. On Levin it will likely be closer to the original.
The marking is on the top of the wings instead of the underside.
We've named this the Whorl overlay.
Here it is! New_Project64.png

Next, we've made progress on a skin by @Eimer! It's almost finished, but still needs some cleaning up on the markings and baubles. This is called the Poison Dart skin and will be usable on the Levin Darter.
New_Project63.png

Binkster has stolen @Aternova's heart, and they have spoken. From a submission by @Vandalyriess we have a Bellbat skin that will rarely spawn on some Common Bellbats. We couldn't resist Binkster.
New_Project65.png
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
We've finished painting one of our first accepted community skin contributions! Look forward to showing you soon! #TheLastSanctum #tls #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Biweekly Newsletter April 03/2026 (1 image, 1 link) April Fool's Game: lindwyrm-studios.itch.io/the-last-san... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #pixelart #aprilfools
Progress

Made death animations for the juvi dragon and wyvern.
Did some flight number value tweaking for a playtest.
Implemented a very simple main menu/select screen and minimal UI to conduct a playtest.
Fixed some minor bugs related to the refactor.
Fixed various bugs around fall brake and ground movement.

We conducted a larger-scale playtest across the wider team! The purpose of the test was to see what people generally thought of the flight and movement mechanics. The results were very helpful! (Though keep in mind the sample group was still pretty small). We had players fly around on a placeholder map and look for Free Barrel Asset (⁠︱announcements⁠) placed around.
Here's a summary of our conclusions for the test:

Everyone generally enjoyed the experience.
Players found it difficult to ascend (this was intentional due to map height balance, but we're still going to see what we can do to improve this)
There were surprisingly few bugs and things generally felt solid. Though we still found some new silly ones!
Ground movement generally felt good, apart from turning feeling sluggish (this can be changed pretty easily by adjusting values. Though later we'll have to also adjust the animations to match, to avoid foot sliding).
Flight is fairly difficult to master (this is intentional, though we'll keep an eye on this and make adjustments as necessary). The obstacle course was very difficult for new players. (Nova is too good at flight).
The controls might not be extremely intuitive for some players.
For those who understood flight well, it was very very enjoyable.
The camera felt solid, and players enjoyed the two different flight steering options related to the camera.

Overall summary: We feel really good about this playtest. Almost every criticism is adjustable by tweaking existing values, rather than changing anything about the core flight system. The feedback is very helpful for us!

We spent a little time making a silly April Fool's game. Check it out!
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Bweghh... here's another new death animation, for the juvie wyvern! #funny #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #wyvern
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Biweekly Newsletter March 20/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Death Animation: imgur.com/a/F4C7Law #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
We expected climbing to not be working at all right now, but turns out that it does! Sort of! #funny #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #drake
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Biweekly Newsletter March 06/2026 (2 images, 1 link) Basalt River: imgur.com/a/JSC3KS3 #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Just coming in for a gentle landing... #funny #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Happy Valentine's Day! Levin finally got Scoria to agree to that date. Including two versions of this picture so you can use it as a valentine if you'd like ♥️ #TheLastSanctum #tls #valentine #valentinesday #dragon #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #celebrate #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
As part of working on combat, we've gotten the UI hooked up to damage and stamina for testing! The visual is still WIP, and the drain values are higher than normal for testing. #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #dragon #dragons #dragongame #ue5 #unrealengine #flight #stylized
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Biweekly Newsletter February 06/2026 (1 image, 1 link) VFX Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfrR... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #pretty #flight #vfx
Coding

Looked into multiple potential systems for combat interactions, particularly in how to interface locational damage and melee attacks with networking.
(Sorry for not much progress here! We've been busy.)


Models & Misc

Finished the T2 Dragon's Broadcast call. This was a pretty simple adjustment since it's the same as the T3 call with adjusted pitch to make T2 sound younger.
Updated animations for Scoria's sprint flap and tap flap.
Updated flight smacks and animated skims for all flying wyrms (except T3 Dragon).
Updated and added sockets to the T3 Dragon. The sockets are placed near the wingtips and chest so trail VFX and dive wind can be attached.
Tweaked the setup of our wing trail VFX to adjust the appearance while still keeping performance in mind.
Implemented our existing flight VFX! These include wing trails, speedlines, dive wind, and a camera zoom. Each VFX can activate and scale according to different velocity. Players will be able to disable effects in case of motion sickness. We have some very adjustable parameters, so we still might tweak the look and feel! The wing trails especially have some potential for future cosmetics, with changing the colour and emissives.
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
We just implemented speed lines and a small camera zoom for diving! (Note: we plan to allow players to disable camera movement in case it makes them nauseous!) #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #dragon #dragons #dragongame #ue5 #unrealengine #flight #stylized #dragonartists
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Biweekly Newsletter January 23/2026 (2 images, 1 link) Collision Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukY... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #pretty #flight
Models & Misc

Animated the T2/T3 Dragon's Skim animation, and edited its Smack. These are both flight animations related to colliding with obstacles. We'll be doing this for the other wyrms as well!
Worked on some NPC and menu UI concepts.


Coding

Implemented basic flight crashes.
Hooked up multiple modes per ray-casting logic with scaling based on angle/speed.
Added smooth rotation from crashes.
Fixed issues with the user losing control during a crash.
Added crash animation logic depending on side/severity of crash.
Cleaned up raycast logic per-wyrm
You might remember the wing raycasts from last newsletter. Now we've put them to work with implemented crashing! In case you forgot, the raycasts help the game see where the wyrm's wings are. A collision with the green line will be less severe than a collision with the red line. Now that collisions are implemented, we have several types of crashes: Adjustments, Skims, Smacks, Crashes. These are in order of severity and have different effects on the wyrm. Check the video below to see for yourself!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukYReTdLmUUpdated flight crashes based on testing feedback.
Reworked crash angle and speed loss.
Updated state logic for handling crash modes and severity.
Hooked up crash animations.
Fixed some bugs around animations playing multiple times.
Fixed an issue where the wyrm would enter uncontrolled fall state during a stall (rather than the intended fall brake state).
Fixed some issues around wing flap periodicity, particularly with Levin.
Fixed some issues around falling and fall brakes (though they still need some work).
Expanded options related to air resistance to help avoid excessive momentum preservation.
Added in some basic scripts to help with wyrm stat fiddling. Now, we'll be able to adjust wyrm stats in a spreadsheet and import/export them to and from the game. This is particularly helpful with maintaining experimental versions of the physics for each wyrm!

With the addition of crashes, all the main points of the flight system are done on the coding side! We'll still be doing number value tweaking and a couple more bug fixes in the background, but with this we're going to mostly move on from flight and switch to working on the combat system.
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Here's a closer look at our player HUD: top to bottom it's armour, HP, stamina, and anima (breath attacks), then hunger and thirst. The portrait changes depending on the wyrm you're playing, and body parts fade out as corresponding locational damage is taken. #TheLastSanctum #dragon #2dart #indiedev
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Biweekly Newsletter January 09/2026 (1 image, 1 video link) Threaten Call: imgur.com/a/RupV7bS #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #scary #roar
This newsletter is pretty short, we're sleepy from the holidays!

**Code & Animations**

* Refactored player stats (such as health and stamina) to fit them in with movement logic rewrite.
* Updated stamina logic to permit more per-wyrm control in movement.
  * Stamina use now is able to react to external events (such as enemy attacks or artefacts).
* Cleaned up clutter that had developed around player controls and some outdated debugging logic.
* Reimplemented the hooks for the UI.
- Animated T3 Juvi Dragon's Friendly, Threaten and Surrender calls. Here's the Threaten call! Again, we're keeping the juvenile calls pretty short and simple so that the adult T4 wyrms shine.
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Takeoff has improved- no more weird-lookin boost! And it works well on inclines too! #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #dragon #dragons #dragongame #ue5 #unrealengine #flight
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Biweekly Newsletter December 27/2025 (2 images, 1 link) Wing Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNwv... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #pretty #flight
Coding & Misc

Finished polishing the Broadcast, Threaten, Friendly, and Surrender calls for T3 Fire Dragon.
Animated the animation for T3 Fire Dragon's Broadcast. You saw this on Bluesky last week!
Generally improved takeoff logic and interactions. These changes all work together to make takeoff feel less clunky.
Moved the end of takeoff to be while still on the ground rather than in flight.
Extended the initial boost of takeoff over a period of time rather than on the first frame.
Implemented various utility functions to help with fixed-length impulses (such as flapping and takeoff boosts).
Adjusted the "vertical push" of takeoff to help with feel when taking off from a lower point.
Added in logic and animations for stationary takeoff (the only revealed wyrm who uses this is Levin).

Introduced basic raycasting logic for flight collisions.
Implemented a straightforward algorithm for deterministic raycasting based on player state.
Raycasting depends on tucking, diving, and flapping, but not braking
Added in wyrm-specific logic for selecting ray angles and variations to help with different wing shapes. Will likely be adjusted depending on the wyrm and testing results.
Implemented basic collision modes detection depending on hit point, angle, and speed. The effects of collisions are still WIP.
Flight crashes still work as intended, and the player can now crash with a fast-enough wing clip.
Implemented injured fall behavior for hard flight crashes.Raycasts essentially help the game "see" where your wings are during flight. We've visually represented these raycasts with red, yellow, and green lines (this is of course just for testing and not gameplay). Collisions with these lines will have different results.
Green: Softer hit, likely a clip.
Yellow: Harder hit.
Red: Hardest hit, possibly a crash. 

As you can see, this allows players to pull off interesting maneuvers such as wing tucking in tight spaces to avoid wing collision. The space between the lines and the body is somewhat exaggerated for demonstration. This is intended to be synchronized across machines, so the traces may not perfectly match animations. The key difference is that we can calculate the raytrace angle based on clock time rather than frame count or other actions, so the result on the server will be exactly the same regardless of the client animations or calculations. This ensures the raytrace timing is consistent on all machines. This is very work in progress and not finalized.
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Fire Dragon's Broadcast call and accompanying animation is done! With the juveniles like Fire Dragon, we're keeping the calls much simpler and shorter to allow the calls of the unique adult wyrms to shine. #TheLastSanctum #dragon #dragons #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #dragonartists #3dart
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
This is Iceclaw's Crescent Strike skin. Subtle but beautiful! #TheLastSanctum #dragon #dragons #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #dragonartists #3dart #survival #survivalgame #creaturesurvival
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Biweekly Newsletter November 28/2025 (2 images, 2 links) Skin: imgur.com/a/pupsjU3 Flight Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTiw... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #pretty #flight #texturepainting
Art & Misc

Improved and expanded some game UI concepts.
Updated our prospective control map (very subject to change of course).
Finished painting the Bushfire skin. This is one of our favourites for Scoria so far, and we hope you like it even more than the preview last week!Coding

This sprint was mostly spent bug-hunting!
Improved ground logic to better handle momentum (especially when landing).
Also includes some math-y fixes to help players slide less on turns.
Improved ground collisions, especially with walls. You now slide off the wall instead of getting stuck to it.
Fixed air collisions with walls to slide properly (though without friction until further testing for feel).
Updated animation logic to include tap-flaps with transitions (which still needs some refinement).
Fixed a silly bug where crouching would force you to move even if no other keys were pressed.
Fixed a bug where the force from gravity was retained even after landing with tucked wings, making it impossible to get off the ground.

With all these combined, we'd like to show you the improvements! Disclaimers: Transitions will be polished in general. Some of them are very snappy at the moment. The landing animation still needs to be added. 

Video breakdown: At the beginning it shows air to ground momentum preservation, where you'll be able to keep some of your air momentum if you land properly. Next, it shows tap flaps vs sprint flaps. Tap flaps are manual and consume more stamina in return for more power and control. Sprint flaps are from holding the button down and are more efficient. Note that for T3 Dragon in the video, its tap vs sprint is more subtle. Tap flap has a sharper and deeper wingbeat. Eventually, flap sounds will be different depending on flap vs sprint. Lastly, we finally implemented proper collisions for air and ground. Previously, colliding with something would get you stuck, needing to maneuver out of it.  Now, you properly slide off the object. Keep in mind that for flight especially, this is missing a lot of crash-related animations! This video just shows the fact we got collisions working.
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
We've been working on painting a new Scoria skin called Bushfire. What do you think? It's still work in progress! #TheLastSanctum #dragon #dragons #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #dragonartists #3dart #survival #survivalgame #creaturesurvival
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Biweekly Newsletter November 14/2025 (1 image, 1 link) Flight Demo: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZGP... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #wyvern #pretty #flight
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
We're not opposed to getting creative with environmental colours. Here's an example of how we can tweak the same water asset to take on different tints! (Make sure to click to see the full image!) #TheLastSanctum #tls #dragon #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #swamp #leveldesign #survival #ue5
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
"Attention passengers, we're approaching some turbulence so please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts" #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #funny #glitch #dragon #dragons #dragongame #ue5 #unrealengine
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Biweekly Newsletter October 31/2025 (1 image, 1 link) Swamp: imgur.com/a/2wHPXZh #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart #map #leveldesign
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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Here's the Common Venna's most common eating animation! #TheLastSanctum #tls #dragon #dragongame #gamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev #deer #animal #survival #survivalgame #cute
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