I’m posting this mostly because the founder of Incendiary Games, Randy Martinez, is a friend of Jason Ely’s. Not that Death of Dragons doesn’t seem like an interesting concept for a game; it definitely does. There’s not a lot to tie it to Ultima — it seems more in the vein of Path of Exile, which Martinez cites as an inspiration. Still, a virtual reality RPG is something that, at one time, Richard Garriott talked about making as well, and hey…here someone is attempting to make just that.

Death of Dragons is a virtual reality exclusive third person top down view action roleplaying game inspired by Path of Exile, Diablo, and Zelda.

Virtual Reality technology such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Playstation VR adds huge immersion, presence, new gameplay mechanics, and new opportunities to video games.

Dragons have returned to the world. They were once ancient legends and people only dared spoke of them in whispers. They have returned with a vengeance. Rumors have it they hunt for a powerful artifact, an artifact so powerful that it can control any and possibly all dragonkin. This artifact was secretly guarded by the Elder Dragon council. If it falls into the wrong hands it could mean the Death of Dragons.

A quiet, peaceful, sleepy seaside town had the dead rise up against them. Adventurer! You’re called to action to take care of this menace and put a stop to whoever raised the dead.

Gameplay

Virtual reality besides adding immersion allows us to use head tracking in innovative ways. Death of Dragons uses head tracking to target monsters or specific body parts on boss monsters. For instance, you can target the wing of a dragon and shoot it out the sky.

Death of Dragons is a fun new take on a classic dungeon crawler. Explore new worlds in virtual reality. Slay lots of enemies. Seek out powerful artifacts for either the greater good or your own gain. Fight off dragons that approach you overhead from behind.

We’re working on exploring other innovative uses of virtual reality to dungeon crawler games. We’re also working on a fun loot system that will be VR friendly.

Why use virtual reality for a third person view game? Aren’t all virtual reality games supposed to be first person? Lots of reasons! Virtual reality adds a ton of immersion and presence even for a third person game and is awesome for god style games. Having no body over a body that doesn’t match yours is less cognitively dissonant. For most people, third person locomotion, ie avatar movement, is less prone to motion sickness than a first person game. VR allows us to explore new interesting game mechanics, puzzles, and experiences that we don’t get in a flat game.

As one might expect, Incendiary Games is attempting to finance development of the game via Kickstarter, and as of this writing has raised $1,012; the base goal they have set for themselves is $50,000. The game is also on Steam Greenlight; you might consider voting for it there.