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The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game

@lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social

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 · 6d ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 2w ago

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?

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Colossal Cetapod has perished... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragongame #survivalgame #3dart #blender #blenderart

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 4w ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · last mo.

Wyvern Model Speedpaint! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVLu... #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #dragon #dragonart #survivalgame #dragongame #blenderart #3dart #substancepainter

Wyvern Model Speedpaint! (Dragon Gamedev)

YouTube video by Lindwyrm Studios

youtube.com

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · last mo.

Biweekly Newsletter June 26/2026 (2 images) #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #drake #map #terrain #unrealengine

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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…

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Dragon roar behind the scenes! #dragon #gamedev #sounddesign #dragongame #indiedev #survivalgame #TheLastSanctum

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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

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 · 2mo ago

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!

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Biweekly Newsletter May 01/2026 (1 image, 1 link) Animation: imgur.com/a/tbIr7MG #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The next wyrm on our hit list is Levin 🔫 #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #funny #animation

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 4mo ago

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/bZrC0ZwG4AY

3D 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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 4mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 4mo ago

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!

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 4mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 5mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 5mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 5mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Just coming in for a gentle landing... #funny #TheLastSanctum #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #dragon #dragonart #survival #survivalgame #dragongame #Blender #3dart

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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.

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

Updated 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.

The Last Sanctum - Dragon Survival Game @lindwyrmstudios.bsky.social · 7mo ago

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