Finally, all 5 boss-enemies are ready. Time for a beta-test...

Thanks for the motivating comments!! What about a double-update? 

The dragon got his revamped head and legs (in 8 directions). Also, I could track down the rubberbanding-problems. (Seems like the height of objects from the ground have to be ignored when calculating drawing-priorities)

In the 2nd cameo, you can see the sword-attack. The sword-hit transfers moving power to the victim. And it seems like you can push things around. This does not work anymore when I make the dragon heavier. (which should obviously be the case)

@RotateMe: Ok, I have reworked that dust. (You might see it again, soon) A gameplay demo should be possible this month, but only if I cut some things (wings) for the first demo...

@DanFessler: What do you mean? The 360 degree moving? I have intentionally disabled this, because the player can only move in 4 directions. There's probably no technical reason. So what about the new 8-way-walking of the dragon?

'cause games with "craft" makes lot of money.

Hm... I should design a game named "Craftcraft"...

Hm... maybe I didn't get it. How do you solve the collision-frame check now? (when the frame crosses the wrap-border?

Here's a mini-boss intro animation of sorts, I think it took somewheres around 4 to 5 hours to complete. 

Both of your monsters are really great!  I think you should try to increase contrast between background and monsters.

"don't run into sleeping dragons"... Updates: The dragon flashes when hit. The hero loses his inventory when killed.

Some Questions: Let's remember, this will be a multi-user game, so what should happen when a player gets killed? Halve his XP, drop all items and respawn at the start point? (At least, that's my plan right now) Also, what should happen with killed boss-monsters? (i.e. the dragon) Somehow, after its death, the dragon has to be there again for the next adventure-hungry party of heroes. So maybe the corpse gets a countdown... And when it reaches zero, the dragon wakes up again?

@RotateMe: Well, for this 1st milestone, I will stick with that 4-legged dragon. But finally, there could be more dragons, and each of them should be slightly different. PS: The game engine itself can save the gameplay as gif. (nice trick, eh?)

Nice perspective! I like the idea of a fixed camera. Time to think about a name for the game! 

Yes, I forgot to set the animation delay here. But somehow, I had the feeling that you want to see this anyway.    In the 2nd animation you see a test with the new feet. Is the distance between the feet large enough now? (It does not look very appealing when I use a body with two big segments. I could make the body bigger, though. But our hero that has to fight him is only 16x16 pixels...)

Ah, yes... You get a change to see the new head of the dragon! Will it be finished soon, or is this going to be a dragon simulator? Well, we are almost there: Head and feed have to be drawn in all 8 directions (oh oh) and then I have to add some wings. (sic)

A new walking test with legs, neck and tail. If you observe the animation closely, you may spot some overlapping spheres from time to time. I tried to fix them with a rubberbanding algorithm, but it's not gone entirely. (seems like I have to tweak the parameters a bit more)

But you can already see where this is going to.

@Destral: Hmm... I think you're right. Fortunately, this is not really visible in this 4-leg walking test. Maybe the 2 additional legs do some magic. It even doesn't look that baby-like anymore, does it?

@Landshark: Guess so... stand by, head and wings coming soon.

@Zulli: Yes, I am really programming this. However... No, just kidding.   (Ok, you made my day)

"Oh look, his first steps..." Of course, this type of animation has never been done before with the construction kit, and I had to redesign the animation handling and fix the usual bugs, etc.

It seems to have some troubles when changing the walking direction, doesn't it? Also, maybe I should use legs build of 2 parts? Meh, I don't know.

@supershigi: I think there won't be a DanFessler-textured dragon, simply because my pixel skills are not good enough, but maybe there will be an AlexMay-shaded dragon   

Wow, that "blue deer" song is... just great!

I still don't like that flying animation, so back to the drawing board. Here's a walking test... Yes, the legs are missing. But most of you seem to be fans of the minimalistic solutions, I bet someone wants to see a legless dragon. Anyone? 

>

Yeah, quite nice, but add colors!  

Haha, terrific! That's my favorite animation from your little pixel friends! 
Will they appear in a game?

I am working on a cross-platform construction kit (which has some of the specs you mentioned above) and this thing needs an editor. I took a look at QT4, it is quite nice and it's multiplatform.

But I could save some time if someone already builds an editor... So what about a status-update? Have you found someone? 

It seems that there would be two parts to this
1: an editor.
2: something to load the and interpret the editor-data in-game.

instead of (2), or additionally, it could also export the generated animation into a new sprite-sheet.

I likeit! Which program did you use for the music? (go for var2)

@CiroContinisio: I miss that counter!

@DanFessler: Yeah, nice pixels! A differnt color for the underside is a nice idea.   But again... just bodyparts! I wonder if I should replace that dragon by a worm, then the problems will be gone. Or just constructing head and wings out of segments. Oh, I should try. Also, some test-fights indicated that it is impossible to kill such a big moving dragon with a small 16-pixel sword. Probably, a baby dragon has to do the job here...

@baconman: Hiding one single key in a multi-user game is challenging, one point for you. But I like the idea of a red key for a red door of a red castle with red dragon. And then there is a blue key for a blue door of a ... (make an educated guess) That is so simplistic. At least it is a start. Can be changed later.

@rayteoactive: What? What? Who is trying to adjust graphics if you kill artists, eh?

Wow, not bad! Ok, you proofed me wrong, the spheres can be improved. 

But it seems even harder to me to create head and wings that can compete with that style. (at least without 3D software) Initially, I wanted to avoid that.