The Dagon engine has been exclusively designed by Senscape with adventure games in mind. The software allows easy construction of node-based (so called “pseudo-3D”) games with a custom scripting language based on Lua which is simple to learn and features a reduced set of instructions. The rotation in each node is panoramic (360 degrees) with added effects such simulating the breathing of the protagonist. Transitions between nodes are also sophisticated including head-bobbing, thus giving the impression that the character is actually walking in real 3D.
Key among the features of Dagon are high performance and portability, which means that games developed with the engine are expected to run smoothly even on lower-end systems. Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and some Linux distributions will be supported right out of the box, with iOS support in the short term.
The engine is completely based on open technologies, and therefore doesn’t require paying royalties or depends on prohibitive licenses or patents. The complete set of used software is as follows:
Base code: C++
Scripting library: LUA (http://www.lua.org)
Graphics library: OpenGL (http://www.opengl.org)
Font library: FreeType (http://www.freetype.org)
Audio library: OpenAL (http://www.openal.org)
Video codec: Theora (http://www.theora.org)
Audio codec: Vorbis Ogg (http://www.vorbis.com)
Other: GLEW (http://glew.sourceforge.net)
