Sky Inferno: Dragon Hunt

Flutter and Flame seemed like an interesting combination for a mobile game. I'd been wanting to build something fun for iOS and Android for a while, and decided to use this project as a genuine test of what those frameworks could deliver. Sky Inferno: Dragon Hunt was the result.

Choosing Flutter and Flame

Flutter is Google's cross-platform User Interface (UI) framework, and Flame is a lightweight game engine built on top of it. The appeal was obvious — write once, ship to both iOS and Android. I'd heard mixed things about Flutter for games specifically, but the only way to find out was to build something real with it.

Overall it went reasonably well. Flutter handles the UI side cleanly, and Flame gives you enough structure to build a working game without fighting the framework. That said, it's not without limitations, and by the time I finished I was already looking into Godot as a more capable alternative for anything more ambitious.

Procedural Level Generation

The feature I was most interested in building was procedural level generation. Instead of hand-crafting every level, the game generates them algorithmically. Players can enter any 6-digit number to create a specific level, or let the game pick a random number for them. Every number produces a unique experience.

This kind of system means near-infinite replayability without near-infinite development time. It also makes sharing levels dead simple — just pass someone the number. Getting the generation logic right took some iteration, but the key was making sure every generated level was actually playable, not just visually random.

Art, Audio, and Music

Art is not my strong suit. Rather than produce something rough myself, I relied on itch.io for assets — sprites, audio effects, and background music. If you haven't come across it, itch.io is a brilliant resource for indie game development. Thousands of creators publish free and paid assets there, covering everything from pixel art to full music tracks.

Using itch.io let me stay focused on the programming and keep the game looking and sounding decent without spending weeks on assets I wasn't equipped to make well.

What I Took Away

Sky Inferno: Dragon Hunt proved that Flutter and Flame can produce a working mobile game. It's not the most powerful setup, but for a solo developer shipping to both platforms from a single codebase, it's a reasonable choice. Procedural generation worked out well, and itch.io made asset sourcing far less painful than it could have been.

Next step is Godot. I want to find out whether a dedicated game engine changes what's realistically achievable on my own.