Day of Dragons – The game that you didn’t know you needed
Some of you might have heard about this game before since it got quite the attention after it was posted on Kickstarter. It is an online survival game, but unlike many that came before it, this game does not feature humans at all. It is all about dragons and various mythical creatures fighting to take their place at the top of the food chain. As a big RPG fan myself, I’ve always been fascinated by dragons in games and movies alike, so when I heard the news of a dragon survival game, needless to say, I got really hyped about it. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was to learn more about the game, so I got into contact with the developers, Beawesome Games, and asked them some of the questions I had in mind. Thankfully they spared some time for me and answered my questions. Hopefully, this Q/A will answer some of the questions you have about the game too.
A Summary of The Game
Like I mentioned above, the game lets you control your own dragon, and you have a single goal, survive and become stronger. You start the game by hatching from your egg, as a little baby dragon. As one could guess your prey change according to your size, so you can’t go hunt big creatures at this stage. You have to eat bugs and other little animals until you grow stronger.
As you grow, you get to unlock different abilities which varies according to the type of your dragon. Your size, your attacks, and abilities are all variables, that are decided by what kind of dragon you have. As you progress you get to hunt more dangerous creatures, which can scale up-to alpha class level beings, such as a big worm creature controlled by AI. (heard there are plans of updating this big guy).
There are two playable endgame character types as I understand it. First one is becoming an elder dragon and another is unlocking alpha class elementals (an example is below, in front of his hand you can see a human model, to make it easier to guess its size).
When it comes to getting access to these, it is still a mystery. As I understand it, the developers want players to explore these features on their own, since they didn’t give any specific information on how to. If you ask me, this is a good decision for both the game and the player base, which in return will make it feel more of an achievement once you get to be an elder dragon yourself.
Developer Q&A
1) How did you come up with this idea?
I love survival games and wanted to do something no one else was doing. I love dragons and the creative freedom they allow a designer and thought it would be cool if there was a survival game based on dragons and other mythical creatures.
2) Were you expecting this kind of support, when you started this project?
No, I honestly didn’t even think I would reach my $12k goal on Kickstarter. I thought this would always be a wildcard type of game with a low player interest because no one else was doing it and I thought maybe there was a reason there were not any other dragon survival games. But this was the kind of game I wanted to make so I went with my dream. The amount of support we saw was amazing and had a lot to do with the fact that a lot of people always wanted a game like this too and through our YouTube and Discord grassroots marketing campaign, we were able to get the word out to well over a million people.
3) How many different kinds of dragons will there be on the release?
When Steam Early Access launches on November 21, there will be 3 dragons for players to play as, all of which will be redesigned eventually. By the time the game enters its “release” state, we hope to have 20-30 unique playable dragons.
4) Differences between current biomes and the biomes you are planning to implement
Currently, we have a desert biome and a redwood biome that we have confirmed. We plan to implement a lava biome, a grasslands biome, and an arctic biome later on. Maybe some others?
5) The process of growing up, is it time-based? Does it depend on how you feed? Both?
Growing to adult is time-based, the growth is dynamic and happens over time so long as you have food and water. Sleeping helps your dragon to grow faster but it also makes you vulnerable as you are defenseless when sleeping.
6) I know that there are some really unique creatures players can unlock, like the elementals on the Youtube video. Are there more alpha class characters on the way?
We have confirmed alpha-class dragons, elementals, and sandworms (AI) to all be in the game. There may or may not be others.
7) I have seen dragons and drakes of various sizes in many videos, is there a trade-off for size?
Larger dragons tend to have more health but are not as maneuverable as smaller dragons.
8) On other survival games usually, the progression is built around crafting, such as making a better house, weapons, etc. Since we will all be mythical creatures how will the players progress in this game? Is it becoming an elder dragon or an alpha class creature?
Progression in Day of Dragons will be in the form of unraveling the secrets to becoming an alpha. Think Toothless and his journey of discovering more about himself and his abilities.
9) What does being an elder dragon mean game-wise?
In terms of the game, to have advanced to the elder dragon stage of growth is quite an accomplishment, you are stronger than you were in the adult stage, but also more careful with your playstyle as losing your dragon at this point means losing that progression and having to start over.
Closing Thoughts
I hope this Q&A shed some light on your own questions about the game. I really liked how the developers left some mysteries to be unraveled in the game by not telling players how to access every single feature that is present. If you didn’t know Day of Dragons was a thing, definitely look it up. Personally, I will give it a try for sure, when early access hits Steam on 21 November.
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