“How to Raise a Dragon” News and Updates

It’s been a little over a week since “How to Raise a Dragon” was released, and it’s been played almost 650,000 times, linked by Jay is Games, IndieGames.com, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Play This Thing, Auntie Pixelante, Kotaku (Australia), Bytejacker, and sundry others. I’m pleased by the responses, although I’d probably be more well-received if I cut down on the lo-fi pixel art, as folks often seem to find it ugly or overplayed.

As I was going back to get the game ready to post on other portals, I put in a few updates. I made it possible to create a Fiery Watcher in-game, added Y as an alternative jump key for my QWERTZ friends, and added a new behavior that really should have been in there all along. These updates are present in the ArmorGames version. I’ve put up a copy here on Ludus Novus and one on Kongregate. Other portals will follow once I work out some difficulties with a new ad provider.

7 thoughts on ““How to Raise a Dragon” News and Updates

  1. The walkthrough claims there are five hero endings, but I’ve only been able to find four (friendship, service, slaying the dragon, and fall of the hero). What am I missing? Also, is it intended that Scourges should be unable to be tributed successfully? It’s definitely an enjoyable narrative, and adding the new behavior addresses something I found odd. Also, I wanted to belatedly thank you for the little gems in the Bryant Collection. I quite enjoyed them.

    1. You are missing “Stalemate.” Scourges can’t be given tribute; it’s assumed that a dragon who would kill a bunch of humans and then go off to hide in the mountains isn’t interested in hanging out with people.

      Glad you liked Bryant!

  2. Loved the game. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I loved how you melded the game play and storybook sequences together into a sort of “living encyclopedia”.

    My one criticism is that the last stage didn’t feel like it went along with the rest of the game. It felt odd suddenly switching to the hero’s POV (this is how to raise a DRAGON, after all), and the stage didn’t feel as interactive as the others. There’s a long walk between the start and the dragon in which you can’t do anything, and I was a little disappointed to find that you couldn’t even kill the zombies.

    Nitpicks aside though, this was another great addition to your growing collection of games. =)

  3. You need to stick to the lofi pixel graphics!!! Graphical simplicity combined with complex gameplay is what makes your games so great.

  4. I would rather think that no matter what graphic style you choose, the game will still shine all the same. Pegging someone down to a style just seems like formulae.

  5. > added Y as an alternative jump key for my QWERTZ

    The story screens still insist on “Z” — how about making them accept “Y” as well?

    Love your games, btw! Thank you!

  6. I love this game and would like to host it on my site (www.kontraband.com) but it won’t scale down to 600px wide.
    Any chance you could allow scaling?

    Either way, thanks for a great game.

    -ando

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