My June game is finished. It’s called How to Raise a Dragon, and it’s a game about dragons, humans, and eating things.
The dragon: a majestic and complex beast. How is it born? How does it live and die? Magus X. R. Quilliam’s definitive work, How to Raise a Dragon, describes all that is known about these great creatures.
Play How to Raise a Dragon on Armor Games.
Found a bug… Whenever I try to trigger “Rampaging” the background simply goes black. Dunno if its just me or not. Only know the name of that by then resetting and checking under the hero chapter.
I’ve figured out this bug. I’m getting a fixed version uploaded now.
I got all the characteristics but one. The first behavior is the only one i miss (I got the others, like fiery, wild, reclusive, necromantic and rampaging).
Which one am I missing and how do I unlock it?
the very first behaviour is fertile, you basically plant the fields and trees but not the houses
This is a really good game, but I cannot get the last “Behavior” (the one that is the most left side).
Please tell me how to get it, I tried everything!
Thanks.
Here’s a hint: The leftmost behavior is called “Fertile.”
The game seemed to lock up when I raised the dragon as “Rampaging”. None of the other titles or behaviors I raised caused this problem. I use the most recent adobe flash on Firefox 3.0 for Ubuntu 9.04. Other than that problem I enjoyed this game.
Very much looking forward to playing this! The whole approach sounds excellent.
Seemed a little too hand-holdy (particularly with respect to how you can use your breath as an adolescent) and a little too thin on gameplay at the hero stage. I would’ve liked to be able to fight zombies against a necromantic dragon, if nothing else, and maybe fight townies if I killed a good dragon. At the adult stage, it would’ve been nice if flying was used for something (maybe if you’re never seen by the villagers at all you can get tagged “reclusive” or something).
I think it also would’ve been nice if the chapters tied together a bit, but I know why you did it how you did. For example, it might not have hurt to have the available breaths tied to colors (i.e., to be a plant dragon you have to be green, a fire dragon red, etc.), and then you could tie some of the behavior in the adult chapter to what you did as an adolescent (since there are various ways to be good or bad as an adolescent that could tie into the options as an adult). As I say, I see why you did it how you did, but it winds up making the connections between chapters feel pretty thin.
Weir, this game is delightful! What an incredible amount of detail, depth, and sincerity compiled into one short game. Bravo, dude. I enjoyed it.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm dragons!
I have to write that this game was a dissapointement for me. In my opinion it was short, not detailed enough and I would definitelly not play it so long if it wasn’t your game.
1. Graphics – pixelly style is very nice, but the graphics in this game are just simply not good enough. They are moderate, nothing more, and they could be really nice, they have a potential. It seems like you did not have time to perfect them.
2. Interaction. I could do some things, especially in the last chapter, but not in the 2nd. Somehow it was important for me and it spoiled gameplay a little. The game lacks interaction in hero part. Really nothing to do, just take something and give to the dragon, or kill it or be killed. During first play I killed the dragon and it felt… well… I jumped to him, pressed c few times and that was all… It didn’t feel like a battle with a mighty beast.
I also hate the fact that people generally speaking do nothing no matter what happens. They seem to not notice me even when I’m eating, or burning them. They are just decorations.
3. Story. I had a feeling that some of my decisions didn’t make any difference. I don’t like the fact that chapters are separated from each other. And generally speaking, the story is the same everytime I play. It doesn’t really matter if the dragon is a killing necromancer or helping watcher. It looks and feels the same.
4. Possibilities – in my opinion, dragon abilities are too simple. Simply eat 4 blue, green or fire things and you have an ability. I would rather have more complex system – have 3 types of things to eat, water, fire, magic (for example), then eat 2x water and 2x magic and you have magic water. Eat 2x fire and 2x magic and you have fireballs. Eat only fire and you’ll explode. Eat only water and you will be able to create a river, flooding the village. And so on.
Maybe it’s just me. I was expecting something bigger and better. All in all this game is not bad, it’s just really short and not detailed enough for me. Though I really like Majesty of Colors and that was even shorter (though seems to be more well thought and perfected).
Anyway, I’m looking forward to your next game :).
if your necromantic, the zombies follow you while your still a dragon
I played through adolescense without earning a breath power and I was a rampaging tyrant the first time. Now, no matter how hard I try, I can’t get any of the breath powers to work. Also, weird things are happening, like the background turning black after I try to take the cliffs as a home and a grey “x” composed of blocks at the bottom of the sewers in the adolescense stage. Please patch these as soon as possible. I won’t rate the game until I can use a breath power and the other bugs are fixed. Other than that, I liked the concept. Great job.
i cant unlock the fire power. theres always one space left and i cant find where the lat fire is. theres this candle, i think on the wal and that would work, but it’s too high up.
You can bite while jumping.
i got it now. thank you!
Maybe you should put a few seconds’ lag on the breath powers. Right now the effects show up right when you hit c, which is long before the breath actually reaches the target.
Love the game! Has anyone figured out what the hero’s flower is used for? The dragon seems to reject it no matter what type of dragon it is.
Dragons who like plants would prefer a flower over money.
i still cant get the fire ability even wen i jump and try to eat the fire up there
What you eat at the start doesn’t seem to matter at all: you can ignore all the green food and still get the plant breath. what was the point of that?
The color you are on the outside doesn’t affect what you can do in life.
Cute! I quite liked it. But precisely because I did, I would like it to be just a wee bit longer. And maybe have some music? Definitely seeing potential for expansion here!
BTW, this wasn’t meant to read like I thought the game was lacking. I can see perfectly well why you structured it the way you did, and it’s a valid choice.
Nice game. And unlike many of the criticisms you’re receiving, I liked the sketch-like simplicity of the gameplay; I don’t mind that the actions you can take are very simple. (Not that I’ve fought a dragon yet because I’m a softie.) If I want a big battle, there are games for that; brief meditative games are rarer.
I’ve noticed that it’s possible to start out at the Elder Dragon stage with a Fiery Watcher; can you get that through gameplay? I would’ve figured that if you were Fiery then you’d probably turn out to be a Scourge when you settled on the mountaintop.
Checking on the code, it looks like it’s not possible, but it should be. In the next version, I’ll see if I can make you be a Fiery Watcher by burning, say, a lot of trees but few people.
That was how I tried (and failed) to do it.
I read the “hint: it’s callled fertile”, so I know it’s with the plant breadth, but I’ve tried every single thing I could with it and still cannot get the first behavior. Can you help?
spoiler alert!!!
to get final behavior fertile use nature breath and use it on all of the farms and nothing else, if you use it on other stuff you will get wild but if you use it on only farms you get fertile
great game! i hope this helps
Very, very, good game. I think that this game, along with “I Fell in Love with the Magesty of Colors” are simply the best flash games yet. I don’t like what everybody else likes, graphics make no difference to me, the only thing that is important is gameplay, which explains why I like Rogue-likes so much (Nethack is best by the way, forget Angband!).
Good job with Necropolis as well!
Unlike a lot of the negative critiques here, I don’t mind that the chapters are only loosely tied together. There’s a BIT of continuity, but not much. But that’s fine, since it gives the sense that a wizard capturing a dragon doesn’t know much about the circumstances of its birth, a village noticing (not really the right word, but okay) a dragon doesn’t know where it came from, and a hero going to face it only sees its wake.
The only problem for me is that it’s slightly anti-climactic. The game slowly builds up and builds up, and the game ends with a little silhouette! It would be nice to have some kind of summing up: maybe generate a “Tale of the Dragon” based on all choices so far.
This piece is wonderfully atmospheric. I would love to see it expanded into more of a game (with objectives and genuine challenges, rather than the simple challenge of figuring out what step one is on), but at this stage it makes a lovely narrative. Bravo.
Two things that mildly bug me:
1: The book entry for Scourges says that they can be paid tribute to. In-game, of course, Scourges not only try to eat the hero on sight, but they can’t be mollified at all. Can either the fluff be modified to fit the game, or the game to fit the fluff? (Maybe have the Scourge try to have a hero lunch at first, but accept proper tribute if given.)
2: Book entries at the end of the Adult chapter only give data on the dragon type and not the behavior. It’d be nice to have codex fluff on behaviors too; they’re the only thing we don’t get some info on.
Other than that, excellent game that’s got me wanting more. Besides those two quibbles, my only wish that I can think of would be more expansion of the chapters, with some more interactivity and stuff to do, and probably more repercussions between chapters. For instance, in the hatchling period it’s mentioned that hatchlings are supposed to be able to fight off predators, but you don’t have to fight for your hatchling’s life (and that’s a point where a possible failure mode might be nice; “Some dragons die before ever reaching maturity”). When I’m an adolescent…well, not too much to do there besides evolve my breath, but what I do with the wizard could affect later things. (If I kill him with fire, have an option to bite him to death, or forgive him, might determine whether he appears in the adult or elder stage as a friend or foe.) As for the adult stage? More stuff to interact with might be nice, including a few potential threats for even an adult dragon. And, of course, more breath, behavior and type options.
it was night time wen i played on the game and it sortof freaked me out lol dunnoo y but its a bit i duno how to explain it but i LOVE DRAGONS lol and i think u should make another game like that but make it so u kan keep the dragon going on with no humans or anything like that if i could do it i would but i dont know how lol make it like u hatch in a nest (but as u say it hatches alone) then chose the color and gender then make it like explore and find its own home(chosable to lots of different places) then it can settle in that home then it can explore find food…i know it has a chart for its hunger and happyness yeh!! and the age(age goes on every 2 mins maybe..) then wen its lyk…(e.g 150 yrs old) it can find a mate lol and (not showing them..yaknow..) just show them look at each other then a heart comes up then skip like a few years it has a egg then those to kan fly off and u kan pick who u want to carry on with the egg or the dragon and it carries on like that yay!! lol
i think thts a good idea…. i would like to play it as expnded how you discribed it…. but i really love this game +DRAGONS!
there are seven behaviors, 2 for each power, include none, but only one for fire