After an extended period of silence, devs Wild Forest Studio surprise dropped a demo for Dragon Shelter a few days ahead of the upcoming Steam Next Fest. Dragon Shelter is a cozy farming/life sim a la Stardew Valley and such, with the gimmick being you befriend several small, adorable dragons that help restore your farm and bring joy back to the local town. While a little corny on the face, what I’ve seen of the game so far pulls it off, with lots of coziness, joy, and whimsy baked into the world’s aesthetic and character animations. I was pleasantly surprised by my short couple hours with the demo and am eagerly awaiting the full release!
Amidst a seemingly never ending onslaught of overly ambitious open world survival dragon games, Dragon Shelter feels like a huge breath of fresh air. Many other games I’ve played from the saturated cozy game market often end up feeling flat, stale, and a bit generic, but Dragon Shelter had me captivated from the start with its painterly world. The overall aesthetic reminded me a lot of another favorite game of mine, Legend of Mana. Like Mana, Dragon Shelter has a storybook-like feel, emphasized by many small touches like the beam of light over your house when it’s highlighted for interaction, or the way the town’s lights start to twinkle back on as you begin to help villagers. Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve played something that left me feeling so calm and happy.
Onto the dragons themselves. We get to see two of the elemental critters in the demo: the water and fire dragons. Each dragon type has individual likes and dislikes and can be used to help grow specific kinds of crops. Otherwise, they will help out with various tasks around your farm, typically whatever you’re working on at the time, ranging from breaking trees and rocks to cooking food to deliver to villagers. You can interact with them via feeding or petting. The care mechanics so far don’t seem overly complex, but there are several status bars for happiness, hunger, etc. They’re incredibly adorable, especially the water dragon, who swells up before he spits out a stream of water to tend to your crops. I’m not sure yet how much the dragons will end up factoring into the story and gameplay, but given there are visual hints like dragon statues in the center of town, I’m hoping they continue to be an important element.
The Dragon Shelter demo only takes an hour or two to complete, but it is time well spent. I’m incredibly pleased to see this project not ending up being another announced dragon game that gets scrapped or just fades away amidst developer silence. Instead it seems Wild Forest Studio has been diligently chugging away in the background creating a game with a lot of care. Dragon Shelter has jumped high up my list of most anticipated dragon games based on this little snippet.
Check out the demo here and follow the game’s development on Twitter/X or Discord.
