You can read Part I of this article here.
Outside of Early Access titles, dragon loving gamers have quite the variety of games to look forward to over the next year or two. Similar to Part I of this article series, these games are all been developed by indie creators, and we’ve got a great mix of genres. Dragons play a more prominent role in some of these games than others, but they’re a main feature in some way or another in all of them.
I’m just going to give a brief overview here today, but I plan on giving each of these a more in-depth look in the future.
Announced Games
Dragon’s Hoard
Dragon’s Hoard is a “Multiplayer 3rd-person Action Adventure Game about helping your adopted Dragon get to their home in the sky.” Apparently, your dragon will grow with the size of your collected hoard, which is a unique twist on the usual dragon raising mechanics. You can ride your dragon once it is large enough, and other player-dragon interactions are planned. It is the project of a solo developer and will soon be launching on Kickstarter. I also want to make note of the dev’s desire to avoid monetization and NFTs/blockchain technology, which is a plus in my book.
This is one of those projects where I’m curious to see how much of a role the dragons end up playing in terms of actual gameplay. The dev hopes to implement interactions like belly rubs and head petting, but I’d love to see more dragon-raising mechanics like feeding developed. There don’t seem to be many games focused on the raising aspect of dragons, and this could be a good potential one to fill that niche if the dev decides to move in that direction.
Dragon’s Hoard is slated to come to PC. Links below:
Dragon Game Project
Dragon Game Project is a “3rd person RPG with team modes, and sandbox-like mode, where you can play as different creatures, such as dragons, wyverns, lizardmen and gryphons.” It is being developed by a small team in their spare time, but progress seems to be going well. Single and multiplayer modes are planned, including a team match mode. Their models and animations are lovingly hand-crafted, and I’m excited to watch this one develop.
This is one of the better looking 3D ventures on this list, but it does sound like it might fall into the ‘mostly sandbox’ category that other currently in-development dragon games find themselves in. That’s not a huge problem, and seems to satisfy a good portion of dragon game lovers, but I wonder if this one will still miss the mark for me personally. I hope this team ends up delivering some robust and varied multiplayer content.
Dragon Game Project is planned for release on PC, Linux, and possibly Mac. Links below:
Dragon Game Project on Twitter
Dragon Game Project on Youtube
Gedda Cake
Gedda Cake, developed by Flannel Bear Games, is a “2D action-platformer about Dragons and Cakes” and it’s adorable! In this game, you can instantaneously swap between 6 dragon characters with different abilities to achieve your goal of rescuing the sweet land of Sugria and getting the cake. With a living world that changes with the time of day, it sounds like we can expect metroidvania elements as well.
Although Gedda Cake doesn’t really fulfill any of my personal dragon game hopes and dreams, I’m a sucker for good pixel art, and this game has a great aesthetic. So far it looks like we’ve only seen two of the six playable dragons, and I’m itching to see the rest. There’s a lot of room in the dragon game market for a metroidvania or two. And since metroidvanias are so hot right now, maybe that will help it reach a wider audience, and we could see more games featuring dragons in the future?
There is currently a demo available on Steam. Gedda Cake is releasing on PC and Mac. Links below:
Glyde the Dragon
Developed by Valefor Games, Glyde the Dragon is a 3D adventure/platformer that appears to draw a lot of inspiration from the Spyro series right off the bat. Glyde and his tiny companion Wing are setting out on an quest to combat a mysterious corruption spreading across their world. You’ll help other dragons, collect crystals, and fight baddies with more than 60 types of attacks and abilities, all within a vibrant living world.
As a lifelong Spyro (and 3D platformer collectathons in general) fan, I’m incredibly excited about this one. Glyde’s design is unique enough while still remaining slightly nostalgic, and I love the colorful, stylized world. Modern studios seem to have struggled with 3D platformers in recent years, so I’m anxious to see Glyde’s take on the genre and to get my own hands on the game to see how the somewhat chaotic-looking combat feels to play.
Glyde is releasing on PC only right now, but the devs hope for eventually console ports. A demo is expected to release in 2022, so keep an eye out for that. Links below:
Glyde the Dragon Official Website
Guild of Dragons
Currently live on Kickstarter until March 24, 2022 and already over 200% funded, Guild of Dragons is a “settlement-builder with dragon taming, exploration, and conquest.” It’s being developed by a husband and wife team, under construction since 2019, and is planned to launch into Early Access in 2023. In addition to the settlement building aspects, gameplay is planned to consist of trading, farming, mining, and crafting.
I’m curious to find out more about the role dragons play in this game, as it looks like flight may be locked to fast-travel only. It sounds like there may be a stronger focusing on the raising and taming aspects than Dragon’s Hoard earlier on this list. I have to say that the dragons I’ve seen so far are probably visually my least favorite out of any of these games I’ve talked about, with some questionable anatomy and design choices. But with the game in such an early state of development, hopefully the models will be more polished by the full release. I think this is a game that would benefit a lot from a more stylized aesthetic as opposed to trying to keep things looking semi-realistic.
Update 3/23/2022: The dev reached out to me to share a bit more info. Dragon flight won’t be limited to just fast-travel sequences; you’ll be able to fly on your dragon wherever you want. We talked a bit about the dragon models and overall aesthetic, and they emphasized that they’ve had one person working on all the models for the entire game. While the stylistic choices may not be entirely up my alley, I’m still just happy to see more dragons in games. I hope that the gameplay will set this one apart, even if the visuals might not.
Guild of Dragons will be launching initially on PC, with a Mac version to follow. Links below:
Guild of Dragons on Kickstarter
Guild of Dragons Official Website
Skyfear
This game wasn’t even on my radar until I was mostly done with this article and stumbled across it while going down a Youtube rabbit hole. Skyfear, developed by the 3-person Protaria Studios, hasn’t received much media attention, but it sounds like the devs have been hard at work. It draws a lot of inspiration from old-school arena shooters from the LAN party days, with customizable wyverns as your playable characters. A huge plus in my book, as someone who avoids most online play, is the ability to play and progress in singleplayer mode as well, against bots instead of other players.
Skyfear was initially slated for release in 2021, but it appears to have been pushed to 2022 back in November. However, the dev claims that the vast majority of the game’s content is finished, and that the delay is to polish up animations, audio, effects, and multiplayer AI. This is good news to me, as the animations in what little gameplay footage I can find look rather rough. I hope that the delay is enough to get the visuals to a more polished level, since it sounds like there is potential for interesting and diverse gameplay, with a large number of combinations of perks, magic, and abilities you can choose at the start of each match. Gameplay seems focused on speed and agility, and the devs have specified their dragons are based more on bats to accentuate that concept.
Skyfear is planned for release on PC, with possible Mac and Linux versions in the future. Links below:
Further Out?
Project Dragon
Back in April 2021, rumors started coming out about a new game backed by Microsoft and developed by Hitman studio IO Interactive. Apparently dubbed Project Dragon, it’s rumored to be a medieval fantasy MMO. That’s about all we have to go on, but hopefully we’ll hear something else in 2022. It could go nowhere, it could end up having nothing to do with dragons, but the codename alone is enough to pique my interest.
So, that should pretty much cover everything we’ve got to look forward to over the next year or two! Do you know of any games I’ve missed, or are you working on your own project? Please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or via email at [email protected] if you have something to share!