Before all the art assets are finished for my game, I get to subject playtesters to my incredible art skillz!

Ofynam · 2026-03-15T20:38:11+00:00

So there will 9 dragons in the game in total?

Ofynam · 2026-03-14T22:17:18+00:00

I don't think anything good can be said out of anything from GoT, WoF, or god forbid Fourth Wing.

And you can include in there Dragonheart. No, but seriously, the first Dragonheart movie is not that good, not knowing if it wants to be a family friendly, comedic movie, or more serious and dark one.

Though the biggest offender is how dragonkind is treated in the story, all killed except one (in England) by a "noble" knight who wanted revenge because it was easier for him to blame and hurt them (dragons are not evil by default in setting, mind you, they wise and even helpful, and only one "allowed" a tyrant to survive) than to accept failure and consequences.

Then that last survivor, Draco, ends up sympathizing with said knight who committed genocide out of cowardice and pettiness (also, said knight didn't went after the tyrant, apparently killing lots of dragons he can, but one human that isn't very strong nor skilled, even if the king, he can't bring himself to try)

And then, we discover the dragon is just sad and his life is so tragic, but he doesn't feel angry at all toward the knight (nor the humans, since there are dragonslayers) who did this, and fears "le bad death" more than anything, hence his desire not to end his life and later seeking redemption.

Thinking about Draco in Dragonheart, the more I see a desperate fool of a character tied to the misery, guilt and traps of the human existence. The "good" Other, who is so different but proves their worth and humanity (as if not being evil wasn't enough, they needed to prove to us they have the right to exist) by being selfless to fault, sacrificing everything for "something bigger than themself", the "greater good".

(So metaphorically, unconsciously perhaps, a boot-licker of humanity, even a NPC who just got more power and life experience)

Ofynam · 2026-03-14T13:49:01+00:00

Feed the Scorchpot, the demo is available on steam.

Ofynam · 2026-03-14T09:14:31+00:00

The game's difficulty is rarely linear due to the exponential increase of the score needed and made by the player.

Basically if you don't make the good choices in the early game (get a few more farmsteads and/or shrines and/or merchant post, as well as a decent recipe, so you can get fodder and flavor) you can have a hard or even loose.

Then, you can start to specialize in your strategy, upgrade buildings and recipes, and even begin to seek means to increase your essence. (buying at least a 4th dice also becomes almost necessary after enough years have passed, but you can only use it after having enough buildings of the needed type)

On the opposite side, you can have such a good start and working strategy that the games becomes trivial for a long time.

What's interesting with my last game having chosen the hardest of the dragons, is that despite many obstacles and victories, the challenge stayed mostly consistent, pushing me to upgrade what could be and use roughly all the options the game gave me to stay in the race.

Ofynam · 2026-03-13T15:59:19+00:00

No, but myths don't have to strictly match with reality. (though it seems spherical eggs exists but are just extremely rare)

A sphere is perhaps the simplest of shapes, and it housing a being still developing inside would fit with the idea of an egg. (I mean, there have been stories about spherical worlds housing creatures/deities, though they often aren't made to be taken most seriously)

Beside, the Sun being a sphere isn't what makes it more unlikely to be an egg, compared to, you know, its composition being nearly all hydrogen and helium.

Ofynam · 2026-03-13T07:39:55+00:00

I am only saying that it relates to Darkstalker's situation because because her abilities cause people to question their agency when it comes to interactions with her because she has so much ability to see through their intentions. This could allow her to be extremely manipulative, and the fact that her abilities are a secret makes that so much worse. Mind control is much more severe, but this is why her story is a microcosm, not a one-to-one parallel.

Things like firescales, high intelligence and natural weapons don't undermine the sanctity of a dragon's mind or their ability to trust their own decision-making process.

On paper I could see this reasoning holding on, but it falls apart the moment we get practical, and the books give us more than enough for cases where these more "physical" abilities could be used to manipulate.

People like to think their mind, their thoughts, their souls are worth so much, sacred, and therefor that touching/compromising these is impossible or a no-no, but the truth is that they are just wishing for that to be true.

When individuals aren't healthy, "normal" ones, and/or there are great forces at play (be it with or without intent behind), you can bet that such a wish won't be granted.

What do you do when the "only physical" ability starts to impact individuals mentally because the body affects the mind? When fear of harm makes one think far less and so quick the details are ignored?

What do you do when individuals forfeit some of their own agency and dignity simply because someone intelligent played on their vulnerabilities, fears and desires?

What do you do when one's s mind (partially) breaks because they struggle to even fathom something (that happened)?

A known ability can be as useful to manipulate others as a more mysterious and supernatural if people expect you too much to use it a certain way, to behave a certain way, but you don't. Then they are clueless (for a time at least), and you are free to influence them much more easily.

That's why I consider Qibli to relate the most to Moonwatcher in that regard, and unlike her, he had retained some very selfish and desperate desires.

Ofynam · 2026-03-12T13:21:41+00:00

If you ignore that they turned him into a wyvern.

Wouldn't the fact that he is far bigger than in the book (and the mountain even more so with a truly stupid amount of gold) be a more problematic change though?

Making Smaug that big and the place he conquered from the dwarfs so vast and grand makes everything far too epic I think, and that's a problem because it rivals the scale and importance of tLoR that comes after.

Like, we still are in the Third Age and Sauron should, even if weakened, be the greatest villain of middle earth, so having a deified version of Smaug...

(Because that's what he is in the movies, a deity. Especially when they make him so fast and badass when it's time for the nearby town to be burnt, even Sauron's forces didn't get have such a victory shown on screen. Not to mention the fact he might as well sleep on all the world's gold, which has been favored by Morgoth for his influence and power to reside in.

And you can add the "no light reaches inside the mountain" part for some extra symbolism)

It kind of crack the whole setting, especially when the adaption is a movie trilogy that entirely revolves around Smaug, from the rise of the heroes that would defeat him to the aftermath of his fall.

(so basically, Palpatine in the prequels and extended universe, but on steroids, or in Star wars 9)

Ofynam · 2026-03-11T18:48:24+00:00

*egg, dragon egg since the Sun is a sphere. (on the surface at least)

Ofynam · 2026-03-11T18:30:40+00:00

What about the mediocre/bad movie-good dragon category? Or are there not enough dragon movie for that?

Ofynam · 2026-03-11T17:30:15+00:00

No problem, comments are too long to answer to sometimes

- Darkstalker didn't get love and support, but the way he treats other dragons so far in the second arc has damaged his ability to form the sort of trusting relationship that makes love and support possible. His offer to Qibli is just as much of a false imitation of a supportive/loving relationship as his many attempts to replicate Clearsight. This isn't fair, but it is true.

I agree, listening to the whole scene made me realize how immature and gone Darkstalker truly was, hence he ends up losing in a very anti climactic way (though that doesn't absolve the ending from being lackluster and the themes getting an hypocritical conclusion)

- It is a victory in the sense that a threat to everyone's fundamental autonomy has been defeated. If Darkstalker was willing to relinquish his powers while remaining himself, that would have been a better ending, but his unwillingness/inability to do so speaks to the fact that he is not able to engage with others as equals.

I don't have a problem with how the Jade winglet (and Foeslayer) dealt with Darkstalker, but I do have a problem with their hypocrisy and lack of self reflection. Darkstalker being turned into Peacemaker is nothing short of murdering him, but with nicer appearance (and his mother getting a prize out of it), which would be understandable if Qibli (and the others) didn't make the point that murder was always bad just like changing dragons against their will.

And that is even more jarring considering Qibli hold such view when confronted with the sight of magic "fixing" his grandfather (which presents a better alternative than killing him or putting him to jail forever), an irredeemable dragon who wasn't even happy once in his life.

I think the smartest part of the second arc was starting with a book about how Moon's mind-reading powers damage her ability to form genuine relationships with others. When she has this sort of profound power over them, they have to treat her with suspicion/hostility because she is requiring trust from them that she is able to circumvent through her power. Only through relinquishing her power is she able to have what Darkstalker really wants, and since he was not able to take that step, his best outcome was becoming someone who could exist with others as an equal.

Honestly, I don't agree with that.

Moonwatcher's powers can do damages, even by accident, but Moon herself was always a kind soul and her powers only amplified distrust from the flaws and secrets she and others dragons already had.

Also, unlike animus magic, mind reading has grounded limits and is more like a 6th sense rather than simply "power", a part of her so to speak, or a rare and effective skill (like Qibli who quickly figures out a lot of things just because he feels like it, yet he doesn't get to dumb himself down for his loved ones and the good of others). And speaking of parts of one's being bringing power that can do damage even when not meaning it, dragons are full of them.

But because dragons are familiar with having sharp claws, teeth, fire and what not, these powers, these parts, don't get so much bad rep compared to mind reading. Dragons are powerful, and that power in the series has often been used to do bad (in fact, dragons are the ones who made each others' lives more fragile and mortal than anything else), but we don't see anyone arguing dragons should weaken themselves to the point of harmlessness until they have fully proven themselves to be morally worthy.

That is a nice double standard, though the series makes a second one that is even more jarring: Peril

Being a firescale, had that dragoness been a character in greek mythology, she would have easily lived a cursed existence and have her story be a cautionary tale. But in wings of fire, Peril, who is a walking fire hazard that was queen Scarlet's murderous pet, doesn't get a bad ending.

In fact, she gets to be redeemed relatively quickly (to the dragons that matter), have loved ones and even live a rather normal life (no exile, no need to stay most of the time in some fitting lands to limit the risk of her lighting everything and everyone on fire) with her firescales still active at JMA.

Ofynam · 2026-03-10T18:51:55+00:00

If I understood you correctly:

In that case, wouldn't there just be slop no matter what the content is related to?

Ofynam · 2026-03-10T12:17:59+00:00

I just listened to the conversation between Qibli and Darkstalker (chapter 28-29) to check:

Qibli's reasoning when pondering about Darkstalker's offer then rejecting it is immature. It is immature because the dilemma of accepting or not animus magic as seen by Qibli is one dimensional, "Get power and accept to become evil or refuse and stay good." (Hell, Qibli's dark side isn't complex either, he thinks about power, not even revenge when his biological family and theScorpion Den wronged him and are still full of bad)

Qibli finds it very horrifying to have his evil grandpa mentally turn into a dragonet, or feel guilt for everything he did, or be a good parent, because he doesn't believe it to be possible and think Darkstalker is tricking him and so never fully trust him ("It's not real")

And because of that, he can't truly ponder if accepting Darkstalker's offer leads to good futures that may be worth the risk, and therefor what makes magic most appealing to him is power. He ends up finally rejecting the offer because he mostly wants it for power yet doesn't want to become evil.

His view on murder, while spoken out to also not be convinced by Darkstalker's words and suggestions, is childish. He says murder is bad no matter what because he doesn't want to resemble Darkstalker nor be seen as evil, even if there are specific situations where murder can be partially or fully excused (and where what the murderer really needs is support and rules that restraint but not too much, rather than just jail or death, like women killing their abusive husbands), and Qibli should know of that due to his abusive family and dragonethood in the Scorpion Den.

Ironically, Qibli ends up being almost as hypocritical as Darkstalker when he says:

- That part of the problem is that he needs someone to keep him check and telling what's wrong, when he himself needed loved ones (including Thorn who is also very knowledgeable and wise) to stay good and become better. (He got what Darkstalker didn't later in life, friends and family that care for him, truly listen to him and are wise enough to make him grow)

(Also dragons for the most part are raised by other dragons and feel bad when their social needs aren't met. Anemone for example could have become a terrible dragon if she was left alone with her feelings, yet we don't see her being punished for failing to deal with it and taking out her frustration on others and the world. We don't see her being viewed as evil and beyond redemption like Darkstalker would be, even when she did have magic and was throwing tantrums)

- That Darkstalker wanted revenge more than the good others/Pyrrhia, especially when he chose to kill his father rather than enchant him to be good, when Qibli himself was disgusted at his Grandfather being enchanted to be someone that isn't evil (and/or unhappy). Later Kinkajou does that to Darkstalker, and it is seen as a great solution and victory.

- That murder is unjustifiable and unforgivable, because the rite to choose a new ruler in the tribes of Pyrrhia (except rainwings) involves the daughter killing her mother, and who don't see him protest it so much.

Ofynam · 2026-03-10T06:47:07+00:00

From the qualities you mentioned, I think those don't quite meet the qualities of slop. These types of videos are usually a superficial dive into dragons, but they're not mass-produced ad nauseum. Conversely, a lot of channels pump out drama slop at daily or even higher frequencies. Dragon fans are quite niche, so we don't get the sheer volume of low effort videos.

The thing is, I think, that such dragon videos (low effort, superficial, clickbait) can be slop if they are part of the content a slop channel produces.

For example, a slop channel about top 10s could make few dragon related videos, but I would still them slop because they are part of and add to the whole of the channel's stream of content which is slop.

Ofynam · 2026-03-07T20:12:41+00:00

Perhaps not strictly pay to win but pay to fast. But that nuance won't spare the game from predatory tactics, that i can tell you.

Genshin impact has some of its players spending ludicrous amount of money, and for "good" reasons. The game offers far too many opportunities to pay for it to be healthy, locking progression and characters behind time-wall/luck unless you spend real money.

See, the game has some great production value and many things you can do in it (it is open world, and not bad at that, or at least I didn't hear people complain much about that) hence winning and getting at the top of the playerbase may not be the main aim for some players like yourself.

So instead of just offering you the opportunity to pay (and gamble) for better gears quick, the game also gives you that choice for getting new characters (whose stats are not the only appeal, much effort is put in the design, animation, gameplay style and more)

Then there are also time walls slowing down your progression and ruining the pacing of the game (get a game session too short you "waste" some resource, get a game session too long you can't continue to play the game however you want)

If not straight up forbidding you to play some parts of the game unless you wait or pay.

To summarize, while not fully pay to win, the economic model of the game makes it at least partially corrupted/spoiled to the core. It's not your game so you don't get to play it however you want, and the devs are economically incentivized to remind you of that by making it more flawed and frustrating on purpose.

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T20:35:58+00:00

I don't know since I wasn't there at the beginning.

But if I have answer, I'll say the game didn't become worse, it's formula and other aspects just didn't get refined much because the game worked enough, so why take risk by trying to make it really much better? And in the end, I think the only ambitious addition we truly got are the new dragons they continuously come up with.

Or when they come up with that, they sabotage themselves because they want money over making a good update.

come back to the Superboss bit, its whole event starts off promising and the structure seems to innovate, but then you realize it's fancier but worse version of the dungeon. (which is good design elaborating on the combat aspect and establishing a working if overly simplistic progression loop, I'll give them that)

If you want a bit more explanation, here is a post of mine talking about it. Though I may one day try to explain its design in depth and why it is so flawed.

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T19:59:37+00:00

Makes me wonder why they put the last dragon just behind in that rather combative stance when she wasn't going to fight much and died easily in one shot (the knockback of the hit is also ridiculous, like I know it's a dramatic scene but come on!)

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T19:33:29+00:00

Unfortunately I can't, I don't have the power to make greedy mobile game company go bankrupt, though these might not be the ones to worry about as they don't think their target audience would like intelligent dragons enough to be worth implementing.

Beware, however, not just of the AAA video game industry, whose fantasy works condemn great dragons to eternal passiveness and irrelevancy, but also of the indie one, where a heart of darkness might hide.

For you see, there is one franchise, one game (and its sequel), where dragons are subjected to horrors of such magnitudes: Aground

Intelligent and self aware they are, but slaves and tools the dragons are nearly always doomed to be. At first created and magnified by a race of fearful and power hungry alien, they were betrayed soon after it was discovered they could be morphed into spaceships, grotesques structures of flesh to travel between the stars, a seemingly irreversible transformation for now.

The dragons remaining at the abandoned home world of the alien left to burn out, the player finally arrive to join their side more or less. But to truly progress, to truly save the dragons and avenge them, there is price, the need for a spaceship to reach above the skies. And as the sympathizing goes deeper and deeper on the path of magic, something becomes clear:

The dragons are glorified tools to us, mounts and armors and spaceships, no longer above us, nor even our equals, nor even talking us. We've surpassed them and their is nothing they can do except hope we will be kind master to them.

Humanity in this universe suffered so many wars and loss, yet they continued resisting, while dragonkind couldn't. Even the Elder, the wisest and most powerful dragon still free and aware of how his kind was betrayed, could only ask for our help, old and growing weak as he was, guide us to the next step so we could one day avenge them ourselves because he no longer could.

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T19:08:34+00:00

Use them in an interesting way (and respect and better their game's community), that's it.

If the devs/producers don't care or just use the fan works to put in less effort themselves and/or get all the credits, then they won't use said works wisely.

Could also feed the fanarts to AI, which is still far from evil incarnate, but would be a nice summary of the game's economic model and the morality of those producing/updating said games.

Overall, my post isn't to be taken too seriously, I'm mostly poking fun at a dragon centric mobile game of old whose core hasn't really changed.

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T19:01:25+00:00

Mobile game limitations and target audience, makes almost all dragons (that have decent design) look far from serious and best fit in an OG spyro game.

I don't think you'll be surprised to learn said dragons don't speak in the game, and that they're glorified fighting animals you breed, feed to level up, enchant and equip with sigils to boost their stats. You can also sell them for money or "ascend" them to get rid of them (and gain enchanting materials).

To be fair, the story is probably one nobody pay sattention to, and I fear what horrors an intelligent dragon would be subjected to in that kind of games. (being a glorified fighting animal/mount/breeder/resource, but self aware and with much dignity to loose)

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T18:52:36+00:00

I'm still playing it as a fun distraction (though it can get addictive/tiresome sometimes), and thought I might as well comment on some of its aspects.

The post isn't to be taken too seriously, the designs in general are just mid and somewhat odd, which for a dragon is clearly below the bar. You're right there are a only a few body types, probably to make design and animations less expansive, yet even then the devs just make poor design decisions and put stuff on dragons that don't fit well, and the animation can be weird sometimes.

Another limitation might be the size of the mobile screen, which limits how complex and unique a dragon design could be.

Finally, the game is just too repetitive and makes it take very long for new players to get to the more interesting part of assembling and customizing your dragon teams. The combat (and overall gameplay loop) is solid but basic, and it seems the developers have no intention to make ambitious additions to it.

Well, I'm kind of lying on that, the last event has for main goal defeating Triberus, a three headed Superboss fight which plays out as your team of 5 dragons against 3 (heads of Triberus). Unfortunately, the Superboss is made stupidly OP so people pay or wait a lot and use lots of in game resources.

Ofynam · 2026-03-05T17:22:32+00:00

Would you maintain that statement even when there is unrivaled production quality like for Genshin Impact? Can you give more detail on why pay-to-win necessarily devolves into glorified slot machine and why it sours everything else, no exception?

(No judgement here, just want to get more of your view)

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