Recent reviews by Smeasel

just a good ol' time

I can't CONVEY just how much I love this game.

>This review has been updated. I believe leaving the initial review here is important, but if you just want my most up-to-date critiques, feel free to jump down to the 4/24/25 Update section**.

Before reading this review, please know that I have personal investment in this game. There are multiple people on staff for the game who's friendship meant a lot to me when we used to play games back in ~2017-2018. I care about them and I hope that this project has and will bring them happiness and prosperity. That includes the lead dev Jao by extension, despite how much he drives me crazy. Its been long enough that I would now like to summarize my view and experiences with the game and community.

I cannot recommend the game in its current state. The primary mode to enjoying this game is through joining a clan- which is fine, and the game gives players an in-game means to do so, but in terms of accessibility it is far from ideal. I have been inactive from being in a clan and coming back to the game on PvP servers as a solo player is treacherous. Most players that try to join this community are going to be doing so from the basis that they like dragons and not because their friends invited them, because the existing community is relatively small. You will be noobie-stomped many times by players that have grinded for hundreds of hours for the biggest, most beefed up dragons possible. That grinding is made more potent simply by having more clan members. It is a measure of one's ability to navigate a social hierarchy and clan politics more than it is one's ability to master the game's mechanics.

I have approached the community about these issues and the interest for making the gameplay more accessible for beginners isn't there. The clans are happy to hold control over servers and will bully you for asserting that it isn't fair. "Just get friends," is a common response. What if your existing friends think the game is a joke? lol.

You can actually circumvent these core gameplay issues by purchasing one or both of the DLC dragon playable creatures. The Acid Spitter Drake and Blitz Striker dragons have attributes that fundamentally allow them to avoid the worst aspects of the game. Both the Acid Spitter and Blitz have enhanced mobility that they have access to immediately upon spawning in. If you spawn in as a free dragon, you will be unable to fly for approximately an hour until you hit the adult growth stage. You can glide as these dragons, but there is sparse verticality in the map that will allow you to make meaningful use of the gliding capability. For the Acid Spitter, you have access to a faster sprinting ability that essentially replaces its normal sprint which you can use indefinitely as long as you have stamina, and will allow you to relocate your fresh-spawned Acid Spitter to a more convenient location if your spawn is being patrolled by a bigger hungry dragon. The Blitz Striker has immediate access to a hover ability which it can use to gain indefinite height to allow itself to glide. You can purchase the Acid Spitter for $7.99 USD and the Blitz Striker for $9.99 USD. There are certainly worse offenders when it comes to monetization, but this is pretty far up there for an unfinished game to be locking basic gameplay convenience behind a paywall. It's rather shameful in my opinion.

After the Blitz Striker released, I raised the idea in the global official server chat in-game that all flying dragon species should have this hover and glide capability as a base-line to allow all players to be able to relocate themselves to a more favorable location. I was berated by clan members that scoffed at the idea and tried to make personal attacks towards me while moderators looked on and did nothing. Like I said, the community has no interest in improving the accessibility. The developers have promised zones that would be exclusive to juvenile dinosaurs but at the rate of development we're seeing, I don't see it coming anytime soon.

The Future
The development rate of the game is truly a snails pace, the game accrued approximately $500,000 in their kickstarter campaign and after 5 years of development (this December) it confounds me what those funds must have gone towards. I'm not expecting them to outline all of their expenses, but its been quite some years giving this game the benefit of the doubt and defending their work ethic for very little payoff. I am trying to avoid making specific accusations, but the delays and excuses are suspicious at best in my opinion. It all starts sounding undeniably silly if you sit down and try explaining it to someone who is out-of-the-loop. I'll let the readers do their own digging to make up their own minds on whether those are reasonable conclusions. I really wish they would stop using the love and care of their supporters as emotional leverage and start delivering on their promises.

**Review Update 4/24/25, Looking at the Stats
Since writing this review, the devs have updated the with some improvements to the map and the core survival aspects for fresh-spawn players such as juvie dragons being able to fly if they have a sufficient jump-off point. This is GREAT! I applaud their efforts at making the new and solo player experience more accessible, especially rectifying the issue of basic convenience being locked behind a paywall.

There was an announcement today on their Discord for a new playable dragon labeled as a "cosmetic" since it does not have any attacks. It will be able to mimic calls as well as ride other players. This is a neat idea, no problems there.

My issue starts with the fact that this dragon is only accessible to spawn as if you have paid $302 on their Patreon by opting in for the annual option of their Alpha Dragon tier which I'll describe in more detail later. I get that the dragon doesn't have much impact on the gameplay itself, but restricting content for your game that is still in alpha behind a $300+ paywall is pretty damn egregious.
Monetization has been a big grievance of mine with this game for some time, so I wanted to share some stats regarding the monetization the game has seen thus far and laying out how much the game has and is making.

Kickstarter
The project went on Kickstarter at the beginning of September in 2019, before the Kickstarter closed, the project brought in $533,938 with roughly 12k backers. My tally of the tiers came out to 12,042 backers but the official count is listed as 12,123 so we'll go with that. Every single tier listed had what looks to be a key included to play the game, so all of those backers recieved the game. Backers paid an average of $44.05 based on the Kickstarter's stats for access to the game, as well as exclusive skins and playables. This is all fine and makes sense, the Kickstarter has an obnoxious amount of options that were capped at either 100 or 150 that had specific skins locked behind them that would be given to those players specfically, and presumably able to nest other players with that exclusive skin. I have no problems with this because the nature of a Kickstarter is to allow individuals to pay more than they might pay for the game itself for extra content, and if they are especially enthusiastic about funding a project to see it meet stretch goals. We're looking fine so far, let me lay these numbers out neatly for ease of reference.
-Kickstarter Total Raised: $533,938
-Total Backers: 12,123
-Average Pledge: $44.05

DLC
I think its unacceptable for a game in its alpha stage to be locking any sort of gameplay feature behind a paywall, let alone a $300 Patreon tier. Its important to note that hypothetically, someone could sign up for this annual $300 tier and be charged again a year later if they don't remember to cancel it. So if you only signed up for it to be able to spawn as the furry dragon, you could end up paying $600 and left trying to sort out a $300 refund if you aren't careful. (cont. below)

Dope-a-kiin

still having fun with it and enjoying the changes 5 years later :)

yes

MMhhhmmmm

Errmm yeah!

yez

yes