Ken's Corner

I was flipping channels and Shrek was on, so I decided to stop and watch. It happened to be at the part where they're running out of the castle and the dragon is chasing after them. It got me thinking about how far Dragons could probably go in video games, ESPECIALLY if it were an RPG. So I decided to do a quick Google search and skim around on the first page of hits to see if I could find a game where you played as a Dragon... and the only one I came across was a PC game released in 2004 called "The I of the Dragon".

It looks alright. Looks like another game that'll be fun, but short-lived (story of my game life). But overall I was kind of disappointed that this was the only one.

It may be easier to sell "You get to be a humanoid! yay!" versus "You get to be a dragon! yay!". I mean as far as RPG's are concerned I think majority of the people out there want their character to be "yea that's me!" You just don't get that connection to your character the same way I suppose...

But other than that. You could do a lot with Dragons. I mean there's already a whole bunch of myths and legends and stories in the real world that you can pull from, and reverse it to where you're in the dragon's "shoes". Like say you start the game as a wyrm, and you're just trying to survive in the forest. After so long, you grow into a bigger dragon, and people are trying to hunt you to ensure the safety of their own villages. Maybe even near the end of this game you get to protect a village of your own, or even move on and protect several villages. Maybe there's a collection/trophy system integrated into the game, and you stash it away into a cave. At one point you'll have to fend off looters from your precious treasure.

I mean if you really sat down and thought about content, you could do it. But I know implementing it into the game, and bringing it altogether is another thing...

You could take the gameplay in several ways, too. Make it like Black and White. You protect the villages you own, and you're out to protect/control other villages (I imagine Dragons are very proud, and would like to have as much power underneath them as possible. Modest or cruel. Depends on the dragon. Out to save villages from the evil cruel dragons, or you're out to take villages by force because "you want them". But when I think Dragon, I think "Power")

But unless it has a lot of special qualities... why not just play Black and White?

At least it's an idea though.

Right now I can't get off Black and White, but a Dragon RPG would be cool, too. Starting off as a wyrm, and growing into whatever kind of dragon you want to be. White, Black, Fire, Frost. Could always make all the elements. Wind, Earth. Maybe just a "regular dragon" tree, where it's all physical. Throw in a leveling system. Could keep the different types of dragons as "classes", or arrange everything in a skill based character development. All of the above types of dragons are in different "trees" that you spend points to work up into. Only problem is I personally can't think of anything outside of "Frost breath attack. Fire breath attack."

But it doesn't mean you can't go outside the boundaries and say you give him a Fire punch.

So there. If anyone reads this and is a game developer, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling. I'm sure a team of designers could come up with something 10000 times better.

O dragon games, where art thou?