Dragon Lords: The story so far
Ready to dive straight in and take a look for yourself?
Free on iOS and Android, download here: dragonlordsmobile.com/go.htm
Otherwise read on for a little more information about the project.
A little about the history of Dragon Lords
The game has been running since 2011. The original developer (Mighty Dragon Studios) built something good over the first few years. We had a solid community with genuine depth. New features were added regularly. Then traffic from the app stores waned and slowly the lights started going out. By October 2019 it was retired after a pretty decent run for a mobile game.
I was one of game’s original players, and like many I was very sad to see it go. After some discussion I managed to persuade MDS to let me bring it back. Parts of the source code were missing, and I had a mix of versions. But fortunately I have over 35 years in the bank as a professional software developer, and managed to put everything back together using my knowledge of the game.
I started a Facebook group (Dragon Lords Forever) with a few old friends from the game to catalogue progress, and added screenshots of the game running on my own machine a week or so after it closed. The response made in obvious that the community would welcome another chance to play. In January 2020 we still had quite a few issues to iron out, but we were back!
Over the past six years we have maintained a player base of a few hundred dedicated players. I went through a number of front-end developers (I take care of project management and back-end development) before finding a partner I could trust for that.
Progress has been a little slower than we would have liked as I had to earn a living alongside my efforts to restore the game to its former glory. But last February I had managed to squirrel away enough money to have a decent full-time run at putting us back on the map.
So what is Dragon Lords?
It's a free mobile MMORPG. Turn-based and number-driven. Six races, a living war economy, and a world called Valyria with a developing back story covering the ages. There are a number of challenges to complete and more are planned. Becoming successful takes time, real alliances, and informed decisions. If that sounds taxing and thought provoking, it is. That's the point.
We've been doing lots of work around stickability lately and I'm genuinely proud of it. The player base has talked long and hard about what was stopping us from expanding, and as well as the obvious need for new eyeballs (hence our current Reddit campaign) the early game also used to just drop you in and wish you luck, which honestly wasn't good enough.
The game’s lore was always there but fragmented, half-formed, hinted at more than delivered. We've fixed that. The history of Valyria, the Cataclysm that broke the world, the Dragon Lords who held it together. We’ve added a new quest system that gives new players a proper story to follow from day one. This is still rolling out but already gives new players a completely different experience … something to spend a few hours exploring and getting to grips with when they first land.
The community is something we’re all really proud of. Everyone starts somewhere and nobody here forgets that. Veterans who've seen everything tend to want to bring new players up rather than farm easy targets. It's a friendly place and it earns that description.
Yes, there's a shop. No instant-win buttons. I wouldn't do that to this game.
AMA - all questions welcome!
I am the lead developer for Dragon Lords and I’m keeping an eye on the comments. If you have questions about the game, my lunatic mission to save it or future plans ask me anything! Nothing is off limits.
Finding us and downloading the game
Most game discussion takes place on Discord these days: discord.gg/bFcNbPWkBm
If you want to check the game out here’s the link…
… this detects iOS or Android automatically and forwards you to the right app store (shows QR codes for both app store pages if you're on desktop).
Free to download, free to play.
Valyria's always been here. Now we want the world to know it.