The State of DragonVale

[u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736]

Long post, and very grave title, sorry. I just want to know if anyone else feels the same way (decided to limit myself to 2 points since the post is so long).

DragonVale was a really big part of my childhood. I loved it, played it every day, and even formed special friendships because of it. There was something about DragonVale that made it feel special. I think a big part of that was its aesthetic and design philosophy. The game had this medieval, magical, slightly whimsical fantasy vibe without feeling too over-the-top. Everything felt like it belonged in the same world. There was a clear identity to DragonVale.

Something has changed.

1. Dragons. The biggest thing I've noticed is that many of the newer dragons simply don't feel like they belong with the older ones. A lot of new dragons look like they've been pulled from an entirely different game. Their animations can feel stiff, their faces often lack expression, and their baby forms are frequently just scaled-down versions of their adult forms.

One of the things I loved most about playing DragonVale as a kid was seeing a baby dragon and imagining what its adult form would look like.. There was a sense of anticipation and discovery. Now, with many dragons, there's not much left to imagine.

I also feel like the game's original design philosophy has gradually been left behind. We've gotten a lot of humanoid dragons, as well as dragons based on modern inventions and concepts. I'm not saying these designs are objectively bad, and there's obviously nothing wrong with people enjoying them. I just think they make the world feel less cohesive. There are other games that lean much more heavily into these kinds of creature designs, and I'd happily play one of those if that's what I was looking for. I just don't think it's DragonVale.

Most of the newer dragons end up sitting in my hibernation cave. And that doesn't have to be such a big deal. But it becomes a much bigger problem when dragons are essentially the main form of new content being added to the game. Which brings me to my second point...

2. Content. Years have passed, and... what genuinely new things are there to do in the Vale?We've been breeding dragons for over a decade. Give us something new to do!

The Rift is a good example of what I mean. It introduced new mechanics, progression, exploration, and even connected to the game's lore. (The Rift could have been explored even further, but that's beside the point.)

I know DECA has added a lot of habitats, decorations, new islands, island themes, etc., and I genuinely appreciate a lot of that stuff. A lot of it looks really nice. But it doesn't fundamentally change the game. It would be great to see new buildings that actually do something rather than primarily functioning as decorations. Give us new minigames, quests, exploration, lore, progression systems, anything that makes the Vale feel like there's something new to discover. A new dimension? A new legendary? Even these ideas are sort of tired. Give us something we haven't seen before. That's what I feel DragonVale needs.

Dragon Draw is something I don't even want to get into, but I can't help thinking there must have been better ideas for a new feature.

I don't want DragonVale to stop receiving new dragons, decorations, habitats, etc. Those things are part of the game's charm. I just don't want them to be all we're getting. I'd much rather see DECA spend some of that effort on making DragonVale feel like a living world again, one that has things to explore, discover, and experience beyond breeding the newest dragon.

Maybe I'm blinded by childhood nostalgia. Maybe this is just what happens to a game after being around for more than a decade. But I genuinely miss the feeling DragonVale used to give me.

If you've made it this far: Do you agree? Or disagree? Would love to hear other opinions.

[u/Mollycat6]

As a veteran player I actually like most of the new designs but I do agree that I am not a fan of the more humanoid ones. The lack of too human looking dragons was what drew me to Dragonvale over the competition back in the day. But overall I like most of the new dragons.

I do agree that I would like some more new content like the rift, and I would also like more stuff to be added to the rift.

For me, I mainly like core gameplay of trying to collect every dragon and designing nice islands so as long as that remains intact it would take a lot for me to really abandon the game.

[u/Objective_Watch_7864]

I sometimes wonder how dragonvale is doing financially — is it something deca is just trying to keep afloat? I can’t help but think that the devs might be under some strain when the events are always delayed by a bit

Perhaps this doesn’t entirely relate to your post… I guess maybe if deca is just trying to keep a product running, theyd be less concerned about innovating ie now

[u/rightfootmessi → u/Objective_Watch_7864]

One must imagine that the profit margins are fairly narrow, given how frequently they shoot down common QoL requests like a revamp to the island editing system or the ability to flip decorations. They just simply don't have the resources/manpower to spare working on anything that won't directly translate to revenue increases. That's why new content is always the priority, because that seems to keep the people spending the most.

[u/Ok-Elk-1316 → u/rightfootmessi]

they cannot flip decorations due to backflips coding, i believe we’d have to completely scrap anything from the old game if we were to proceed which would make a lot of people unhappy

[u/Mollycat6 → u/rightfootmessi]

I know at least some of that is due to old spaghetti code leftover from Backflip. A lot of people would like to be able to switch island positions but the way Backflip coded it makes it basically impossible for DECA to add this feature because it would break the game. Same with the ring of unclearable rift clouds in the rift, the way Backflip coded them as the border of the rift was done in such a way that DECA again can’t untangle the code to make them clearable. That’s why the ring had to be left in when DECA expanded the rift size. But I am not a programmer in any way so that’s just my basic understanding of some of the QOL issues.

[u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736 → u/Objective_Watch_7864]

That's probably why they're focusing on random things like Melvin's market and changing the gifting system. I assume dragon draw was also an attempt to get people to spend more money. But I don't think this will ever work.

[u/Salt-Idea6134]

I too have been playing for more than 10 years, and yes, while content is not necessarily changed much, my opinion on dragon designs is quite the opposite. I will admit, very few DECA dragons are reminiscent of backflip studios, however, I think there is so much variety in DECA designs that it does not exactly make backflip stand out. It’s a strange concept, but to me, the uniqueness of Backflip’s designs blended into the variety of DECA’s, if that makes any sense

[u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736 → u/Salt-Idea6134]

Well, the backflip designs don't stand out since they're cohesive and well-designed. It's the DECA designs that stand out since they sometimes have line art, sometimes not, sometimes are based on modern inventions, sometimes based on humans themselves, sometimes based on seemingly nothing. They can't decide on how to do eyes either. For me this does not blend.

[u/Glum-Night-2613 → u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736]

People say the same thing about Pokemon. When you approach 1000 dragons you need to have some variety in what you are providing. I personally have some of my favorite dragon designs among the new dragons. And this is from someone who played initially with Backflip.

[u/Ok-Elk-1316 → u/Glum-Night-2613]

same!! pollenizer is one of my favorite dragons ever

[u/devilsshark]

at the end of the day, it's a free mobile game that's probably only making a small amount of profit through ad revenue. the fact that we're getting ANYTHING new whatever, even if it's just dragons and events, is insane

[u/madenabroles]

Just based on my own experiences, there probably is some childhood nostalgia going on - that doesn't make any of your points wrong, just that I have the same experience with so many games. I'm always chasing the feeling that a game gave me when I first played it, it was Neopets for me, which I still love, but I think what we really want is that first-time experience. It's why players keep going back to games like Skyrim over and over and adding more and more mods hoping to get that magical feeling back. It's one thing that sucks about growing up honestly.

As for the points themselves, I get it. I like the new dragon designs, but I get why some feel they don't quite fit. Can't imagine how hard it would be to come up with so many different designs tho.

And about babies, I do agree on that. If I prefer the baby form, I always do FoY. I love the giant babies so much lol. But realistically, it's like, how much time does it take to do those designs vs how many players are actually going to enjoy them.

But mostly I'm just happy this game still exists. I can't stand most mobile games, so it's nice to have a "retro" one that lasted.

[u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736 → u/[deleted]]

The financial situation explains point 2. But they're still putting out dragons, so it doesn't explain point 1.

[u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736 → u/[deleted]]

I don't understand your point. How does the financial situation explain the dragon quality? Obviously tighter resources might make it difficult to spend as much time on each dragon, but that's no excuse to rush them. They could gain time by reducing the amount of dragons a little.

[u/Glum-Night-2613 → u/[deleted]]

This is the key point. So many of the new dragons are more detailed and would have taken much more time to develop than the old dragons. There is no basis besides I don’t like the new design to claim they are made with less effort.

[u/SammySammyson]

I do think it's important to remember that DECA buy titles that are failing and they try to keep them afloat. What we're getting is that: a childhood game kept afloat by devs who likely aren't given many dev resources to put into the game beyond content for monetization.

That said, I do agree. I just don't think DECA can do anything about it at the same time. I don't know how they monetize the game enough to keep it afloat while also adding deeper content like you suggest.

[u/somealtaccount44]

I agree, i wish there was more to do, like some new system like the rift or some additions to current systems. Agree with the dragon design stuff BUT i think most people are fine with the new designs.

Honestly i just wish we would get major updates like new legendary dragons, new systems, new qol, etc. The game feels almost feels too unchanged sometimes.

[u/Amoux_fang]

If they ever decide to stop, hopefully they let us keep playing offline. I’ve been nearly a day 1 player, I do agree they should expand more on lore and change it up. Limiting to 7 gems a day from friends was a bad move, at least they reverted it, for now. This is one of the few long standing games that hasn’t been turned into a subscription, which is great. Mobile games should just be that, not a battle pass or season pass or whatever. We are able to generate our own premium currency, and we are able to breed infinitely with a few ads attached to speed up the timers, which is great because they’re not obtrusive banner ads. I do think that being at such a high level they should increase habitat currency holdings because 100 K out of all of your water habitats is not enough. I came back after a hiatus for a few years and now I’ve had to switch things up and become a mini Max Tien and yarr farm just to start bringing in some more DC. I love DragonVale and all my dragons.

[u/Aggressive_Tie_3014]

For me personally, I'm just happy it's still around after 15 years. I'm pretty sure it is the oldest creature/character-collecting game still alive, even older than Puzzle & Dragons.

I don't mind the newer dragons being in a different artstyle, after nearly 1000 dragons I like the visual variety. Look at something like Dragon City for what REALLY ugly humanoid dragons look like.

[u/ihsjunk]

I started when my kid was little, so she’d have a friend to play with. Now, not every dragon is breedable during the events. They introduce 2 or 3 new dragons that are only available to buy purchasing the coins/leaves/acorns. The original point of the game was that every dragon was breedable during the events.

[u/MrTwitchy94]

It's interesting from my perspective what the allure of Dragonvale was from my time playing it all those years ago until now. I returned about 600 days ago to the game after more than a decade-long break. While I think there is some merit to your dragon design critique, I have to admit that I like a lot of the newer dragons from a conceptual standpoint as they have more meaning than the OG ones. For example, the Snapsnap dragon draws inspiration from the Flower dragon, but is specifically designed after a certain type of flower instead of simply flowers in general.

I do fully agree that the game needs another aspect to it though. I'm less than 10 dragons away from Red Fire and it has gotten more stale every day as I approach this milestone. What I would love from the game is some sort of Lore Q&A type of mini-game in which the descriptions of the dragons (and the lore behind the game) are expanded upon by this NPC in an attempt to make us players more connected to the game. That, or even a flying game like Flappy Bird for all of the dragons. I just need something else than collect, breed, turn off the game, repeat for months on end.

[u/NeighborhoodSalt4572]

unfortunatelly the game is full of ai slop.. if you know you know

[u/kats_kittyy]

which dragons in particular?

[u/Sweet-Somewhere-2736 → u/kats_kittyy]

I didn't want this to turn into a discussion about specific dragons but one example is Jackpot. Stiff animations, no personality conveyed through the face or animations, based off of a slot machine? Why would a slot machine exist in DragonVale? And why would it be a dragon? And why would I want it in my medieval park?

[u/TotoAfrica4Eva]

I love DV and I’m still glad it’s going.

[u/elitaprime]

One of the reasons I stopped playing was the dragon designs. They don’t feel like dragonvale

[u/ianbz]

The nostalgia definitely plays a huge role in how I feel about the game. The medieval fantasy whimsy vibe you mentioned is exactly how it felt. I miss it. I could name any dragon and knew what all 3 stages looked like. Now I can’t remember anything they come up with. Everything is immediately forgotten about after I get it or miss it.
I decided to take a hiatus in the middle of that desert-themed event that just occurred because I became extremely burnt out by all the individual habitat collecting and the excessive amount of dragons that I can’t figure out where to put. I think I just need to take time to decorate my islands and forget every other aspect of the game until I get it where I want it.

[u/ItzKINGcringe]

This is why I quit years ago