Questions by Mohammed Afzal (MageMoa), Onrpg writer
Answered by Cysero, Creative Lead of DragonFable
Answered by Cysero, Creative Lead of DragonFable
Artix Entertainment has become a great and successful company in these few years. They have managed to keep up with the needs of the players and they have been able to develop new games. One of Artix Entertainment’s titles is DragonFable.
DragonFable tells us the story of brave warriors and their adventures in a fantasy world full of monsters, enemies, friends, pets, magic and more! But this game offers us more than that! No downloads, no spam, completely free with member option, thousands of weapons and armor etc…
We have asked ourselves the questions: Will DragonFable be able to keep up with its players? Will there always be something new?
Cysero: To answer these questions, Onrpg had the opportunity to interview Cysero, Creative Lead of DragonFable.
Onrpg: Could you introduce yourself, please?
Cysero: Sure thing. I’m Cysero, the Mad Magical Weaponsmith. I’m also the creative lead for DragonFable, the lead cup holder tester and one of the development team for our new MMO, AdventureQuest Worlds.
Onrpg: DragonAmulets can be purchased with real money. What are the benefits of having one?
Cysero: A better question would be to ask “What DON’T you get with a Dragon Amulet?”.The list would be shorter.
DragonFable is a single player browser based RPG build exclusively in Adobe Flash. It is the story of your custom-created hero and your faithful dragon as you try to save (or possibly destroy) the world of Lore. Your dragon can become one of the most powerful creatures on the planet if you raise it right, and a Dragon Amulet unlocks you and your dragon’s full potential.
With the one-time purchase of a Dragon Amulet, you get the ability to fully use EVERY SINGLE class in the game. You can also use any and every weapon, helm, cloak, ring, belt, necklace, pet and you also get exclusive use of trinkets, which are ONLY available for our Dragon Amulet holders. You get full access to every quest in the game and special member perks like the ability to Beta test the new class armors and help the team balance them before they are fully released in the game. You even get a pouch of our in-game currency, called Dragoncoins!
Onrpg: DragonFable has had many updates. Could you tell us more about the Dragonpedia Masters?
Cysero: Our forums are a very big part of the DF community. Thousands of our players go to the forums to comment on the weekly content releases, find out information from our more experienced, helpful players or just toss around ideas about what they’d like to see added to the game. One very fun section of our forums is the DFpedia, where players can make entries about every new quest, event or item and other players can go there to find out more about anything in the game! The players can add descriptions, pictures, items stats…ANY useful information, but in order to contribute to the DFpedia you have to be a member of the elite Dragonpedia Masters.
There is nothing quite like going to the DFpedia and seeing that you are the first to do a write up of a never-before-seen item!
Onrpg: Players now have the possibility to fish in-game. Could you tell us more about this new feature?
Cysero: We’ve all played an RPG where fishing is a feature, and it has always been one of my favorite parts of any RPG world. We have finally added a fishing minigame to DragonFable that ANY player can play, with or without a Dragon Amulet. There are 20 ranks of fishing including Chum Bucket, Chief Neurosturgeon, Cod Among Men and Hook Master and each fish you catch adds points to your rank. An example of every new fish you catch goes into your aquarium , but right now there are only 20 fish to catch (including a boot and a stick… both of which also go into your aquarium). We will be adding more fish soon, along with special shops that you can only access by ranking up your fishing and special fish that will add effects to your battles like additional health, mana, or even the ability to get a critical strike!
Onrpg: We’ve noticed that the DragonFable staff has casual contact with the players. Why have you decided to do this?
Cysero: Because we can’t hear them way up here on these pedestals, heh. Actually, it’s because we’re all gamers, just like our players. We think hanging out and chatting with them is just as fun as they do. Maybe more. We like to know what they think about our games and what they think will make them better, and we like them to feel connected to the games and to us as developers and game characters. Without them, there would be no DragonFable, or any of our other games.
Onrpg: There are ‘Doom weapons’ in-game. Could you describe them for us and are they available to regular members?
Cysero: The Doom Weapons are weapons that have become infused and corrupted by elemental darkness. The players don’t know much about them yet, but the story of the Doom Weapons goes a lot deeper than anyone suspects. They have always been one of the most powerful weapons in the game… but no one seems to ask what the price for that power is. The weapons also tend to be a bit snarky.
Yes, regular players and Dragon Amulet holders can all get Doom Weapons, but there are many levels of Doom Weapons that you can get as you level up and only Dragon Amulet holders can obtain the highest, most powerful (and frankly, coolest looking) versions of the weapons.
Onrpg: What are the newest features of DragonFable?
Cysero: The newest feature of DF is the Archknight storyline. In between our first game and DF, Artix hand made a mini-RPG called Archknight which is the tale of a young boy named Ash Dragonblade whose only purpose in life is to save a princess and become a knight. Ash has been a staple character of DF for as long as the game has been around and a lot of players asked when we were going to finish the original Archknight mini-RPG, so we’ve made Ash a playable character for Dragon Amulet holders. They can play through the totally re-vamped Archknight storyline within DragonFable.
We’ve nearly caught up with the end of the original mini-game, but we have decided to continue his story in DragonFable. Our players have a lot more of Ash’s ridiculous adventures to look forward to!
We have also recently added cup holders to the game, for player comfort.
Onrpg: Will there be events held where players will be able to get a free subscription?
Cysero: As of now, we have no plans for any contests or events where a player could win a DragonAmulet …but who knows?
Onrpg: What is the so called ‘Popsprocket’ which has been released recently?
Cysero: Popsprocket is a steam-punk themed city of gnomish design. The town has been taken over by a horde of steam and clockwork powered robots who are being controlled by an evil Technomancer. You are racing the game’s lead villain, Sepulchure, to that Technomancer to grab his power from him. If you like shiny brass and copper, clacking gears or really, really short resistance fighters then this is the zone for you!
Onrpg: If you look back to the original release of Dragon Fable, and compare it to the current version of the game, what is the biggest difference?
Cysero: I’d have to say that the biggest difference is that it’s a GAME now. In the beginning, when we left Beta and entered the real world of browser-based gaming, we knew that we would be adding more and more to the game with our weekly releases… but at the time we had 3 base classes (basic Fighter, Mage, Thief combo), 1 quest, 1 town, 6 monsters and about 200 items. No game intro, no plot, and no cup holders!
We have grown SO much since that time that is boggles my pre-boggled mind! We just broke 400 quests… we’ve added nearly 400 separate monsters, about 2500 different items, several mini-games and skills like fishing, blacksmithing and potion making with cooking in the works, several towns, several world-changing events, and we have even added DRAGONS to DRAGONFable!
Onrpg: Was the difference something that developed naturally or something that caught you by surprise?
Cysero: Bit of both. Could hardly be one without the other. The more substance we added to the game, the more the players liked it and the more players we had… that’s more people to please and more people with great ideas. So we added those ideas, too. Then more people came and THEY KEEP COMING. It’s become this giant snowball of insane fun, and mayhem that is carried along by the force of its own momentum. Well, the force of its own momentum and the fact that we’ve got banner ads on as many websites as we possibly can.
If you spend a lot of time here (on the web) keep an eye out for them. I bet you’ll see a few.
Onrpg: Can we expect any new features in the future?
Cysero: No. We’re bored with making this game and we’ve all decided to take up contact juggling as a hobby, just like we’ve all wanted to do since we first saw David Bowie doing it in Labyrinth.
…What?
Ok, I was just informed that those weren’t David Bowie’s hands in that film, so never mind. Back to work!
You can ABSOLUTELY expect more future features! We have so much planned for DF it can’t all fit on one production schedule calendar. When we take stock of all the great players’ suggestions and our own ideas, we will NEVER run out of features to add for our weekly releases.
Onrpg: Could you tell us more about these features without giving too much away?
Cysero: Sure! As I mentioned before we have cooking in the works, we have more of the Archknight Saga, we will be expanding fishing to include a number of new fish and new features, we are thinking about adding warming/cooling features to the cup holders AND this summer we will be doing a cross over with AdventureQuest’s first huge war… the FIRE war!
Onrpg: Will you release a downloadable version of DragonFable soon?
Cysero: Never going to happen. All of our games are browser- based and that’s part of what makes them great. A lot of parents and kids don’t like to download game files because you can never be too sure what you’re installing. With DragonFable and our other games, all you need is an internet connection and a web browser and POW… you’re in the middle of the action!
Onrpg: There have been rumors about new events. What is your response to that?
Cysero: Rumors are interesting things, especially on OUR forums. There have been a few times when we thought that the rumors that we saw on the forums were such great ideas that we incorporated them into the DragonFable! Whenever possible, we make sure that self-fulfilling prophecies fulfill themselves.
Onrpg: Are we going to see any new titles of Artix Entertainment in the future?
Cysero: All we know how to do is make good games. It’s the best job on the planet and we’ve got the best players on the web. They ALWAYS want to see what kind of adventure is over the next hill and we will never let them down. We will keep making new and better games until our mice break… then we’ll use sticks or something…
Onrpg: Thank you for answering these questions!
Cysero: Thanks for asking them!