Dragon Sprouts

A cute game about building your own dragon sanctuary filled with adorable dragons. An interesting game with potential but needs more time to cook. [i]My review is written in the early access stage so obviously changes will be made continuously as the game is worked on. This is just my impressions at the time of early access. [/i] [h2][u]Gameplay[/u][/h2] There is a simple tutorial to start you off that gets you going. To claim the portal and grow your eggs however hold your left mouse button to “feed” magic to them. I am not sure how to remove the corruption blocks beyond the tutorial and building and clearing around their perimeters do not seem to work. In the game you destroy rocks, grass, and corruption that will net you crystals per destruction. To destroy an item just hold down the mouse button on the item and you’ll see a pickaxe symbol. Once destroyed it leaves behind a crystal you have to click on to collect (no auto-collection sadly). You collect crystals to buy upgrades for your sanctuary such as food, grass, flowers, lights, toys for your dragons, beds, walkways, fences, trees and bushes, and miscellaneous items (wells, fountains etc). Compared to other games in this genre the grind can be a lot so expect to spend a lot of time to earn crystals. [h2][u]Settings & Features[/u][/h2] Settings & features include; Controls, display and resolutions options with lots of settings you can customize for shadows, view distance, textures, etc., and audio controls. There are also options for screen mode, benchmark, and fps limit. [h2][u]The Visuals & Audio[/u][/h2] Visually the game is nice. Each area is messy and bare-bones until you clean it up and start building the sanctuary. The music is relaxing, and the ambient sounds well done, such as the sounds you hear while breaking down rocks (pickaxe noise) or the tinkle of collecting a crystal. The dragons do make cute little snoring sounds when they sleep and adorable crunching noises when they eat. But when you pet them, all you see is a bunch of hearts flying out. I wish they made a cute trilling noise when you petted them. They don’t fly in game really, they hover above the ground for a few seconds at times but never fly around. [h2][u]Wishlist[/u][/h2] 🔹 Allow for the game to be paused. 🔹 Allow upgrades for the pickaxe so we can destroy stuff faster 🔹 Let us zoom out more to get a bigger overall view of the whole park 🔹 The corruption spawns way too fast (seriously) I broke an area and 5 seconds later it regrew 🔹 Make crystals auto pickup possibly? 🔹 I could not find a way to move an item once placed (the controls layout did not show how to as well). 🔹 Make Gremlins faster and give them dual purpose so they each destroy tiles [i]and[/i] collect crystals [h2][u]Overall Experience[/u][/h2] The grind in this game is honestly [i]a lot[/i]. You need to pretty much put something down on [i]every single tile[/i] to prevent regrowth or break 4 tiles and put something down in the center of them. I got into a pattern of pickaxing a few tiles and immediately laying down flower tiles right after as I went. I am not sure how to clear the corruption blocks beyond the simple opening tutorial. I find it needs a lot of work but has a lot of potential in the long run and the dragons are cute. However I highly recommend trying the demo out before purchasing. I will revisit the game in about 6 months and update my review where necessary. 🐉 [hr][/hr] IndieGems wishes to thank [i]Cozy Fox Games[/i] for providing a free review copy for this game. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]

This game is cute, but I got kind of bored rather quickly. I absolutely love the idea of this game and the dragons and hope that the developer will continue to expand on the game, but in it's current state it just wasn't my favorite. What I Loved: [list] [*] Cozy game with adorable dragons. Watching the dragons exploring was probably my favorite part. [*] It's low pressure and has good vibes. [/list] What Caused My "No" For Recommendation: [list] [*] The tutorial wasn't as helpful as I wanted it to be. I think I learned more from clicking around than from the tutorial, especially when it came to taking care of the dragons. [*] The corruption seems to spawn really quickly and the workers don't clean it up very fast. You need to pretty much put an item down on every single spot to prevent it from respawning. [*] The copy / paste feature just did not work for me. [*] Clicking on the crystals (currency) didn't always register and or would be too close to an area I didn't have unlocked and sometimes wouldn't let me pick them up. [*] The items you get to decorate with are cute, but it felt limited on options. [*] Feels grindy more than fun and I think having some sort of story would have helped keep me engaged. [/list] I had high hopes for this one cause I absolutely adore dragons and have been in my cozy era lately, and it's well done for being an indie game with just a single developer, but after about an hour of playing and grinding out crystals I was just done. I'll be watching this one for future updates though because I feel like it has potential. For more reviews check out the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45071674-Under-Starry-Skies/] Under Starry Skies [/url] curator page!

In the short time I've spent in this game, unfortunately I can't recommend it. The UI for the title screen feels reminiscent of a mobile game with the small buttons, and the way that the title card for the game is stretched to the point of being pixelated and horribly blurry only to fade out into a much less interesting menu. From what I was able to play of the game (please note that I didn't get much further than hatching my first dragon and clearing up some of the corruption), the tutorial text would vanish at random, the copy and paste function refused to... function? The UI feels terribly scaled (no pun intended), and while the game is cute, I just can't suggest this in good faith. I had very high hopes for this game, and there's definitely something amazing here. It just needs a bit more time to bake.

This game is cute, but it definitely needs quite a bit of work. * The ability to level up your dragons * The ability to level up the Gremlins that harvest the corruption to make them go faster and let them auto collect crystals * The ability to change the font size of the UI * Add more detailed instructions for caring for the dragons. This can be done when the dragon is hungry and showing how to feed them. Also if they need care - showing a tutorial of the exercises (like the wheel) and petting them. * Having the snap to grid be set as the game default instead of having to use CTRL (which will make it easier in the long term to decorate) * Change the rate of regeneration of the corruption so that you can't farm as quickly to make the game last longer * Give the ability to move items by clicking and holding without having to destroy the items (this way if you accidentally drop it in the wrong area you can quickly move it) * Give the ability to upgrade the pickaxe so that you can destroy stuff faster * Give more customization when it comes to the view (such as allowing further zoom out) * From a graphical standpoint regarding the UI - I’d change the font to something ultimately easier to read. In addition - I’d change the font color to black. When first launching the game, the 3 buttons (Magic Returns, Creative, TheColony) are hard to read. * Remove the Creative and TheColony buttons since they are both not active * I’d also come up with a backstory to engage the players more with something like: The Dragons began to lose their magic because of some rivalry and corruption began to take over. It’s up to us (the player) to remove the corruption and bring baby dragons back and care for them.

the game is really cute and the premise is fun, and in short i would recommend for those who want a comfy experience. some pointers to the dev to improve player experience: -Corruption grows very quickly, and your little helpers go really slow, in the future either slowing the regeneration of corruption or stopping it entirely with certain objects, or way to speed up your helpers would be great. -Also the magic crystals take a few clicks to pick up, maybe think about having them be picked up by a swipe of the mouse for better flow of gameplay. -the tutorial was a little janky, but i still figured out everything fine, but some tweaks could improve things greatly despite my critiques i love this game, and the dragons are adorable and absolutely the best thing. I want to see more =, more dragons more cute things for my dragons, more objects more plants, more more more! you have something great here devs!

Alrighty let's get this review started! You probably don't want anything too long and lengthy, so lets make this short and sweet. This is an indie game, made by a solo dev, and it's in EARLY ACCESS. Let's receive this with some grace. This game is very adorable, very relaxing, and very addictive. I was so addicted to it that I didn't even realize two hours had passed. Now that isn't to say that it doesn't have it's flaws. There are a few bugs, not really game breaking, but it can make the game a little bit frustrating. The dev is working very hard to get these bugs squashed, so all it really is at the moment is some patience. There is a feedback form in the game that you can use to help her out in making the game way better than what it is currently. And that's pretty much the gist of it. Destroy corruption, plant flowers, plant a garden, collect dragons, build a dragon sanctuary of your dreams. So what are you waiting for? Go get some dragons.

This is an amendment to my prior review as seen below. The UI is fine. It's not great, but it gets the job done. The control scheme is utter ass. I frequently delete placed objects when trying to interact with my dragons, and there are no keybinds. You cannot feasibly play this game in the beginning without slogging through a ridiculous self-educating grind that ultimately leaves you frustrated. It literally makes no sense and I do not understand how the dev could not comprehend how hard they have failed at simple mechanics. Tooltips for the helper-creatures briefly appear when I click them, but very rarely, and always disappearing as soon as I see it. I cannot recreate this madness no matter how hard I try. It is seemingly random. The in-game tutorial is useless. It is sort of fun, but to get to the point where it becomes fun you have to painstakingly devote yourself to understanding the teeth-grindingly stupid controls. _______________________________________ The UI is buggy and frustrating. The control scheme isn't any better. Why do games with such good premises always try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to UI and control? Has the dev never played another game? So frustrating, this could be such a good game, but I hit escape to access the menu and the game explodes. I click something to get more information, oops deleted the item because of why now? Because the left click button also deletes decorations and objects?? I want to play this game, I can see its potential. My 2 year old would love to watch dragons screw around and play, but I can't do anything because the controls and the interface are complete nonsense. News for the game suggests its coming out of early access... That's a mistake. This game needs a lot more development. The tutorial is a combination of text and voice, but the sound design doesn't allow you to hear the tutorial voice and the text isn't really helpful. The game needs a ton of polish. I recognize that as I write my review, I'm speaking on reactive emotion and there is more going on in my life that caused this vitriol. I fully plan to give the game more time, because ultimately I would like to change my review.

The simple satisfaction of creating beauty from chaos is the core premise of Dragon Sprouts. It's a low pressure experience that let me focus on discovery and construction. The dragons wander to whatever they most need, which encouraged me to spread out beds, slides, and farms across the sanctuary rather than bunching up in a corner to try and maximize efficiency. Once I worked out a good flow, sitting back and watching the cute critters go about their lives was a relaxing respite from pickaxing the ever-encroaching corruption. I also appreciate the ability to quick-spawn "snacks", which let me ensure no dragon went hungry just because I accidentally deleted a farm they were about to eat from. I enjoy the current gameplay, and I hope the developer continues to add content on top of this foundation. I would like to see a clearer sense of player progression. Completing quests to unlock new areas after achieving specific goals would feel more meaningful than simply buying access with mana. It would also be nice to unlock special snack choices for the dragons that do more than just refill their hunger. For instance, a brief speed bonus or unique visual flair to show how much a specific dragon enjoys a specific treat. A few additional safeties against mis-clicks would be appreciated. Asking if the player is sure before deleting a fully-grown farm with all of its food, while still allowing quick deletion of an empty farm, would be nice. The menus are occasionally hard for me to read due to the white text on a light blue background, but this never prevented me from understanding the instructions. On the whole, this is an indie game that sets out to do one thing really well, and accomplishes it. There's plenty of room for iterating on the current formula as it leaves early access, but if you like what you see in the demo you will enjoy the full game.

A cool break from the usual type of farm/pet sim game. The setting, at least to me is new for this style of game. The environments are charming, and so are the Dragon Sprouts. It's definitely a vibe. It's early access still so there are a bit of UI quality of life improvements to be made, but it's really all just surface stuff. I saw that the Dev has UI on the docket so I'm excited to see what they do. The game play is fun, it runs well and I can see myself pouring a lot of time in. Definitely pick it up if this style of game play is your thing. It's a unique experience in the world of farm/pet sims with a lot of charm.

Bear in mind that this game is in very early development and a solo project but already it has so much appeal. The little dragons are a delight to watch and it quickly becomes strangely addictive. I had a problem (my fault) and Morgan was so patient with this tech stupid idiot and helped me sort it. I am looking forward to watching this game develop