On playing as a dragon

I've observed that the fanbase for this game is divided into two camps that we can call the dragon survivalists and the Targaryen conquerors. The Targaryen conquerors generally love the current dragon riding concept inspired by GoT/HotD while the dragon survivalists would really rather just play as the dragon itself, but they're still here because... dragons. The initial concept for the game was actually just that, to play as a dragon in a kind of "Smaug simulator" where you start off as a small dragon, find a lair, hunt goats, grow, build a treasure hoard, burn villages, fight armies, lend your service to a kingdom and get cool rewards, etc. I felt like the whole classical treasure-hoard-building dragon theme was very underutilized and a natural game concept that no one seemed to have properly explored.

At some point I decided to add a rider just to see what it felt like and it definitely created a spark. HotD season 2 was airing in like 4 months so it was a golden opportunity to ride the wave of excitement and start uploading some dragon riding footage. It was a slow start because getting noticed on social media is really hard when you have just created your accounts, the algorithms are trying to figure out if there's an audience for your content or if you're just some reupload bot. None of my first 5 TikTok videos reached even 1K views, but I knew they were bangers so I kept going and then the sixth video went viral. I realized the algorithm had worked its magic when a bunch of Daenarys profile pic accounts started commenting and tagging their GoT buddies, then it spread like wildfire in that community and eventually to other dragon-related communities as well.

What I've realized though is that the majority of the original game concept barely changed with the addition of the rider. If you've read the previous post about the vision for the gameplay progression, you could remove the rider and most things would still make sense (given that you are an intelligent dragon that can communicate with humans, like Smaug). All major features like the dragon creator, growing over time, lair with treasure hoard, destructible environments, open world regions, epic battles and settlement interactions were things I had planned for the original concept, even the strategic mode would work if you play as a kind of dragon ruler (anyone played Age of Wonders 4 Dragon Dawn DLC?).

My point is that it feels like a missed opportunity to not include the option to play as just a dragon in the game when the entire foundation for it will be built anyway and so many fans are asking for it. It is a relatively small technical change since so much would function the same, but a huge added value for a large portion of the player base. It would fulfil two dragon fantasies with one stone (game) without that much additional effort and hopefully please both camps.

So how would that work in the context of Dragontwin when the name specifically hints at two parts and not a singular dragon? Well, I had an idea for how to integrate that in a lore friendly way. It goes something like this:

"In the twinning ritual where Dragontwins are created, there is a risk that the child's body rejects the draconic soul and perishes while the dragon survives with the child's soul partially intact. These dragons are endowed with a human-like intellect, often developing goals of their own and executing their schemes with cunning and ambition. While these wildcards can end up being a fiery scourge on the land, they may also turn out to be a blessing - an ancient guardian that watches over the world and intervenes in times of need."

This would allow you to live out the ultimate dragon simulator fantasy however you want without that pesky rider getting in the way. If the community approves of this idea, I will include this mode in the early access and likely prioritise features that the two modes have in common (which is basically everything except the human character creation and foot gameplay). This was another long post, if you made it this far thanks for reading!