| King of Dragon Pass | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | A Sharp HeroCraft (Mobile version) |
| Publisher(s) | A Sharp |
| Producer(s) | David Dunham |
| Designer(s) | David Dunham Greg Stafford Robin D. Laws |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, Windows Phone |
| Release | October 1999 (PC, Mac) September 2011 (iOS) August 2012 (GOG.com) August 2014 (Android) September 2014 (Windows Phone) |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy, role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
King of Dragon Pass is a 1999 strategysimulationfantasyvideo game published by A Sharp. Set in the fictional world of Glorantha, the player controls the fate of a barbarian clan settling in the dangerous frontier region of Dragon Pass.
Discover the best Game Key offers, compare prices to download and play King of Dragon Pass at the best cost. Compare the CD Key price from supplier s all around the world. Activate CD Keys on your Steam client to download the games and play in multiplayer or singleplayer. A unique mix of RPG and strategy: everything in King of Dragon Pass is about choice and control. Choose your counsel carefully, sign diplomatic agreements or declare war on nearby clans. This acclaimed game of magical storytelling blends interactive stories and resource management. Immensely replayable, thanks to nearly 600 interactive scenes.
Originally released for PC, the game was a commercial failure[1] but became a cult classic.[2][3] It was ported for iOS in 2011, and was later released for Android and re-released for PCs. The iOS versions were much more commercially successful than the original PC release, leading to a spiritual successor, Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind, being released in 2018.
Plot[edit]
The player controls a clan of Orlanthi (worshipers of the Storm God Orlanth) across several generations. Orlanthi clans bear some similarities to the Iron AgeNordic peoples, such as lawspeakers, fyrds, the worship of a thunder god and a reliance on raiding, as well as Bronze Age Celtic and Italic peoples aesthetically, with the appearance of many of the tribesmen reflecting these origins.
At the beginning of the game the clan has fled its home of Heortland after a foreign magician known as Belintar or 'the Pharaoh' usurps the throne. Along with dozens of other Orlanthi clans, the clan seeks to build a new home in Dragon Pass, a previously populated area left deserted after the Dragonkill War hundreds of years ago. With the Orlanthi clans variously feuding, allying, trading with and raiding each other, and a host of inhuman presences such as elves, dwarves and trolls, Dragon Pass is a free but dangerous frontier society compared to the tyrannical rule of the Pharaoh in Heortland. To the west, a persistent danger is the 'Horse-Spawn,' a society of nomadic mounted warriors.
As time passes by the clans form into 'tribes,' loose confederations of half a dozen clans. A prophet visits the player's clan to inform them of a great destiny. The player must guide the clan through seven heroquests (ritual re-enactments of feats of the gods) and successfully manage a number of events, including co-operating with other clans to build a town and making peace with the Horse-Spawn by marrying their queen (or, if the player's chieftain is female, their king). If the player is successful, the clan's chieftain unites the Orlanthi tribes and the Horse-Spawn into a kingdom, becoming King of Dragon Pass.
Gameplay[edit]
The player controls the seven-member clan ring leading the clan, providing leadership to the clan in all aspects of its life, such as trading, warfare, agriculture and diplomacy. The player can make two macro-level decisions per each of the five seasons in the Gloranthan year. Random events are drawn from a pool of hundreds,[4] ranging from mundane law disputes to spiritual or demonic incursions. They are often influenced by previous decisions and outcomes. In battle, the player determines the goals and preparations, and possibly chooses the actions of his nobles at pivotal moments.
To succeed, a player must balance the various needs of survival and prospering, as well as manage the problems presented by the setting or the clan individuals - a lack of food might be solvable by clearing more farmland, but when the forest responds by sending a talking fox to urge leaving the trees alone, a wrong choice could bring the clan hunters to war with their environment. Likewise, should a member of the clan act in a selfish and foolish manner, action needs to be taken to stabilize and defuse the situation, if necessary.
King of Dragon Pass contains no animation, instead depicting people and events with hand-drawn artwork. The game has elements of strategy, construction and management simulation, and role-playing video games.
Production and release[edit]
King of Dragon Pass was conceived and developed by David Dunham, using his friend Greg Stafford's setting of Glorantha. At peak development, the A Sharp production team consisted of only 12 people. The game cost $500,000 to make but only sold 8,000 boxed copies, rendering it a commercial failure.[1] It sold disproportionately well in Finland thanks to a glowing review in Pelit.[5]
King of Dragon Pass had initially been conceived for the Apple Newton. Following Apple's announcement of the iPhone in 2007, Dunham was drawn back to the potential of the game for a handheld platform,[1] and an updated version of the game was released for iOS on September 8, 2011.[6] This version was updated to be a universal iOS app for compatibility with the iPad on September 6, 2012.[7] The original Windows version was re-released by GOG.com on August 28, 2012.[8]
David Dunham announced in March 2013 that the iOS version had sold 30,000 copies.[9]
HeroCraftported the iOS version to Android and released it on August 12, 2014.[10] A Windows Phone version, also by HeroCraft, was released a month later on September 23.[11] A new PC version based on the Android version was released July 29, 2015; it runs on Windows or Mac OS X.[12]
Sequel[edit]
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A spiritual successor, Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind, was announced in 2014, released for iOS on June 28, 2018, and PC and Mac in 2019.[13][14]
Reception[edit]
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The game's hand painted watercolor artwork won the Best Visual Art prize in the 2000 Independent Games Festival.[17][circular reference]Rock, Paper, Shotgun described the game in retrospective in 2017 as 'a management game, yes, but at its heart is an ongoing RPG chronicle.'[18] In 2016, the game placed 5th on Rock Paper Shotgun's The 50 best strategy games on PC list.[19] Reviewing the iPhone version at TouchArcade, Eli Hodapp described it as 'one of the most in-depth and strategic gameplay experiences I've had so far on my iPhone,' describing the game as a conglomeration of Civilization and Choose Your Own Adventure.[16]
References[edit]
- ^ abcPurchese, Robert (12 April 2013). 'The story of King of Dragon Pass: Do you remember Demolition Man?'. Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
- ^Turnbull, Zach (August 12, 2015). 'A prince or pauper? King of Dragon pass review'. Gone With The Win. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
- ^'King of Dragon Pass Comes to iOS'. No High Scores. September 9, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
- ^Dunham, David (2012-09-02). 'King of Dragon Pass: How Many Scenes?'. King of Dragon Pass. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
- ^Dunham, David (2011-11-04). 'Finland'. King of Dragon Pass. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
- ^'King of Dragon Pass for iOS'. a-sharp.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
- ^Dunham, David (2012-09-04). 'King of Dragon Pass: King of Dragon Pass Grows Up'. King of Dragon Pass. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
- ^Dunham, David (2012-08-28). 'King of Dragon Pass: Download King of Dragon Pass'. King of Dragon Pass. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
- ^Dunham, David (18 March 2013). '30K Sale(s)'. Blogspot. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^King of Dragon Pass [@KingDragonPass] (11 August 2014). 'The unique storytelling game King of Dragon Pass is now available for Android!' (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^HeroCraft Games [@HeroCraft] (23 September 2014). 'King of Dragon Pass now on Windows Phone 8! WP8 Amazon Google Play' (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^HeroCraft Games [@HeroCraft] (29 July 2015). 'Legendary King of Dragon Pass is now available on @steam_games! And it is awesome! Steam: #HeroCraft #KoDP' (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^'Six Ages'. sixages.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
- ^A Sharp, LLC (2018-06-08), Six Ages Release Trailer, retrieved 2018-06-09
- ^'King of Dragon Pass for iPhone/iPad Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- ^ abHodapp, Eli (8 September 2011). ''King of Dragon Pass' Review – 'Thus ends our sorry tale, the tale of clan Fart.''. TouchArcade. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- ^IGF Competition award history
- ^Have You Played… King of Dragon Pass? by Brendan Caldwell on RPS (February 21st, 2017)
- ^'The 50 best strategy games on PC'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 18 November 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
External links[edit]
- King of Dragon Pass at HeroCraft
- King of Dragon Pass at MobyGames
- King of Dragon Pass at Metacritic
- King of Dragon Pass at Apple's App Store
Overview
Rise up my fellow clansmen to thwart this world of evil. May we raid, plunder, and destroy with great joy. May we grow strong and gain control of the Dragon Pass. Welcome my loyal readers to the review of King of Dragon Pass, a game where you play generations in the life of a barbarian clan. Every decision you make in guiding your clan becomes part of your clan’s saga and echoes in the clan’s future adventures. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Wrong! The best way to describe this game for you would be to make you dust off those thinking caps and send your mind back to when Dungeons & Dragons was huge, when they came out with books that let you create your own adventure. By reading a paragraph then making a decision and going to the page that your decision was on to 'create' your own storyline; you kept doing this until you either died or found glory. King of Dragon Pass is the exact same thing just in computer game form. Nothing fancy at all, just make the right decisions for your clan and wait for seasons to change.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
Can you say point and click? Well you better learn how because that is all you’ll be doing in this micro-management of clan living. I found the game to be severely lacking in enjoyment. Not once while playing did I ever really get into the story or the clan I was controlling. I felt like I was reading a paragraph and then choosing option 1-5 for the best result, which made me feel like I was in school, not playing a video game. I understand that some people like this type of game design but I just couldn’t get excited to play it when I knew I could just slip in my Baldur’s Gate CD and really dive into a fantasy world. I also found that I would much rather micro-manage in a game like Age of Empires where I could actually see progress being made and not just read about it.
Graphics
Let’s start this section off with a bang. First and foremost, there are no action graphics, no cut scenes, and no movies; just plain old artwork depicting the current situation in the game. The artwork resembles the Dungeons & Dragons style from the mid-80’s. The game revolves around nine different screens with each one showing a different part of the clan and its activities and then changes to different pieces of artwork depending on the choices you make in the game. I found the over-all graphics to be very aged, which is not a good thing in the dog-eat-dog world of computer game development.
Audio
If you are looking for awesome audio in a 'choose your adventure' type of game then you should probably look elsewhere. The audio for King of Dragon Pass revolves around the ancient style of music common to most fantasy games with a few screams, shouts, and other miscellaneous sounds to describe the current situation whether it is war, trade, or sickness. After playing for a few hours you don’t even notice the audio which can be taken as a bad sign considering audio can really make or break a new game.
System Requirements
Minimum: Win 95/98, Pentium processor, 16MB RAM, Double-speed CD-ROM, 640x480 16-bit color.
Macintosh: System 7.5 or later, Power Macintosh or compatible, 24MB RAM.
Documentation
The manual has a nice five page tutorial that is to be used alongside the game tutorial, which brings you up to speed pretty quickly on how to play the game.
Bottom Line
King Of Dragon Pass Apk
If you are into the old school type of gaming, King of Dragon Pass just might be for you. But if you’re a more action oriented gamer you should probably grab a blanket and pillow because you’ll be fast asleep playing this game after about 20 minutes. I really tried to like this game but found that there just wasn’t anything to draw me in and make me want to spend a few hours playing. On that note I will give King of Dragon Pass a score of 30/100.
