Game guide

Story

You are enrolled in Ryujutsu Secret Academy, a school for students who possess memories of their previous lives as Dragonlords. Here, you re-awaken your knowledge of the Ancestral Arts to conjure Scripts that command Dragons. As part of your training, you battle other students in the Ancient Arena. These battles sharpen your strategies and strengthen your soul-link with your Dragons... to prepare for your future role as defenders of Earth.

Game mechanics

You are a Dragonlord-in-training. As part of your training, you will command your Dragons to battle other Dragons in the Ancient Arena. But Dragons are temperamental and do not respond to mortal languages. Dragons only obey commands given in DragonScript.

What's special about this game is you'll write real code to program your Dragons' Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Then, you'll unleash them in the Arena and watch them battle against enemy A.I.

There are many different kinds of games in the Arena. For example, in some games you must vanquish all enemy Dragons. In other games you have to score the most points.

Dragons can move in any directon in 2-D. Dragons can carry objects such as Orbs.

Dragon attacks spread over a cone of fire. Accuracy and damage improve when your target is nearer. Your attacks are weaker when your target is farther. Attacks can have a cast time and a channel time. If a Dragon moves while casting or channeling, its attack is interrupted. Attacks obey line-of-sight on enemy Dragons. I.e., you can shoot through friendly Dragons, but your attacks stop at the nearest enemy on the attack path.

Dragons have health points and shield points. Shields absorb damage first, but when shields are gone, the Dragon loses health points. Shields regenerate when a Dragon is not taking damage. When a Dragon has no more health points, it falls out of the sky and is out of the game.


Quickstart

Join our secret Discord chat server

Before you do anything else, join our official "DragonScript Coding Club": https://discord.gg/5nuEXxK
*** Please do not share your invitation link above ***
This is where you can hang out with fellow DragonScripters (and me).
Hop in and say "Hi". That way, if you get stuck, you know we're here for you.
Sometimes we even chat about other things like music, art and making games.

Make new A.I.

Go to Main menuCode Your Dragon A.I.
Click "Make new Dragon A.I."
Click the create button to edit your new Dragon A.I.
Activate the new Dragon A.I. by saving the sample code provided.

Craft your Dragon A.I. - tutorial

There are 9 lessons to go along with the first 9 Solo Quests. Each lesson helps you level up your skills to beat the Quest and prepare you for the next one. At the end of the 9 lessons, you will have the building blocks you need to design your own Dragon A.I.!
(If you already know how to code, you can jump ahead.)

Lesson 1 - Hello World (HTML)
Lesson 2 - Hello World (Javascript)
Lesson 3 - Attack
Lesson 4 - Move
Lesson 5 - Hide and Seek
Lesson 6 - Shields
Lesson 7 - Orbs
Lesson 8 - Tug of War
Lesson 9 - Lead the Target

Play a new game

Go to Main menuSolo Quests.
Select quest.
Click "Learn" for a step-by-step coding lesson and hints for how to beat the quest.
When you're ready, select the Dragon A.I. you created.
Click "Play".

"Help, I'm stuck!"

If you ever get stuck, never fear! Join us at our Discord chat server. You can ask questions... discuss code, algorithms and strategies... or just chat with fellow players. I am almost always there and I'll do my best to help you. You may also email me directly at aaron@dragonscriptarena.com.

Remember that everyone starts as a newbie, and even experts always have more to learn. So don't worry when things seem hard. (That's a good sign that you're growing!) Don't give up. We're here to help each other grow.



Shortcut for experienced coders

If you already know how to code, you can skip ahead to the two advanced lessons below and grab the code at the end of each lesson. Use this code as your starting point for your Dragon A.I.:
Lesson 8 - Tug of War
Lesson 9 - Lead the Target

Then, test your skills and breeze through the Solo Quests. Or if you are up for a challenge, enter your Dragon A.I. into the PvP arena! All maps/levels are unlocked right from the start in the PvP arena. The only locked items in PvP are the 3 hero dragons (Longtail, Bighorn and Little Wing), which are unlocked when you complete the final 3 Solo Quests.


Happy DragonScripting!