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
*** 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.
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.
Play a new game
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!