“Dragon Federation”

The concept of this is awesome. The current state of execution is SO PROBLEMATIC.

Questions I have:

  • Why are there no women in the development team, and (among other things) how is this going to affect the dragons’ personalities and bonding experience?

  • What are the eggs made of and how much do they weigh? Is the $2000 (?!?!) one made of the same materials as the one for $99?

  • Is the extremely low poly and untextured render of the dragon really as far along as the CG models are?

  • If your dragon runs away/dies (which has been implied a possibility on the last live-stream), or otherwise goes wrong, can your egg be factory reset to start over?

  • Will all of the dragons be the same models, or will there be any variation in size, shape, or texture (besides the rarity tier differences)?

  • What is the Kickstarter money funding in this project? The amount of work that appears to be remaining can’t possibly be done for $30,000. Is this only for the egg manufacturing?

  • Why is there so much logo paraphernalia cluttering up the backer tiers? I can understand there being some, or having extras bundled with higher tiers, but this feels a little extreme.

  • The project leader won’t get his kids a pet, but thinks he can make a realistic virtual pet without living with animals in his home? Sure, I guess? Weird way to pitch the “get a virtual dragon instead of a dog!” idea.

  • They teased up a storm on the last live-stream video about showing off the actual dragon, and then finally “revealed” the same artist rendering concept drawing that is already all over their marketing and social media. This isn’t a question; I just feel insulted.

  • They also showed the art for the blue dragon. Which literally looks almost identical to the brown dragon. It’s a $450 or $650 price difference from the brown to the two blue tiers. Are you serious?

  • Why are the eggs Game of Thrones copycats?

  • They say it becomes accustomed to your voice. Can it really identify between different voices? (If yes, I don’t believe you. Please provide a demo.)

  • What VR headsets are supported besides the Vive?

  • The website indicates the VR/AR will have touch. No company has yet cracked touch for the consumer market. How is this expected to work?

  • Where and what are these “Location Based Entertainment Centers,” and when are they expected to launch?

  • The Backer Tier descriptions say they come with between 2 and 5 years of membership. I didn’t see anything anywhere else about this being a paid subscription service. What does the membership provide, and how much is this going to cost after your pre-paid time runs out?

  • And finally, critical for anything on Kickstarter: How transparent will the development team be on progress and updates? It’s currently a huge red flag to me that so much is unknown.


I’m taken by the project because I would love for their vision to be real. But… it feels like it’s tetering on the edge of a train wreck. I’ll be amazed and impressed if they deliver on their promises, and if that happens, I’ll for sure be interested in revisiting it.

Dragon Federation on Kickstarter