Sample Spreads

Copy detail: When DragonVale was first being created, there was a good deal of style exploration concerning how the dragons should look, how detailed they should be, and what the overall feel of the game would be like. Did we want cute stuffed-animal dragons, or majestic, mythical beasts?

In the end, DragonVale’s signature style emerged as an amalgam of oppositional influences - silly and sophisticated, elegant and irreverent, adorable and awe-inspiring. Like the game itself, it has a little something for everyone.  The final design of the Fire Dragon exemplified the early style of DragonVale, and endures as the game’s icon to this day.

Copy detail: Cactus Dragon is a Backflip Studios team favorite. Released soon after DragonVale's launch, its portly stature, prickly body and wild pink eyebrows made it an immediate standout. 

Copy detail: More than 1,000 years have passed since the Cataclysm, which drove all life from the Surface. Now, after nearly a millenia, witches, wizards, and dragons alike are returning from the islands of the sky to explore the world below. Gwyddion and his intrepid band of explorers seek the secrets of this ancient world below the Vale—among them, strange and fascinating new dragons.

With new dragons to collect and customize, wild regions to uncover, daring missions to complete, and countless magical moments, the Surface beckons you to explore.

Creating this world in 3 dimensions was a new challenge for all of the artists, and the team pushed themselves to craft a universe that stayed true to DragonVale’s iconic magic, while innovating a style that was singular and captivating on its own.

Copy detail: Creating an entirely new world required not only a ground-level imagining of what players would experience on The Surface, but also a high-level view that would reveal how the landscape fit together. Early explorations focused on how the regions of DragonVale World would be divided and expanded as a player’s park progressed.

In exploring the primary islands, the team had to make a decision: break things up or go with something more cohesive? Ultimately, it was this more unified, jigsaw puzzle approach that won out. Inspiration for the map came from old pieces of parchment paper, to evoke a feeling of grand exploration as it opens in the game.