Why Dragon Snacks Matters to Me
Hi everyone! I’m Michelle, the Chief Creative Officer and one of the cofounders of Dragon Snacks Games. Before I start to dive into what we’re doing here at DSG, (and I will, likely in far greater detail than anyone cares for...) I want to take a moment first to sit back with my eighth coffee in hand and reflect on why we wanted to do this. Or at least, why I wanted to do this.
So, some background. One of the first things Chris, Jen, and I did together when deciding to start this wild journey was to share war stories of our previous experiences, both the good, and, shall we say, the “least good.” It became clear, quite quickly, that we all shared a collection of strong core values and beliefs for not only what we could do, but also why we should do it. That afternoon we began to define Dragon Snacks as a place, where we as developers, as well as our players, could bring their whole self to the table, be accepted and valued for that self, and continue to grow and become the best version of that self, all while creating something new and unique together.
So you know, a community.
....Ok yeah, cheesy and buzzwordy, but also true, despite the cringey Hallmark feels. I’m a Xennial, I’m expected to be cringey.
So who am I? Why would anybody want to join a community with me in it? Excellent question! Well, first and foremost, I’m a gamer. Some of my bestest memories growing up come back to games. What first comes to mind is not gaming by myself, breeding that perfect Chocobo (I have the spreadsheets...), or playing Triple Triad until 3am and waking up on the floor the next morning, having fallen asleep on the controller (life skills). Instead my most cherished memories are the games I played with my friends and the wacky antics that ensued.
We wallowed in game culture. We’d buy and paint minis for Warhammer at a giant table, never actually play it, and then end up kit-bashing all the figures together into hideous creations. Later we’d meet up at 8am on Saturdays (truth) to play D&D until midnight, routinely dying to black dragon acid and being crushed by giant space hamsters because we couldn’t stick to a plan to literally save our lives. At school we played Magic: The Gathering so much that we even got a few of the teachers hooked, playing with us at every break and lunch period. We were a small but mighty friend group down in the bayous of Louisiana.
Dare I say it – we were a community.
Today I’m older (if not much wiser) and I still play a ton of games. But while I still play D&D and MtG and paint minis (board game ones now) with friends, I spend more time playing games with my kid. We ride eagles and run amok in Lego Worlds, breaking everything that can be broken, we build our city in our private Minecraft server and expand the automated subway system, and we jam out to Lady Gaga and Jonathan Coulton songs in Rock Band.
Guess what? When my daughter plays games, she wants to play with other people that she knows, whether it’s with me or with friends from the neighborhood; to her, play isn’t as meaningful if there isn’t someone there to share the experience. Dare I say it, she plays games not just to play, but to hang out with people she cares about, engaging in a fun activity where they can just be their wacky selves.
You know – in a community.
So that’s why Dragon Snacks matters to me. It’s community. For us and for our players. Community isn’t just a silly buzzword to throw around in corporate statements or append to bullet point objective lists. It’s core to who we are as people, as developers, as parents, and as gamers.
I’ve made a bunch of different kinds of games. Now I want to build games that aren’t just a single experience, that instead lean into those core experiences and memories and enable players to forge their own communities. Create their own shared memories. Make the experience with us. I want to build a community for players and with players.
I hope you’ll join us for the ride. I promise to keep the cringe to a minimum.