King of Dragon Pass Gets Steamed

Classic strategy/CYOA title King of Dragon Pass has finally been released on Steam for €11,99/$11.99/£8.99. This is a port of the enhanced re-release of the title for mobile platforms, rather than the original version (which is still available on GOG, in case you are a real purist), which means it comes with additional content and some tweaks to better support modern PCs. Here’s a brief overview of the game, for the unfamiliar:

A unique mix of RPG and strategy: everything in King of Dragon Pass is about choice and control.

Create your own epic saga of conflict, mythology and community! Rule your own clan, take important strategic decisions, win battles and expand your influence. Choose your counsel carefully, sign diplomatic agreements or declare war on nearby clans.

This acclaimed game of magical storytelling blends interactive stories and resource management.

Immensely replayable, thanks to nearly 600 interactive scenes. Short episodes and automatic saving mean you can play even when you only have a minute or two. The built-in saga writes down the story for you and advisors with distinctive personalities help you rule your clan.

Become the King of Dragon Pass!

As explained by designer David Dunham over at the King of Dragon Pass blog, this version of the game includes achievements and the new content from the Android version, but not the additional iOS scenes. Work on this port was done by HeroCraft, with little to no involvement from Dunham, who is busy working on Six Ages:

So if you played on Windows or Mac before, you’d be moving from 1.7 to 2.2. There are 48 new scenes and 4 new illustrations (plus a new Lore map). There are also new advisors, and a lot more advice in management screens. There are also more treasures. We made many bug fixes (such as unblocking two of the original scenes), and fixed typos. You no longer have to worry about sheep. The economics system should no longer be quite as harsh, with death spirals less likely. (Rest assured that the game is still difficult, especially on the Hard setting.)

The Tula screen was too difficult to rework, but it wasn’t part of game play. And HeroCraft originally started their porting before our scene contest, so those scenes are currently only in the iOS version.

That said, the additional iOS scenes should eventually arrive on Steam too, according to a developer’s statement on the Steam forums:

Steam users will get all additional content in the future. There are some technical difficulties in porting iOS update to PC. Nothing critical but it takes time. Working on it already.

At release there have been some significant technical problems (the executable happened to be missing) but they seem to have been resolved. That said, absolutely feel free to let us know about your experience with this port, especially if you happen to have problems.