1 The Story Behind Dragus Aramada

So, you want to know the story behind Dragus Aramada? About 10 years ago, four college roommates decided to create their game. Eric Winston, Greg Booker, Kyle Stewart (No, not the race car driver! The programming nerd!), and Zack Himohara took their passion for science fiction and fantasy, taking inspiration from Voltron, Transformers, Robotech, Gundam, Escaflowne, Final Fantasy, Mas Effect, Halo, Dragon Age, . . . Well, you get the idea. The end result was a game where players start as a cadet in the Dreyus Alliance that tries to maintain peace while holding back the Evil Shadow Kaimyra horde and after graduating can rise in the Dragon fleet or at first anyway, but I'll get to that later.

The game starts with the history of the Dreyus Alliance and their war with the Evil Shadow--- you know what? Let's just call them the Kaimyra! That's what all the players call them anyway. Basically, a group of scientists was in space testing new mechs that had created based on the dragons from their various planets when suddenly the dragon mechs came to life and . . . Sorry, that last part was an abandoned storyline (Greg literally kept everything from their development process-- yes, at one point the player was going to be a reincarnated robotic dragon flying thru space. Too bad too; Zack made some killer concept art for the various flight courses.) So, during the testing they were attacked by the Kaimyra and the pilots-- what? you expected the scientists with no experience in aircombat to fly against raiders? -- the pilots were able to defend their ship from the Kaimyra, complemented the ease in control and maneuverability of the dragon mechs and thus the Dreyus Alliance was born.

The Dreyus Alliance is a group of pilots, astronauts, astronomers, scientists, engineers ,and diplomats that from a series of space stations monitor the galaxy for signs of the Kaimyra. They give players most of their quests. Players start out as cadets learning basic maneuvers, intermediate maneuvers, advanced maneuvers, basic combat, aerial combat, stealth maneuvers, stealth combat, first aid, basic weaponry, advanced weaponry, basic repairs, dragon anatomy, and how to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich (not joking, you can literally take that class-- apparently they forgot to order lunch for a brain stroming session). I'm a bit ahead of myself though. First before enrolling at Dreyus Academy, they meet Azula.

Azula is the hour glassed shaped mechanical angel of the Dreyus Alliance. At five foot eight inches, Azula is tall and lean. Her skin is the shade of ivory with 15 freckles around her nose (I think the devs meant for her to be Japanese). Her eyes are two saphires and her hair is jet black with electric blue highlights. Her hair is pulled back in a long ponytail that goes down to the small of her back. She has the long dirty neon blue overalls with black work boots. Her original concept art had her in a white sleeveless mid drift, but she ended up with a black one with the Alliance symbol on it (which is a bit distorted thanks to her chest, but fan service is her middle name). Now she does have other outfits: neon blue flight suit, a new bikini look every summer, different costume every Halloween and Christmas, her Native American look for Thanksgiving, bunny outfit for Easter, . . . She has 25 mini games in the Capital City Arcade. And then, there's me : Joe.

When the game first launched roughly seven years ago, my bio had me down as Azula's clumsy assistant. I'm overweight (Azula is nice and insists I'm just big boned), I'm 7 foot 5 inches, brown hair, beard, brown eyes, blue coveralls with dirty white t-shirt, brown work boots, I specialize in ground combat weapons and blasters (otherwise, no one would come see me), I can't walk five steps without tripping, complete a project without it blowing up in my face at least once, and I work in salvage. Alternate costume wise, I got bunny ears, afew different Halloween costumes (a pumpkin head, ghost sheet, Mummy, and Frankenstein's monster) and a santa suit for Christmas. Basically where Azula is the fan service, I'm the comedy relief.

By all means, I should hate Azula. I mean the players love her, they only do my quests to get to her quests. They plaster her everywhere in marketing: box art, banners, thumbnails, online videos, gift cars, t-shirts, coffee cups, water bottles, gym bags, hats, . . . I got a poster that says "Keep trying til you get it right" and t-shirts that say "Just trippin' " and "Sweet success." She's the sweet heart, I'm the joke. The problem is I can't. . . I love her.

You can say it's in my programming (which is true enough-- thanks alot for programming that crush, Eric!), but she's just too sweet to hate. We start the day, she brings breakfast, she's gets mad at players for calling me fat, she always has nice things to say, always lends me a hand on the crazy inventions the devs assign to me, and I help her with repairs all the time. It's a pretty sweet gig. I get to work with hottest and sweetest NPC in the game.

Three years ago, our game got a major expansion. Much to the annoyance of Admirals Condor (headmaster of the Academy, bio says he's 58 with two daughters) and Mercedes (head of the Dreyus Alliance Military branch, bio says she's 45 with a son and dating Commander Hawking until the expansion launched), players can abandon the Dreyus Alliance and become mercenaries and later space pirates in the second half. It introduced several new characters, including my dead beat pirate captain dad and mercenary mom-- have to say Azula really scored the hot pirate mom, though I'm still stocked Corpal Sato is her father. We also got new planets, new bases, new mini games, and players could now visit me at my appartment (only for a afew quests for Azula and one for Commander Hawking). Have to say the devs were too nice. I had expected a run down place on the rough side of town, but it's well kept and spacious. They even gave me a window, pool table and big screen tv. Azula got a walk in closet and jacuzzi for her appartment.

Now over the few months, the devs have been adding code and assets for the next expansion. I know players after completing the story of the second part will be about be join the Kaimyras and I get to give the players several new inventions because apparently everyone's business is good at Azula's shop. I also got a screen shot of one image: Azula being kidnapped by a Kaimyran pilot in a red flightsuit with battle armor and darkened helmet. I blame Kyle for this one.