Dragon Awaken is one of the most popular browser-based RPGs on the internet. Released by Game Hollywood just four years ago, it’s firmly lodged in the top ten titles on Facebook Gameroom, and boasts a large and loyal audience.
It’s not hard to see why. Dragon Awaken contains all the ingredients of a top-tier MMORPG, including a variety of heroes drawn from history and mythology, challenging dungeons, a menagerie of mounts, exciting visuals, and a cool backstory involving dragons.
You play as a brave warrior who became a Dragon Knight after attacking a dragon in its lair and somehow coming away with all of its powers, which is pretty much the best possible outcome when attacking a dragon.
Armed with your new powers, you have to form a party and roam the continent, getting into explosive tactical turn-based battles with fantasy monsters and other players.
One of the things that has enabled Dragon Awaken to stay on top over the last four years, apart from being easily accessible, free, and lots of fun, is the constant stream of updates. These have continually expanded the Dragon Awaken universe, adding gameplay elements and sharpening its mechanics to a deadly point.
Take the latest update. Version 3.7 contains a whole new Card system, introducing five card classes: B, A, S, SS, and SSS. You can acquire these with gold or diamonds depending on whether they’re normal or advanced, and they allow you to claim chests, increase your XP, and raise your level.
There are also cards for most of the in-game characters, each boasting unique art. Every card can be upgraded when you loot the same card too, with each one providing different power-ups to contribute to your total BR. This addition makes it even easier to upgrade your hero.
Previous updates in 2021 have added new mounts, events, premium currencies, and much more.
But there’s a threat looming over the Dragon Awaken universe, a darkness gathering on the horizon of this thriving fantasy kingdom. Is it a horde of orcs, or a fleet of dragons? Is an evil wizard about to plunge the continent through an interdimensional portal?
Nope. It’s even worse. FLASH is dead.
In case you need an explainer, FLASH is the software platform that the vast majority of online games used to be built on, including Dragon Awaken.
After Adobe discontinued FLASH last year, Game Hollywood created its own mini-client for Dragon Awaken. This had the welcome effect of reducing load times and cutting down on lag. But at a cost.
Because Dragon Awaken now runs in a client, it’s no longer a purely browser-based experience. Its frequent updates have been swelling its player base, but many returning players have demanded the return of the web-only way of doing things.
That’s why Game Hollywood is excited to reveal that it’s been working hard on an HTML5 version.
In case you don’t know, HTML5 is the excellent open source platform that has grown to replace FLASH over the last decade or so. Transferring the game’s code from one platform to another is a huge project, as you can imagine, but Game Hollywood is working constantly to make it happen.
And there’s an end in sight. All being well, Game Hollywood hopes to launch the open beta for the HTML5 version by the end of 2021, meaning there’s a maximum of around six months left to go.
In the meantime, you can try out Dragon Awaken and its huge 3.7 update right now by clicking right here.