Dragon Wars (re-imagined)

A covered bridge over the sea, and the guard who wants to see your papers

Oceana is a drowning world, and you and three companions have just been stripped of everything and turned loose in the slums of Purgatory. Walk its streets in first-person 3D, fight with skills instead of classes, and find a way out of Dilmun's worst neighborhood. A fan re-imagining of Interplay's 1989 classic, built in Unity.

DOWNLOAD FOR WINDOWS

Windows 10 / 11, one-click install, no admin rights needed.

WORK IN PROGRESS.
This is an early build for testing, not a finished game. You can walk the overworld, enter towns, ruins and dungeons through their doors, talk to people, shop, recruit companions, save your game and fight, but secret doors, ships and spell use outside combat aren't in yet, and dying just sends you back to the start. See the Quick Start for what works today.

NEW HERE? READ THIS FIRST.
The Quick Start covers installing, the controls, your party, how combat and magic work, and what is not in yet.
OPEN THE QUICK START QUICK START (PDF)

What you get

Dragon Wars rules, not a generic crawler - four attributes (STR, DEX, INT, SPR), a skill list with no classes, Health and Stun, Power points that never regenerate on their own, and the manual's four schools of magic.
You start with nothing - the harbor officials took everything, so your party fights with its fists until it scavenges a stick, a knife or a scrap of armor.
Turn-based combat you can see and hear - Dexterity sets who acts first, attack beats defense to hit, armor soaks damage, and every hit lands with sound, particles and floating numbers.
Original encounters - the fights follow the original game's encounter text: when the log says bushy-haired loons, you fight bushy-haired loons.
Character sheet - spend level-up points on attributes and skills, equip what you find, bandage the wounded, use Dragonstones to restore Power.
Places that feel like places - towns with buildings, signs, market stalls and townsfolk who talk to you (and run when a fight starts), bridges over water, ruins, wilds and dungeons that each have their own look, sky and sound. Walk up to a person or a shop and press Space.
Purgatory is the hell hole it should be - the starting slum is a prison, not a postcard: houses fallen to rubble or burnt out, holes in the roofs, sewage running down unpaved streets, curses at Namtar scrawled on the walls, torn posters, gibbets, rats and drifting ash. Everywhere else keeps its tidy look.
A sky that moves - nine painted skies (clear day, golden hour, cold sunset, pink dusk, grey overcast, moonlight, a blood-red dusk, a planet rising, the Earth from orbit) cross-fade through each place's own cycle while the sun, fog and shadows follow. Purgatory and the Necropolis get storms, with lightning and thunder, and shooting stars cross the night.
Music and options - an in-game soundtrack, ambient sound that swells near a town's heart, an Escape menu with volume, fullscreen and party-name options, three save slots plus an autosave, and self-updating installs.

Screenshots

Title screen — The title screen pans across the slums of Purgatory while you read the story so far

Exploring — First-person exploration with a live minimap and party cards

The slums of Purgatory — Purgatory: burnt-out shells, rubble, sewage, graffiti and torn posters under a smouldering sky

Lightning over Purgatory — Storms: lightning lights the whole street, and the thunder rolls in a moment later

Combat: acting order by Dexterity, attack, mighty blow, spell, defend or flee

After an attack — Hits land with sound, particles and damage numbers

A town square — Town squares with market stalls, wells and townsfolk who talk back

A town street — Half-timbered streets with awnings, shutters, flower boxes and lanterns

A soldier with a name plate — Name plates show who you can talk to: press Space and the party walks up to them

The overworld: islands, signposts and the open sea

Ruins at night — Ruins under a night sky

Dungeon interior — Beyond the towns: the original game's dungeon layouts, cobwebs and all

Already installed? The game checks for updates when it starts and updates itself with one click.
The installer is code-signed, but Windows may still show a SmartScreen notice the first time, because a new download has no history yet: More info → Run anyway.
Privacy: the game's update check also sends an anonymous usage note: a random install id, the game version, how long it has been running, your highest hero level and the map you are on. Never a name, a save file or anything personal. It tells me roughly how many people play. Turn it off any time in Options (“Share anonymous usage stats”). Visits to this page and downloads of the installer are counted from the web server's log.
Dragon Wars is a trademark of its owners. This is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project and is not affiliated with them. The installer includes map layouts derived from the original game's data; please keep it to yourself and the people testing with you.