wobblegong: Stylized blue fish with spots and stripes. (Default)
Wobblegong ([personal profile] wobblegong) wrote2018-12-25 12:47 am

I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up

Awhile ago I was idly browsing Neogeen's tumblr and one character kept popping up over and over again. I narrowly managed to pull enough info from the descriptions to google up that it was from "Arcane Zoo" which led me to a dA page: "Arcane Zoo reopening!" (Nov 2017)

I was tired so I stuck the bookmark on a hotplate and shelved it. Tonight I was tired but in need of brain-snacks so I finally pulled it back out.

TIL that "Art Role Playing Games" (ARPG but good luck keeping that distinct from Action Role Playing Game ARPG) are an entire genre on dA– not that they're beholden to the platform, but dA has/had a confluence of features that lent it to them. Approximately: petsite meets tabletop and you play via making art.

Facts:
1) I've struggled for years to find ways to motivate myself artistically.
2) Ooooooh booooooy am I a sucker for gamification.

Two hours later I'm still trawling for an ARPG I'm interested in– Arcane Zoo looked good (and isn't locked to dA....) but I wasn't seeing much activity on its forums and it wasn't on point for my preferred aesthetics. Most of the top ARPGs are Standard Furrybait: you've got your cats, you've got your dogs, you've got your horses, and then you start in on cat/dog/horse + another animal = special new species unique to the setting (cat-moth, dog-bear, etc). I'm not into those so my searching has required some effort, made all the more exciting by dA's total disdain for/lack of support for searching.

So far I've found two unrelated games whose key made-up animal could be described as "floofdino dragon". Color me sleepily intrigued....

An Incomplete List of ARPGs I've Found So Far:
  • Arcane Zoo: two species, both highly hybrid with many influences [LINK]
  • Tokotas: bear-dogs [LINK]
  • Cinta Cavia: huge cats? [LINK] inactivity warning
  • Felithera: huge cats. [LINK] possible inactivity warning
  • Kukuri: "kangaroo-muppet-raptors". [LINK]
  • Draco Stryx: birds gone flapdragon. [LINK]
  • World of Reos: sparklehorses? [LINK] |no free characters|
  • Esks/ThoseWhoWentMissing: dark muppets? [LINK] deliberately dark-themed |no free characters|
  • Arcanus: ???generic doghorsedragon-y thing??? [LINK]
  • Isomara: chibi floofdragons with an aquatic theme. [LINK] |limited-time free characters contest ends Dec 31|
  • ↓ Ethers of Pandora: griffons? [LINK] probable drama warning, currently closed with no ETA
  • ↑ Fields of Valhalla: ...moose? [LINK] possible drama warning
  • Hyperium: uhhh spacedogs? [LINK] joint drama/inactivity warning
  • Domain of the Wolf: wolves. [LINK]
  • Wethu: lions and hyenas. [LINK] not out of beta yet
  • Aion-Taur: edgy dino-dragons. [LINK] not out of beta yet
  • Saurian Amoux: dino-dogs. [LINK]
  • PARPG: ARPG of... Pokemon. [LINK] possible inactivity warning

Results from trawling 2018-12-28:
  • Kiseilians Club: dragons in a batty vein. [LINK] possible low activity warning
  • Souls Between: DRAAAAgony dragons. [LINK] unvetted
  • Amazi Empires: lionbird with some rat. [LINK] unvetted
  • Pools of the Niravar: demon lions. [LINK] unvetted ☆hosted outside dA☆
  • Nemeion: Greco-Roman gladiator lions. [LINK] unvetted
  • Vesper End: sparklecanids. [LINK] unvetted | possible closure warning
  • Ketucari: dragonlions. [LINK] unvetted
  • Haelumians Tribe: tiefling angels? AAAGH HUMAN ANATOMY. [LINK] unvetted | probable closure warning

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