A Dragon Named Coal announced

Rachel Blue writes in to announce a new side-scrolling Metroidvania / action RPG called A Dragon Named Coal. In development by Clever Crow Games, ADNC features branching dialog options, open-ended exploration, and the ability to play as a baby black dragon who runs around hacking people to death with an improbably large sword.

The premise:

Civil war hollows out a legendary kingdom to a husk of its former glory. In a last effort to save his people a king embarks on one last quest. But a young outcasted dragon named Coal may be able to accomplish what the king’s great armies and sorcerers cannot. For his decisions will echo throughout generations to doom or save everyone.

The planned list of features reads as follows:

• Explore a dark fantasy open world that reaps what you sow
• Cleverly composed levels that reward exploration and experimentation
• Your decisions drastically change how villains and heroes develop
• Upgrade your skills with a Skyrim style system reworked for metroidvania mechanics
• Flexible companion system with characters that change based on playstyle

Though A Dragon Named Coal is in pre-alpha, the devs have already made a browser demo available in order to gather player feedback. I have played through a bit of it myself; it’s still quite rough, but that’s to be expected of a pre-alpha. The game already has some lovely music and voice work, though, and I believe it will turn out worthwhile if they can just improve the game’s controls and combat mechanics.

Blue estimates that A Dragon Named Coal will see final release sometime in 2017 for Windows, Mac, Linux, XBox One, and Playstation 4.