DragonScales 3 Archives

23 Feb

DragonScales 3: Beating monsters and removing symbols

In DragonScales 3 you’ll have to destroy some special monsters by using the Sacred Axe. Specifically, all the levels of World 15 are full of such pesky creatures. Destroying them is easy, though. Pay attention to the scales you receive to play. Some of such scales will contain a little axe. Try to place the scale with the little axe in a cell of a column containing a monster. Then continue playing to form a combination which includes the scale with the axe. When such combination is formed, the Sacred Axe will appear to smash the monster (see Figure 1.)

Figure 1

Further on, in Level 16, you’ll find the traditional DragonScales symbols on the board. To remove them simply form combinations on the cells with the symbols (see Figure 2.)

Figure 2

Remember we’re available to help. You can reach us via our Facebook page or our Twitter account (@superikigames).

25 Sep

UTF-8 with BOM

When localizing DragonScales 3 we experienced a baffling issue with an internal tool whose purpose is simply to replace text in a group of files. Those UTF-8 encoded files contain messages loaded by the game from the very beginning. However, after running the tool, the game started crashing when reading such files. By using an old buddy, fc /B, we found out that our tool was “injecting” a few extra bytes at the start of the file: EF BB BF. In short, the tool was altering the encoding of files from UTF-8 to UTF-8 with BOM. That was the cause for the crashing, as our game expects the files to be UTF-8 encoded without BOM.

What’s this BOM, anyway? Simply put, it’s just a sequence of bytes (EF BB BF) used to signal readers about the file being UTF-8 encoded. It seems such mark might be useful in some specific contexts, with some specific programs. Not our case, so we had to remove the BOM with a little batch script like this:

for /r ".\DE\scenes" %%i in (*.*) do (
  copy %%i .\tmp.txt /Y
  sed -i '1s/^\xEF\xBB\xBF//' .\tmp.txt
  attrib -R .\tmp.txt
  move /Y .\tmp.txt %%i
)

In this snippet we remove the BOM via sed. Files are those under a fictitious directory, .\DE\scenes. Those copies and attribs help to circumvent some problems with permissions of files created by our sed version on Windows.

06 Sep

A strategy for Level 13-7 of DragonScales 3

The key for level 13-7 of DragonScales 3 is to form a way to access the pink scale on the left side at the bottom. Our approach starts by removing the rocks surrounding the central arrow, identified in Figure 1. Remember: to remove rocks just form combinations in adjacent cells.

Figure 1

After removing the rocks, activate the arrow (Figure 2.)

Figure 2

Now focus on the 2 adjacent arrows, on the top row (Figure 3). Activate one of them.

Figure 3

The next step is to activate the bomb to break the block (Figures 4 and 5).

Figure 4

Figure 5

Finally, activate the arrow to lower the column and get access to the pink scale (Figure 6.)

Figure 6

All that remains is capturing the cross pink scales and getting 80 scales of any color.

30 May

Solution for Level 9-8 of DragonScales 3

Generally, we like to include 2 or 3 tricky levels in our DragonScales games. It’s the case for the “Moon Bar” level in DragonScales 1 or Level 3-12 in DragonScales 2. In DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness we also have a few demanding boards. Level 9-8, for instance.

Image 1

There are two tricky scales in Level 9-8 (see Image 1.) For both scales the key is to setup the required scales beforehand in order to form the match/combination exactly when the arrows are activated. To remove scale Tricky 1, first we have to place golden scales in the near tiles. When the two arrows are activated we should have already placed the golden scales we need, and the combination is done after the last of the two bottom-left arrows is activated.

Image 2

For instance, in Image 2, we have already managed to place two regular golden scales near to the goal golden scale we want to remove (Tricky 1.) Images 3 to 8 only show a few of our plays to activate the arrows. But the important thing is that the 2 golden scales are already in the right place.

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6

Image 7

Image 8

Regarding the scale labeled in Image 1 as Tricky 2: we have to follow a similar procedure. See Image 9. Just manage to place golden scales in the proper tiles, and then keep playing to activate the remaining arrow. See Images 9 to 11.

Image 9

Image 10

Image 11

It’s fairly simple once you’ve figured the order in which scales should be removed. You’ll also need a bit of good luck with the scales you’ll get to play! 🙂

P.S. You might be interested in the solution of Level 13-7, also a tricky level of DragonScales 3.

02 May

DragonScales 3’s page is now active!

Hello everybody! The web page for our new game DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness is already live! You can read a description of the game including its features, take a look at a few screenshots and the trailer, and of course, purchase the game. For the time being, DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness is available for Windows and Mac. Here’s the link to the game’s new site: DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness. We hope you like it!

21 Feb

DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness

After several months of hard work, the new installment in the DragonScales series is finally completed. DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness is the DragonScales game with the most gameplay variety ever! DragonScales 3 showcases a totally new story arc, with more than 150 new levels and a novel Gravity game mode, besides the classic DragonScales mode with some fun and challenging twists.

Lady Siniestra, Specktr, Archmage Cedric and Xeroz. A new adventure begins!

With DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness DragonScales allows players to win badges and collect stars, for enhanced replay value. Some stars are secret, and you’ll have to find them out! There are other alluring challenges for advanced DragonScales players, albeit the game also offers an enjoyable experience for players looking for relaxed play sessions. Furthermore, DragonScales 3 introduces a new array of magical powers. For example, Improved Prescience allows you to select a tailored set of scales to play! And with the new Confusion power you can completely change the position of all the scales on the board!

New falling mode with skulls!

The game is being prepared for distribution through several channels, so stay tunned! 🙂