What is House of the Dragon: DracARys?

With House of the Dragon: DracARys, we sought out to build the most personalized, responsive, virtual creature to ever live on your phone, brought to life with the latest augmented reality technology. This app was born out of an initiative to combine emerging technologies with the promotion of House of the Dragon in the pursuit of something novel and interesting for fans and potential fans to explore. 

With DracARys we wanted to explore what it would mean for the dragons of Westeros to exist in our world, an idea that very much has AR at its core. As an added layer, there was the aspiration to allow fans to raise their own dragons for deeper immersion into the world. Designing the creative experience around the concept of AR ensured there were less leaps of understanding required by the user to immerse themselves. For the dragons to feel convincingly integrated into the world we leaned into the new developments in AR technology, which were the driving force behind the project.

The experience was built upon the following pillars. The pillars were designed to blend the boundaries between creative, user experience and technology to ensure we were achieving our project goals: 

• Procedural dragon design, ensuring no two dragons are alike. 
• Cutting edge augmented reality technology that is depth aware, allowing dragons to react and affect their environment. 
• App engagements with fun and dynamic interactions (ie. Dragon commands using a bespoke Valyrian voice recognition system.) 
• Incite a sense of discovery and exploration that teaches and informs users about the dragons, immersing users into the show’s lore (ie. Intelligent food system, allowing your camera to detect 5 different environments and find new food sources based off of where you are).

House of the Dragon: DracARys is available in the following countries: 

House of the Dragon: DracARys technology is currently available in the United States, Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curaçao, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, Gaza Strip, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Montserrat, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela, West Bank, and Yemen.

How do I pick my dragon?

The experience starts with users entering an augmented reality portal who are then transported to a cave in Westeros to steal an egg of their choice. Each dragon egg is unique and you’ll find that an egg’s color and sheen has a bearing on the dragon’s appearance as it grows.

What can I do to make my dragon grow?

Each dragon is unique to its user. As it grows, it may develop and behave differently from other users’ dragons, but they’ll all gain new abilities upon completing various developmental milestones. Feeling stuck? Try accessing your dragon’s info card via the dragon icon on the bottom right for useful development tips. 

What does my dragon eat?

Users can feed their dragons a variety of meals, which is dependent on each user’s environment. As their dragon grows, so do their options. Not seeing new food items? Try taking your dragon to the beach, on a hike, or your local park and keep the food inventory open to forage. 

How do I use the voice command system to interact with my dragon?

Users will learn five Valyrian words to summon their dragons via the voice command system. As your dragon reaches new milestones, additional Valyrian commands will become available to you. The dragon is only listening when you hold down the microphone button so press, hold and release as if you were sending an audio message.

What happens to my dragon once it reaches adulthood?

When dragons reach adulthood, they gain the ability to roam the world for other users across the globe to see. That’s right! The adult dragons you see in the sky as you interact with your own dragon are actually those of other users. A user’s adult dragon will always come back to them when commanded through the Valyrian voice command system or when its owner throws it food.

 

For further questions, please reach out to arsupport@hbo.com.