Wouter & Ymke 
In Dragonarium you step into the role of a hatchery official trying to earn the grand title of minister of the imperial hatchery. Sounds fancy, right? The idea is that you’re summoned to this massive imperial library where elements swirl around your head and little dragons wobble over dusty books like they own the place. It’s a fun setting, and honestly, it made me smile the first time I read it.
Your job is simple on paper: build a dragonarium. In practice… well, it gets a bit more puzzly. You’re placing tiles connected to fire, water, air or royal magic, gathering the right element stones and trying to hatch dragons at just the right moment. If you do it well enough, you might convince the empire that you’re the one for the job. If not, well, at least you’ve built a nice little tower of tiles, you know what I mean.
👥 1-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 30-45 minutes
📝 Designers: Wei Chang & Kuan Chen
🎨 Artwork: Zingco Kang & Yuan Momoco
🏢 Publisher: Wonderful World Board Games (preview copy provided)
Check out the Kickstarter campaign by clicking here
Gameplay Overview
A game lasts twelve rounds and each round follows the same steps: draft a tile, place it, check if any eggs hatch and then move your little assistant around your board while dropping element stones along the way. Everyone starts with a board, a starting tile, an assistant and three pillars to help you build upwards.
The planning site in the middle of the table holds a small row of tiles you draft from. It’s always open information, so you see what you might get and what you might lose. In two and four players you get six tiles in the row and in three players you get five.
Tile placement is fairly free since tiles don’t need to be adjacent. You can build on the ground or stack upward. When you build higher, at least one square of the tile has to sit on an existing square, and you can use pillars to support the other square if needed. The catch is that you can’t place tiles on dragons or on eggs that aren’t yet ready. And if you mess up and can’t place your tile legally, you throw it away and get one pillar and one stone of your choice.
Eggs hatch when all their stone spaces are filled. If you place a tile on top of a ready egg, the dragon pops into existence and you put it anywhere on your board. A dragon gives that square a second terrain type, which is quite important later on. Royal eggs are a bit picky because both their stones have to be the same colour. Once you place the first, you’re basically locked in.
Your assistant moves around the edge of your board. You pick one of the three basic elements, count the size of your biggest matching area, move that many steps and place one stone at every step in that row or column if you can. And if you can place a stone, you have to.
At the end of each round the planning site refills according to player count. Two-player games have a slightly different rule depending on how many tiles remain, but it works smoothly. When the supply finally runs out, the last two tiles get ignored and you move straight to scoring.
Scoring looks at your largest area for each terrain type and multiplies its size by its highest level. Royal dragons give you three extra points each. Highest total wins.
Artwork, Components and Visual Design
Dragonarium looks good on the table, but not in a trying-too-hard way. The wooden dragons are charming and immediately readable. They’re cut cleanly and the colours are bright, so you always know what’s what. They feel a bit like small trophies you earn along the way and I mean that in a positive, grounded way.
The tiles are thick and colourful. The icons are clear, even when you’re placing them several levels up, which is useful when your dragonarium starts to look like a magical car park. The element stones are transparent plastic crystals in red, blue and green. They stand out well and make it easy to scan which eggs are close to hatching.
The assistant is a small wooden piece shaped like an open hand, with printed line art on it. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but after a while I kind of liked it. It’s harmless, clear and you always know where it is.
Once the game gets going, boards fill up quickly. You get stacks of tiles, dragons sitting on rooftops and stones everywhere. It looks busy but it remains readable, mostly because the colours and shapes are so different from each other. Nothing melts together visually, which honestly makes the last few rounds a lot easier to handle.
Our Experience
After a few rounds we had the turn structure down. It’s simple and steady, which helps because the puzzle itself becomes trickier over time. Drafting from a small market creates a bit of pressure, especially when the thing you need just refuses to show up. We also had a couple of those moments where someone took the tile you wanted and you could feel the air shift at the table.
The tile stacking part is fun but also more important than you might expect. Building height is crucial for scoring, so people start planning little towers early on. And dragons block spaces, so every dragon placement feels like a commitment. I had a moment where I proudly placed a dragon somewhere and five minutes later realised I had blocked the perfect spot for a higher level. Happens to the best of us.
The assistant movement is the part that got the most mixed reactions in our group. Early in the game it’s fine, but later on it can become a bit of a brain burner. You’re counting areas, predicting stone placements and checking rows and columns. If you enjoy that kind of puzzle, it feels great. If you’re someone who freezes when too many things overlap, it might feel a bit heavy. Some turns slowed down a bit because of this.
We also tried the B-side boards and they definitely change the feel. Some of them push you toward taller builds, others toward wild dragon combos or small rule twists. They’re interesting but we felt they’re best once you’ve played the regular side a few times.
Across our sessions the game consistently pushed us to build a few strong regions rather than many small ones. This made the endgame a bit tense because you’re always trying to squeeze one more level out of your best area. And since scoring mixes width with height, it’s sometimes hard to see who’s actually in the lead. Which is fine. It keeps things exciting.
Our Thoughts
I guess the best way to put it is that Dragonarium grew on us. Not love at first sight, but the kind where you suddenly go “oh wait, this is actually pretty fun” halfway through a game. And if you like the kind of puzzle where you slowly build up a neat little structure and try not to trap yourself in the process, you’ll probably feel the same. It’s not really a game where you’re attacking each other or anything. Most of the time you’re working on your own board and occasionally messing with someone else’s plan by taking a tile they wanted. I personally like that balance, but I know some players prefer more interaction.
The assistant system gives the game a strong identity, although it won’t be for everyone. It can feel a bit much near the end, especially with four players who think carefully. The random tile draw can also help or hinder plans and sometimes the tile you need just doesn’t arrive. It’s part of the game, but some people might find it a little frustrating.
The table presence is genuinely nice without trying to impress you too hard. The dragons look good, the tiles stack well and boards end up looking like small magical building projects. The B-side boards add replayability, but only once you’re comfortable with the main puzzle.
For us, Dragonarium became one of those games where you slowly piece things together and hope you didn’t set yourself up for trouble three turns ago. It has its quirks and you need to pay attention, but there’s something quite enjoyable about watching your little structure take shape. And the dragons settling in… well, they round it off in a way I really liked.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Wonderful World Board Games.
