I first started playing DragonVale when I was six. I played on my mother’s iPad, then on my tablet, then on my phone. DragonVale is a fun, child friendly (obviously) app where you raise and breed dragons. I’ve tried a few other games like it over the years, but never found it’s equal. (Granted, I’m a bit biased; it was my first dragon game online.)
Dragons come in types (Plant, Fire, Water, etc.). When you first unlock a type, you need to buy the Type Habitat and the main Type Dragon. Once you have these, you can breed them to gain combo dragons. These can live in Habitats of any type that match theirs. Note: if you breed a Fire Dragon with an Air Dragon, there are 4 possible that dragon types you can breed. I’d presume that logically, this is due to dominant genes and the like, but I have no clue. I think the game just decides randomly.
Besides breeding dragons, you can also enter them in Colosseum competitions and send them on quests. These earn you Dragon Food, money, and gems.
Occasionally you breed rare dragons. For instance, I’ve just breed an Epic Tinsel Dragon, which is, according the the DragonVale Wiki, produced by a Holly Dragon bred with any species of Cold dragon.
