This is the year that game studios across the world are taking their games "Cross Platform." If you have not seen this happening, you certainly will soon. It is a critical move for game studios who are continuing to grow during these crazy times. Thanks to you, we have been building and growing our games over the past 10 years. Many of our competitors, despite having larger teams and being better funded than us, did not survive. The ones that are left are all making the same wise move we now must make. We must make all of our games playable on iPhones, iPads, Androids, iPods, Tablets, Windows Phones and other mobile devices. Because it is not possible to do this using our tool of choice, Flash, we are now learning new technology and tools. The name we have assigned to this overwhelming task is "Project: Omni." It is not one game, it is actually the future of all of our games. From the original AdventureQuest to the new AdventureQuest3D, all games must be re-created from the ground up to play on all devices. Now, you must be thinking, "OMG!!!! Do you have any idea how much work that is?" The answer is, yes. So before we commit to trying to do the impossible, we have the entire team building a fresh new game project to see how far we can push the devices with our graphics and animation. It is off to an amazing start! If you are interested in learning how we are making this new game run on every device, then join me here each day for a behind the scenes post of our progress. Future posts will be a lot more funny than this post... probably not on purpose :-P
FRIDAY IS RELEASE DAY! New releases have just launched in your favorite online adventure games that will keep you entertained all weekend long. Whether it’s fantasy games you’re questing for, PVP battles you’re craving, or wanting to score epic loot, you’re free to play to your heart’s…or HP bar’s…content!
AdventureQuest Worlds Begin your battles in Brightfall! Gaze upon the secrets of the Mirror Realm and witness the return of Xing and Xang, the twin minions of the Champion of Chaos! But this time they're eager to play a MUCH more Chaotic game. If these terrible twins succeed… YOU will be erased from reality! Stock up on Quibble’s Rare items, check out the Featured Artist Showcase Shop, find your Missing Left Sock, and show your Mom you’re a true hero with Mother’s Day items arriving Sunday!
OverSoul Rank up with this Mini Release: Legendary Frost Queen!
EpicDuel The air has been fully purified in the Biological Preserve and Davarril is vulnerable to attack! Although Arborgeddon is nearly over, Davarril's devious experiments have created one last mutation: the Botanical Borg! However, this is no ordinary bot -- by summoning the Botanical Borg, you will actually mutate into it! In this terrifying form you can unleash a devastating Spore Blast or an AOE Spore Bombardment!
HeroSmash Fiesta on with the Cinco de Mayo Shop and Randor the Red’s Birthday in Overlook! Gear up in clickable Cactus gear… but watch out for the thorns! Faith has received her makeover and the other NPCs in Overlook will soon offer tutorials for new players.
AdventureQuest Classic Absol-ution Part IV! As Hollow and the crew continue to repair the D.E.N.N.I.E. Phantom, you will have to battle through Etherseid's forces. Confront Etherseid and send that puny pony packing! After saving Lore, stop by Warlic’s and get your own Iron Knight player face and get the Mother's Day Charm and Earrings in the Limited Time Shop.
DragonFable Embark on an all new Sulen'Eska quest! Visit the Tower of the Rose in the opening cutscene and then head into a Clawkin village that is under attack. Check out the DC drop shop, as well as more possible DC items!
MechQuest While we put the finishing touches on your next mission in The march of the Shadowscythe, the Cinco de Mayo fiesta continues. Visit the shop in Soluna City Main and check out this spicy weapon - the Go.Oogly!
This is one of those stories that very much defines Artix Entertainment as a video game studio. Just last week, Unity3D announced that is was dropping it's exporter for Flash. This is a terrible blow to the AdventureQuest 3D team... and, for that matter, to the Adobe Flash Platform itself. As you know our ultimate goal was to create a 3D MMO that was playable in Flash. We have been working on the 3D game project using our best coders and artists non-stop for over a year. We have overcome so many 'show stopping obstacles' that it is unbelievable that, on the eve of the game's main content production starting, we were kicked in the unmentionables with this news.
Furthermore, we see that more and more of you are moving from the web to to playing games on your phones and tablets. We could have just thrown up our arms, given up, and given into the endless abyss of hopelessness.... *smirks* NEVER! We took a drastic new course of action. As of this week, nearly our entire team of programmers and artists are learning how to make "Omni-Games." That is, games that run on ALL devices. The web, Facebook, iPhones, Androids, tablets, dumptrucks, toasters, bricks, burritos and more. Our first project was carefully selected to be feature-complete in 3 months to teach our programmers and artists this new technology. It will give us the foundation to move our older games to all devices, which has already begun. It has not just begun, it is moving faster than anything we have seen in a LOOONG TIME! Lean in close and hear the unfolding story of Project: Omni (working title).
Bringing a Chainsaw to a Spork Fight
What would happen if Artix Entertainment put 6 of its top programmers and 7 of its top artists on a single, bite-sized, video game project? That is exactly what happened this week. It is the first time in the history of our indie game studio that we have ever had this many people working on the same project. The results are beyond amazing. To design the art for the game we put Thyton, Dage, Samba, Diozz, Yergen, Jemini, and Cysero in a room filled with pencils and paper. For our previous games like DragonFable and MechQuest it took literally 2 months to finalize the character and art concepts. For this game, we did it in 48 hours! The programmers had simliar success tackling gameplay, customization, database design, and more. The combined forces of Minimal, Zhoom, Rolith, Warlic, Kraken, and Swolicus on a project of this scope is like bringing a laser chainsaw to a spork fight. The game is an addictive puzzle game with RPG mechanics. We are planning 256 stages and hordes of crazy, over-the-top monsters and weapons.
What is an "Omni-Game"
Omni pretty much means "all." So an Omni-Game must be a game that runs on ALL devices. The real name for this game has not been chosen yet (if you have good ideas please post them as a comment here or on Twitter)! So for now, we are calling this Project: Omni. We are building this game for web, FaceBook, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, Tablets and other devices. You will be able to play on one device, and effortlessly switch to another. For example: play on your phone on the bus, then switch to your laptop when you get home. Or maybe even play on your XBox or Wii.
Samba & Jemini's version of Twilly and Zorbak pets for this project.
The Facts
We plan on building a major mobile game within the next 3 months. It is our first "Omni-Game."
This is the first time we have ever had 6 programmers and 7 artists on the creation of a single game project.
AdventureQuest 3D is still in production and the Alpha Tests will continue. However it will be short on programmers for the next month. (Xero, Llussion, and Tamarran are currently building out the new zones.)
All side-projects including DoomCauldron have been halted.
The specific technology on which we are learning to create this project can probably be used to re-create AdventureQuest Worlds as an Omni-Game which will run on all devices (The same goes for EpicDuel, DragonFable, MechQuest, the original AdventureQuest and any of our other games.)
Project: Omni started on Wednesday... it is the best move for the future of our games. Since the project started and everyone started learning the new tech, morale has been soaring!
Comment Qustion: This is a pretty risky and dangerous move for AE, but anyone can see how vital this move it is to get onto mobile. What do you think? Are Omni-Games the future?
Who strikes fear and inspiration into millions of AQWorlds players? None other than Dage the Evil, the Dark Lord of the Undead Legion! And this week you will uncover the Undead Legion’s very dark history—from the beginning! Embark on brand-new quests with exciting rewards as you unearth the deepest darkest secrets of Dage’s Undead Legion. Unleash the power of the all-new Blood Titan Class and get ready for fun and fear!
Davarril thought taking over Delta V would be a walk in the park, but the diligent duelists have kept his infestation confined. Players are working day and night collecting purified spores to heal the Biological Preserve and take the fight to Davarril himself. Once the War Bar reaches 100%, there will be nothing keeping you from delivering justice to the rogue Archivist. Meanwhile, Cinderella's war shop will be supplied with a shipment of new armors and an awesome Botanical Bike!
Absol-ution Part III begins! The crew of the D.E.N.N.I.E. Phantom watches helplessly as EtherSeid does the unthinkable—in an instant, Lore is gone! The penultimate part of the Absol-ution saga and the final quest sets the stage for a massive war like no other! After saving Lore, celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Puebla Maces, Zaragosa Polearms, and the Piñata Zard full of rare goodies.
After braving the desolate Sandsea desert to uncover The Rose's thorny plot, you've discovered the Sek-Duat's hiding place... and the final battle begins this weekend! Take down the Emperor of the Sandsea on foot or harness the power of your dragon to defeat Titan Sek-Duat! Unlock all-new Enchanted DragonLord weapons and house items this Friday, then return Sunday for new Cinco de Mayo seasonal rare gear!
Upon the winds you will find a whisper of doom, "Grimskull is coming." We thought he was just something the Paladins thought up to scare the young Knights in training. The possibility he could be real sends a shiver down my spine. The rumors say Grimskull is coming... but if the stories are true, it will not be this week. It will not be when you expect it. It could happen at any time, any place... all that you know is it WILL HAPPEN. When it does, it will happen in AdventureQuest Worlds.
Endless adventures await you! On Monday, we released Earth Day with new and Seasonal Rare items and quests; Tuesday brought Memet’s Limited Time Artist Showcase Shop; the LightCaster Armor Set arrived Wednesday… and today brings Quibble’s Rare Mirror Realm Items, the Doom Kitten and Blood Titan Challenge Boss battles, the Tier 3 set of Sepulchure’s darkest gear, major updates to the Travel Map, and a brand-new Undead Legion set—from BEFORE the Legion was formed!
Arborgeddon is here! Davarril, the evil Archivists, is spreading mind-altering spores across Delta V to take back the world for plantkind! It is up to you to battle and collect enough spore samples to cure the infestation and turn the tide against him. Collect enough spores, and unlock a super secret shop packed with war prizes! Are you ready to save the planet from itself?
Happy Earth Day and Arbor Day! Polistar has made some cool seasonal event gear. We are currently working on bugs that appeared after the server merging. We are receiving a lot of super contest entries and hope to soon be inviting some new volunteer staff to HeroSmash :). Wonderp Bread has been busy with a new quest project while Lycus and Randor have been planning the future of Overlook. The super City Bridge will be the intro to HS and Overlook will have a quick tutorial, helping new players get started!
Get ready for Absol-ution Part II: A NightMare from the Depths of Dreams! The Absol-ution saga ascends to a shocking climax as the D.E.N.N.I.E. Phantom punches its way through the Nightmare Realm and into etherspace. The coming of Lord EtherSeid will end with drastic and explosive consequences you cannot even begin to imagine… and possibly not even remember! Can you also find the super rare, special weapon variant somewhere in one of the backgrounds in AQ? Help support AQ by purchasing the 7,500 Z-Token Package and receive the BloodThorn Blade and Shield for free! With your Z-Tokens, you can also buy the Moglin Dracowolf Pet from the Z-Token Shop! And it’s our very own artist Clyde’s birthday, so he’s opened his shop with the Spirit Hunter Scythe series!
Breakout your biggest blades, Hero, because Anoril (the friendly chief Gorillaphant Wrangler) needs YOU to break in the FalconsNest Noo's newsest occupants! Contain the panda-monium before the tourists are left floundering... because the situation is becoming unBEARable! Once you've cleanedup the mess, Anoril will have an all-new souvenir as a thank you gift!
Ready for the next test of the new 3D, browser based video game we are building? Programmer Zhoom has been hard at work on "interactive objects." So we are bringing the test server online from Thursday (until AQWorld's new release starts Friday night) to try it out! To participate in the Alpha Test you must be a Member of AdventureQuest Worlds or have supported one of our games in the past. We love you guys for making all of this possible!
Alpha Test (Version 0.05) has ended.
About this test
We are running behind schedule and still coding the functionality for today's new test. It is looking like an early afternoon release. So instead of posting the normal Play-By-Play, I am going to post the specifics of what has (or has not) been changed below.
Alpha Points for the previous tests have been added!
All inventory items have crumbled to dust (as they do with every Alpha Test -- items are more likely to remain when we go to Beta Testing.)
Test #5 is worth 500 total Alpha Points
400 if you complete the new quest and have the "Fire Sword" in your inventory at the end of the test
100 if you re-complete last week's quest
Before this test begins, the max points anyone could have is 601. If you missed out on any previous tests, there will be plenty of opportunity to gets lots of Alpha Points. You may have noticed, each test has been worth more points than the last.
The maps will be the same as the last test... because the new maps we are working on are secret and "No Spoilers!"
Leona, the NPC which gives the quest will no longer be "killable"
The fix for "broken monster pathing" will not be fixed in this test
The "white character bug" and "pink item bug" will not be fixed in this test
To complete the new quest, you need to collect wood, go into the volcano and kill fire mosnters to collect flint, then go around the map lighting torches.
Getting pumped for the OverSoul Revolution? The Leaderboard has just been launched—so show the world how awesome you really are! Join the FIRST EVER TOURNAMENT in OverSoul, happening this weekend! The OverSoul team has been hard at work tweaking the UI, creating new art, and collecting souls for new characters. Are you ready for Card Customization? We hope to launch that next Friday!
Journey to the Center of Lore! All heroes, monsters, and the world of Lore herself have a bright, burning core of magic at their center. But the forces of magic have become unbalanced, and you'll need to journey to the center of Lore to uncover... and fix... whatever is causing magical mishaps! Check out the first ever Artist Showcase Shop that features exclusive items created by Vokun—only available until Tuesday when a new featured Artist item set will arrive!
Davarril is ready to emerge from the Biological Preserve and enact his plan of botanical conquest. Prepare for the attack by equipping yourself with the new Botanical Battle Suit and the Botanical Hazard! The armor comes equipped with an active core, Rooted, that increases your defense by sacrificing mobility, allowing you to withstand serious punishment. The Botanical Hazard uses sticky, poisonous spores that can ruin anyone's day.
The Super City Mall is overrun with Zombies! New zombie related drops have been added to all the monsters in the mall. Pardon our dust: the Super City Mall is still being worked on as we deal with new changes for HeroSmash. A new contest for 2 volunteer artists and a writer is underway! Please note you need to be at least 18 years old. Read the HeroSmash Design Notes if interested in applying!
Karuna's Kids have been kidnapped! Karuna is worried sick and she'll need a hero to help find her missing children. With a mix of humor, heroism, rewards, and puns, this is one week you don't want to miss! And don’t miss out on the Rare Item Hunt; a super rare special weapon variant is hidden somewhere in one of the backgrounds—but it’s only available for 1 more week! Hurry!
Battle in this weekend’s PvP card game Tournament!
Enter our 1st ever Tournament! Winner gets a statue of their character in town. Top 100 players get immortalized on the wall of champions. The slaughterfest begins today Friday, April 19th @ 4pm EST and the carnage ends on Sunday, April 21st at 8pm EST. Think you have what it takes to be in the top 100? Or do you just want to hunt the players on the top 100 list to slow them down and ruin their winning streak? This tournament is open to ALL players. To compete, simply battle random players using the “BATTLE: Player” button. You know, the big red shiny one at the bottom of the screen. Every win will bring you closer to the ultimate 1st place price…. And if you do achieve 1st place on the leader board at the end of the tournament a statue of you constructed in the main town!
Win battles vs random players using the Battle: Player button to rise in rank
#1 Player will have a statue of them placed in town (Statue will remain prominently in town until it is gloriously moved to the upcoming Hall of Champions, immortalizing the winner for all time.)
Top 100 players will also be immortalized on a web page called the Wall of Champions for everyone to see.
We reserve the right to award players who participate at any level if we feel they have battled with honor
Cheats/Hackers/Exploiters will be disqualified
“Disconnects” are being tracked. High numbers of disconnects from battles will cause players to be disqualified.
The game is in Beta and we are doing this for no other reason than it is something cool for all of you battle hungry Oversoul Players… so when problems inevitably happen, or things do not go as well as we would like, remember the age old battle cry: “THIS IS… A BETA TEST!”
This morning I met with members of the team for Mechfast (the most important meal of the day!) In addition to eggs, bacon, grits, coffee, pie, and ketchup... I had a copy of the MechQuest's "End of the Galaxy" script.
Korin & Maegwyn (The co-leads of MechQuest) and I have revised and improved the script a lot over the past two weeks. We were showing it for the first time to Warlic (who was the former MechQuest Lead before he programmed OverSoul) and Alina (AQWorld's co-lead). Warlic read this final script for the first time. He put down his coffee cup, looked us square in the eyes and said, "This is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful." We all smiled and nodded in agreement. So my friends... as of this post, history is starting to unfold. We are just 5 releases away from the "End of the Galaxy."
Writing the perfect script to tie all of the seemingly unrelated stories in MechQuest into one, final, epic confrontation against Lord Valoth's Command Fleet was hard. But building these 5 releases will be a lot harder. MechQuest's small team does not have enough people to do the art and animation required for the HUGE 5th and final release. Needless to say every artist and animator that worked on MechQuest is coming back to help... and many more members of the team are volenteering to take on the extra workload. The final cutscene and battle will be the combined efforts of J6, Ghost, Arklen, Oishii, Jemini, Korin, and more. It really feels like we are doing this right. "If you are going to go out... go out big!" Play MechQuest and get ready for the big event!
Alpha Test (Version 0.05) has ended.
