When we first started building our Flash based game I was asked, "Do you ever think you will have your games in GameStop?" I shook my head no and said, "No, our games are not the type of thing you will ever see in a store like Gamestop." Update: I was wrong. O_O
I am pretty sure it is against the rules to take photos in a store, but when we went to the GameStop on Saturday and saw the AQ display... we snuck a photo using my phone! This is SO AWESOME! I posted this photo on FaceBook. Less than 2 hours later, other players started sending me and posting photos of them posing next to the sign. (NOTE:The way advertising is SUPPOSED to work... is you pass by an ad and you notice it. But our awesome players did the opposite and were actually GOING to GameStop to take a photo with the display and send us a picture.You guys are even crazier than we are!) One thing I did notice was our cards were located on a different side of the spinny thing than the display poster. You will notice in the picture above, the cards are right above the display. This is because I *coughs* manually fixed it. Reminds me of all the times I used to go to bookstore and look for Piro's MegaTokyo books and moved and arranged them all to be face forward so they were the first thing people saw. (Ironic Historical fact: Back in 2003, my friend who is now the manager of the local GameStop, recommended that we put an ad for AdventureQuest on Piro's web comic, MegaTokyo. It was the very first ad we ever put on the internet.) Sometimes the stores need a little help :-)
Only 1 Week Left!
By request of the store, there is a special promotion, which will end on the last day of this month, where you can get the FlameStop blade if you use a GameStop card to upgrade or get AdventureCoins in AQWorlds. While these are currently only available in U.S. locations, we are hoping it does well enough to expand to other countries! Until then, we are going to create a special offer for those of you who cannot visit these stores.
AdventureQuest Worlds PTR
The PTR (Public Test Realm) has re-opened in AQWorlds to fix the "Blue Flame Stuck" and server lag issues. Game coder Yorumi worked through the weekend building new versions of the both the server and client. The PTR tests will be vital to permanently fixing the game. One major issue has already been identified and fixed... it should be rolling out live within a few hours. Also, a new round of anti-bot detection is going in so if any of your friends are using something they should not, please give them warning so when the ban hammer comes down, it does not get them!
We are building a new 3D, web based, MMO, in Flash, called AdventureQuest3D: Legend of LORE. If you have never been with us for the creation of a new game before, then hold on to your helms (or hoods, or hair, or ears) because what we do is stupidly crazy and definitively insane. We start with only one town, very limited features, and then build the game right under your feet as you play it.
If you were with us for the creation of the original flash-based AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest, AdventureQuest Worlds or any our other games, then you may know (or have heard) how this goes. We want you to build the game along side us. But this type of experience is not for everyone. If you want to play a finished, fully functional game... you know, something where you hit the attack button and it actually attacks, instead of twisting your character in half and snaping like that one scene from the Iron Man 2... or worse, you hit attack and nothing happens because combat currently does not work (Note: It does not) then you should wait until we have the "LIVE RELEASE" which should happen around October. If you are the sort of person who can handle browser crashing, broken features, rapidly evolving... everything, and are more interested in helping us build the game than playing it -- then we need your help. If you are willing, you should consider becoming an AlphaKnight.
AlphaKnight (A3K)
AlphaKnights, also known as an "A3K" are our elite testers. They are there from the beginning. Helping us squish bugs, running tests, improving chat, running tests, improving gameplay, running tests, and basically building the world ...and running tests. There are going to be so many tests you would think we were Aperture Science. But these tests are how AlphaKnights get ranked. See, for each test that an AlphaKnight participates in, they earn a certain number points. Convienently called, "AlphaPoints." Anyone else detecting a theme here? When the game goes live, you will have a character page on the Legend of LORE website which will display your acheivement badges for other players to see. Anyone who becomes an AlphaKnight will receive a special "AlphaKnight" badge on their AdventureQuest3D character page and it will also display their points (up to the cap) so they can prove how much they helped. NOTE: Just for qualifying to become a AlphaKnight, you automatically get 200 points and the badge. In addition keeping score for an AlphaKnight (A3K), these points will have a mysterious use in the future. Dunnn dunnn dunnnn!
How can I become an AlphaKnight?
After carefully listening your comments, and taking into consideration everyone who has helped us get to where we are now, the prerequisites to becoming an Alpha Knight are as follows:
Alpha Testers of AQ3D If you have pre-registered for AQ3D, or participated in any AQ3D alpha test, you are automatically being awarded the title of AlphaKnight and all of your points are being transfered over! You do not have to do anything. Done. Finito! Congratulations! Winner winner chicken dinner! (Note: If you did not get the 250pts for the last chat test yet... you know, the one that only lasted 3 hours, do not worry, that test will resume and you will be able to get the points when testing resumes.)
AQWorlds & HeroSmash Members If you have an active AQWorlds and/or HeroSmash Membership, and your account is linked to portal.battleon.com you will be able to create an account and when the tests resume you will automatically recieve AlphaKnight status and 200pts. (PRIORITY ACCESS:Since you are pretty much paying for the cost of running the testing servers, your ACTIVE Membership will grant you additional access, and also priority access when capacity is an issue. Only seems fair.)
AQ Guardians, DF DragonLords, MQ StarCaptains, and EpicDuel Varium Users If you supported us in our other games and your account(s) are linked to portal.battleon.com ... congratulations, you qualify to become an AlphaKnight! (WHAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!?!?!) I know, during the previous incarnation of this plan we were really, really, really concerned about the limited server space. This is still a serious issue... but we will find a way to make it work. I listened to all of the comments from the players of these games and to be bluntly honest, I had trouble sleeping at night after making the original announcement. You are the reason we are here, and I personally WANT you to be a part of this... and everything we build in the future. I love you guys.
While I was writing this, Adobe posted on their blog that there is going to be an extension to the Licensing which may give us more (much needed) time to get the game running. We are going to start updating our websites in a week with the designs from our new designer, Draven ....I am going to ask Captain to temporarily put something in the portal to reflect your AlphaKnight (A3K) status and current amount of points.I am sure there will be a lot of additional questions and things I missed here -- I will do my best to address them on the F.A.Q. when it goes live next week. But as a rule of thumb, "We are building the game crazily wrong, and treating you guys right." The way it should be!
Be sure to check back each day as I update you on our progress and post weird photos. Having been sick for nearly 2 weeks, I have a lot of interesting photos queued up that I have been dying to post. For example, appearently, Kimberly of One-Eye Doll took the Sepulchure figure on stage with her during a concert.
As you read this, we are rushing to assemble all of the pieces for the next test of AdventureQuest3D: Legend of LORE. Below is a sneak peak screenshot of the mage shop. As you can see there is a wide selection of mage items you can obtain... like the Item Name which is a steal at only 90g! Or perhaps you would be interested in Item Name which is convienently also 90g. But if you REALLY want to impress the other players, get the REALLY ultra mega super awesome Item Name. Just look at that item preview art... you know your friends will be drooling when they see you battling giant hulking slime monstrosities with that! Well, they would if we had combat working. O_O We have a "few" things left to do for this super basic Flash 3D release -- WISH US LUCK!
Dazzle your friends by buying a wide variety of uniquely named, low "memory and lag-inducing" items!
UPDATE: AQ3D Alpha Testers! We are changing your title from Alpha Tester to "AlphaKnight". The tests and points were delayed, but are coming soon. Check back tomorrow for a full post on this.
MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) visits the Lab!
I love meeting and talking with players and creative minds. One day, I really hope for the opportunity to meet you all. Yesterday was a very special day for the team here. We opened up the Secret Underground Lab and allowed 20 young minds from the Museum of Science and Industry's "Summer Science Camp" to personally get a behind-the-scenes look at our crazy indie game development process. We even dressed up! (Probably not what they thought we meant when we said we would be in "suits".) Faith, Miko, and Nythera dressed up too... wow, did they look amazing!
Along with a highly dangerous, potentially deadly tour through every part of the lab, Thyton held a "how to draw" session, Xero showed some of the 3D models he is working on for the new game, and I told enough embarrasing stories that our new friends should be able to blackmail us for years! The only way it could have been better is if you were here too. (Unless you were here, stealthed and roaming around like a Ninja, in which case please disregard that statement.) Judging by the laughter, I think everyone had a good time... and hopefully found the knowledge we shared useful. More than ever I would like to create a movie so everyone can see what we do and allow you to see the world through the eyes of the AE team.
3D Game "Memory Leak" bug REVEALED!
Minimal and Zhoom have giant head-shaped craters right in front of their keyboards from banging their heads on their desk all weekend and yesterday trying to figure out the cause of the 200 MB/s memory leak bug. We talked directly to some of Unity's head hanchos who helped us by giving us a horrifying link. I am in a little bit of a rough spot with this post, because I love Adobe & Flash and do not want to talk poorly about the platform that ALL of our games run on. But it appears the newest version of the Flash Plugin 11.3 which created many of the new problems in AQWorlds is also causing the memory leak problems in our 3D game. We reverted to the older Flash Plugin 11.2 and everything works fine. These problems with the new plugin are not fixable by us. In our tests, publishing a simple 3D model, with the most basic shader... leaks memory and eventually crashes. Despite this, we plan to go forward with our chat/movement/item/maybe-combat-if-we-are-lucky "beta release" on time... but testers will be required to downgrade their version of Flash to help us test it. We know that these issues WILL be fixed in the near future, and all of the shaders and things that make our game look pretty will eventually be working in Flash too. So this will only be a temporary situation. Now... with only 2.5 days left this week, we have to put all of our stuff into our game!
Meet Cambell, our first Legend of LORE NPC. You will find him in the town of Ravenshire and he will be selling a small selection of armor and weapons. It is interesting to see how he went from concept sketch to 3D model. You may be wondering, based on his name, manly chin, and the color of his cape if he was based off of some super-mega-awesome-iconic B-movie star that I personally idolize and continously contact trying to get him to make a guest cameo in our games... but of course, that would be purely speculation.
Check back tomorrow for the first sneak peek of the interface... and some photos sent to us from a former special guest!
Abobe & Unity should hire us to identify all of the possible ways to break, crash, and kerspload their plugins. Because we are GOOOOD at it! AdventureQuest 3D has been by far the most challenging thing we have ever attempted to do. Our current problem is a 200MB/sec memory leak. (Yup, you read that right... 200 megabytes per second of memory leaking.) Instead of fixing this horrific bug, we thought it would be easier just to change the system requirements to the following:
AQ3D System Requirements
$6,000,000,000.95 NASA Mainframe Super Computer
16 Exabytes of Memory
User must have enjoyed the movie Dances with Wolves.
Developer Dialog
Zorbak: Meh... what are you thinking!? Those system requirements are INSANE!?
Zorbak: No one will be able to play this game. Artix: Oh, I guess 16 Exabytes is a lot of Memory... it is 16,000,000,000 Gigabytes.
Zorbak: Nah, that part's fine. But you are NEVER going to find a player that liked Dances with Wolves!
Dage vs Nulgath War continues
The most highly anticipated event of the summer continues this week in AdventureQuest Worlds. While you wait, check out Dioz's drawing of Dage vs Nulgath that I just posted on the AQWorlds FaceBook page! Please hit like and share while you are there. Meanwhile, the AQWorlds team is doing a major recoding of the game in order to stop the "server restart lag" and "combat lag" which crippled yet another Friday the 13th launch. One of the servers is secretly running the fixes and if it works we will be updating all game servers before Friday. On a side note... today, a group of 12 children from Tampa's MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) summer program are coming to tour the lab. So some of the team is actually working in armor and convention cosplay outfits.
QUESTION: Would you like us to start recording video of us making AQ3D and release an ultra cheesy anything-goes mockumentary video along with the game? Please repond by commenting on this post! *points down to the comments button*
It's Friday again, but not just any Friday... it's the last Friday the 13th of the year! Here's what's going on in all the games:
AdventureQuest Worlds
Join the AQWorlds team and 30,000 of your fellow heroes this weekend for the creepiest, most luckless event yet - the LAST Friday the 13th event of 2012! Featuring Voltaire, Deady, the Beast Maker, and his inept minion, Sleezter Bunny, you're going to want to buff your LUK stat because the fate of Lore is in your hands! (Break a leg and carry a BIG rabbit's foot just in case!)
The event features four classic songs by Voltaire, AE's favorite Gypsy Goth Pirate musician, a member-only bonus area, and an Event Rares shop full of the gruesomest gear in Lore! And keep battling in the Dage vs Nulgath war, because they've released all-new rewards in their shops! www.AQ.com
EpicDuel
The Exile and Legion forces are neck and neck! They must know that the first alignment to smash through the second Vault door will unlock level 35 and a shop with rare Mechachillid sidearms!
Don't get too comfortable -- there's still a great deal of fighting left.To aid players in the battle against the Vault's security, we are introducing 4 new grenades, available from any BombBot or as War drops!
Wargoth is gathering his forces for a final attack.... Fire elementals, molten Squires, and... well, let's just say that more than just Veyla were unable to escape his grasp when Atrea was brought though to Lore. This time, Wargoth will be sending an army greater then both of his previous attacks combined. Will you be able to conquer the fiery enslaved forces of almost an entire planet before it overruns ours? www.DragonFable.com
MechQuest
Friday the Thirteenth is coming - do you feel lucky? River has a feeling you're going to need all the luck you can get... Log in to replay the events of the past - plus an all-new quest for this year! And don't forget to check the event shops - this year also brings you never-before-seen weapons that were suggested on the forums by our players! G.E.A.R.S. University is full of brilliant and creative students! www.MechQuest.com
HeroSmash
It's Friday the 13th and that means Zazul is back! Be sure to check out the new wares in Zazul's shop and the new Friday the 13th shop. www.HeroSmash.com
AdventureQuest Classic
Journey to Alnaphar to quest for the completely remade Reign and Shadow sets! Prepare yourself well as the Dead King and Navith won't let them go easy. Halliphax will be waiting for you by the Tree of Kings. Also be sure to check out Onroth's Rage in the Limited-Time Shop this week! www.BattleOn.com
I wonder how many people get the reference in the subtitle above. I used that because it is an actual line that was voice acted from tomorrow's AQWorlds Friday the 13th Event. The line is a parody of "Do you feel lucky, punk?" which is a meme originating in the famous movie, "Dirty Harry" starring Clint Eastwood. You know... from back in the days where no one knew what a meme was... and if you said the word "internet" people probably thought you were talking about the inside of an actual net. If you have no idea what I am talking about, here is a link to the original "Do you feel lucky, punk?" scene on YouTube (PG13.) So tomorrow, when you hear Deady say the parody line, it will be 13.13% extra special.
Insider secrets & stories!
It has been a big week. In addition to our upcoming releases, we had HeroSmash volunteer artist Polistar visit the lab. He came all the way from Canada! Earlier today, to show our gratitude to Yorumi for all the hard programming work and fixes ongoing in AQWorlds, we (Cysero, Alina & I) custom ordered a replica lightsaber from Ultrasabers in his favorite color and presented it to him in an ultra geeky, surprise, light saber gifting ceremony. We even played the Starwars medal ceremony song... hey, how come Chewy did not get a medal? OMG! While I as typing this... Yergen was walking down the hall, staring at the laptop he was carrying, not paying attention, made a sudden turn, missed the door, and walked right into the giant glass wall-window seperating my room from the hall. O_O He is fine. Nothing broke. But just to be safe, you should tongue-in-cheek message him "Beware of windows!" on his twitter @YergenAE . Yergen is working on the icons for the AQ3D interface. Finally, you may have heard on DragonFable's Design Notes... a new "Secret Underground Lab Plague" has started. When one of us gets sick... we all end up getting sick. Over the past 2 weeks I have had a sinus infection, strep throat, and I would like to count the embarrasing ordeal that happened this morning as a result of not reading the giant "NOT TO BE TAKEN WITH ANTACIDS" warning on my medication. That was an unfourtunate science experiment. Currently Rolith is working from home sick. We should have some sort of poll to see who gets sick next and award points to people who get it right. *makes note to add poll functionality to the new Artix.com* BATTLE *coughs* ON!
We started our 3D game project on January 1st with the ambitious goal of making a 3D MMO in Flash, we knew there were going to be no end of challenges. Of course, here at Artix Entertainment, we are used to doing insane and impossible things and somehow magically getting the release out on time. So, when I say our goal is to release a Flash version of AQ3D prior to August 1st... the word impossible does come to mind. We expected to be in beta by the beginning of summer, but the development tools we were counting on to make it with did not physically exist until just two weeks ago. The port to Flash has not been a pretty one. All of our pixel shaders broke. Those were the things that made the game look pretty. The game ran at a blazing 60fps in Unity, but dropped down to under 9fps in Flash. We discovered the secret was reducing the number of "Draw Calls." Minimal brilliantly reduced the draw calls to under 200 for our massive forest scene... but to do this he wrote a mesh combiner that takes the entire Ravenspire zone and merges the mesh into a giant single one at runtime. While the game is now running at ~60fps in flash, it takes about 45 seconds for the game to merge the meshes. Which means, you wait for the 10 megabyte 3D map to download from the server, then you wait another 45 seconds for it to combine everything in the background. It could be worse. Here is how it gets worse. We still need to get weapon, helm, armor, and hair loading working in flash. Most of the things that were working in Unity no longer work. But we have a little over 2 weeks. Oh, and we need NPCs, a simple shop, and some basic combat would be nice. Maybe we can release both Unity and Flash versions of the game. Minimal got the multiplayer server supporting both... which means you could log in from Unity or Flash and play on the same server. Which is pretty cool. Imagine if we could get a mobile version working too. Playing the 3D MMO from iPhone, Android, IPad, or Web would be.... ok, we totally have to do this. Not in 2.5 weeks though. How about we get "most" of Flash working in 2.5 weeks? ... and if you have any magic. CAST IT OUR WAY!
Fridays really are the best days of the week! Here is what's coming up in all of our games. Which release are you most excited about? (Personally, I've been waiting for the Dage vs Nulgath (or Dave vs Nulgath, depending on where your finger lands) war for AGES!!
AdventureQuest Worlds The time has come for you to pledge your allegiance to Nulgath the Archfiend... or Dage the Evil! One of these dark Commanders WILL take control of the Underworld but they will need your help to do it. Evil faces off against Evil to finish the conflict Dage’s quest for independence began. Join forces with Dage's Undead Legion to show Nulgath what true power looks like or support Nulgath and show the Legion that strength and loyalty together can crush the weak!
With six shops full of epic reward items, member-only and free-player farming quests, and an opening cinematic cutscene by Nulgath, the first wave of the Dage vs Nulgath war sets the stage for a final confrontation of ultime Evil! www.AQ.com
EpicDuel The Legion forces have breached the first layer of security to the Delta Vault, but the Exiles aren't far behind! Join the war and equip the incredible Infernal Interdictor. This weapon deals increased damage against the Vault doors and increases the damage of critical hits. M4tr1x is waiting behind the first door to award the brave warriors with Mechachillid armor which offers increased protection against the Vault's security system. www.EpicDuel.com
DragonFable Explore the woods between Amityvale and Hunter's Paradise to find our latest quest, Red Riding Hood! Remember, though... not everything is what it seems in those creepy woods around Amityvale.... www.DragonFable.com
MechQuest Be sure to check the event section of the shops panel for your very own 4th of July mecha! This year's theme is based off an older model, but is a grand lightshow of destruction! It's only available until Monday so grab that mecha! www.MechQuest.com
HeroSmash The Freedom Day shop gets an update! If you want to get your hands on limited time items, be sure to check it out. But you better hurry! The Freedom Day shop will be leaving next Friday and it will be gone for a full year. www.HeroSmash.com
A poem about cats. On twitter, Adam promised to write a poem about cats. So here it is: Cats are not bats They are not robots, or monkeys, or gnats. Cats can be vicious They can be smelly, vain, inauspicious. But most of all, cats are just cats They are for purrs, comfort and chats. www.twitter.com/ArtixKrieger
AdventureQuest Classic Fred on Strike! For years, players have speculated how their character manages to carry so much equipment around with them everywhere. But at long last, during this week's release, you'll find out the answer....the hard way! www.BattleOn.com
The most highly anticipated release of the summer is the Dage vs Nulgath war which starts in AdventureQuest Worlds tomorrow night. I posted one of Dage's paintings on Facebook to let everyone know and in only 5 seconds there were already 40 likes and 20 shares! I was so happy that I rushed to post the link on Twitter... but... you know, the V and the G keys are really close together. One little typo and 5 more seconds later my Twitter is full of...
