Happy Friday everyone! To kick off all of tonight's new AQWorlds, EpicDuel, DragonFable, MechQuest and other game releases, we have the (very special) video footage from our motion capture test for the 3D game that is in development that I promised you. Haha, things went about as well as expected... we hope you enjoy!
This test was a lot of fun. We had two cameras, but one of them broke so the computer was not able to see when Beleen put her arms behind her back causing... unpredictable arm breaking disjointing. (No pain, no game!) The final result was um... well, LOL, let us just say we will be animating the characters the old fashioned way - by hand! As I was writing this post, Yergen just sent me the finished male and female character models! We are creating a new, matching set of "starter armor" for them now. Check back on Monday for news on the game engine's development and any sneak peek or concept pictures I can put up for you!
American Cancer Society Relay for Life tonight!
Tonight, the team and I will be participating in the local American Cancer Sociey Relay for Life. We will be walking/running/gaming around a track ALL NIGHT alongside many, many other teams helping to raise funds, awareness and morale for people battling cancer. If you live in the Tampa Bay, Florida area, please come out and see us -- we will be selling super discounted HeroMart stuff and 100% proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society. The relay event is taking on the sports track at the Charles S Rushe Middle School (18654 Mentmore Blvd, Land O'Lakes, FL, 34638) from 6pm until 10am the next morning. Do you live far away, but still want to get involved? Look up when there will be a Relay for Life in your area.
We premiered the video in AQworlds last night (full story on their design notes) ... we had no idea everyone was going to like it THAT MUCH! Thank you for the overwhelmingly positive comments and enthusiastic feedback on Twitter, FaceBook and the Forums. However, only people who saw it in game know about it. Most people have not seen it or even heard about this video yet! While this is still hot and brand new, please help us show this stop motion video to the world!
Help our game community spread the video! Here is what to do:
While watching on YouTube, hit the THUMBS UP button and post an awesome comment!
Tweet the link to the video on Twitter!
Share the video on FaceBook!
Tell any website owners, web comic creators, game blogs about it and ask them to post it!
Tell Counter656 he did a great job! (This does not help promote, but it sure will make him feel good!)
Also, for ULTRA CREATIVE / HACKER / VIDEO MAKERS
Remix the video footage into music videos and post it... send us the links so we can re-tweet
Create other bizzare, weird videos from the footage... it is ok, you have my permission. Just be sure to put www.AQ.com in it and give Counter656 credit... OH...AND link us so we can laugh too!
Oh... how will you get the video footage? You could rip it illegally out of the YouTube post... OR... you could just download the original file right here (169MB), in my personal folder with my full permission and blessing. (What other game studio would do that!?) Go forth... create awesome!
Thank you in advance friends! These are the moments that define our incredible gaming community... those of you who do the above are the reason an indie game company like us can stay in the fight with the corporate titans who control this industry. Battle on!
I have been spending my days working on the new 3D game, and my nights working on the continuation of DoomWood which will begin next week in AQWorlds. Thank you to everyone who poured forth your awesome-filled ideas of awesomeness. I ended up working quite a few of them into the script... which I finally finished at ~4:30am last night. (NEW RULE: It is not insomnia if it involves multiple coffees at the stroke of midnight.) The saga currently has 5 parts... with each segment getting increasingly crazy. The original DoomWood revealed Artix's story... but this new story will futilely shine the spotlight on a MUCH DARKER character (See what I did there? This character is so dark the spotlight does not work on them!) . By segment three, things get so out of control that it promises to completely mess up the main storyline of the entire AQWorlds game. *warm smile* REALLY hope you like it!
3D Game Update
I know everyone is anxious to hear more on the development of our new 3D game -- so here is the inside scoop for you. We have 3D character load, main-weapon/off-weapon/armor/helm/back swapping, texture blending, movement, and multiple "area" dungeon loading working. It works... but is not pretty yet (*TV Alert Announcer Voice* This is a test. A test of the emergency design notes pretty graphic system. In the event that any graphical element was actually pretty, there would be a screenshot or playable demo or both. OK, we both know there would definately be both. This was only a test. We now return you to your reguarly scheduled Design Notes.) We ran a quick test, and most computers were able to handle, with 0 lag, over 100 of our moving/fighting 3D characters on the screen at the same time. This is because all the hard 3D work is done by your graphics card, not your CPU. There are a few weird glitches Minimal and Zhoom are trying to work out. For example, there is a 2 second delay when a character is first loaded. Once these are fixed, they will begin coding the game-logic for our new multiplayer server. You know... so you can log in and walk around! The alpha tests will be starting soon.
QUESTION: Would you like to do an alpha test where you can walk around and chat, even if there is no combat yet?
Just moments ago... the entire team rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to bring 10,000 empty shipping boxes down the elevator into the Secret Underground Lab, and placed in the HeroMart chamber. For good reason -- we are going to need something to ship the figures to you in... The Artix & Sepulchure collector's action figures are almost here! (Including the limited, and very likely to be the most highly desired, ultra rare, Black Variants)
Behind the scenes: 5 days ago, we got a message that the boat shipping the figures here docked in California (Note: The opposite side of the country from us here at the Lab.) The action figures were transfered to a train which is now making its way across the country. Then, they will be put on 2 Trucks... one headed for Toys"R"Us's facility and the other truck will bring them to www.HeroMart.com, which is located right here, in the Secret Underground Lab! (How exactly do you put a shipping address on something that is secret?) This Wednesday night, in AdventureQuest Worlds at www.AQ.com, after Oz's live-draw, we will premiere a stop motion short film featuring the figures that was created by Counter656.
NOTE: HeroMart is sold out of ALL Deady and Sleezter Bunee's. For the record, the rarer black and white variants sold out shockingly fast. Congratulations if you were one of the lucky ones to get one!
It takes a lot of guts to make a videogame! This weekend, a group of AE staff members and guests (like One-Eyed Doll!) are rocking out in the Ludum Dare Game Jam* to create an all-new, functional game in 48 hours! Last night, all of the game teams got the theme, "tiny world," and our brainstorming began!
Now showing: The Sick or the Dead
We're going to explore one of the most important, but smallest, worlds - the universe of a virus! In this infectiously-entertaining top-down shooter, called "Kitty.coli"** for this weekend's prototype, the player IS the virus on a journey into intestinal exploration... and total cellular annihilation is its goal!
Presenting the Jammers!
Weeks ago, Rolith started recruiting for this weekend's jam. With some tricksy schedule-shuffling, promises of home-cooked curry, and a LOT of caffeine, we've got an all-star team gathered! Here's who's doing what:
Programmers: Rolith, Rabblefroth, Warlic and Garrett (a friend of the team)
Art, Animation, Design: Cysero, Thyton, and Samba
Sound: One-Eyed Doll and Artix
Doctored art: monsters on unfinished background
Did you say One-Eyed Doll?!
I sure did! Kimberly and Jason of OED were in town this weekend; Artix and some friends went to their show last night and Artix, in a fit of feverish inspiration, managed to drag them back to do sound effects for our game! All the squelches, squishes, and screams you hear are the work of Kimberly and Jason!
OED's sound effects are SICK!
We want to send a HUGE thank you to OED for fitting in an FX recording session ONE HOUR before they had to leave for the airport! (And to Artix, for masterminding their assistance!)
How much progress have you made so far?
We're 22 hours in and so far we are working on:
All the player/monster art DONE
Player/monster art animation IN-PROGRESS
Shooting mechanics IN-PROGRESS
Backgrounds IN-PROGRESS
User Interface DESIGNED
Currently curing engine bugs
Doctoring sound FX begins soon
We’ve ranked up our coding, art, animation, and sound skills; we are fully prepared to do battle with malicious code, tech gremlins, and instances of friendly DOT*** insistences (standard fare for any true Dare)! Armed with Flash, we’ve also got chests full energy drinks and an inventory full of nerf weaponry ready to /equip (note: to be used only while waiting for code to compile).
Wish us luck as we battle through the night in our game-making quest! We'll be tweeting throughout the rest of the Jam, so keep an eye out for progress reports!
* Ludum Dare is an international game-making competition. We're in it for fun and to see if we can beat last year's AE Game Challenge time limit. Then, we had one week to make a game. NOW we have 48 hours! **First draft of the name "Journey to the Center of the Cat"
**Deadline Over Testing
Progress Update, 10:30PM!
Background maps are done, thanks to Cysero. Inside the game, the maps will scroll, so you will not see the entire background at once.
Monsters drawn by Thyton, colored/animated by Samba.
Warlic has all of One-Eyed Doll's sound effects working. Each virus makes a different SQUISH! noise when it dies. (That must have been a really interesting recording session!)
There is the Healthy background:
And the Sick!!! background:
As of 10:00pm, the only remaining Jammers left in the Lab are Rolith, Warlic, and me. Everyone else has gone home to rest before putting in a bit more time tomorrow. Keep an eye on Twitter for random updates!
AdventureQuest Worlds Undead minion rebellion?! That's the word in Swordhaven, and Knave1, King Alteon's Royal UndeadSlayer, needs YOUR help to stop it! They have summoned their protector, the Desterrat Moya, an entity from before time itself, to free them. But the Moya has different plans; it is preparing to launch an attack on Lore itself! Also releasing this week: Earth Day 2012, an Earth Day Limited Time Shop, and Dage's Dark Caster X set! Prepare for this Summer's Dage vs Nulgath WAR! www.AQ.com
EpicDuel The Bionic Battalion Saga reaches its epic conclusion this week as the Lagomorphs finally make their escape attempt to return to their home world. Visit their rocket on the outskirts of Fortune City to view the cut-scene! Also, remember to join the EpicDuel staff this Sunday at 9 A.M. EST in the EpicDuel Artists Livestream channel for a live Q & A session! www.EpicDuel.com
DragonFable
It's time for WAR! Log in tonight to fight the mysterious, powerful boss... it's someone many of you have faced before. The war counter is at 62% right now, if it hits 100% by midnight tonight, you will unlock bonus item rewards! www.DragonFable.com
MechQuest This week, the plot on Romero thickens with new content on Romero, uncovering the truth behind the zombie outbreak! www.MechQuest.com
HeroSmash Come check out the daily random item shop - some items will return and some may never be available again! www.HeroSmash.com
AdventureQuest Classic SEEKRAT BREAKING POINT! The SeekRat has conducted several large schemes over the past year and a half....but this time, he may have outdone himself! Log in this week to stalk the SeekRat and stop him from what might be his greatest (and deadliest) plan yet! This event leads into what may be Lore’s most important war ever! www.BattleOn.com
For those of you who don't know, Minimal is working with Zhoom on the AQ3D engine and all other AQ3D programming-related stuff. If something shouldn't be done, Minimal is the first one to tell us... though sometimes we do it anyway, and then either fix it or rejoice that it worked against all odds. So far, the AQ3D team hasn't stretched any engine capabilities. This is a good sign! This means that all the crazy awesome stuff we're planning on doing is fully doable!
In this morning's AQ3D meeting, one of the major topics of discussion was whether the team will be creating a giant map, instances, or a combination of the two. Here are Artix's notes from the meeting:
As you read this, Minimal is on a plane, flying down to work with Zhoom and I on the most challenging parts of our upcoming 3D game. Last week we did a motion capture test, and I am waiting for Xero & Korin to finish processing the files so I can post the video with Beleen in it for you. Sadly, the footage of Thyton and I did not work (we move too fast!) Please join me tomorrow for behind the scenes news about AdventureQuest3D. But before then...
KhaoticKon Convention
Thank you to the awesome players who came to see us at the KhaoticKon convention. It was a small and brand new convention... combine that with the lack of sleep due to the super unlucky AQWorlds hardware failures that kept us up will 4:30am (FIXED) and... well, that is the only excuse I have for this. (This video has already leaked out... so it is best you hear it from me first.)
EbilCorp gets shunned....
Chairman Platinum, the evil leader of EbilCorp also attended the convention with his ninja minions. Half way through his panel, the crowd of angry attendees started throwing things at him, and marched him out of the convention while carrying an assortment of anti-EbilCorp signs! It was pretty awesome :-)
Video premiere of the Artix & Sepulchure figures next week.
Fans of AQWorlds will be excited that DoomWood: Part 2: Whispers of the Darkness Lord will be starting in just two weeks! To kick off the storyline, we will be releasing a stop motion battle video of the upcoming Sepulchure and Artix action figures which was created by our new friend from overseas. He took the figures apart, added a bunch of extra joints, and... well.. he sort of "robot chicken-ized" it.
QUESTION: Which weapon is more powerful.... the Necrotic Blade of Doom or the Blinding Light of Destiny?
As I write this it is 4:10am and AdventureQuest Worlds is finally back ONLINE! As you know, we have gone to great lengths to reduce the lag during our live events. But upon the main portion of the event release Friday, the lag monster attacked full force! Players were having an extremely hard time trying to load! Zhoom and Captain Rhubarb investigated it only to discover this was because one of the hard drives in our Database's raid array suddenly started failing. Players who had some of their character data located on that drive stalled... creating a cyber traffic jam... which caused all other players to wait an eternity to load. Hard drive failures are common; especially when you have 50+ servers. That is why our database server has 5 hard drives which work together (Redundancy + frequent off server backups of your character data! SAFE!). Normally, it is pretty easy to switch one of these out without you noticing -- but we had so many people on for the event, that is just *KABOOOOM!* But then things got worse. Due to the database issues, the server running the AQ.com homepage crashed hard. I mean, it creashed REAL HARD. Hard enough that it would not start back up. When the techs at the server farm went to restart it, it had massive hardware failure. It turns out the RAM, motherboard and raid controller ALL went bad. How does that even happen? ...did someone let Sleezter bunny in the server room? Or is this just another unlucky happening to add to the Friday the 13th Legend. Thank you to Captain Rhubarb, Zhoom, and Alina and all the players for staying up with me until the game was 100% fixed! You have unlocked a new quest reward: Sleep!
+2pts for @Chalto180 for tweeting: "@ArtixKrieger Jinxed it when u said the worst crash you ever had was during the 1st F13 event & tht each year had to be better than b4! LOL!"
Going to the convention in just a few hours.... O_o
We will be at the KhaoticKon convention in Tampa, FL all day today. I do not need to wear a costume -- because, with this little sleep I am already a zombie. Thankfully Cysero will be able to run our panel at noon. If you are in the area, please come by and see us. We have a booth too which Nythera and Faith are running. Also there wi... Zzzzz.... Zzzzz..... Zzzzzz.....
Unluckiest thing about this post = Caffine quantity!
Friday he 13th is regarded by the superstitious the unluckiest of day... and by our gaming community, as one of the craziest holidays of the year! Why is this? How did it all start? ...and how come I have not needed to blink for the last hour straight? (Why did all of my friends on Twitter just start laughing after reading that?)
Real Life Origin of Friday the 13th
The earliest account of this unlucky day was 705 years ago (true) on a Friday the 13th (true) on a dark and stormy night (probably not true... but do not let the weather get in the way of a good spooky story) by order of the King of France, the Templar Knights were wiped from the face of the earth! (True, and not unlike Order 66, which wiped out the Jedi.) It was certainly an unlucky day for the Knights Templar O_O.
Knights Templar by Pulyx
Throughout history, Friday has notoriously been considered an unlucky day, and seperately the number 13 has also been considered unlucky. Combining them together was a natural as combining peanutbutter and chocolate... Mmmmm..... reeses peanutbutter cups.... BRB, snacky snack time.
In the Movies and Media
Did you know the hockey mask wearing Jason from the Friday the 13th Movies did not actually wear a hockey mask until the 3rd movie? (Crazy, right!?) Needless to say, those horror movies made the day popular. But for some reason did not do a thing to help hockey. There has been countless books, movies and comics that have referenced the date of Friday the 13th, continuing the legend... including our games and even our card game!
DragonFable: "The 1st Friday the 13th Event Invasion"
6 years ago, the concept of a "sudden special event just... because it would be cool" was virtually un-heard of. Most PC Games were still bought from storeshelves (Crazy, right!?) and updating them was a pretty big deal and not a very frequent thing. So AdventureQuest and DragonFable were original and unique, even for web games, and their weekly releases and bizzare humor set them apart.
So in October of 2006 (WOW, 6 years ago!) DragonFable players were beyond excited and ready for battle when news of an undead army marching towards their home town of DragonFable. But it was Friday the 13th, so all of the undead were wearing... Hockey masks. Wars have always been popular in DragonFable -- where all of the players work together to defeat waves of enemies, increasing a thermometer that when filled unlocks the mystery boss monster. It was a massively multiplayer feature in an otherwise single player game. Normally a wave consisted of 4 to 5 undead... but we put in a joke wave with a single, lonely, and very weak skeleon. His name was Chuckles. But... we are pretty sure he did not think it was very funny. Players would one-shot skill him and effortlessly win the war wave. It was revealed that Zorbak was the one putting the masks on all of the skeletons.
"ZORBAK!? ... were you the one putting hockey masks on the undead army?"
So, a new tradition was born. Every Friday the 13th a new necromancer would sent his (or HER... this is where Lady Vayle, the Purple
Necromantress first appeared!
Before the video or even the original DoomWood story in DragonFable took place.) army of undead to destroy the town of FalconReach.
A tradition that continues to this day... but tomorrow's DragonFable Friday the 13th event will unlock an EXTREMELY important villian to the games current world-story.
Save Chuckles
We saw Chuckles again VERY beginning of AQWorld's story. He made posts on the Design Notes (pretty funny for an undead guy) as the DoomKnight Sepulchure's right-hand man... erm... skeleton. Remember, players were preparing for the ultimate showdown between Good and Evil as Sepulchure's flying undead dragon castle began what was expected to be the final attack on good. NO ONE forsaw the emergence of Drakath... who unexpectantly entered the fight slaying Chuckles and then ripping Sepulchure's dark soul out of his chest and crushing it with his fist. Almost a year later, the "Save Chuckles" movement started on the forums and the team thought it was so funny we jumped on board... and even made a now-ultra-rare T-shirt (and, LOL, this blackmail footage). If you find a player in AQWorlds who had gotten the shirt and has "Chuckle's head" you can do the quests.
Friday the 13th EVOLVES in AdventureQuest Worlds
If you are still reading this (I think so highly of you) you may already know AE rule #1: Make the next thing you do better than the last thing you did. So, for Friday the 13th events in AQWorlds... we turns the wars into live special events with the spookiest guy I have ever met; Voltaire. The story of AQWorld's 1st Friday the 13th is longer than this post -- but it did get edited/shrunk & published in Beckett's GAMER magazine. It was a pretty big deal. We really got into the spirit of the unlucky day by having, with 35,000+ people watching, one of the worst server crashes in our game's history. (Achievement unlocked)
Then, instead of just re-releasing the same event, each Friday the 13th we did something COMPLETELY different! The amount of work that goes into these is staggering -- especially when you consider many of them are one-time-only events that go away forever once they end. I do not know what exactly makes the Friday the 13th events so special... but we never pull any punches! They just keep getting weirder, crazier, and they have a reputation with our players for being the most fun releases of the year. Or maybe you guys just love Voltaire? (Or flittering with the superstitious danger of the day!?) Tomorrow (Friday's) new event, right on the heels of Easter... is.... going to be EXTRA special :-)
We sure have a lot of crazy Friday the 13th Memories. What was your favorite? I would love to hear about it on Twitter or Facebook (try to repond to the official post so I do not miss it.) If you are just now joining us for your first -- we hope you enjoy it! I will see you online tomorrow night at the event...
KhaotiKon & Motion Capture Results
Also, tomorrow we are setting up at the KhaotiKon convention in Tampa, FL. If you are going to be there, be sure to come say hi! I will be with Cysero running our panel on Saturday... we could not help but notice that Chairman Platinum will be running a panel RIGHT AFTER OURS. We will be posting pictures. Unrelated topic: We did the motion capture test today... Thyton & my footage did not come out very well, but Beleen's did! We will try to have a video ready for you on Monday!
Doctored art: monsters on unfinished background
OED's sound effects are SICK!
Also releasing this week: Earth Day 2012, an Earth Day Limited Time Shop, and Dage's Dark Caster X set! Prepare for this Summer's Dage vs Nulgath WAR!
In the Movies and Media
"ZORBAK!? ... were you the one putting hockey masks on the undead army?"
