Design Notes

October 31, 2012

Trick or Treat

Have a fun, spooky and safe time tonight! In our games, on this night, we celebrate Mogloween. As you likely know, this is based on Halloween which is strangely also happening tonight. We are often surprised to find that many of our friends online from different countries have never heard of Halloween... so the short version is: It is a holiday where everyone dresses up in costume and goes house to house (the houses are normally decorated with pumpkins, skeletons and haunted looking things) knocking on the door and saying "Trick or Treat!" The person at the door will either give candy (treat) or do something sneaky to scare the person (trick). The first of our games to actually offer trick or treating from house to house was DragonFable. Their yearly event is going on now. In AQWorlds, all of our haunted mogloween zones are now available! We have an added extra "TREAT" for you this year... we have just released our new game, OVERSOUL, for all players! You can login now using your "One Login to Rule Them All" from Artix.com.

Wherever you are, have fun, be safe, and get lots of caaaaaaandy!

October 30, 2012

Take Care Up North

Hurricane Sandy Has Landed

Quite a few of you felt the wrath of mother nature as Hurricane Sandy hammered the northeastern coast of the United States. This storm broke a lot of records and has already left thousands without power or homes. My own sister had to evacuate her apartment building in New York City last night as Manhattan lost power and the gas main for her building burst. She spent half the night wandering around with no safe place to go. She's fine now, if a little soggy, and so are all the rest of my friends up there in The City but it's a pretty bad scene.

I hope that all of you, your friends and your family are all safe up there in the frozen north.

If you want to help people who have lost their homes and find themselves without food or shelter you can donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund by clicking here.

Game Improvement Week

It's not a great name because we improve the game every week. Or try to, anyway.

This week we are spending time adding in the new revamped Book of Lore, and adding in the new Tutorial.

Before we set new accounts to go through the tutorial, we're going to release it for you guys and ask for your honest feedback on the AQW Forums. Once we've tweaked it out and made it as clean, fast and easy to understand as possible then we will add it to the beginning of the game. Yorumi is also fixing a lot of older bugs and TRYING to discover a new way to handle the inventory that might allow you to get more inventory space.

As you know we can't just add more as we are at the current possible limit that the game can handle.

You will help escort Twilly and Serval through the new tutorial!

We will also be adding a new wave of Mogloween Seasonal Rares and Committed Event Rares to those two shops this week. Don't forget that we still have the Birthday Event, the Alina and Rolith Wedding, the Committed Mogloween Special and the normal seasonal Mogloween releases in-game for a limited time. If you haven't played through all of those, now would be a good time to get caught up!

ONE DAY LEFT for 4th UPHOLDER!

Don't forget that tomorrow is Oct 31st, which is the LAST DAY to Upgrade and become a 4th Upholder. You will have a chance to become a 5th upholder next year but you will miss out on the rare Star Swords, the Character Page Badge and the sheer awesomeness of being a 4th Upholder!

51 days until Just Another Day

October 26, 2012

Happy Mogloween!

Are you Committed?

The Mogloween 2012 release is LIVE! This is a very special Mogloween release with musical guests One-Eyed Doll!

/join Asylum and you can watch One-Eyed Doll's brand new viceo for the song "Committed"! You'll also a new Mogloween 2012 shop, an Event Rare Shop and you can start the Committed Mogloween event!

Earlier today we released the new video in-game with most of the new items, but each of the previously released shops have had at least one more new item added to them.

If you can survive a night in the abandoned Asylum with Kimberly and me, then you will unlock the Committed Character Page Badge and the special Committed Merge Shop.

I think you'll find the Merge Shop to be especially difficult as it requires three merge items, all rare drops, all from bosses in the event, and two of the bosses are only found in the completely random maze of mirrors! So have fun with that!

Special thanks to One-Eyed Doll for allowing us to use their music and their voices in this event. For my own voice acting, I make no appologies.

Happy Mogloween 2012!

4th Upholder, Time Is Running Out!

If you haven't upgraded to become a 4th Upholder yet I should tell you that you're running out of time!

If you HAVE become a 4th Upholder, then I hope you enjoy the especially Member heavy Mogloween Shop and the other Member Only items from tonight's release. Along with all the other great benefits of supporting AQW with your Membership. Remember that you get Bragging Rights, another Character Page Badge and TWO rare Star Swords!

HeroMart Super Launch!

Today HeroMart has released THREE new items!

• NEW CD: One-Eyed Doll's Something About a Dragon, which contains three of the songs from tonight's event PLUS Battleon! and the Pony vs. Pony theme song!
  
  
• MOGLOWEEN 2012 SHIRT: Which comes with the amazing NeverMore armor and snazzy Mogloween 2012 "Haunted" Character Page Badge.
  
  
• AE 10th ANNIVERSARY SHIRT: It's been 10 Great years with you guys and we made a shirt to commemorate our BIG TENTH BIRTHDAY! This shirt comes with items in ALL 6 of the major AE games. AQW gives you the AE Dragon Conqurer Armor and Helm along with the BIG TEN Character Page Badge.

There are limited amounts of ALL of these items so don't miss out!

55 days until Just Another Day

October 26, 2012

One-Eyed Doll's Committed!

World Premiere Video!

It's TIME! We are too excited to keep this to ourselves so we are releasing a pre-event version of the Committed Asylum Map where you will be able to see the brand new video for One-Eyed Doll's song Committed!

We have also opened the Event Rare Shop full of AC items that will go rare and the new Mogloween 2012 Seasonal Shop with lots of taggged items that you can only buy during Mogloween! Once we release the FULL event later tonight, you will find a bunch of event drops and be able to unlock an event Merge shop where you can farm for a ton MORE new items! You will also be able to unlock the Committed Character Page Badge when you complete the event.

Something About A Dragon

The One-Eyed Doll CD "Something About a Dragon" is now for sale on HeroMart. This CD was lovingly crafted by the band just for the AE community and features the songs "Mirror, Mirror", "Scorpion Death" and "Girl On Convict Hill" features in tonight's event as well as the songs "Battle On!" and "Pony vs. Pony Theme"!

The CD also comes with the non-member Metal Sneevil pet!

We also have the Mogloween 2012 Shirt as well as the AE 10th Anniversary Shirt for sale. Each of these come with an awesome in-game armor and since these shirts are sure to sell out, they are rares!

We'll let you know when the full event is released a little later on today! Battle On and enjoy the video!

October 24, 2012

World Premiere!

The Committed Video Is Coming

It's a real honor to type that. One-Eyed Doll is allowing us the honor of showing their video to you guys before it is officially released anywhere else ON EARTH. That's kind of a big deal.

It's a big deal for a few reasons. First, it's a big deal because I've actually seen the pre-release of the video and it's awesome. it does justice to the song which is also awesome.

The second reason that it's a big deal is that we get to help out some people that we really, honestly like. I don't know if you guys understand this but when we do these musical events, it's because WE like the bands. Voltaire, Jonathan Coulton, Paul & Storm, They Might Be Giants... these are all bands that a LOT of us really like. They don't pay us to get into the game. A lot of the time we don't even pay them. Often there is no money involved... just fun. It's an amazingly rare and super cool thing to be say that in this or any other industry.

This Friday you all get to see One-Eyed Doll's video for Committed before anyone else and the cool part is that you'll get to see it INSIDE THE INSANE ASYLUM! It will also be accompanied by the release of their album tailored especially for AE fans called "Something About a Dragon?".

The art team is working on a load of new Mogloweeny themed items for the event. Here's Solrac's Member Only Gloomcaster Set. 

Some are cool, some are cute and some are downright terrifying for folks like Reddy who are big into the creep factor.

HeroMart Avalanche Of Awesome

This Friday HeroMart will be launching THREE new items, the Something About A Dragon CD, The Mogloween 2012 T-shirt and the AE 10th Anniversary T-Shirt. (Sorry in advance, D. We're going to make you go broke, I swear.)

Each of these items comes with a Character Page Badge, and AT LEAST 1 in-game item. The Mogloween Shirt comes with the NeverMore armor by Memet who just got...promoted?... from Player Support to AQW Artist...

The AE 10th Birthday Shirt comes with the AE Dragon Conqurer set (which I colored to match the DrAEgon items) in AQW and at least one more items from EACH other the games that participated in the EbilCorp Gameocide War...

And "Something About A Dragon?" comes with the Metal Sneevil Non-Member Pet and maybe some stuff in the other games. I'm not sure on that part.

And speaking of HeroMart, keep your eyes on our Twitter accounts for sneak peeks of the AE 2013 Calendar. The art by Diozz and Dage is amazing and it will come with the Exclusive TimeTracker Class. No Chronomancer this year!

United Nations Shop LIVE!

Today we released a little shop to honor United Nations Day. On October 24, 1945, the United Nations (U.N.) came into force when the five permanent members of the security council ratified the charter that had been drawn up earlier that year. These members were: France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.

You can argue about the effectiveness of the United Nations but the concept of uniting a world of many different religions, races and ideas under a banner of peace is something worth continuing to reach for.

ONE WEEK OF 4th UPHOLDER LEFT!

Next Wednesday is October 31st. In addition to being Mogloween it is ALSO the last day of the month and the last day that you can upgrade to become a 4th Upholder.

Don't miss this chance. UPGRADE NOW and become a 4th Upholder before this offer is gone forever!

I'M Not Going To Spell Check This Post

I'm really hungry and I want to go eat some dinner so I'm not going to spell check this. Don't bother letting me know what I missed on Twitter. Enjoy!

57 days until Just Another Day

October 22, 2012

Insane In The Mainframe

This Mogloween Will Be Crazy!

This Friday we will be releasing our very extra creepy Mogloween 2012 event with special guests, One-Eyed Doll! Teaming up again with One-Eyed Doll is always great but for Mogloween, it's the PERFECT fit!

Kimberly is a long-time friend of AE and one-time Chaos Lord, but this year she will be rocking our faces off in the old abandoned Pandinus Insane Asylum.

This event will include a number of Mogloween rares and an Achievement Badge for your character page, but it's too awesome to only come back once a year so we're keeping the Asylum map as a permanent part of AQW.

You will also be able to watch the world premiere of OED's video for their new song Committed!

You'll also get the first crack of their new CD "Something About A Dragon?" from HeroMart.com! The CD will be the first CD to feature their song "Battle On!" and a number of other new tracks like "Mirror, Mirror" from the event and the Pony Vs. Pony Theme Song!

Keep reading the Design Notes for more updates about this event starting Friday, October 26th at whenever we launch it. I'm thinking around the usual time.

Chunin Changes

We got a lot of feedback from you guys over the weekend about the new Chunin Class and as always we try to give you what you want. We've slightly reduced the mana cost for a couple of it's skills, increased the damage on Chi Blast and the biggest change is that we changed the mana regen model from Warrior to match DragonLord.

That means that you will still get mana with every hit you deliver BUT it now has an inver relationship to your HP so you should get more mana the weaker you get and with no heals in the class, you DO get weaker.

I DID see a lot of feedback that a lot of you really like the class the way that it is so these changes should make you like it even more without overpowering it.

Keep in mind that you will only be able to EARN the class until the birthday event leaves on Friday, November 9th! CORRECTION: Friday November, 16th! 

Alina and Rolith Are Married!

This weekend was the actual wedding of Rolith and Alina. It was on a boat so I won't ever forget it, as the song says. They said their vows on the ship's aft deck, being wed by the ship's captain as the sun sank slowly and we sailed away from the setting sun into a warm night of celebration on the Gulf of Mexico. There were gifts, dances (their first dance as a married couple was to JoCo's Code Monkey), songs (Warlic and Alina's sister played them to the alter and Alina sang one herself to Rolith) and stories. Artix and I both got to dedicate toasts to the happy couple and tell stories about how much they mean to us and to each other. It was a beautiful night.

In-game, their wedding event is going strong and will continue for 2 weeks before vanishing. The Book of Lore badge for completing the event will appear this Friday along with the OED Character Page badge.

59 days until Just Another Day

October 21, 2012

The Future Looks Bright

And we've got all the time in the world to enjoy it!

We're MARRIED! Man, it has been a CRAZY adventure getting to this day. The wedding took a lot of planning, work, and help from friends. And you guys were a big part of getting it all started!

Rolith and I have known each other since 2007, when we were both working for Artix Entertainment remotely. We talked a lot online, and worked really well together, but neither of us knew we would work SO well together that we'd want to spend the rest of our lives with each other - playing, working, and building a future. In joining the AE crew, we found friends (who grew to be as close as family) and got to create games for all of you!

It's not a real party unless you've saved the world first!

Building a friendship starts with shared interests, and one of the things we both love is playing videogames with great stories. And getting to share that love with you guys gave us even more enjoyment... and more things to talk about. (After I transferred to the AQW team in 2011, some of the topics changed, but we just had more news to go over at the end of the day.)

After DragonFable players learned of our engagement in 2009 (and got to play the EPIC proposal cutscene Rolith and Ghost made), we've been flooded with support from the AE community.

Codemonkey (and codemonkey balloon*) thank you!

All of that led up to this October. We have had an INSANE month here at the Lab. In between working with everyone to get the Artix Entertainment 10th anniversary / AQWorlds 4th birthday / the Alina and Rolith in-game wedding event / fixing bugs and planning future releases... I ALSO had to make sure our real-life wedding happened and that we both survived to enjoy it!

But no wedding between AE team members could go as planned, of course! At the wedding rehearsal on Friday, we found the boat still being built. The crew was sanding tables, nailing down carpet, varnishing wood trim. (That sounds a lot like a standard Friday at the Lab - cleaning up code, nailing down item art, vanishing bugs!)

The server hamsters run EXTRA-fast on Fridays!

When we got there on Saturday for the wedding, the boat had been turned into a floating palace-ballroom and Rolith and I were treated like the King and Queen (sorry King Alteon)! Polished woodwork, candles, peacock feathers, the works. But every palace needs at least one knight in armor... and every bride needs to be prepared for unexpected surprises!

It was a magical night, something out of a fairy-tale... or a fantasy RPG! Rolith and I danced, blew bubbles off the side of the boat, danced more, ate cake, and had an incredibly fun time with our family and friends! (There was even time to sing him his wedding present!)

Geopetal made a Tog-shaped Groom's Cake!

The entire night - and the entire time leading up to this amazing night - is going to be something neither of us ever forgets. We are so excited to officially start our lives together, and we're so excited that you all saved Artix Entertainment's games before Friday so you'd have time to make our in-game wedding go off without a hitch (so that we could GET hitched)!

Rolith says "This picture file shall be saved as Kissyface.jpg!"

Thank you all so much for supporting us as we've battled through bugs, bad luck, and unforeseen surprises and cheering us on as we've worked to bring you epic releases and the crazy stories that go along with them! We're looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together... and to building an awesomely-epic future with our family, friends, and you!

* Codemonkey balloon by the talented Beleen!

Merry Christmas, Momma! I love you! Check Dec 21st on Facebook for the final clue.

October 19, 2012

The Wedding of Alina and Rolith

Time After Time

Today has been an AMAZING day! First you guys finish a war fought in SIX AE GAMES and save Artix Entertainment from the clutches of EbilCorp and now, riding high on the spirit of victory, Alina and Rolith are holding their wedding and all of you amazing players are invited to share in the fun!

Right now, Alina and Rolith are off taking care of the millions and millions of last minute details that make weddings so sweet and stressful at the same time. Alina was inspired by her total lack of time when writing her wedding event. When one of your friends is getting married, it's THEIR day and you want to do everything you can to help them out. Now it's YOUR chance to help out the happy couple!

In the event you will find the usual assortments of great wedding rares like the Silver and Gold Eternal Flame and Rolith's Berry Mug but Alina and Rolith's friends have also brought some really strange items for everyone!

For a very long time Rolith thought that pigs would fly before he found the love of his life. In honor of his winning Alina's hear, J6 has crafted a few flying pig pets and matching capes. Beleen (with some help from Jemini) has crafted Derpy Pet versions of all of the couple's friends.

Dage crafted the Playa' set and for those of you with INSANELY EXPENSIVE TASTE there is also the Playa' Bling set (honestly... and I'm being totally serious... this set was so stupid that we priced it stupid expensive).

We are SO happy for Alina and Rolith and we hope you have fun helping them get everything done before they say their vows. Thanks for being there for them!

NOTE: There WILL be a Book of Lore achievement for this event which we will add NEXT WEEK.

EBILCORP Has Been Defeated!

It was close but you guys pin some super human effort and somehow, even with Chairman Platinum adding 800,000 more monsters to the war at the last minute, you were able to drive them out of ALL SIX MAJOR AE GAMES AT THE SAME TIME!

We have never had an event on this scale and you guys have really proven that you CANNOT be stopped! You an see Chairman's Video post and Our Thank You Video on ARTIX.COM! We have opened the AE Underground Lab to everyone who helped save the company!

You have also unlocked a 4th Birthday Shop, a 4th Birthday Merge Shop, raised the level cap to 50 and unlocked the new Chunin Rare Birthday Class. You can read my Skills breakdown for the class Here.

Lastly, as a special thank you every player of AQW has received 200 free AdventureCoins as well as roughly the same amount of in-game currency in EACH of the other five main AE games! Check your AQ Classic, DragonFable, MechQuest, EpicDuel and HeroSmash accounts!

Thank you all for helping us throw our biggest birthday party ever, and for helping us build AE from the ground up and keep is going strong for the last ten amazing years. We literally couldn't have done this without your support, feedback and love.

62 days until Just Another Day

October 19, 2012

Chunin Class Skills Breakdown

YOU DID IT!

You managed, against all odds, to save all SIX major AE games, including AQW. You have unlocked a guided tour of the AE Secret Underground Lab. If you speak to Artix then you will see that you have also unlocked this year's Birthday Rare Class, the Chunin Class.

You can buy the class (and all the extras for once) from Itzachi until the class goes rare around our NEXT Birthday. However, until the birthday event closes you will be able to EARN the class and all the extras completely free and all you have to do is help clean up Ebilcorp's leftovers!

Artix, located in the underground lab map will give you the quests you need to earn the class and also has the merge shop where you can buy them. There are no dailies this time, just a little effort and you can earn the class as fast or slow as you want! Members get the added bonus of being able to earn the class  THREE TIMES faster than non-members.

Just REMEMBER, the chance to earn the class is a special bonus for those of you who were here to help celebrate AQW's 4th birthday and AE's 10th! Once the birthday event goes rare in 1 month, then you will no longer be able to earn the class. Don't Worry. 1 month is PLENTY of time for anyone to earn it.

You will need to turn in the quests and re-accept them every time. We've been forced to take this measure to help combat botters so you can thank those people if you find that a little annoying.

Now let's talk about the class a little.

CHUNIN CLASS SKILL SET

The Chunin is a higher rank of ninja than the average ninja (genin). Please don't start talking about Naturo... this is drawn from the REAL LIFE ninja ranking system. Naruto just got that right. In a very quick Twitter more people wanted a multi-attack class which was what we also gathered from various threads in the AQW forum discussions. It also seems to be the general feeling that we haven't released enough Warrior/Melee based classes lately so the Chunin is a Warrior based Multi-Hit class.

It's designed to be GREAT at farming, interesting in PvP and still able to solo a mid-level boss if you play it smart. Combine this with an XP Boost and It should help a lot of you reach level 50 VERY quickly. There was request to take a break from stacking auras so this class is SUPER SIMPLE to use, recalling the bygone days of the base classes.

As it's Warrior based class I suggest WARRIOR Enhancements. It's also based on the Warrior regen model which is a little counter-intuitive with a class that uses it's dodge and haste reduction to survive but it's been balanced with that in mind. Plus, there are always potions.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

TSUNAMI STRIKE

15 mana, 4 second cooldown

Hits up to two enemies, showing them greatly for 4 seconds.

Decently strong attack, very cheap and very straight forward. You hit then, they take damage and you increase your survivability by virtue of the fact that at least 2 of your attackers are attacking more slowly.

PARALYZING WIND

20 mana, 6 second cooldown

Hits up to three enemies for moderate damage, reducing all of their chances to hit greatly for 6 seconds.

In testing and balancing I found this to be my go-to power, especially in PvP. You hit them, it does slightly more damage than the first power while still being relatively cheap AND increasing your survivability by virtue of the fact that at least 3 of your attackers are now have a 50% LOWER chance to hit you and your allies for 6 seconds. 

SPINNING DRAGON

40 mana, 6 second cooldown

Hits up to two enemies near you dealing moderate damage. This attack also has a 50% chance to reduce their next hit to 0 Damage.

Again, straight forward but an interesting possible bonus effect. Hit 2 targets for decent damage and increase your survivability by virtue of the fact that at least 2 of your attackers have a 50% chance to do 0 Damage on their next hit. This comes in really handy in a boss fight and have some REALLY interesting effects in PvP as you have the ability to reduce a foe's nuke to 0 if you are lucky and time it right.

SHADOW STRENGTH & NINJA'S GAMBIT

Rank 4 passives

Increase HASTE by 5% AND Increase DAMAGE OUTPUT by 15%

Increase DAMAGE TAKEN by 10%

This is where things get interesting. You've probably realized by now that this class is designed to debuff the enemy and survive even without any heals. Haste increases your Damage Per Second by making you attack faster, and a flat 15% increase to your damage across the board is HUGE, but we balance out this new strength with an interesting weakness. You are squishier and easier to kill, IF they hit you... All the more reason to NOT LET THEM HIT YOU.

CHI BLAST

45 mana, 25 second cooldown

You focus your chi into a quick and brutal attack, hitting up to three monsters around you for high damage with a small chance to stun them. Using all of your chi in a single attack also leaves you stunned and open to attack for 4 seconds.

This is a weapon of last resort. It's very handy while farming, and an interesting tactic in PvP. You can nail up to 3 enemies and you might even stun one, two or maybe even all three of them BUY you have a 100% chance to stun yourself for 4 crucial seconds in which you open yourself to all attackers. Avoid this in boss battles unless the boss summons minions (function to come?).

ANCESTOR'S FAVOR

Rank 10 passive

Rarely, the spirits of your ancestors flow into you increasing your haste, dodge, mana regen and health regen greatly for a short time.

This is a GREAT rank 10. It turns you into SuperNinja for 10 seconds. You get a small HoT, Your mana regen increases, you become virtually unhittable AND you start attacking on fast forward. Don't count on seeing this happen a lot, but when it does, it's REALLY FUN!

So there you have it! The Chunin Class in all of it's glory. Have fun and stay alive!

THIS JUST IN!

Every player has been given a bonus 200 Thank you ACs for our Birthday. We are currently going through ALL the games and giving everyone who helped win the war some in-game currency in all six on AE's Core Games.

62 days until Just Another Day

October 19, 2012

You Saved Artix Entertainment!

EBILCORP has been DEFEATED!

Even with pulling 800,000 more monsters out of his hat at the last minute, you amazing people were able to pull together and defeat him and his flunkies and clear ALL 6 MAJOR ARTIX ENTERTAINMENT GAMES of his invading forces before the deadline.

You saved us, and we can't thank you enough. We would like to invite you down into the Underground Lab where we make our games so you can see a littl of what daily life is like for us.

The Elevator will take you down to the lab. As soon as you Exit you will be greeted by Syra, Galanoth and Artix himself. Each of the five rooms has a little cutscene as you go on a guided tour of the AE Lab.

You will also find a few new shops that you have unlocked by helping to save the game network. There's a normal 4th Birthday Shop, a 4th Birthday Merge Shop (you can get the merge items from the server hamster in the break room) and Artix has the quests and shops you will need to unlock the Chunin Class, whic is this year's birthday class! You can read more about that in my Chunin Class Skills Breakdown post.

From all of us here at AE, thank you for making ten amazing years of gaming possible. Artix really says it all at the bottom of THIS ARTIX.COM POST!

Don't forget that later today is the Alina & Rolith Wedding event and the level cap is being raised to 50!

62 days until Just Another Day

October 18, 2012

800,000 Monsters!

Chairman Platinum Plays Dirty!

I think the Chairman is getting desperate.

He's losing this war and he knows it. He knows that he can't possibly win against an army of gamers united under the common goal of fighting for the survival of the game company which you all helped to build.

Today, only EpicDuel and AQ Classic were left fighting their wars, but things were getting a little too hot for our suited foe so he his his big red button and released 800,000 reserve monsters into AQW!

We only have until Friday to defeat all the EbilCorp Monsters and save the Artix Entertainment Game Network and I think we can do it!

Chunin Class Preview

VoT is gone so that means that it's time for a new AQW Birthday Class, the rare Chunin Class arrives when all the war meters reach 100%!

That's right, I said Rare. You will only be able to buy this class with AdventureCoins until next October and it is removed from the game forever.

BUT here's the good part. As a special bonus for those of you who are here to help us battle and save the network, we are offering you the chance to EARN this NON-MEMBER class (all of the other set pieces, 2 helms, 2 cloaks) for free!

The chance to earn the class will only last until the birthday event closes and takes all the rares with it (about a month from when we win). You will have to farm to earn the class BUT you won't have to come back every day and earn it like you did with VoT.

All you have to do is earn 300 Chunin tokens and the class is yours. Non-members can earn one at a time but Members can earn two extra for a grand total of 3 at a time, and you can farm the quests for the tokens non-stop as fast as you want!

This class is a strength based warrior type class which is designed to take on multiple enemies at once. It has no heal but every power debuffs the enemies ability to hit or damage you so it has a very high survivability!

Come back tomorrow for the full Chunin Skills Breakdown!

Alina and Rolith Get Married!

Tomorrow you can also expect the Alina and Rolith wedding event. Since the real Alina and Rolith are getting married this weekend you will actually get to see them get married BEFORE they really get married!

As the real couple scrambles to get all the last minute prep-work done for their real wedding you will be helping their characters take care of all of THEIR last minute disasters! This will probably be a little closer to a real life wedding than any of us would like to admit.

I hope you can make it and help the AE family wish Alina and Rolith many years of happiness together!

4th Upholder!

The month of October is already half gone and Mogloween fast approaches. Remember that you only have two weeks left to grab your piece of history and become a 4th upholder!

To learn more, read m,y earlier 4th Upholder Design Notes. That will tell you everything that you need to know about how to get your character page badge and your TWO rare Star Swords!

63 days until Just Another Day

October 16, 2012

Time is Running Out

Before EbilCorp's Operation Gameocide is Engaged!

AQWorlds has defeated the dastardly Chairman Platinum and his army of EbilCorp minions! /cheer! BUT our gaming network isn't safe yet! We only have until 6PM Friday, and there are still THREE games in danger of being overwhelmed by EbilCorp - EpicDuel, MechQuest, and AdventureQuest. Save our games to save Artix Entertainment...

Click the pic to watch the war meters' progress!

And Unlock the AQWorlds 4th Birthday Party Finale!

We KNOW you guys battle hard when faced with a challenge... so when we're faced with the BIGGEST challenge Artix Entertainment has ever fought, we are even MORE certain that you will win. So much that here in the Secret Underground Lab, now that AQW is safe, we've started preparing for your birthday party!

Cake tastes WAY better than server hamster pellets.

The best Secret Underground Lab parties include boss fights... and cake fights! And yours shouldn't be any different! We'll provide the boss AND the cake, but you've got to make your way down here first!

We've got some EPIC rewards planned, including the:

• New Rider armor from Dage
• DrAEGon of Artix Cape
• Prismatic Pegalion Cape
• Brilliant Derp Fish
• CyberNet Warrior Armor
• Double Agent Zorbak Pet
• And more!

We SAID there was more: the Chunin Class!

Earlier today Cysero polled you guys and came up with this month's newest Class: the Chunin, an evolved ninja-type class. This warrior-based Class is shaping up to be a Multi-Hit DPS-dealer, and here's the first concept sketch straight from Cysero's drawing-pad to your internets:

Fade into the shadows after dealing an unseen death blow!

Time for ONE MORE RELEASE, I hope... my Wedding!

I've always been a dreamer, but I'm a pretty organized person, too. I've got a list for just about everything: what the team needs to do next week, next month, and yesterday. Lists for what needs to be done before my wedding day... and before the in-game wedding event.

And it's becoming VERY clear that with everything we've been doing these last few weeks (like the all-game war we are fighting RIGHT NOW) that there just isn't going to be time to get everything done! But THAT is where YOU come in!

A dream is a wish your heart makes.
This wedding is an event that YOU'LL save.

With as incredible as you guys are, I have no doubt that you will save Artix Entertainment. I sure HOPE so, because otherwise Alina and Rolith won't get married (in-game, at least. It'd make for a more frenzied real wedding day, too, since so many team members are going to be there)!

Peacocks symbolize immortality, wisdom, and peace.*

So, what do you say? If we can crush EbilCorp, do you think your Hero would have enough strength and energy left to help make Alina's wedding to DragonFable's Rolith take place? There's a LOT left to do, and NOT a lot of time left!

* Alchemists used to think the fan of the peacock was associated with certain items useful in turning base metals into gold... Perfect for making a Golden Eternal Flame cape!

October 13, 2012

Stop Operation Gameocide

Save Our Games from EbilCorp!

All six of Artix Entertainment's games are under attack... but we are fighting harder than ever to CRUSH EbilCorp's invading drones! They have sabatoged our 10th anniversary, but they aren't having an easy time taking us down.

We aren't safe yet, though. If we do not defeat ALL of the monsters by next Friday, they will trigger "Gameocide" and destroy our entire game network! But once we DO destroy the threat they present - and we WILL because you guys are awesome...

 Click here to see the war meters for ALL our games!

AQWorlds players can finally enjoy the 4th birthday party we are throwing in the Secret Underground Lab! (Check Monday for previews of the party waiting for you in the Lab! ... and there WILL be cake!)

Chairman Platinum Pressed... the Button!

AE's heroes are winning too WELL... for Chairman Platinum! We knew you would hit EbilCorp where it hurts! But the Chairman didn't agree. He released a video earlier today announcing that he has minions in reserve, and can send them at us any time he presses his big Ebil button!

He THINKS that will help EbilCorp win, but he doesn't know Artix Entertainment Heroes! He has to bring in his reserve minions to TRY to take you all down. But he hasn't been able to so far, and no matter how many drones he sends, you'll CRUSH those, too!

EbilCorp Invaded AE's 10th Anniversary Event!

But that won't stop us from celebrating! ... Even if Chairman Platinum DID take over Battleon! Check out all of the epic anniversary event rares we've got for you! (But remember, if EbilCorp wins, there will be no game to /equip them in!)

In the AE Event Rares shop at Zorbak:

• Savior of Lore Armor - 500 ACs
• Rising Savior Cape - 45,000 gold, non-member
• Mask of the Savior Helm - 75 ACs
• Helm of the Savior - 15,000 gold, member
• The Blade of the Savior - 200 ACs

In the AE Event Rares shop at Zorbak:

• Color-custom Honor Battle Guard Armor - 400 ACs
• Color-custom Long Honor Guard Helm - 5,000 gold, non-member
• The Blade of Absolution - 200 ACs
• Prismatic Pegalion Cape - 200 ACs (available in Birthday shop after EbilCorp's defeat)

Pet and Cape in 4th Birthday Shop, Armor and Helm in AE Event Rares:

• Brilliant Derp Fish Pet - 101010 gold, member
• Prismatic Pegalion Cape - 200 ACs
• Golden Reconstructor 1337 Armor - 500 ACs
• Golden Destructor Helm - 20,000 gold, member

Anniversary Gifts!

Defeat EbilCorp in each game to unlock that game's reward! Once each war meter reaches 100%, /join EbilPortal, then enter your game's door, click on the chest, and claim your prize! Each item in the Destiny set costs 0 gold and can be used by all players! (Even if you did not fight for a game, you can still get the reward. We are one team fighting to save ALL our games!)

• AQW Destiny Armor
• EpicDuel Destiny PvP Medal +1000
• DragonFable Destiny Daggers
• MechQuest Destiny Cape (not pictured)
• AdventureQuest Golden Trobble Pet
• HeroSmash Destiny Helm (available now!)

The DrAEgon of Artix cape will be available in the AQW 4th birthday event! Once we crush Chairman Platinum, enter the all-game portal in /ebilportal and make your way down the tunnel to the elevator. Once at the bottom, you'll enter the Secret Underground Lab for your 4th birthday Party!

AND once we defeat the Chairman, the AQWorlds level cap will raise to 50! Just one more way we want to thank you for battling so hard to save our game network!

Undercover Gear: Blend in with EbilCorp to Beat Them!

We know some of you ally with the darker side. That's why we urge those of you think you can pretend to be EbilCorp minions to go undercover! /Equip the rare gear Chairman Platinum has for you and then destroy EbilCorp from the inside!

EbilCorp gear available in the EbilCorp Event Rares shop:

• EbilCorp Muscles - 500 ACs
• Ebil Nano-Katana Cape - 17,500 gold, member
• Ebil Battle Bot - 50,000, member
• EbilCorp Katana - 200 ACs
• EbilCorp Drone Helm - 95 ACs

• EbilCorp Office Drone Armor - 25,000 gold, member
• AdventureQuest Balloon Dragon Pet - 40,000, member
• Axe of the EbilCorp Knight - 150 ACs

• Ebil Symbiote Armor - 400 ACs
• Custom Destructor Helm - 20,000 gold, member
• Ebil Roosterbull Pet - 300 ACs

EbilCorp minions DO drop some of their gear, as well! If you fight them long and hard enough, you'll be able to loot the following rewards:

• Ebil Nanotype Grid - member
• Crimson Kama - member
• Battle Ebil Minion Helm - non-member
• Crimson Destructor Swords - non-member
• EbilCorp Pistols - non-member

October 12, 2012

Gameocide!?

Ebilcorp Sabatoaged the 10th Year anniversary!

WHAT!? All six of Artix Entertainment's games are now under attack! Ebilcorp has sabatoged our 10th anniversary by unleashing millions of corrupted monsters into each of our games. According to the  video, unless we can defeat all of them by next friday... they will trigger "gameocide" and destroy our entire game network! We are calling ALL players to help us defeat Ebilcorp and save the games. Remember, this event is not happening in one game, it is spanning across ALL SIX of them.  Track the progress of each game’s war at www.Artix.com! Once your world is saved, help your fellow Heroes rescue their games! The war to save Artix Entertainment has begun.

Chairman Platinum, the leader of Ebilcorp says, "Artix Entertainment is now under the complete and indisputable control of EbilCorp. All gifts and presents pertaining to Artix Entertainment's 10th Anniversary have been confiscated and will be destroyed. Please leave all weapons and armors at designated EbilCorp destruction facilities. Under no circumstances are you allowed to confront The Chairman, who is overseeing the situation. Thank you for your cooperation and we hope your next Hostile Takeover is hosted by EbilCorp."

This video feed was recieved from the lab just after the attack started. The team member in the golden helmet is our artist Thyton.

"You are our only hope."

October 11, 2012

1 Day Left!

The ALL GAMES 10th Anniversary Event is tomorrow

STOP! You need to go to www.Artix.com and read my post about tomorrow's special event in AQWorlds and our 5 other games. Then, join me there tomorrow for the Play-by-Play as we count down to the launch of the ALL GAMES 10th anniversary event. The team is looking forward to this event, which is all about you... and will be something none of us will ever forget. Battle on!

October 10, 2012

Happy 4th Birthday AQW!

The celebration starts this Friday

AQWorlds is four years old today, and this Friday at sundown we're releasing the most epic AQW birthday event yet! Thank you all for the many birthday wishes we've received on Twitter, the forum, and Facebook. But you shouldn't be congratulating us... we could not AQWorlds without YOU!

Because that is so true, our 4th birthday celebration will be the party to end all parties! We're going to throw you the biggest, best birthday bash yet: AE-style!* Since it is ALSO the start of the Artix Entertainment 10th Anniversary event, there'll be even MORE fun - because you'll get to play the event in all six of our main games!

* (All heroes must make up their own funny dances!)

BUT... The AQWorlds birthday party was created just for you, the best Heroes Lore could ask for! So once you've sheathed your blade and wiped the sweat off your helm after forging into battle this weekend, get ready for cake, craziness, and a look at how AE really celebrates your epicness!

But the party goes on all month long!

The AQWorlds 4th birthday / AE 10th Anniversary might be this month's biggest birthday bash, but October is a BUSY month for celebrating! At the Lab alone we have the following birthdays:

• Rolith
• Cysero
• AQWorlds
• AdventureQuest
• MechQuest
• Ai No Miko
• and my birthday

Just think how big THAT cake is going to need to be! Happy birthday to all of us... and to all of YOU who celebrate your own life-iversary in October!

October 10, 2012

Last Call for VoT Class

Play AQWorlds' 3rd Birthday Event with TMBG...

Before it goes rare FOREVER! The entire TMBG event leaves this Friday, October 12th when we release the AQWorlds 4th birthday event. Now is your last chance to blast through the bounds of Space and Time with titanic musical guests They Might Be Giants to take down the Collector, the deadliest rare-item hunter of them all!

One of the highlights of the 3rd Birthday event is the Vindicator of They Class, which you can either purchase from Itzachi in Battleon for 2,000 Adventure Coins or through saving up Tokens of Vindication.

/Equip your most Collectible gear  and play before this epic event is gone for good:

• The Vindicators of They AC and Token sets!
• Tokens of Vindication Merge Shop!
• Super-Fan Swag Merge Shop!
• It Might Be A House Item Shop!
• A 1 Hour EXP Boost!
• 3 awesome cutscenes!
• 10 storyline quests!
• Many side quests and hidden quests!
  (Be sure to click ALL over the map to find these secret quests!)
• 5 member-only bonus quests in the Member-only Lab map!
• Member and non-member daily quests!
• Quests for EVERY FACTION released before the event. (Rewards 5,000 Rep each!)
• Character page and Book of Lore achievements!
• And TWO ALL-NEW TMBG song written JUST for AQWorlds!

October 08, 2012

AQW's 4th Birthday

This Friday YOU are the Star of the Show!

Join us this weekend for AQWorlds 4th birthday, where, YOU are the Hero, just like in all of Artix Entertainment's games. Without you, AQW wouldn't exist... and we wouldn't have a reason to celebrate AQWorlds' 4th birthday or AE's 10-year Anniversary event!

Twillies has a balloon for his favowite Hewo!

This year, if you want to claim the birthday cake (not a lie!) AND all the rewards (totally worth fighting for), you're going to have to sharpen your wits AND your blade to overcome a challenge so deadly it will take everything you've got to win. And it's appearing in ALL of Artix Entertainment's games!

Did you say... Rewards?!

Of COURSE I said rewards! It wouldn't be a party in your honor if we didn't have boxes upon boxes of epic gear for you! Get ready for a 4th Birthday Rares shop, a marvelous merge shop, a house shop, and monster drops!

Solrac's color-custom Honor Guard armor!

Beat the boss and you'll access a whole new map filled with EXTRA-special gear made just for a Hero like you!

Last Call for Gear!

This Wednesday, the following Battleon shops are leaving, so get your gear while it's still here!

• Taco Day shop leaves for another year
• J6's event goes rare
• The J6 Guilds quest info will move onto Ragnar
• Balboa and his Battle-Pet shop move to Aria's Pet Shop

Guild PTR Tester Badges and Canadian Thanksgiving!

Any member who joined a Guild and logged in on or after September 20th, 2012 now has the Guild PTR Tester badge on their character page! And make sure to check out the Canadian Thanksgiving shop. Upgrade to purchase the rare Biscuits the Beaver pet! (Only available this year!)

Zorbak T-Shirt On Sale at HeroMart!

Zorbak says: Go to Heromart.com. Now. Mehehehe! Nothing is too epic to be ebil, and our newest line of Zorbak t-shirts proves it! Your favorite Ebil Necromancer moglin demanded more face-time, and how could we say no to a grin like that? This heavy cotton t-shirt comes in either black or blue, or in a black tank-top style.

Only Zorbak has a grin wider than Thyton's!

Each shirt is hand-woven by Sneebils on a DoomCo Loom and comes with TWO different Zorbak pets in AdventureQuest Worlds! Click each pet to unlock 3 quests ONLY accessible to their owner!

Faith rockin' the black tank-top!

All October: 4th Upholder!

Don't forget: if you upgrade any time during October, you'll automatically be a 4th Upholder, gain TWO Chaotic Starswords, an achievement badge, and BIG bragging rights! If you have an upgrade which expires ON or AFTER November 1st, 2012, you are already a 4th Upholder!

October 05, 2012

Don't Fear the Reaper

AQW Heroes Pay Their Debts...

And this week, Death comes to collect! When Death decides that he wants YOUR life, you agree to spend 72 hours filling his role so that he can what life as a Hero is like. Learn how to rule the Underworld... and see just how well Death fills the role of a Hero.  You must then decide... will you take back your mortality?

Death's gifts are not given lightly, and Death's rewards will not be here forever. Though some of the gear you receive will be in-game permanently, Death and Thanatops tempt you to stay with a shop filled with Rare gear!

Color-custom Deathshead Apprentice and Light Seeker armors!

Ghost Animates Death, becomes Pet of the Month!

Welcome to the team, Ghost! Our most spectral team member animated tonight's 3rd cutscene. Even though he's working in a whole new programming language and animation template, I think he rocked the Underworld with how well he did! /cheer Ghost!

And head to Aria's Pet Shop in /battleontown to get your very own Sketchy Ghost pet! Samba created the October Pet of the Month as a welcome present to Ghost. If you wait long enough, he'll begin to sketch his surroundings! 

October = 4th Upholder!

Don't forget : if you upgrade any time during October, you'll automatically be a 4th Upholder, gain TWO Chaotic Starswords, an achievement badge, and BIG bragging rights! If you have an upgrade which expires ON or AFTER November 1st, 2012, you are already a 4th Upholder!

Head here to become a 4th Upholder!

Talk about Taco Day!

/Fiesta! Yesterday was National Taco Day! If you're a fan of tacos (who isn't?) and all of its many tasty forms, then we've got the gear for you! Head to Battleon to gobble up great helms, tasty weapons, and quest for the absolutely-delicious Tacomancer Armor!

Taco Day Party!

Mogloween Means Mayhem!

Fright night, we're doing it right! Tonight the creepy town of Mystcroft re-appears in Lore... letting YOU replay all of AQW's previous Mogloween events! And you know what THAT means - a new diabolically-delicious event is just around the corner! /join Mogloween to begin!

The Pie of Rising Evil, woe!

If you've never been with us for a Mogloween event, then get ready for spooktacular battles and quests that will make you quake, because AQW's version of Halloween is here!  

Get the Dark Vampire Armor in the Mogloween AC shop!

Our Mogloween zone will stay open throughout October. On October 26th, we'll release a NEW, very special event... that may just drive you insane!*

* MORE insane than last year's Mogloween event! 

Guilds PTR is Gone! Sir Ver is back!

Thank you to ALL the members who tested Guilds on the PTR server! We will have your badge on Monday! But it is time for the Sir Ver and Evil Sir Ver servers to re-take their posts. Would you like to do this again when we are ready to test Guild Halls in the future?

AQW's 4th Birthday is NEXT WEEK! 

AQWorld's 4th birthday event will be combined with Artix Entertainment's 10th Anniversary event, and the team promises that it will be EPIC! Prepare to help the AQW team and 30,000 of your fellow Heroes in the biggest birthday bash AQWorlds has ever seen... and the special guest star is YOU!

And to leave on a fun note, the tiniest Taco Party, courtesy of the fantastically fiesta'ing heroes in Party-5555!

October 04, 2012

AE's 10th Anniversary Event!

The biggest event in our gaming history

When did you first start playing AE games? How long have you been playing? How is it possible that we will have been creating weekly releases together for 10 years next week? 10 YEARS!?!?!? We need to do something special.

Not just special, we need to do something bigger and crazier than we have ever tried before. We need to do a new "1st!" So join us next week, on Friday, October 12th @ 6pm EST for a special event that will span ALL 6 of our major games! 

AQWorld's 4th birthday event will be combined with Artix Entertainment's 10th Anniversary event, and the team promises that it will be EPIC! Prepare to help the AQW team and 30,000 of your fellow Heroes in the biggest birthday bash AQWorlds has ever seen... and the special guest star is YOU!

And prepare to face Death head on in tomorrow night's release when you head into the Underworld!

Read more about Artix our 10 Year Anniversary event on Artix.com!

October 03, 2012

The Hat-Trick!

The Trilogy Is Complete!

Who doesn't like a good trilogy? Star Wars (we will pretend Episodes 1-3 never happened), Indiana Jones (What Crystal Skulls?), Back To The Future, Ghostbusters (I'm thinking ahead now), Lord of the Rings and so on.

I'm very happy to tell you all that my wife and I completed our trilogy yesterday, although she did almost all of the work. Our third (and final) child, and our first (and only) daughter Penelope (We call her Penny) was born yesterday October 2nd at 2:00 Server Time. She was 7 pounds, 9.5 ounces and a lot of that weight came from her full head of black hair.

She and my wife, Nursey are both doing fine. Her big brothers Jack and Jetson are both really looking forward to having a little sister to kick around. Little do they know that I've already begun training her in the art of running logical rings around someone until they break down into a crying pile of confused self-pity on the floor.

Like her father, she also has little-to-no idea what's going on around her and she has prehensile toes.

Seeing the birth of a healthy child, especially when it's your own is one of the most mind-blowing and wonderful experiences that you are able to have as a human being and it is a great honor to be able to share this happy news with all of you amazing people out there who play our games. Some of you have even followed me from being a happily single mad weaponsmith, to an even happier married weaponsmith, to a father. I really feel like I've grown up with a lot of you and I really appreciate you being here, reading about the best news I could possibly share with anyone.

Thanks.

I'll be taking a little time off to bond with Penny and take care of the lads while my lovely wife rests and helps our new addition figure out what this world is all about. See you soon!

October 02, 2012

Artists: AQW Needs YOU

Do You Have What It Take To Create Art For AQW?

Do you dream in vectors? Is Flash your favorite program? Are your shading skills up to speed? If you think you've got the skill, talent, and drive to create art/animation for AQWorlds, we want to see YOUR portfolio!

AQW is losing two of it's top artists - Aranx and Tomix. Aranx needs to focus on school and recharge his artistic batteries, while Tomix is being promoted to DragonFable's lead artist and needs to focus his attention there. We'll never say "no" if they find the time to create more epic gear for you, though!

With their departure, AQW is left a little short-handed in the art department. We are looking for a few great AQW fans to become volunteer assistant developers, and hopefully, if things work out in the future, full time staff members of AE.

So we want to see what YOU can do!

Here is what we are looking for:

• Experienced Item artists and animators.
• Experienced/Talented/Skilled Background / Environment Artists.
• Artists who can mimic the AQW style.
• Artists who have experience with Adobe Flash.

We will be looking at your AQW account history to make sure that you have a clean record. We are looking for artists who are mature, responsible, excited about contributing to AQW, willing to take criticism and make changes accordingly. We would like a few people to help with art for monsters, armors, and items but We are ESPECIALLY looking for artists who can match J6's item and background/environment styles.

Here is what you need to do:

1. 1. Send an e-mail to [email protected] with the subject line AQW ARTIST APPLICATION
   If your e-mails subject line says anything except AQW ARTIST APPLICATION then the filters will automatically delete it. Reading comprehension is good.
2. Include your real name, age (18 minimum), and country of residence.
3. Include your AQW Game account name and email address
4. Include your Master Account name and email address tied to the master account.
5. Include your Forum account name and email address if you have a forum account.
6. Include all Languages you speak/read.
7. Include a Resume (C.V.)  *please note we'd like the resume in English.
8. Include links to your online art portfolio or attach examples of your art. (Please note that art will be checked for plagiarism.)
9. Link or attach your animation reel if you have one.

We are posting this on the Design Notes first because we ALWAYS want to get people from our community before looking outside the AE family, but if you happen to know someone who does not play, fits the criteria and would like some experience in the gaming industry please feel free to let them know.

You must be at least 18 years old to be considered for this (these) position(s).* If the application is not complete, we will toss it out.  And please - one application per person. We will read and consider all applications, but cannot reply to them all.  If you are chosen to go through a further interview, we will contact you by e-mail. If we do not respond, we want to thank you for being awesome enough to volunteer!

Please note that this is an unpaid, volunteer position but does come with in-game dev status, free AE game memberships, AdventureCoins, the chance to test game content as we develop it before release and invaluable experience with a honest-to-goodness gaming company which will look good on ANY future resumes.

Thanks, good luck and Battle On!

* In the past, the minimum age was 16, but that is no longer true.

October 02, 2012

Letter Chess

Helping a fellow Indie Game Maker

Not too long ago, a professor from the University of South Florida named Henrick Jeanty visited the lab. He showed us the prototype for a really interesting word game called Letter Chess. Having been working on the algorithms that run this for many years, it has become his passion and dream to develop and publish the game. Of course, at this stage, the game is compeltely without art, animation, and all of the code needs to be ported for different computers and mobile devices. 

As an indy game studio, we certainly know how hard it is to take an idea and actually make it happen.  That is why we would like to help Professor Jeanty by telling you about his game, Letter Chess, and encouraging you  to support his "Letter Chess" kickstarter campaign. To learn more about the game, check out the video on the kickstarter page.

October 01, 2012

October of Awesome

The Most Epic Month of the Year Starts Now!*

October is normally the BIGGEST month of the year for Artix Entertainment, and 2012 is no different! We've got people birthdays, game birthdays, AE's 10 year anniversary, I'm getting married (and so is Rolith), and to cap it all off... MOGLOWEEN returns!

PHEW that's a lot! If we're not careful, we'll all wind up undead before the month is over! Which leads me to remind you that...

Death Always Collects His Debts...

And YOU owe him a few favors! This weekend, head to the /death map to begin an adventure which will take you into Death's realm, let you earn a reward of unimaginable value, and give Death an opportunity to see things from the other side of that bright white tunnel of light.

Don't fear the Reaper

Upgrade NOW to become a 4th Upholder!

Check out Cysero's Design Notes from earlier today for ALL the information you need to know HOW to become a 4th Upholder, gain epic rare gear and an achievement badge, and earn the AQW team's heartfelt gratitude for your support!

Mogloween Returns This Friday!

Fright nights start this Friday when we re-open the Mogloween hub-town and all the previous years' events! All the seasonal rares will come back; witch armor will you choose?! Be prepared for the most deliciously-deadly holi-DOOM yet; the Cauldron Sisters will make sure of it!

The NEW Mogloween event will release at the end of the month! What will it be? Let us know what terrifying torments you'd like to see this year!

New Shops Coming, Old Shops Leaving!

• Did you hear about this Thursday's shop? It's not hard to Taco 'bout it, so get ready for Taco Day! This shop ONLY comes around once a year, and it'll leave you wanting to /fiesta! 
• The Limited Quantity, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and J6 Rare House shop leave Wednesday!
• The rare pet in Balboa's "My 1st BattlePet shop" also leaves Wednesday, but the rest stay!

AQW's 4th birthday is next week!

Party time! Get ready for a bithday celebration of EPIC proportions and the gear to go along with it! We've got plans, and the most special event guest star is YOU! ... At least, that's what I WOULD be saying if something didn't feel so... ominous.

(Ominous feeling not pictured... unless you're Twig)

But we'll do what we always do when strange things start happening - we'll strap on our helms, boot up our laptops, and make the release happen anyway! (Just... stick around in case we need you, ok?)

* This will be forever the awesomest October if I can just make it through the next few weeks!
19 more days...

October 01, 2012

Welcome Ghost to AQW

He'll do a BOO-tiful job animating!

The only things certain in a videogame are death and attacks(es)... which is why we're bringing AE's most spectral animator to the AQW team. /Cheer for Ghost, a long-time DF team member, and before that, one of AdventureQuest's players eager to make videogames!

AE's most spooktacular animator!

He started animating for DF back in 2006 after Artix was floored by his amazing skill (all self-taught at GoogleU)!* Ever since, he's been steadily raising the bar for DragonFable's cutscenes, and we're excited to bring that talent to AQW!**

/Samba /Samba /Samba into a new dimension!

He will not be starting JUST YET, though. Both he and Samba will slowly transition onto their new teams over the next few weeks - Ghost to AQWorlds, and Samba to the 3D team. Ghost has a few projects left to finish in DF, as does Samba - though she is very excited to use her crazy-good 3D skills!

AE's most DANctastic animator!

The decision to make this change was not made lightly, but we are certain that DF is being left in capable hands. Tomix will become DF's lead animator, and he'll be assisted by Hizu, formerly Samba's assistant. We know that - though Samba's dancing shoes will be hard to fill - Ghost will do a supernaturally-epic job!

This is Not Goodbye!

We are all one big Artix Entertainment family, and teams often share team members' skills. Ghost loves DragonFable too much to never look back, and Samba will never leave her disco for good! They will be focused on different AE games, but neither is going to turn their back on the games and players who have given them so much!

* PS - Please don't tell Artix that Ghost is undead. We need our soon-to-be-new lead animator too much to have him exorcised!
** And that urge to throw in surprising hidden animations!