In the spirit of The Mirror Realm - Part 2 coming this Friday, we should all have a little fun and unleash some creative insanity! Who would your Mirror-self be? And who else would be interesting to meet in the Mirror Realm?
In the Mirror Realm... Tony Stark is a robot who created a suit of skin to battle humans. The new movie "SkinMan 3" is playing in Mirror Realm Theaters now.
In the Mirror Realm... you must be over 18 to watch Disney Movies.
In the Mirror Realm... video game developers pay you to play their game.
In the Mirror Realm... Ghandi was the best boxer, wrestler and mixed martial artist.
In the Mirror Realm... you send death threats on Valentines Day.
In the Mirror Realm... everyone loves working over time, homework, and visiting the in-laws.
In the Mirror Realm... people in other countries drive on the correct side of the road.
In the Mirror Realm... Cows create chocolate milk. You have to add Vanilla to create normal milk.
In the Mirror Realm... Abercrombie & Fitch only make XL & XXL clothing.
What do you mean Grimskull is REAL!?!?!?!?! We thought he was just a legend, a fairy tale, a campfire story. There is NO WAY he can be real! If even one sentence of the stories about him are true... then no one would ever survive even a few steps into his dungeons. You know the stories right?
Grimskull is the master of the world's most evil, vile, death trap filled dugeons. No one would be foolish enough to even consider entering one of his dungeons if they did. I refuse to believe it is possible to build traps like the ones in the stories about him... and, well, do you REALLY believe the world's most powerful weapon lies at the end? A weapon so powerful that it makes the Blade of Awe, DoomBlade, and the Blinding Light of Destiny look like foam padded twigs in comparison? Only the crazy, super crazy, and ultra-mega-insano-crazy would step foot in a Grimskull dungeon. Adventurer, consider theyself warned.
Upon the winds you will find a whisper of doom, "Grimskull is coming." We thought he was just something the Paladins thought up to scare the young Knights in training. The slight possibility he could be real sends a shiver down my spine.
The rumors say Grimskull is coming... but if the stories are true, it will not be this week. It will not be when you expect it. It could happen at any time, any place... all that you know is it WILL HAPPEN. When it does, it will happen in AdventureQuest Worlds.
There are a ton of great reasons to renew your Membership in AdventureQuest Worlds… but the #1 reason is that your upgraded account will also give you PRIORITY ACCESS to the Alpha Tests of our new video game... and the next test is later TODAY!
Become an Alpha Knight!
Programmer Zhoom has been hard at work on "interactive objects," so we are bringing the test server online later today (and leaving it up until AQWorld's new release starts Friday night) to try it out!
To participate in the Alpha Test you must be a Member of AdventureQuest Worlds or have supported one of our games in the past. We love you guys for making all of this possible!
Can YOU take down the Troluk?
Read all about our new 3D game on Artix's Design Notes at Artix.com!
First... yes, the rumors are true. I faced the evil Chairman Platinum in a "Stink Face" match at the MegaCon 2013 convention last weekend. What is a "Stink Face" match? Trust me... you do not want to know. But I get the feeling that is not going to stop you from watching the video that will be posted here later this week. I regrettably promise to post you a link here on AQ.com as soon as it is live. But until then... it is STORY TIME!
Artix beckoning Chairman Platinum into the Ring
This weekend, we had a cross over event in AdventureQuest Worlds with the stars of the TV show Hulk Hogan's Micro Championship Wrestling. While their wrestlers appeared in our game event, I participated in their LIVE Wrestling Show at the convention. Originally, I was just supposed to show up and say a few words. But during as I was throwing action figures into the crowd and addressing the audience, EbilCorps Chairman Platinum snuck into the ring behind me and broke a briefcase over my head. The result? We decided to end this once and for all. A special match was agreed upon... but instead of facing me himself, Chairman Platinum chose the dark and spooky MCW Wrestler "Blixx" as his champion!!! Realizing I was in an awkward situation, the MCW Wrestler "Meatball" offered to be my Champion. But there was a catch... this was to be a Stinkface match. Whomever's champion lost was to get a "Stinkface" from Meatball. I dare not utter what this means, but there is a reason why we did not put Meatball's signature special move in the video game. The match took place at 4pm. Needless to say, Chairman Platinum started cheating and we both finally ended up in the ring. If you want to see the outcome... you need to wait for the video. Until then, You should check out the event in game!
Chairman Platinum could not get more BOO's if he lived in a haunted house
To the Hospital!
No good match ends without a trip to the Hospital. But this trip was not for any of us. When we heard via Twitter that an AQWorlds player was sick in the Orlando Hospital. So... the ENTIRE MCW Wrestling Crew and I went over to cheer him up :-) The nurses were surprisingly cool about an armored Knight and 13 midget wrestlers storming through their Hospital. The young patient was certainly happy to see us and we all had a blast. I am even more excited to let you know that as of today he has been released from the hospital and is recovering.
Basket Ball On!!!
Meanwhile, warriors wearing the Artix Entertainment Dragon are waging war on a very different type of Battlefield. (Backstory incoming...) A few weeks ago I got word that a highschool basketball team needed help getting funds to enter a tournament. We were honored to help. We created some shirts for them (Yergen designed it) and they sent us a picture back! Thank you guys and do your best!
AdventureQuest Worlds Improvements!
As you have surely noticed, we have been making a lot of ambitious improvements across AdventureQuest Worlds the past few weeks. The feedback from the new town, loading screen, and interface changes have been overwhelmingly positive. While we continue the main storyline, we are also going to fix the Book of Lore and also do a HUGE improvement to the world map. May the fates favor your battles during the Chaos Beast Fight this Friday!
Oh behalf of all of us here at Artix Entertainment, we wish you a warm, safe and fun time this holiday season. We have had so many great memories this year... and one more is yet to come. Join us for our New Year's release this Friday!
P.S. Thank you to everyone who upgraded to Member or purchased AdventureCoins to support our weekly releases. We are very grateful to you for the opportunity to keep making the game better each week.
"A storm of Beleen's Pink colored doom is rolling in tonight. As our heroes are tasked with stopping the end of the world by defeating Kezeroth at www.AQ.com, I am immobilized by the terror of of Beleen's Pink Birthday Release.... am I alone in my fear of her fabled pink madness? Do I have a Thunder Buddy to weather tonight's storm with?" - Artix
Xyo's Fan Video "Beleen's Pink Madness"
If you have not seen this before, this is a fan video made by the amazing animator Xyo. The way they did the voices caught us off guard so much that we sprayed our monitors with our drinks. Most players know I have a rare and deadly allergy to the color pink. Simply touching the color pink could actually cause my hand to catch on fire and explode. (These statements have not been evalutated by the FDA.) Beleen, who loves the color pink... often tests the limits of my ability to endure pink.
After scouring tome after ancient tome, the Loremasters (a secretive group of historians who study the legends and lore of our world) have discovered something dreaful and grim. One word... "Kezeroth." It is an ancient name, and translated into our language it would be read as "The World Ender." The Loremasters say they found some scrolls that seem to be related and could tell us more, but it will take them time to decipher them. I hope they figure it out fast... 12-12-12 is THIS WEDNESDAY!
Gear up friends, it is time. Time to STOP the end of the world!
The time shattering finale of the Span Saga has begun. This adventure that has taken us scross time, space, and our other games. Now, is the final showdown with the Chaos Beast Kathoo AND Iadoa* who is the 10th Lord of Chaos. This is pretty huge because this release will give all of you who love the story your first clue at what is really happening when these Chaos Beasts are defeated. Also, if this is Chaos Lord #10, we only have three left before we reach Drakath. Wait, make that four -- the twins, Ying & Yang, have not been defeated yet either. As a player wisely noted to me on Twitter "How come there are so much empty space left on the map if we only have 3 Chaos Lords left?" Many players are relived and excited to know that it indicates this game has a loooong future ahead of it. If you survive the battle with Chaos Beast Kathool that is... Good luck heroes!
* Who comes up with these names!? "Iadoa" is pronounced: "Eye - Ahh - Doh - Ahh"
BONUS! Challenge Fight for Members
Kathoo is a powerful monster with his own AI. But for the ULTIMATE challenge, Members can battle a max level version of him... the most powerful monster in the game yet. Defeating him in this mode is worth ultimate bragging rights... and a badge!
On my way to the lab Monday morning, I made a tweet about making it "BEST DAY EVER". So naturally the entire game network went kaboom in what can only be described as the most catastrophic disaster in the past several years. Which, looking back... we have had a surprisingly good track record of "up time". So what happened? We had a serious problem with this server, thewww.Artix.com one. Our ISP took it offline to help us resolve the issue and... /facepalms.... also accidentally moved some of our other critical servers onto the wrong network. The servers that were moved had no idea where they were, and explained as plainly as I can... screamed. (If a server in the middle of a forest screams, will anyone hear it?) The screaming triggered all sorts of problems and got the servers put on the naughty lists. Meanwhile, back on our network, all of our web pages desperately tried to contact those missing servers. Not getting replies, the web pages posted the error message "Web Server too Busy." Now, anyone with network knowledge is going to say, "HEY! That is not even remotely accurate" to which I reply... "Um, close enough!" Thus not needing to write a novels worth of text explaining our network infrastructure, firewalls, port forwarding, and content management system. So, what do you do when you are still at the lab at 11PM up against even more server problems on the "BEST DAY EVER?" Two words. "Battle On."
P.S. If you have a AQWorlds Membership, we will be extending it by 1 day to make up for the downtime. Thank you for your patience and understanding!
Rumors have been spreading across our world that the Chronomancers, Chronocorruptors, and Time Killers are needed for a special role in the events which will take place on 12-12-12. This date only happens once every 100 years. We do not know exactly what is happening yet... we are hoping our Loremasters can decipher ancient scrolls to tell us more. If you hear anything in the mean time... let us know!
Meanwhile... "vs. the Lag Monster"
We held an emergency meeting today, gathering the head programmers of ALL of our games to once and for all fix the ongoing lag issues in AQWorlds. Last weeks major database optimization and changes did not really have a noticable effect. While the symptoms are combat and chat lag, we are 100% certain that the actual problem is related to the database data transfer speed. This has been a creeping problem as we have increased inventory space, added housing, friends lists, and now guilds. This is not hard to believe considering there are over 44 million characters in the AQWorlds Database with over 1.4 billion inventory item records. While you save the world from whatever is coming on 12-12-12, we are also going to be saving your gaming world by doing whatever it takes (Translated: major recording and restructuring) to fix the lag. Thank you for all of your patience and support as we fix these problems.
Be sure to stop by www.Artix.com and leave comment on a post to say hi!
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!
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!
Artix (the best man) and I are ready to take on any party-crashing bugs!
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.
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!
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!
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.
Thanks to all of the amazing testers on the AQWorlds' PTR server, Yorumi was able to find "THE CRAZY NaN BUG." I would like to share the nitty gritty details of this bug... but first, from your Twitter and Facebook messages, I realized that many players do not know what is actually happening behind the scenes on the PTR (aka Public Test Realm). And why it restarts so much.
Really tricky bugs like the Crazy NaN Bug do not appear on our normal staff-only test servers. In order to cause them we need to do two things: 1) Have tons of players on. 2) Create a special version of the game server which watches for specific things and then writes the errors somewhere we can investigate.
So, everytime you have seen the server restart, you are playing on a new version of the game server which is doing massive bug-hunting and testing. Because of this... by process of elimination.... we found the Great GrandDaddy of all AQWorlds problems: THE CRAZY NaN Bug.
If you played our older games you may have hit a monster for "NaN" damage. What is NaN? (Not to be confused with the delicious bread at Indian Restaurants) NaN stands for "Not a Number." It is what happens when you ask Flash what 1 + "a" equals. That is not a variable, that is actually the letter "a."
It breaks the computer's brain. In human terms it is sort of like asking someone what the color blue smells like. But how could this be a problem for us? We have gotten really good at protecting our games from NaN problems... REALLY GOOD.
I mean we use a function EVERYWHERE that makes sure that nothing isNaN. That was not a typo, the function is actually called isNaN(). Say "isNaN" in a silly cat voice in your head... it is sorta cute. Remember the NaN Cat from the AQWorlds Meme release? Anyway... despite all of our isNaN checks, every once in a while some NaNs were still getting through and generating hordes of mysterious and unexpainable errors on the server.
After two days of non-stop banging heads against desk, Yorumi finally figured it out. isNaN, as cute as it is, does not work in ONE very specific situation. To demonstrate, let's feed isNaN some things that are Not aNumber and see what happens:
Is Not a Number?
isNaN("a") = True
isNaN("chicken") = True isNaN("I like dinosaurs that shoot lasers out of their eyes") = True
isNaN() = True
isNaN("") = False!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
WHAT!? How is nothing a valid number? This was flat out illogical & baffling! So there it is... because the isNaN function fails under that one specific condition, there are mabye thousands of tiny rare bugs that occassionally happen in AQWorlds, generating thousands of errors. Once we found the problem it was super easy to fix.
Yorumi changed every instance of isNaN in the game to also look for empty "" values. This fix might actually speed up literally every part of the game server.... the PTR server is currently running the fix. Help us continue the tests!
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.
Over at www.Artix.com we have been working on a browser based 3D MMO under the codename "AdventureQuest 3D" A few months ago, in a caffine induced moment of lunacy, I said something like "How cool would it be if we announced the real name during a live puppet show!?" So when we got close to naming the game... one of my many friends on Twitter (JOIN US...) reminded me that I said that. Cysero said, "I was just thinking that we don't do nearly enough puppetry around here!" So... despite being one of the weirdest, most chaotic, potentially embarrasing and regrettable things we have ever done... this is happening. Tonight. at 6pm EST streaming video from the lab live inside AQWorlds.
Cysero created all of the sock puppets using his spare left socks (maybe yours?) and a hot glue gun. We do not know who is going to play the girl sock puppet yet. We do not have a script. We do not have a plan... other than, at some point... we should probably announce the name of AdventureQuest 3D. On a side note... AQWorlds is our biggest and most popular game with the largest team of any of our games. AQWorlds will continue to grow and get better each week. The new 3D game is being created so we can stay on the cutting edge (3D in your browser!?) and is going to be an older, darker, more serious (sorta) game aimed at players who have been craving a game like that. Naturally, announcing this via a sock puppet show makes NO SENSE AT ALL... which seems exactly like something we would do. You are probably the only person who "gets us."
As you may already know, we are building a 3D, massively multiplayer game that will play in your browser. You can follow the team's progress at our new website www.Artix.com . We are about to announce the name of the game project (which most people call "AdventureQuest 3D") and as promised... we will be announcing it LIVE, in-game, within AQWorlds via a Sock Puppet show! The video will be streaming straight from Secret Underground lab. There will be no script. Cysero is making the sock puppets from his own left socks.
The 1st multiplayer Alpha tests for the new game are starting SOON. Want to be an alpha tester of the new 3D game? Become an upgraded Member of AQWorlds. Members of AQWorlds will be able to participate in the alpha tests and earn "alpha points" for each test they help in.
This Week's Schedule
Wednesday - Midweek AQW release and Reddit AWA
Thursday - AQ3D name announced in live sock puppet show 6pm
Friday - The 10th Chaos Lord emerges in AQWorlds!!!!
Sunday - Chairman Platinum and Roam may appear on TV's American Ninja Warrior!?
Sepulchure. He is the most powerful and legendary DoomKnight. He unified all of the villains in our world. He slew the good King Alteon. He even slew DEATH itself! He started the zombie apolcoypse and wiped out every living person in he world... EXCEPT FOR US! ready your weapons and spell books friends. Now begins the final battle. We are all that stands between Sepulchure and the Champion of Light. No matter what happens tonight... our world will NEVER be the same again. BATTLE ON!
"Sepulchure" painting by Dage the Evil
DeathKnight Class & Zombie Quibble
You know... I did not think Moglins like Twilly, Zorbak and Quibble could be zombified. Guess we were wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things. For example, last night on Twitter a player tweeted me: "Hey Artix! Would you do if you came across a pink derp zombie?" To which I replied, "OMG!?!?!?!? WHAT!?!?! WHY! WHY!" (It may not have gone exactly like that... but the tweets already scrolled off my tweetdeck so this is how I remember it.) The rest of the team, seeing this, thought to themselves... "Wow! What a great way to thank Artix for giving us 5 cutscenes to do in only days!" and actually started making these nightmare inducing, therapy requiring, why... why.... oh why would you do this to me, pink derp zombie armors. I love the team, and will not begrduge them the joy of watching me cower under my desk, tweeting on my phone in fear of these pink abominations. But if you start sending me screenshots of pink derp zombie player hordes... I... I.... I am actually to horrified to think about this any more O_O
Ultimate Horror Armor (pink derp zombies!!!)
Pink Zombie Villager
Pepto Zombie Armor
Derp Zombie Armor
Zombie Quibble Bank Pet
The DeathKnight armor will be released tonight too! Check out two posts down for the full skill breakdown. Cyero's goal was to create a class which was damage-over-time over kill! It should be interesting, fun and very different from our existing classes to play.
Happy Birthday Daimyo!
Thank you to everyone who posted a caption on Daimyo's Facebook (Which now has over 2,000 likes!) Did you hit like yet? He loved ALL of your funny caption suggestions. Great job everyone! to celebrate his birthday, you can get the Daimyo pet for only on da.... *what is that boy?* ... ARF! *Really? ... ARF! *OK, you are the birthday puppy.* .... you can get Daimyo this weekend. He will dissapear from shops for another year and the merge shops to armor him will return on Monday.
"MORE BONES?" Caption inspired by Osman Oso Kaleziq.
Become a Member and Support the Game
If you have been enjoying AQWorlds and our weekly releases, please support the team by becoming a member. Not only will you be paying for the servers and keeping our coffee machines powered, you will also get an ever increasing number of in-game features and perks as a thanks for making it possible for the team to grow the game and make it better each week!
P.S. - In preparation for the release of Alchemy in 2 weeks, alchemy reagents have started dropping from boss monsters. Stock up on them!
UPDATE: Responses from the Grand Finale!
We give it our all every week. Not Friday gets a reaction like this... but one glance at the comments below shows why it is all worth it. Thank you!!!!!
@WonderpBread says, "AE Never fails to satisfy! Well worth the wait! :D BATTLEON!" @Gjappy says, "you guys did an exellent job with this release!!! *summons you a BIG cake*" @cyromansor says, "The cutscenes were amazing! *tear of joy runs down cheek* I loved the release to pieces!" @J1KTheGamer says, "im not one of those crazy fanboys that like everything but THIS RELEASE WAS AMAZING!" @Cryoskylos says, "1 word after finishing the release....mind blown o.o" @rinreos says, "same here i luv it :) its so awesome i finished it too, i so liked it :)" @JasonShadoesky says, "Best...twists....ever...FREAKING AWESOOOME" @_Neeko says, "clever Aerosmith reference in The Ultimate Horror's description xD" @AngryAwesomeGuy says, "Release was epic." @KingJulian says, "ARTIX THIS IS INSANE! THE RELEASE ITS INSANE INSANE I TELL YOU!" @Brisingr says, "That was a short release, but the cutscenes @Samba_AE rocked them out hardcore! Loved it, definitely looking forward to more!" @AlphaConduits says, "This release is soooo mother flipping awesome." @Suskelani_AQW says, "That. Was. UN-MAZING!!! Un-mazing? Get it? *no response* Err, i'll stop now.. That was amazing! Good work to all!" @DeitylinkAQW says, "THE MOST EPIC RELEASE OF MY LIFE! I can't wait til you can top it!" @ZeMageAE says, "MOST EPIC RELEASE EVER!" @Fried_Ryce says, "Those cutscenes, one word, 4 letters, EPIC." @Excavator_2 says, "OMG!!! Awsome!!! You have done it again, outnumbering your previously cutscenes! I don't think I will ever stop playing." @QuantumInsannity says, "OMG!! Sooo many great cutscenes and bosses and everything. But... still don't know what champion the "hero" is! Love it!!!" ShadowRavena says, "Okay then, thanks. And btw... best release in AQW history!" @Slimjim1516 says, "OH MY GOSH!!!!! That release WITHOUT A DOUBT is one of the BEST releases EVER!!!!! Seriously, it was AMAZING."
Note: We updated the map so it is easier to get the to the boss fight and replay the cutscenes. Once you have completed everything... there is now a simple menu that will let you replay all of the cutscenes and re-battle Dark Sepulchure. Battle On!
Our once beautiful world has been devastated by Sepulchure's zombie apocolypse. We united and fought the zombie horde side by side. But one by one, each town has fallen. Well known friends including Rolith, Alina, Warlic, Valencia, Galanoth and Cysero haven fallen to the green zombifying mists... all hope seems lost. Now, the town of BattleOn is all that remains... three heroes brace themselves as the DoomKnight Sepulchure descends to lead the final assuault... personally. Tomorrow night is the absolute and ultimate finale of DoomWood II & ZOMBIES... remember, this is AQWorlds, anything can happen!
Tomorrow is... THE EPIC BOSS FINALE OF ZOMBIES & DOOMWOOD 2!
4 weeks ago, the DoomWood II: Whispers of the Dark Lord saga began in AdventureQuest Worlds. The original DoomWood told the secret story of Artix and is regarded as one of the game's best storylines. This brand new adventure continues after the "final ending" but is focused on legendary DoomKnight Sepulchure -- and his fiery red-headed daughter, Gravelyn. In my opinion, Gravelyn is one of the most unique and interesting characters we have ever created. A beautiful girl, raised by the undead in a giant flying dragon skeleton castle. She is the daughter of the world's greatest darkness villain and inherhited his throne when he was destroyed at the beginning of the game. Yet... we have never seen her cast a darkness spell or fight. Many villains have claimed she was weak and unfit, and attempted to overthrow her. We might have gone all the way through the game without finding out why... but the unthinkable happened. The cutscene at the end of week 2 re-started the game in the most dangerous "WHAT IF" of all time. It started AdventureQuest Worlds: ZOMBIES! Now, it is all about to come to its unbelivable conclusion.
As written in your AQWorlds Calendars, Friday is everyone's favorite "fearless undead slaying" battle puppy's birthday. Only during his birthday tomorrow can you obtain an in-game pet version of him via a special Daimyo Birthday shop in town. Oh! There are quests in DoomWood Part 2 to put armor on Daimyo if you get him as a pet. These quests will not be available while his shop is open... but will return once the shop closes.
I am literally on the edge of my seat waiting to hear your reactions from the BOSS battles and cutscenes tomorrow. I would like to thank the team for their super hard work... J6 for all of the amazing background art (the elevator and doomcrawler were perfect!), Yorumi for adding the new "monster intro animations," and for helping redesign the war system that has been getting rave reviews, and especially Samba who has been animating all of the killer cutscenes for this release. I would also like to thank all of the players who have been playing through the releases and giving me honest and encouraging feedback. I doubt anyone knows how much your comments influenced what is about to happen. This week's final showdown was hard to write.... it is Gravelyn's story. Something that many of you have seen coming for a long time now, and for everyone else it is going to be jaw-droppingly shocking. She will never be the same "weak little" girl again. I hope you enjoy it. BATTLE ON!
P.S. Help us name the upcoming 3D game and read my other posts at www.Artix.com
If you have not played through the storyline of DoomWood Parts 1 & 2, stop reading, log in and do them now! Especially Part 2, because, as other players would tell you, the story is deep, insane, full of twists which have resulted in tonight's very mysterious release... AdventureQuest Worlds: ZOMBIES.
(Spoiler Alert:If you have not finished DoomWood 1 & 2 stop reading now. Go play it quick!)
Gravelyn is one of the most interesting characters in the game. She was raised by the undead, and her Father is the DoomKnight, Sepulchure. When Sepulchure was defeated by the Chaos Lord Drakath, Gravelyn inherited her Father's throne. She became the leader of the forces of Evil.
Zombie Light Warrior Armor in the 50% shop!
It has not been easy for her. There have been numerous attempts to overthrow and thwart her. Even Noxus, who's defeated talking skull is attached to her staff refuses to respect her. We believe that Gravelyn has power and inner strength, but she has not shown us what she is capable of... yet.
So in the last cutscene, we saw her in a moment of defeat, make a wish under her breath that her Father, Sepulchure was still here. The wish, in the most unexpected way, was granted. (By the way: I do quietly read a lot of the things you post to each other and must say how impressed am I that so many of you figured out the significance of that Tomb.)
Floating Horror Cape in the 100% Shop!
But not even a wish can bring Sepulchure back... so instead, in a true act of chaos, the Champion of Chaos, Drakath disrupted time, space and reality -- causing the entire game to COMPLETELY RESTART from the beginning.
Zombie Hunter Hunter Armor and Globular FaceMorph in the UnRare AC Shop!
You remember, right? The beginning of game? When you got struck by lightning, fell down a cliff, went to the Castle of Swordhaven when the final showdown beween Good and Evil was starting? You fought your way through Sepulchure's army of the undead to get to King Alteon's throne room... then Drakath showed up and pretty much destroyed everyone and everything? BUT... what would have happened if Drakath has never showed up?
Tonight... we find out.* BATTLE ON!**
* Note: You no longer have to manually turn your war medals in! The war meter raises after every 5 zombies you slay!
**Zombies lag due to dead limbs and poor dexterity, but you might experience lag of your own due to large numbers of heroes battling while using the new war functionality.
Use Your Brain to Get Zombie-riffic Rewards!
Tonight's release brings you 4 shops stocked with epically undead rewards! Talk to Rolith in the War Camp to access the Unrare Undead AC Shop (this shop will not go rare!), and the Zombie Merge Shop (collect Zombie Skulls, Noses, and Toes!), a 50% and 100% War Shops (get the meter high enough to unlock them)! /Equip this undead gear and you'll be unstoppable!
Zombie Pirate in the UnRare AC shop, Cutlass of the Dead in the Zombie Merge Shop!
NOW AVAILABLE! Collector Action Figures
The Sepulchure and Artix collector figures are now on sale at www.HeroMart.com and in most U.S. based Toys"R"Us stores. They went up at noon today... and OMG!!!!!!!! Thank you all so very much for supporting us during our 1st ever collector figure release! We have been packing boxes and shipping them non-stop since Noon.
The problem with the "Secret Underground Lab" not being on floor #1 is we have to get all of the boxes to street level... so we have been bringing your boxes up via the elevator. This was the 1st load... you should see the HeroMart Chamber O_O. As expected, the Rare Black Armor Variant figures are going fast. (Note: We limited it to only 2 per order so people could not hoard them -- keeping it fair!)
Remember that some Toys"R"Us stores have them too... we do not know which, but if you spot one, please take a picture and tweet it to me! Oh, and Miko just made a cool looking web page showing off the figures! Check out the new Collector Figure Webpage
The Artix an Sepulchure Collector Action Figures will be available tomorrow at noon at www.HeroMart.com, and in the card game section of almost all Toys"R"Us stores in the USA (They will be in ALL of them by next Wednesday). Both locations have some of the rare "Black Armor Variant" versions. Thank you to everyone who will be supporting us by getting a figure tomorrow, and a special thank you to all of you who are always there for us with your encouraging words and passion for or games. These figures are a 1st in our gaming community... we have been working on this project for over a year. Making figures is pretty crazy for an indie game studio!
This Friday, at noon, the wait is over. The collectors action figures will finally become available for purchase at www.HeroMart.com and MOST Toys"R"Us store locations in the USA will have them on shelves (in the card game isle). Players have been reporting that some stores already have them in stock! There has been some confusion about the dates -- so this post is going to tell you EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about the action figures (and a little more.) For example, both Toys"R"Us and HeroMart will have some of the rare black variants for sale.
Dates (Fully Explained)
Last Week: Some Toys"R"Us stores started getting the figures and made them for sale This Week: Most Toys"R"Us stores will get the figures and make them for sale This Friday at Noon EST:HeroMart.com will put the figures up for sale. May 23rd: 100% of Toys"R"Us will have the figures available for sale
The regular figures will be $20 at HeroMart and $24.95 at Toys"R"Us (Which is about the same if you include shipping.) The rare black variants will be $50 on HeroMart (reasonable, considering the original Deady's were $60 and sold out in the first weekend.) TRU may sell the variants for less... but the trick is finding a store that has them.
An Indie Company making their first toys!
This is, obviously, the biggest thing to happen us as an indie game company. Indie meaning... noone owns us. We do not have a parent company. No investor ever gave us a giant lump of cash. We are 100% funded by you, the players. So, most people are really shocked to find out that we designed the packaging, took our own photos, created the codes and in-game items, paid for the production of the figures out of our own pockets, and do most everything except for the actual molding and assembly (we would if we knew how, lol) here at the lab. We hope you choose to support us by getting the figures at US based Toys"R"Us stores or online at www.HeroMart.com (shipping anywhere in the world). If this is a success we will go on to create other figures... Drakath, Cysero, Galanoth, Warlic, etc.
"I do not always go to the beach... but when I do, people point and laugh at me for taking pictures of action figures."
Toys"R"Us - Why our figures are not in their computers (again.)
I am probably not legally allowed to tell you what you are about to read -- but this has been a source of a lot of confusion, so I am going to tell you. Please use this information to help tell others who run into this problem. Ok? I have already been getting messages from player's who contacted their local Toys"R"Us in the United States and were told something like, "Not sure what you are talking about, we are not getting these toys in." or "These are not in our system." This also happened with the Card Game, Booster Packs and the 2012 Calendar which are for sale at Toys"R"Us now. Why does this happen?
The answer: We go through the company named Beckett to put our toys in the store. they are a great company to work with. We really like them. You may know Beckett as the company who creates the Baseball cards, Yugioh Cards, Magic the Gathering and more. In every Toys"R"Us there is an area filled with all of these type card games (including ours.) Beckett completely controls that card section of the store. They have their own people who manage the shelves... and their inventory is, in as simple of a way I can put this, tracked seperately. So, our card game, calendar and figures are located in that isle, but very likely will never show up in Toys"R"Us's computer system. It is weird. an I apologize for the confusion -- chalk this up to us being a growing indie company. One day I hope to have our game items in EVERY Toys"R"Us in EVERY country. But for now, I asked Beckett to send an email to each store letting them know about the figures -- and where you can find them. I hope it happens and helps. But at least you know, the figures will be located in the card game area with our other items... even if their computer says otherwise. Note: Not all store locations will have the Black Variant figures. As there are so few of them... it will take some hunting!
4 days left until they go on sale...
I hope you are all looking forward to Friday - both for the release and for the figures!
"The Lady of the Lake raised the sword... erm... axe... high above the water and threw it to the hero. But it was really heavy. And not very aerodynamic. This is probably why King Arthur used a sword."
Can YOU take down the Troluk?
It's not a real party unless you've saved the world first!
Codemonkey (and codemonkey balloon
The server hamsters run EXTRA-fast on Fridays!
Artix (the best man) and I are ready to take on any party-crashing bugs!
Geopetal made a Tog-shaped Groom's Cake!
Rolith says "This picture file shall be saved as Kissyface.jpg!"
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 
"Sepulchure" painting by Dage the Evil
(Spoiler Alert: If you have not finished DoomWood 1 & 2 stop reading now. Go play it quick!)
Zombie Light Warrior Armor in the 50% shop!
Floating Horror Cape in the 100% Shop!
Zombie Hunter Hunter Armor and Globular FaceMorph in the UnRare AC Shop!
