It's that spooky time of year again and in my first ever Design Notes post (muahahaha!) I am super duper excited to announce the 3rd Annual AE Pumpkin Carving Contest! BoooOOOooOoo!
Something wicked this way comes... Mogloween fast approaches! We're calling out to you, Heroes, for some wicked cool AE-themed pumpkin carvings!
The past two years have shown that you guys are INCREDIBLE carvers. Check them out for inspiration; 2009 Pumpkins & 2010 Pumpkins!
Starting RIGHT NOW, we'll be taking submissions over at the forums. This contest ends Monday, October 31st. Winners will be announced on the Design Notes and the Forums on Friday, November 4th!
Like the previous years, the Grand Prize winner(s) will receive 5,000 AdventureCoins and additional prizes may be awarded to other groovy gourds! This includes a custom Mogloweeny weapon!
How does one enter, Samba? WELL, first you take a step to the left, and then a jump to the right...
Wait-wait that's not it! These rules and guidelines are simple but MUST be followed accordingly for your entry to be considered eligible:
• Your pumpkin MUST be carved BY YOU!
• Only ONE photo submitted per person, please.
• Your pumpkin MUST be your own ORIGINAL WORK! Any work that is copied via Internet and/or Stencils or simply Copy-Pasted of some supreme pumpkin-carving legend will lead to an automatic DISQUALIFICATION.
• Your pumpkin MUST be carved in an AE theme. Check out pumpkins from 2009 and 2010!!
• Include an index card or a piece of paper with the year (2011) and your (and only your) AQW Character Name--this way we really know it's made by you, and so we can award you with AC prizes if you win! Make sure your AQW name is readable and legible!
• Your pumpkin carving can relate to anything from AdventureQuest Worlds or any other Artix Entertainment game!
• Your canvas must be a pumpkin or another form of squash and/or gourd.
• The photo of your carved pumpkin must be of the Highest Quality—the bigger and more clear the picture, the better! Make sure that you provide a VALID URL to your photo. Try using a reliable photo uploader like Photobucket, TinyPic or Twitpic.
• You have until 11:59pm EST on Monday, October 31st to submit a photo of your carved pumpkin!
Earlier today Ai No Miko updated the Screenshots page with the new screenshots! Excellent job, heroes! We had a really hard time selecting winners, and we want to thank everyone who entered! For a list of winners, please click the picture below or click THIS LINK.
Winners will receive their prizes today! There are also four winners in the Humor category who will receive a small reward, as well! Thanks to everyone who entered!
THIS WEEKEND: Member Only Skyguard Storyline Continues!
Treachery and subterfuge are the order of the day! We left not knowing whether the SkyGuard High Command was safe after being attacked in the Land of Dreams and Nightmares. This week you find out what happened to them, and what is in store for Lore! (Hint: Lots and lots of explosions!)
Head to the Department of Strategization to help plan the Skyguard's next move. But beware, because the SkyPirates have teamed up with other SkyPirate flights (if a group of butterflies is a flutter and a group of camels is a flock (?!), then a group of SkyPirates is a flight.) and they are pressing forward with their attack!
We will also be opening our next LIMITED TIME SHOP for Members this weekend. You will be able to see the time ticking down until this special Member Only Armor goes rare!
On a smaller front we also hope to add items to both the Player Suggestion shop and the Treasure Chests this weekend. LOTS of items coming your way either way as we head into October and start to celebrate AdventureQuest Worlds' 3rd Birthday!
Speaking Of Birthdays
It's almost 3rd Upholder time again!
October is AQWorlds' anniversary month! And THAT means that anyone who upgrades (as long as your upgrade exxpires ON or AFTER November 4th, 2011) will become a 3rd Upholder! That'll get you a sweet character page achievement and the EPIC Platinum Star Sword! (The Star Sword will not be released until November 4th.)
Last Chance for TLPD Items.
Just a little reminder that Quibble will be leaving THIS FRIDAY and talking all of this year's Talk Like A Pirate Day rares with him.
If there's something in there that you want and haven't gotten yet, this is your last chance. THESE ITEMS WILL NEVER RETURN!
Oh my. I see that there is a massive lack of PINK on this page. So I’m here to fix it!
True story: I have missed you guys and gals soooooo much! I’ve been AFK for two weeks now (getting college stuff in order, yanno) and I can’t WAIT to start playing my favorite MMO again with all of my lovely friends =D
Sorry Artix… but Beleen is back so you had better equip those anti-pink protective eyeglasses! MWAHA!
So what have I missed? …a Spring AE Art Contest, huh? A W E S O M E—I looovve art contests!
The Mission
Make AE-themed spring holiday original artwork! You can draw, sculpt, paint, bake a giant Grenwog cake, or even create a balloon Blinding Light of Destiny, as long as everything is made by you! The contest thread will close Friday May 6th, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST (server time), with the winner being announced during the following week.
The Rules
Design must be inspired by any of the AE Games. (AQ, MQ, DF, AQW, ED, HS) and must be Spring holiday themed.
You may use any form of media for your design. (Pencil, Flash, brownie mix, etc)
All artwork must be original. This means no screenshots from the games can be used.
Tracing is strictly FORBIDDEN. Absolutely NO TRACING.
Only two entries per person and please include them both in the same post, make sure to convert to .jpg format and within the preferred size range of 800x600.
You mayNOT EDIT or DELETE your post after you have posted your entry. So make sure it's right before you post it. This isn't a race, you don't need to be the first to post. All submissions WILL be looked at!
You will be automatically disqualified if you do not follow all the rules.
Don't forget your Game Character Name, which game your character is in, and a VALID link to your masterpiece!
And have FUN!
The Sweet Prizes
The Grand Prize Winner(s?) will receive 4,000 Artix Points! 2,000 will be awarded for second place, third AND fourth places and, as always, we reserve the right to award people who go above and beyond!
EEEEEP! I cannot wait to see what you little artists have in store. It’s always a joy to see what other creative abilities our fellow adventurers have… besides soloing a Chaos Lord! Heheh!
The ENTIRE AE Team is taking a one week break from making games... TO MAKE GAMES!
Yes my friend, you read that right! Next week, starting on Monday we are having the 1st ever one-week-long AE Game Making Challenge!
WHAT!? You are making 7+ new games next week? The entire staff (everyone from AdventureQuest, DragonFable, EpicDuel, MechQuest, AdventureQuest worlds) will be forming into small teams of 2 to 3 people. Each team's goal is to create a new game in only 5 days. The rules are: Anything goes & make anything you want! So far there are 7 teams. The competition starts on Monday and ends Friday night... at which time we all get to play everyting that they make!
How will the contest be judged? You and the staff will both judge. We are going to post several polls on the forums which will rate the completed games in different categories (Overall, Fun, Graphics, Sound/Music.)
Is this a good idea? 100% YES. After doing the weekly releases every week, for so many years, the team needs to mix things up and get their creative juices flowing. That is something that all of the big games will benefit from in the following weeks. Also, it will be really interesting to watch and see what happens!
What will the games be like? Everyone is making whatever they want... so your guess is as good as mine, LOL! But there is only one week to make the finished game so they will likely be mini-game sized or prototypes/alphas for larger game concepts. Teams can create their own artwork, sound, and engine from scratch or are free to use things thay have already made. The goal is to be as creative as possible and have fun, there are no rules... just games!
Can I watch? We would love for you to watch and help us with ideas while we are working on the games! We are going to post a special design notes for all teams and we are going to periodically stream live video in AdventureQuest Worlds. (A sneak peek into the secret underground lab... about to be 3.14159% less secret.)
What about the normal Big Game releases? This Friday (just like every week) we have exciting releases coming out for you. Next weekend the games will all be running their special Valentine's Day events. So this really was the perfect time to do this. The best part is... if all team are successful, you could get 7 new games to play next Friday too! Maybe we can add achievements for beating all of them to the Master Account?
AWESOME! I cannot wait! Enjoy the releases this weekend. Starting Monday... we are making some games! (I cannot believe how much I am looking forward to this. It feels like Christmas.)
The Kookie, Monster Cookie Hork returns with a song about this years player-made AQWorlds cookies! (Note: This was totally unplanned... we got so inspired by your cookies we fired up the amps and even made the extremely deep, sophisticated, and intellectually challenging lyrics on the fly as we recorded it live!) The pictures are in random order (Sorted by Chaos!) My apologies for any missing pictures -- crazy editing may have eaten a few. Everyone did a great job -- I am so impressed with all of the entries! WARNING: Video will make you HUNGRY for COOKIES!
YouTube Challenge: Can you sing cookie more times in 15 seconds than the Cookie Hork? Make a video and link me on Twitter.
Contest Winners
The contest has been judged... it was the hardest thing we ever had to do. Honestly, everyone who entered in this contest deserves to win. One of the most interesting was Beowolve's Cookie sword. At first glance it may look like a poorly made sword cookie with some sprinkles... but next to it is the actual in-game sword Cysero drew last year. That is right -- Beowolve perfectly re-created it placing each and every dot with the right color in the exact same spot. The other entires had simliar level of incredible detail -- study each one closely! ... and congratulations everyone, GREAT JOB! Contest Winners Page
This weekend we encountered one of our most frustrating bugs to date. For you guys AND for us.
Blizzy was limiting non-members from completing his quests in the Toy Factory, and Major Moglin was directing you to speak to someone who hasn't arrived yet. It was a total mess.
We've fixed it. Non-members now have access to the "Shadow Figure" quest, and the "Frost" map to do battle against Dragonmaster Frostscythe! From there you will be able to continue with last year's quests.
Sorry!
This Year's Frostval!
Now that everyone can actually COMPLETE the previous year's quests, we are free to move forward with THIS year's adventure, which will require you to make some choices.
One of my Tweeps asked "What happens if we are neutral?". All I can asy to that is follow your heart and pick the answer that best represents your true feelings during your adventure. Actually, do that all the time.
This will allow you to decide the tone of your own tale. Are you the noble, kind and incorruptable hero, or the dark, greedy and dangerous hero? Are you someone to be respected or someone to be feared?
Don't stress about it, though. You can go back through the adventure and play it the opposite way, or even mix and match your responses. You might go about it a different way and learn different things, but you're all after the same goal... to SAVE FROSTVAL!
We will also be adding a bunch of new holiday treats to this adventure AND 2 brand new items will be added to Quibble as well!
Cookie Contest Results!
The Holiday Creative Cookie Contest is OVER! You guys REALLY stepped up your game this year. Some of the entries really blew us away. Beleen and Ai No Miko are about a meter away from me, going over the entries and I'm going to jump in and help as soon as I've posted this Design Notes.
To everyone who entered... AMAZING job. I wish I could shake every one of your talented hands, claws, tentacles and flippers. Picking winners out of this group will be the hardest thing we have to do this season.
Beleen will post the winners on THURSDAY (when we release the rest of this week's update!)
This past weekend I entered a competition where the goal was to make a game in 48 hours, by yourself, from scratch. Rolith talked me into it. He created a game for it too! The theme of the game competition, "Discovery", was announced on Friday at 9pm when the competition started. You might be wondering why on earth I would go home after a intense 5-game release week and immediately jump into 48 more straight hours of game making? (Well, probably not -- you guys love games just as much as I do) Truth be told, most of what I do now is leadership... not hands-on production. Zhoom, Minimal, Captain Rhubarb, Rolith and the other programmers are all so much better than me that I do not get to code any more. J6, Thyton, Ghost, Miltonius, Cysero, Tomix, Oishii are all such incredible artist/animators that I do not get to draw any more either. So when Rolith told me about this contest something sparked in my heart. I WANTED TO MAKE A GAME! So I streamed my screen so people could watch and used a program to take pictures of my screen every minute. I created a game called... DOOM CAULDRON
The most difficult part was that I was running a fever of about 100F Friday and Saturday. Honestly, I would have announced where I was streaming my screen so you could watch me work to everyone except I did not want you to see me fail if I became more sick and had to stop. (I think Beleen's ultra pink Birthday infected me) I created everything in the game during the 48 hours... the Art (mostly photos... my house has an usually high weapon/armor to room ratio... and some pictures I even took of myself using the cameras timer! Note: It is amazing how quickly a Bathrobe and a little creativity can create the "Necromancer" look!), Sound FX (mostly of my toilet), Music (I only had 15 minutes and had to play something on the guitar FAST.. better than nothing!), and of course the code (Any real programmer would cringe in horror... horror!) I feel the games hits the theme of "Discovery" dead on. You drag and drop items into the cauldron and hit create to see what it makes. The ultimate goal is to create... THE DOOM KNIGHT. If you are wondering... why would Artix make a game about a an evil undead conjuring cauldron? The answer is: You know Daimyo and I love battling the evil forces of the undead. I am training Necromancers on how to create undead armies so you can send lots and lots of undead for me to battle on Frostval! (Santa always says no.) Well, are you ready to play... DOOM CAULDRON
It’s the moment you have all been waiting for—and the same goes for us here at the Secret Underground Lab! If you were around last Frostval, then you probably remember the sweetest contest we have ever done. Ever.
Seriously, what contest could possibly be better than one overstuffed with cookies, cakes, pie, brownies, and various holiday confectionary deliciousness?
Arm thy spatulas and equip thy cooking apron in preparation for the
Tehehe, my tummy is already growling in anticipation!
Along with an endless amount of internet fame, the Grand Prize Winner(s) will receive 5,000 AdventureCoins AND a one-of-a-kind weapon created by Dage the Evil!
Additional AC prizes will be awarded for other super sweet desserts!
Fun fact: last year, the 6 grand prize winners received the ultra-rare Confectioner’s Slayer sword. When taken into consideration that there are over 20 Million registered users in AdventureQuest Worlds, being one of the verrrrrrry few to have such a one-of-a-kind weapon is truly remarkable.
Will you be a Grand Prize winner this year? One way to find out!
How the Cookie Crumbles: The Rules
This contest will range from NOW until 11:59pm EST on Sunday, December 19th. The winner(s) will be announced on the Design Notes Thursday, December 23rd!
The rules and guidelines are short ‘n sweet but MUST be followed accordingly for your edible entry to be eligible. I repeat, in boldface and in red font, ‘cuz a lot of people miss this: YOU must follow EACH rule if you want your entry to be considered eligible.
The easiest way to make sure your hard work gets judged: Read all of the rules before submitting your entry!
• Your dessert MUST be created by YOU. Do not copy someone else’s hard work. That my friend is called cheating, and you will be disqualified for it.
• Include an index card/piece of paper/ icing signature that says your AQW Character Name alongside your tasty treat. This way we really know it’s made by you! And NO, photoshopping your name onto your picture DOES NOT COUNT, and you will be disqualified if you do.
• Your dessert MUST be created in some sort of Artix Entertainment theme. Create anything you want from AQW, EpicDuel, BladeHaven, DragonFable, MechQuest, AdventureQuest, and WarpForce! If we cannot tell what it is from our games, you will not be qualified.
• Your canvas must be a cookie, cake, pie, or any other form of holiday dessert. Mmmm, get creative!
• The photo of your dessert should be of the Highest Quality. The more clear the picture, the better and tastier it will look, upping your chance at the Grand Prize! • Remember to post a VALID link to your dessert photo! Uploading your photo to your Facebook does not allow us to see the photos via the Forums. Also, if you upload your photo to your LOCKED photobucket account, we cannot see it either. So make sure your link is valid and isn’t locked to the public!
Preheating The Oven: Enter the Contest!
Now that you are ready for the 2010 Creative Cookie Contest, it’s probably a good idea to know WHERE to post your delectable desserts!
The BattleOn Games Team is really looking forward to seeing all of your wonderful ideas and delicious cookie creations! There is only one way to win—and it starts by entering this contest!
Best of luck to you all =D Eeeeeeeep I cannot wait! (but I have to.)
Do you have what it takes to carve the best AE-themed pumpkin in all of Lore? How skilled are you in the fine arts of the pumpkin-carving blade? Are you able to duel-wield a camera at the same time?
Last year, there were sooo many AMAZING carved pumpkins that we just HAD to do another contest. Check out last year’s winners!
There will be ONE Grand Prize winner (probably… maybe more…?). The contest starts now and ends on Sunday, October 31st. The winners will be announced on the Design Notes and the Forums on the following Friday, November 5th!
The Grand Prize winner(s) will receive 5,000 AdventureCoins!
Additional prizes will be awarded for spectacular squashes too ^_____^
Now that I have your attention, you’re probably wondering how to enter. The rules and guidelines are simple but MUST be followed accordingly for your entry to be considered eligible:
• Your pumpkin MUST be carved BY YOU!
• Your pumpkin MUST be your own ORIGINAL WORK! Any work that is copied via Internet and/or Stencils or simply Copy-Pasted of some supreme pumpkin-carving legend will lead to an automatic DISQUALIFICATION. We’re serious—it’s in CAPS!
• Include an index card or a piece of paper with ONLY your AQW Character Name--this way we really know it's made by you, and so we can award you with AC prizes if you win! Make sure your AQW name is readable and legible!
• Your pumpkin carving can relate to anything from AdventureQuest Worlds or any other Artix Entertainment game =D
• Your canvas must be a pumpkin or another form of squash and/or gourd.
• The photo of your carved pumpkin must be of the Highest Quality—the bigger and more clear the picture, the better! Make sure that you provide a VALID URL to your photo. Try using a reliable photo uploader like Photobucket, TinyPic or Twitpic.
• You have until 11:59pm EST on Sunday, October 31st to submit a photo of your carved pumpkin!
True story: I have missed you guys and gals soooooo much! I’ve been AFK for two weeks now (getting college stuff in order, yanno) and I can’t WAIT to start playing my favorite MMO again with all of my lovely friends =D
Tehehe, my tummy is already growling in anticipation!
