February 14, 2011

Love Is In The Air!

Babies and Weddings for everyone!

Happy Heroes Heart Day, guys! It's really good to be back. If you weren't aware I've been gone for the last 2 weeks. On February 2nd at 7:50 AM server time, my second (and final) son was born. We named him Jetson.

Jack and Jetson.

Since Jet's birth I've been at home helping my wonderful wife as much as I can and helping Jack get used to having a new family member, and generally being a very attentive husband and father.

My first son, Jack is now a big brother. He's got a 13 month head start but i'm sure that he'll teach Jet everything he needs to know about being my kid like: Which buttons to never press, Where daddy keeps his secret stash of socks, Which of his parents knees are the tastiest to chew on,  How to sense when Mom and Dad have just drifted off to sleep so he can wake up and start fussing, How to eat, drink, spit-up, burp, fart, poop, pee and cry all at the same time, and many other fun talents.

For those of you following me on Twitter, Nursey and I were completely blown away by the number of very nice messages flooding in washing over my happy family, blanketing us all in good vibes. You're all far too kind, but I humbly accept those kind wishes and pass them on to my family. Thank you.

But Wait... There's More!

Nythera is getting MARRIED!

She is the half-dragon who recently lead us into the void (and head of AE Player Support) and she's finally tying the knot with her long-time fiance'. We're happy to let you take part in her wedding in a special ONE-TIME ONLY wedding event on Friday March 4th. (Not this weekend, I'm just leading with this because it's exciting news and because Heroes Heart Day is a day to celebrate Love)

We'll have more details on that special event as we get closer to it, but for now please join me in saying a big GRATS to our favorite snarky half-dragon!

But Wait... There's STILL More!

We just found out today that AQW/HS super coder Llussion just asked his long-time girlfriend to marry him and she said YES! No date has been set and we may or may not have an in-game event but we're all VERY happy for those two crazy kids. Llussion has saved my bacon more times than I can count so I'm going to have to build him a truly excellent wedding present.

CardCaster Is Now CardClasher!

Very soon we will be releasing our Artix Entertainment Battle Cards card game, which comes with the exclusive in-game CLASS, CardClasher!

We had to change the name from CardCaster to CardClasher due to an unforseen copyright issue with another game. 

The Class will be for everyone who purchases the card game, but we also plan on releasing a Member-Only CardClahser area to give you some backstory on what a CardClasher is and provide the AQW Members with some additional content to really trick out their Class.

There is still no set release date for the card game but we WILL be selling them on HeroMart, which currently delivers to 57 countries and we are adding more ALL THE TIME! Is your country on the list?

As soon as we have a fixed release date for the card game and Class, I will let you guys know.

This Week: Back To The Sandsea

This Friday we will be continuing the Sandsea Saga we you and Zhoom head to the Sek-Duat Dynasty Pyramids to track down the immortal mummy, Sek-Duat. It will also feature a brand new mini-game and lots of new Sandsea gear, both in the release AND in the Sandsea Rep Shop.

Don't forget that the Chinese New year event will be leaving this Friday, as well as most of the Heroes Heart Day content and rares. The Heroes Heart Day Limited Time shop will be closing tomorrow at NOON, server time.

I've also heard a rumor that Black Market vendor will be returning on Friday.

GAMETASTIC

The GAMETASTIC challenge is over and we have a handful of great new mini-games which you can find HERE. A winner will be decided soon and Artix will announce the winner here on the Design Notes. As I was out, and on none of the design teams I will be a fair and impartial judge who doesn't want to get fired by his Boss who i'm told has an EXCELLENT mini-game.

HeroSmash Heroes Heart Day Items

Dumoose literally just PMd me to let me know that he will be releasing a number of new Heroes Heart Day items in HeroSmash in just a little while. Remember, right now you can only Alpha test HeroSmash and get these items if you are an AQW Member.