Gone Crazy

Feb 27th, 2009
My first release
Will Artix ever leave town again..
All things considered, that didn't go too badly! I'd like to give a huuuuuge thanks to Llussion, Miltonius, Zhoom and J6 for all their help this week - I'd never have made it without them.

Gravelyn in Shadowfall has a brand new quest for you this week (Member only for the first week) You'll get to meet some of the strangest creatures in Lore - from the TaxMan to his pet PigDrake.

I had a lot of fun working on this release - I hope you enjoy it!

Going Crazy

Feb 26th, 2009
A few words from the Lab
Artix on a plane..
Hi everyone! Artix has been dispatched by the S.O.O.U.S (Secret Order of Undead Slayers) on a secret mission to New York.

Fear not, though... as the release is still on schedule! But for the first time... I'm in charge. *gulp*

Hmm... I wonder if we're all ready for this? Things are rolling along right on track here at the Lab, and it's time to get back to work!

Story-adin

Feb 25th, 2009
The Royal Family
The Good King Alteon, Princesses, and the Court
Fortune smiled upon our lands the day King Alteon took up his sword and freed the people from the evil tyrant who terrorized the countryside. In fact, Castle Swordhaven was built right on top of his old wicked castle*. The King has three loving daughters... the Princesses:

* In all honesty, they should have looked underneath it first. (Good stuff coming!)

Britany, who is the eldest daughter, has the largest shoe collection in the world. She only wears armor with a Gucci or Prada tag on it! In between shopping and talking through the magical communcation pool, she enjoys staring in reality TV-orb shows.

Victoria is the middle daughter. Sickly and unable to get out of bed often, she spends most of her time reading fantasy books wishing she was the great hero in the story. Once night, she was visited by a fairy who offered to grant her ONE wish. Then, Victoria accidentally caught the fairy on fire with a candle, dropped a base case on 'em, and then when the guards came to see what all of the trouble was about she was forced to hide the fairy in her mouth. To her credit she only chewed twice... by accident! The rest of this story is yet unknown.

Tara is the youngest Princess. She loves ponies, and bunnies, and flowers and... giant man eating dragons. Hailed as "Tara the Terrible" by the guards, she often kidnaps dangerous monsters and forces them to play with her at a team party filled with dangerous magical stuffed dollies.

Also in the King's court you will find the Bersker General, the corrupt Tax Collector** and the Jester***. Finally, Castle Swordhaven is now home to the Pactaganal Knights including the respected and loved Sir Render, Sir Junn, Sir Pent, Sir Loin, Sir Kull, Sir Chandestroy, Sir Up and their shortest and hardest working members, Sir Ver!

In this week's exciting release, we are releasing the next step in the Shadowscythe chain: "Undeath Insurance Policy!" which will take you back to Castle Swordhaven where the King and his court will be eager to speak with you. As you may have already been thinking, Swordhaven is the good town, Shadowfall is the evil town, and Battleon is the great gathering place for all heros of the world. AQWorlds will not have one hub town, it will have three! I am not sure how much of Swordhaven will be ready on round one, but I wanted to write you and let you know a little bit about the people who will eventually be in castle. Both the good and the evil sides have very interesting stories -- I would like you to be able to experience both before you make your true choice which will be very hard to change. Talking about choice, this MMO is set up to break all of the rules. Because of our fluid development style, we can do anything... and this means any one of the Chaos Lords could potentially win. In most games you just plod through the storyline and the world never changes. Ours does. You have already seen this in our other games. But after 7 years of game making, we are ready to make this REALLY interesting. Anything can happen... and it will all depend on you. Battle on!

** Surprise, surprise!
*** Many people believe the Jester is actually an assassin sent to take out the king. They say his jokes kill!

Feb 24th, 2009
What is a Lord of Chaos?
Not sure... but guessing it is not good!
All we know is that Drakath picked (or is in the middle of picking) 13 Lords of Chaos. What do you think they are? What can they do? Who are they? See you on the forums!

Character Pages
Round 1 just went live!
That is right, character pages are finally here! You can now click on another player's portrait and open their character page! Here is a link to mine. We are going to add background art, icons, and better design in the next version. This page is being developed by Ai No Miko (Her name means priestess of love in Japanese... we call her Miko). She is also the one who is building the Facebook and Myspace pages. We want to do a few new things with your characters pages. First, we want to link all of the items to encycolpedia pages that will tell you where the item comes from (Monster drop, Quest, etc.) Also we would like to make your page customizable. It should be easy to have a good or evil background for your character depending on your alignment. That is a good place to start.

Also Happening
New Game Engine Update
Yay! Being released as early as tomorrow... we have a new engine coming your way. We are replacing "Rep" with "Class Points". Not only does this make more sense, but it comes with a new balanced experience curve that will make it easier to level up your class all the way. This change is paving the path for us to add "Factions". The first two factions, obviously, will be Swordhaven and Shadowfall. See my example below:

Class: Paladin - Rank it up with class points to unlock skills
Faction: Swordhaven - Get rep to have the city like you more and access more special shops and quests.

The Book Of Lore
The Lore Grimoire is 85% finished. The code is finally working, it just needs the text added which I will try to finish and have ready for tomorrow's push.

On TV!... at Target?
I was asked today if I could supply 3-5 Minutes of High Definition game footage by Friday. This would be be chopped down to... <chuckles> 3 to 5 seconds of video that will air on those TV screens at Target during a Game Card commercial. I am going to record it from my desktop on a few different characters tonight. So if you see me running around in game tonight, be sure to give a hearty "Battle on!" and do something interesting :-) Keep in mind that only 3-5 seconds of footage is going to be used... that is probably a few swings of combat and a a few frames from a cutscene. But still... how cool!

Martial Arts
In completely unrelated news... just in the off event you were interesting in hearing -- Thyton, Zhoom and I have started taking Muay Thai Kickboxing. It is sooo much fun! (Thyton and I have been seen battling through the hallways here at the lab) It is at the same martial arts school we are taking Krav Maga at, so we can continue our training there too. I think martial arts is a great way to improve yourself both mentally and physically. If you are not actively involved in any sports, I highly suggest looking up a local martials arts school and scheduling a demo lesson.

Note: If you are an adult, Krav Maga is, in my opinion, the best self defense system for both men and women. If you have never taken a martial art before, or are under 18, I strongly recommend Tae Kwon Do. It is the art I trained in first and earned my 3rd degree black belt. For the record (and if you need help talking your parents into letting you train) my training there is the reason I do not smoke, nor drink, no use drugs to this very day. Of course, <smiles> Martial Arts did nothing to help my spelling or grammar... (and neither will Zhoom punching me in the head at class tonight with his shiny new gloves.)

This Week's Release
J6 just built a very interesting new dungeon! As Swordhaven and Shadowfall are recovering from the way, a mysterious enemy gains power in the distance... and good guys will finally get their shop!

Feb 20th, 2009
Shadowfall is Finally Here!
Every Story has two sides - ours has GOOD AND EVIL
Both the GOOD and EVIL factions have been thrown into chaos by the myserterious new threat. This week, discover the crash site of the Undead Flying Dragon Fortress and seek audience with Sepulchure's Daughter.

Long Unlive the Shadowscythe!

In This Release - The story continues!
We have just started a new chapter with a focus on the Evil side first. The city is available to all players and our first experimental "dungeon crawl" is available to Members for testing. In this test players will battle through a well guarded Swordhaven crypt to recover Sepulchure's armor -- but you would never believe what happens when you find it!

• The City of Shadowfall
• The Chaos Crypt - our first dungeon crawl!
• The "EVIL" Shop
• New Items and Armor

Chaos vs Good & Evil!?

Choosing Good & Evil
We would like you to play your character however you feel fit. We liked that the shop is Evil only and the way Gravelyn initially reacts to you is dependant on your alignment. There will of course be a Good-only shop in the next Swordhaven release. We will need players to represent both sides and help make decisions for what should be added to their cities. While Good and Evil will need to work together to defeat Drakath.... it is likely not all NPCs and players will feel the same level of cooperative spirit. We expect secret battles to take place between the two sides. In the future, you ill be able to change sides by performing a great task for the leader of either side. With each release this system will keep getting better.
Secret: Pssst.. right now, you can switch between being good and evil right replaying the intro quest. (Whoops, this was not true when I first posted it, but we edited and re-rolled the file. It should be working now.)

Sepulchure's Armor
Yes, it is true... this is the start of a game-wide quest chain which will ultimately unlock Sepulchure's armor. This will be one of the most difficult accomplishments in the entire game and will not be completable for many releases. However, you will like knowing that the regular Doom Knight class will be available long before that!

This is going to get good!

Developer Notes
We are always trying new things and are not always sure how you will react. We listen on the forums so be sure to help us make the game even better! It seems that is takes us two weeks to put together the quality and size of releases that we want to make for you in AQWorlds. We were able to compromise and release the dungeon as a test while we finish it for everyone next week and continue building the other things to do. I wanted to release the Good and Evil cities at the same time, but we barely managed to release ShadowFall this week (note: I am sitting alone here at the lab at 9:31pm on a Friday night... the cleaning crew just showed up and gave me a funny look.. <coughs> again... ) Each week we are getting faster though. Do not forget that we are still building the engine as we go. For example, Reens, Llusien, and I had been animating all of those new NPC pop up boxes by hand. So this week Minimal put the functionality straight into the game engine. Now it is super fast to make NPCs talk! But then I spent an entire day making all of my button/interface assets compatable. You get the idea... but the more we do this the more momentum we will gain. The game is truely shaping up. One thing that has been giving me a lot of trouble is the Book of Lore. Both from a design and code issue it won the duel we were having this week... I will be working on it through the weekend. Also, I would like to get the code on the Valentines's pet. Zhoom rewrote my old adlib randomizer code in AS3.0 so have been dying to put it to use. Before wrapping up my second super long winded DN post in a row (still awake?) I would like to give a HUGE round of applause to Miltonious and J6 for their crazy artwork and characters. I will do a full Design Notes post on Gravelyn next week so you can see just how many versions of her armor and... lol, her hair we went through over the last month before finalizing her. (I really thought Miltonius was going to kill me.) Gravelyn's story is one of the strangest that has ever been in one of our games... she is a truly unique character. Thank you everyone, I hope you are enjoying the release. BATTLE ON!

Feb 18th, 2009
WTB Time Travel Machine
Paying top gold!
Because I really want to go to the future and see what you think of all the amazing things that are in development*. This week's release will be a light one**, but the big one we are working up to is going to drop jaws faster than that time we swept all those evil skeleton skulls off the cliff out back of Swordhaven***. The design notes have been very plot heavy for a while, so you might enjoy some behind the scenes development secrets....

* Also, we want to see if there will be flying cars.
** You know... JUST the first look at the crash site of Sepulchures undead flying dragon fortress and meeting Seppy's daughter..
*** Which is technically next week... after which we will finally see Swordhaven not under attack for the first time.

In the background, we have so many projects in progress it is crazy. The biggest project is the 1st Lord of Chaos. It is going to be our first full size questing zone full with quests, dungeons, items, new classes, new monsters, and of course the first Lord of Chaos! Not to mention it will have a great number of surprises and side objectives for you. In the releases building up to the big one, we are going to focus on gameplay elements including stats, high level monster balancing, new skills, monster AI, adding potions, etc. We have built many new features during the past months that have not had a chance to shine in the game yet.... interactive objects, dungeon crawls, social objectives, live events... the list goes on and on. Poor Zhoom and Minimal have been so bogged down with the never ending stream of problems that it is really amazing how far we have gotten. Meanwhile, we are also working on the public character pages, the ability to see which of your friends are online while outside of the game, a way to quickly get to your friends who are online and playing in one click, and a way to link up minigames to AQW so that you can earn points. Once stats and monster balancing is complete we will be back to adding new classes and skills. This paves the way for PVP which I would love to launch before summer. I am told that it may be possible to release a less serious version of PvP sooner that does not care about balancing and you can just go cause havoc for fun -- but lets add some stats first, ok? We are making good progress down that major to do list I announced -- and we are not pulling any punches. Oh, inventory has become a huge concern. We need more space.... Zhoom and I have had a lot of talks on how to add a bank like DragonFable and creating a secure version of the weapon rack system they use in MechQuest. More coming on this as we get closer.

Meanwhile, the DragonFable team has gotten bigger and is producing more content per week than ever before. They are working on two major zones at the same time-- and I get to help in writing one of them (and if you are a long time DragonFable player... you might have already figured out why. Hey, I do EVERYTHING I say I am going to do -- sometimes it just takes a while ;-) OMG, I cannot wait. Cysero and Geo will kill me if I say any more, but Rolith has been figuring out how to make an entire unlockable character slots which can be used to play NPCs in order to pull this off. The OTHER zone will be our first steampunk zone with mechanical monsters, introducing a new race and a strange new minigame. It is the energy orb zone and... if there is an orb involved, you will find Sepulchure. DragonFable is the only place you will learn Sepulchure's full story... and he has a MUCH different destiny in that timeline.

The next MechQuest planet is my pick for the most popular. I saw all of the art in Thyton's battle room before Korin and Jemini started coloring and animating it. I have no idea why Warlic has not been posting sneak peeks at the theme of the world and the mechs.... it is going to be MechQuest's greatest planet. It is cool enough to be its own game! Also, Johnny Atomic has been working on the MechQuest Artbook. We have a "layout party*" on Monday to review the book. In addition to being our first ever art book, it is going to feature a how to draw mecha section by Thyton, a code with a collectable mecha model, and tons of never before seen art and information (including background info on MechQuest's main villian Lord Valoth, and schematics on 'The Paladin', which is Artix's transforming Star Ship -- note: all the major Star Ships transform... just a hint.) Also, MechQuest is very close to being FaceBook compatable -- which means if you are a FaceBook user you will be able to play right inside FaceBook and do some interesting social things with the game. If you are also a MechQuest player I would recommend pleading to Warlic for a little for sneak peak at the new Mech and NPC sketches.

* I hope there will be clowns and cake!

On the TV Show front we have a roller coaster ride story. I think some projects just flow naturally... LOL, this is not one of those. If you are just joining us, the story goes that we made an animated short a while back and a while later suddenly a bunch of interest appeared. So we teamed up with a Producer and a Writer from LA and created what they call a Bible for the show. We pitched it to all the major networks and wacky chaos ensued. Now we possibly have the best opportunity anyone could dream of in front of us, but I have to decide between giving away the rights to everything in order to do it or passing up the opportunity and doing it the way we have done everything else -- from scratch, with our own hands, and and asking if you can help and be a part of it.

That is the thing I love most about the games. The only boss we have to answer to is you.... and that is great, because you are the best :-) What we are doing is unique. Reglardless of whether you were here from the beginning, were in beta, or will be helping test the new 1st Lord of Chaos's zone... it feels special being a part of it. Not just in this game, but all of them. I am doing a call to arms... if 2009 is the year of Adventure -- let us make it our quest to take ALL of the games to the next level. Lets hear some ideas! See you on the forums.

Feb 16th, 2009
Long Un-live the ShadowSycthe!
The tale of a land consumed by Chaos
Following the events that began on Friday the 13th, the world has been left in utter chaos. King Alteon has been mortally wounded and no healers can cure what has happened to him. Rumors of strange new monsters from the North are starting spread. These monsters are said to even attack the mindless undead of the Shadowscythe, who are now without leadership. Ambitious for the now empty throne, the most famous Villians of the world are searching for the ruins of the fallen flying dragon fortress. Sepulchure's daughter is no match for their power and once they learn of her existince it is unlikely they will allow her to survive. The forces of Good and Evil are both in bad shape -- will either recover in time, or will the 1st Lord of Chaos appear and end this story before you had a chance to draw your weapon? Anything can happen in AQWorlds!

Coming in the next release:
"Shadowfall..... long unlive the Shadowscythe!"

Feb 14th, 2009
Happy Valentines Day
... and Hero's Heart Day!
The Friday the 13th release that is going on right now is huge (read below) but I wanted to wish you a happy Valentines day. We even made you a super cheesy card! Um, and yes... Warlic did the music and that is his voice (dropped 3 semitones). The music is so funny, we have been playing it and laughing non-stop all week. Oh, if you put off sending that special someone a card until the last minute... Rolith added it to our ecards for you. Battle on!

Feb... Friday the 13th, 2009
Friday the 13th Release is Live!
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!
Be a part of it history as this will be the most important release in AQWorlds history. Sepulchure’s undead flying fortress just unleashed its full scale attack on the capital. The final battle between good and evil is taking place and will end in an epic duel with only one survivor. The main villain will be finally be revealed and you will learn Sepulchure's most well kept secret. Brace yourselves... our world will never be the same after this!

Battle your way to the King

Make sure you see the full Cutscene!
If your cutscene is going to a black screen after the part where Sepulchure and King Alteon meet, then you are missing all of the good parts! This happened because of a sound bug that only effected players with their sound turned off. It has been fixed and you may need to clear your web browser's temporary internet files (just the files) to watch the full cutscene. Thanks!

Just Released

• The war between Good and Evil will end!
• Friday the 13th & Valentines Day Items
• The Chimera Pet Hatches
• Pactaganal Armor shop in the Castle
• New maps and storyline quests
• Interface improvements (Look how pretty the inventory screen it!)
• A cutscene unlike anything we have ever built before. Over two minutes of non-stop action.

Hero's Heart & Friday the 13th Items
Shown: Rouge Armor & Heart Dispenser

New Records
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

• 17k+, 18+, 19K+, 20K+ Players online during the Friday 13th Release
• New Achievement: 3 Million Free Accounts Created

Developer Notes
We really hope you like this release! I would like to thank Miltonius for the KILLER cutscenes - art and animation! I would like to give J6 the spot light for his incredible detail work on the beautiful (and very destructable) areas and scenery, interface and the amazing interface and the recreations of your favorite DragonFable items. Zhoom and Minimal have been working around the clock on the code that is making this release possible. A special thanks to Reens and Llussien for their incredibly hard work putting this release together. Great job team, I am so proud of you!

The Book of Lore requires additional coding. Next week you will be able to use it to replay cutscenes and show your progress in the storyline. Also, the Valentines day pet, the Heart Dispenser is awaiting a special new piece of functionality too. We hope you like the new interface.. it is really pretty and a major improvement!

Un-Live Play by Play
10:30am - The undead all suddenly stop moving and look towards the giant flying fortress above Swordhaven. It appears as if they are getting new commands.
11:30am - The Knights of the Pactaganal Table arrive in Swordhaven. They take up defensive position within the Castle.
12:30am - Even though the Knights still have a warrant for her arrest, Robina the Hood has been granted entrance into the castle. She now stands ready to fight the undead with her magic arrows!
1:30pm - King Alteon delivers a motivational speach to his brave forces entitled, "Good shall overcome evil!". Meanwhile, laughter can be heard echoing from the flying undead dragon castle in the sky above. The sun starts to decend...
2:30pm - The undead move into attack position. Unable to flee the city, the children and townsfolk take shelter in the Inn. Sepulchure watches from the Balcony as his plan unfolds exactly as expected.
3:30pm - Unrelated to the events happening in Swordhaven.... many WIERD things are happening. It really is Friday the 13th....
4:00pm - IMPOSSIBLE! The size of the undead army has more than trippled. It is like a giant wall of undead completely surrounding the castle!
4:30pm - Artix has taken a stance in Swordhaven where he can defend the people in the Inn and watch the gate. There is no way he can cover that much ground, there are just too many undead. He is going to need your help when the battle starts!
5:30pm - The Sun touches the tree tops... dusk is almost here. Sir Render swallows hard and prepares himself for tonights final battle. He remembers his home in Oaklore, his friends, and everything he is fighting for...
6:15pm - Dusk..... Sepulchure checks over his vast army of undead one final time.
6:30pm - Prepare for server restart. Files are rolling.

.... IT HAS BEGUN!

Feb 12th, 2009
Good vs. Evil
Gather round the flaming towers of Swordhaven for Storytime....

King Alteon
King Alteon is no ordinary man. He was a powerful warrior-mage who used his power for the good of the people. He single handedly raised an army and overthrew the corrupt Tyrant that formerly ruled the land. Because of this, the people made him King and prosperd under his honest and just rule. He is Father to three beautiful Princesses who he loves very much... alas he has no male heir to inherit his Kingdom should he pass. After many years of rule he is facing a challenge that ultimately no warrior's might or steel can defeat -- his age. That does not stop him from riding at the head of his army to conquer evil. His magic sword, a gift from the Hero of DragonFable, is every bit as good as a Doom weapon is evil. If King Alteon and the heros of the land can defeat Seplchure in the coming battle, it will be the single victory that saves the entire world. Good will finally win!

Sepulchure
Sepulchure is the cursed DoomKnight and leader of the evil Shadowscythe. Once, he was King Alteon's greatest Knight... and while we do not know what terrible events transpired, we do know that Sepulchure is no longer human. It is said that now, only Darkness is his master. Sepulchure commands every major villian along with his unstoppable force of undead abominations to rid the world of the living and engulf our world in the void of endless darkness. Well, perhaps all living but one... Sepulchure has a secret that no one outside his giant undeadly flying fortress knows of. Reglardless, if Sepulchure is victorious in tomorrows battle, there will be no force left in the world to stop him from finally achieving his ultimate goal.
(You can learn more about Sepulchure in DragonFable during the main Dragon storyline)

Friday the 13th....
It is hailed as the unluckiest day. Join us tomorrow on Friday the 13th as we find out who the day will really be unlucky for. As you know, AQWorlds is a fresh new storyline which was created when Galanoth slew the Eternal Dragon of time mixing the timelines. That is, this is not DragonFable... this is not AdventureQuest. When the timelines mixed things changed... this is a new seperate story. Because of that, in AQWorlds, ANYTHING can happen here. Brace yourself for tomorrow friends.

Feb 10th, 2009
Swordhaven's Peril
A letter from the King

Feb 9th, 2009
Weekend Game Bug
Fixed - Thank you for helping us figure it out!
This weekend players on the forums alerted us to a problem that select players were getting a wierd screen that looked like this when trying to log in. This is fixed and released, but wow was it a hard one! Mostly because no one on staff could recreate the error. It only happened to people who had a specific sound driver, flash version and operating system combinations. Thank you to everyone on the forums who helped us work through and finally figure out the problem.

Off to Work!
Friday the 13th + Valentines Day
Reens, Llussien, J6, Miltonius and I are working on the big Friday release. We have a lot to do, but Miltonius is the one who is REALLY in the hot seat. He is still building the huge game starting cutscene which currently rivals the Artix vs the Undead movie in action and quality. Of course, he was a little heart broken when we told him that he had to take out the scene where Sepulchure impaled and exploded two of Alteon's Knights. Warlic is composing some new music for it. Just thinking about the filesize of this animation scares me more than any Friday the 13th monster!

I will keep you posted each day as we get closer to the big release!

Feb 6th, 2009
Coming Friday the 13th
The Friday the 13th that you will NEVER forget...
As Sepulchure's flying Fortress drenches Castle Swordhaven in the Darkness of its shadow, the end is heartbeats away. You will be there as the final battle between Good and Evil takes place. The good King Alteon will face the Doom Knight Sepulchure in a one on one duel to decide the fate of our world. Only one will survive... and the story of AQWorld's main villain will be revealed. Next Friday is the most important release in AQWorlds history. The main villain will be revealed, you will learn Sepulchure's most well kept secret, and the world will be changed forever...

Watch the Video

"Daimyo ate my Homework Release"
Good things come to those who... wait, what!?
This jaw dropping storyline release was originally scheduled to be released today. However, <big gulp> it is such a huge release that we are not yet finished building it. We could have rushed it and released it half done -- but I think you would agree with me that this is so important that we need to take the extra time and do it right! Which means, next Friday, on Friday the 13th.... begins the 13 Lords of Chaos! (And super bizzare undead Valentines shop) We are not letting you down this week though, we are releasing...

The Inquisitor Saga Finale
Part 3: Battle the Grand Inquisitor Himself
Just released! Battle the Grand Inquisitor himself in the exciting conclusion to the Inquisitor saga...

Behind the scenes
Miltonius made a weapon called the Mace of the Grand Inquisitor waaay back in November. The weapon was so awesome looking that he wanted to make a powerful boss monster that you had to defeat to get it. He sat down and made a map. Then... he created Inquisitor Guards and after a little reading on the real life inquisitors he came up with the storyline about their quest to destroy all magic. So, the entire Inquisitor Saga came to be because of this one weapon... the Mace of the Grand Inquisitor.

Mace of the Grand Inquisitor

The Grand Inquisitor's Mace AND Armor have a 10% to drop if you can defeat him with your friends! You will also be able to obtain the cape and the helmet and.. well, here is the full list:

• Mace of the Grand Inquisitor (All Players)
• Golden Shadow Breaker (All Players)
• Holy Hammer of Retribution (All Players)
• Grand Inquisitor Armor (Member Only)
• Godly Mace of the Ancients (Member Only)
• Grand Inquisitor Helm (Member Only)
• Grand Inquisitor Cloak (Member Only)
• Sceptre of the Divine (All Players)
  

... and, um, Terra? Yup! There will be a female version of the Grand Inquisitor's armor, just for you! Well, other female characters can use it too I guess. (Reens thinks he must have had a sister)

PREPARE FOR DOOM
Sepulchure will end the war... personally!
The giant flying Dragon Castle is less than a day away from Swordhaven. While an army of the undead continues to attack the city it is believed that Sepulchure will arrive TOMORROW to personally end this war once and for all!

Sepulchure: "KING ALTEON... I AM COMING FOR YOU!"

Feb 5th, 2009
Zorbak Server Live!
Players of all ages can now create accounts
We just released a major game update. Players ages 0 to 100 are now allowed to create a free account and play. If you are OVER 100 years of age you must ask your grandchildren's permission to play*. We added the Zorbak server which is our second "Moglin Safe Server". Moglin Safe Servers only allow canned chat and are safe for younger players to adventure on. Reens is getting your ideas from December and working on improving canned chat**.

* Oh geez, he actually put that on the sign up page.
**We also re-wrote the entire monster loot drop system but since you cannot see the difference in game no one will know how much easier it is for us to build quests since before we were hand entering one of the most complicated series of characters into a non-searchable text field with no error checking to define what a monster drops and wether or not it is only supposed to drop that item when you are on a quest. Craziness! Much better now -- and we can use this new system to build an encyclopedia showing you which monsters drop the items. Now we just need to finish the 65,536 items on the list before we can get on to that one -- so much to do so little time!

Why not to Procrastinate
Artix teaches by example!
Thursdays always feel like the day before a big paper is due. Come Friday we better be ready to turn it in to you.. because I do not think you would believe, "Daimyo ate my release!"

We do a lot every week between the four games. Couple that with my inability to say no... to just about anything work releated (this might be why you like me) it is no wonder I get into the comically impossible situations I wind up in each and every week!

Ironically, CHAOS is the theme of this release!

Brace yourself! Tomorrow we are releasing the HIGHLY anticipated intro which will reveal the main storyline, the main villian and your destiny in this super fast growing game. Of course, as I am typing this, the towns are not finished, nor working, I have not seen the huge cutscene Miltonius' is working on, no SoundFX have been added, and several pieces of important new functionality are currently crashing the game.... tune in tomorrow and find out if AQWorlds biggest week will turn into AQWorlds biggest blunder! Doooooooooooom!

P.S. OMG, I forgot about the Chimera! /facepalm

Feb 4th, 2009
The Seeeeeeecret
Heart shaped box of Doom
A passerby overheard the following conversation while passing by the stump just outside the town of Battleon.

Twilly: Artix, you were supposed to tell us a secret yesterday!
Artix: It was so secret that we had to wait for today.
Twilly: Oooooh.....
Artix: I looked a week ahead on the calendar
Twilly: Oh?
Artix: Next week... is FRIDAY THE 13TH!
Twilly: Oh!
Artix: And next Saturday.... is HEROES HEART DAY*!
Twilly: Oh no!!!!!!
Artix: <nods> That is right Twilly. The unluckiest day of the year combined with the most romantic day of the year....
Zorbak :Meh heh heh. You guys are going to need to get Ghoul-friends, meh!
Twilly: What are the odds of this happening!? It must be a once in a lifetime ocurance.
Artix: Actually, it will happen again in 2015.
Zorbak: Meh? HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE THINGS?
Artix: All I know is this weekend we will learn who the villian of our world is... and next weekend... the unthinkable is about to occur!
Twilly: Um, what'ya think is going to happen** ?

* Valentines day - but 256% cooler. Which means undead invasion in DragonFable, bizzare alien and evil AI dating game show in MechQuest (my favorite), and in AQWorlds... ?????
** Forum Question: Friday the 13th + Valentines day. This is your chance to be REALLY creative. (This is crazy!) Ideas? Official forum thread

Feb 2nd, 2009
The Storyline
Be a part of AQWorld's BIGGEST week!
First, I would like to thank everyone who came at half time yesterday. 17,876 of us were online simultaneously DURING the Super Bowl creating a new record. Lag spiked through the roof and we almost crashed the servers*. In addition to the shop, J6 and Llussion created the Punt Twilly minigame zone for you -- hallarious! After the event is pulled down we will recreate that zone into something fun for you**.

* We can do it next time! I believe in us!
** ...just for kicks! <snickers>

For the main story release this week, he team must complete four maps and the major game-changing cutscene. I am worried that the cutscene is going to be too serious and... well... at least one major character is going down for the count... permanently. .... but we are not pulling any punches on this release. Check in tomorrow and I will share a secret with you.

P.S. You have had a lot of speculation on the forums... but now that you have had more time to think about it. Who do you think the main Villian of AQworlds is REALLY going to be? See you on the forums.

Feb 1st, 2009
Superbowl Sunday
New Record: 17,876 Players Online
A special shop opened in Battleon during Half time. You can get there by using the button in Battleon or typing /join punt. Get "event rare" items including the Grid Iron Death Helm and.... <peeks inside the shop> Oh my... you will have to see for yourself! By Player request we are keeping it open all night! Check back tomorrow for news on the Intro: Part 2!

10 New Items & a surprise "KICK OFF!"