December 12, 2012

Epic Plans For AQW

Behind the Scenes, We've Got a Lot Going On!

Every week is FULL of furious typing, crazy-fast coding, and lots of  coffee because we have got a SUPER-long to do list! But since we are so busy every day, a lot of what we work on that ISN'T for release just doesn't make it into the Design Notes. We want you guys to know as much as possible about what's going on, so let's fix that!

A New Look for AQWorlds in Progress!

Between solving a large portion of the lag issues and working on Guild Halls AND dynamic quests,* Yorumi has been working with Artix and Kraken on a new character creation screen (Artix totally spoiled this news on Twitter!) and new in-game interface for AQW. We try to get as many of the bugs OUT of AQW before you get to play it, and here's a great example of why we test!

* Triggering different quests at different times in different zones!

It's never good to lose your head in battle!

The homepage is also getting a makeover. We're starting slowly by changing the homepage posts to make them more dynamic and informative. There is so much content in AQWorlds that sometimes it's hard to remember what's out there!

Coming soon, you'll see featured locations, classes, items and more on the homepage! And if you scroll down, you'll already see the Featured Guilds section we introduced. Get YOUR Guild featured on AQ.com by following the directions here!

The Adventurers were our first Featured Guild!

Better Bug Smashing!

Koi  (the AQW Bugs forum moderator), Reens, and I met last week to discuss changes to the Bugs forum. We want to make it easy for you to report your AQW issues there, because it is a lot easier for us to keep track of bugs when they're posted on our forum instead of on Twitter.* 

One thing we really want to do in the as-soon-as-possible future is get an in-game bugs reporting system ready. That would help us collect vital information  (like what version of Flash Player you are using). The goal for the AQW Bugs team is to fix ALL (or as close as we can get) of the bugs in the game - big and small!

* Because of how many tweets we get every day, it is very easy to lose important ones.

Planning Releases for 2013: What would YOU like?

Because of how insane it is to do what we do - release a new expansion to the game each week - we need to be very flexible with the game's release schedule. You never know when a team member will get sick or a planet-wide catastrophe strike. But having an outline in hand lets us plan what the team should work on ahead of time.

We've got our list of releases, but YOU are the heroes who will battle through them! Since we make the game for and WITH you, we want to know what YOU'd like to see in AQWorlds this year? 

What do WE have planned for 2013?

How about Chaos Lords 11, 12, and 13?! 2012 was so busy, we didn't get to face nearly as many Chaos Beasts as we wanted to, so we're going to have to launch an all-hero attack on Drakath and find out what's behind his Chaos Portal! ARE YOU READY?!

12-12-12 Event Releases at Sundown! 

12-12-12 is a deadly date! 26,000 years ago, Kezeroth the World Ender tried to free the Beast Quetzal from his prison in a giant ice comet, but failed. Tonight, Quetzal's comet is finally close enough once more for Kezeroth to sense it, and to end what he began so long ago. If he succeeds, he will use Quetzal's power to encase the world in ice... ending all life on Lore for good!** Grab your sharpest weapons, Heroes, because we're NOT going to let the world end!***

We're ALL going to need bigger blades for this boss fight!

** I wish our Loremasters had deciphered those scrolls LAST week!
***  Since I've been dealing with a lot of this background work, Cysero has taken on the entire 12-12-12/12-21-12 combo event! After watching the first mind-blowing cutscene, I am 100% sure this is one of AQW's most EPIC cutscenes EVER!