Design Notes

November 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving, Heroes!

Thank you for battling alongside us

2015 is FLYING by - it's hard to believe we've just released our 7th Thanksgiving event... and even harder to believe that December arrives next week! But it's the time of the year to remember how far we've come, and to be grateful to those who've gotten us here.

It's been a crazy year so far - Yorumi has been pushing hard on the server rewrite, and we've brought in additional coding help to give him the boost he needs to finish the last pieces of it. We've finished the first Queen of Monsters Saga in Embersea, then brought on more writers to help us take the story to deeper, darker, and more intense places. We had the Return of the Devs summer event, which saw Artix, Cysero, and Beleen come back to the AQW team for a few weeks to tell tales of their own, and we saw the internet evolving all around us as Flash and various browsers made changes that will affect how you play AQWorlds...

But through it all, we've had you guys battling alongside us as we tackled those issues and brainstormed ways to rise beyond them - like Artix's announcement about taking AQWorlds onto mobile in 2016.* I am genuinely grateful to all of you who join us each week as we bring you new releases, stories, gear, and more.  Each week, we read your comments and feedback and take those back as we develop the next series of events. 

As I sit here on vacation** in the frozen wilds of South Dakota, far from the Secret Underground Lab where I usually write Design Notes, I'm reminded of how much I appreciate what we get to do every week because of you guys: telling stories, building worlds, making peace and war and videogames. 

So thank you, heroes. (Yes, you. With the armor on. Right there, reading this.) And a huge thank you to the volunteer artists, designers, testers, moderators, archknights, and other staff who work their computer processors down to the last byte bringing you epic gear to equip, awesome adventures, and friendly places to play/discuss them in.

Without all of you, there wouldn't be an Artix Entertainment. When we say we make our games with and for you, it's the truth. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

* And how about AQW on Steam? Seems like a logical step, right? Right!
** "Isn't writing Design Notes work?" I was asked. "You are very bad at vacationing!" Saying thank you is never work - especially not during Thanksgiving!

November 05, 2014

New Game Release on Nov. 7

Dark Harvest Seasonal MMO Event Returns

Prepare for a cornucopia of adventure this Friday!

• Harvest holiday zones return
• Seasonal Rare armors, weapons, pets, & more
• Kung Food Fighter Achievement badge
• Upgraded Legends will fight the Turdraken boss
• Legends also unlock Shop & Seasonal House

Talk to Oishii in the /cornycopia map to get your Dark Harvest adventures underway!

New: BrightFall Warlord Armor

A brand new 12 Month Upgrade Package arrives this Friday, November 7^th. Dage the Evil is creating a masterpiece inspired by your fellow player Reki!

• BrightFall Warlord Armor Set:
• 1 Armor
• 2 Helms
• 2 Capes
• 2 Weapons
• Character page Achievement Badge
• Unlock TONS of Legend-only Perks with your Upgrade

Thank you so much for supporting AQWorlds, and when you Upgrade with the 12 Month Package, you shall become the BrightFall Warlord! 

Over the Horizon: Dragon’s Dawn

What came first—the Dragon or the Dragon Egg? On the fateful day of November 21, everyone will find out!

• Team up with the DragonMasters of Lore
• Locate the fabled Dragon Eggs of the mighty dragon ancestors
• New Limited Quantity Shop includes:
• Dragon Gear, 2 Dragon-Themed houses, and a FREE PLAYER PET!

Spoiler Alert: your actions will determine which Dragons will rule in the upcoming mobile game, AQ: Dragons!

Coming Soon: A Feast of Souls

The people of Lore aren’t just harvesting crops this year… because Dage the Evil wants to harvest some souls!

• New Thanksgiving Holiday Event: Dage’s Rage
• As Dage prepares the ultimate feast, you must prepare for the ultimate battle!
• 2 Opposing Factions will duke it out (just like the in-laws)
• New Rare and Seasonal Rare items aplenty

It’s going to take some time to cook up a release of this magnitude, so sharpen your blades (and turkey-cutting knives) and prepare for your just desserts!

November 20, 2012

Dark Harvest: Deadly Feast

This Thanksgiving, YOU are the Special Guest!

It’s that time of the year to set the tables... but where's the main course? This year, a rogue turkey is fed-up with the Thanksgiving tradition. He has been inviting human guests to a feast they’ll NEVER forget! Find out how this terrifying turkey acquired his powers, free the guests of honor, then defeat (and eat!) the foulest fowl in town!

Gobble On to Victory!

Chaos Golems Reign in The Span!

Chaos can control a creature... or break the chains that bind them! Drakath has sent his Twin minions to oversee the start of a war between those golems and creatures loyal to you and the Chronomancer Chaos Lord... and those who want to see you both destroyed!

Will Drakath's Twin Minions make things worse... or better?

Now the golems and monsters in The Span run amok as Chaos courses through their veins! Will all of the Chaos Lord's plans be destroyed? Or will you save him, yourself, and Lore?

There is no hiding from the eyes of Chaos!

Prepare for EPIC (and Chaorrupted!) rewards from the war's AC Rares and War Merge shop! The DragonLord Knight and Chaos DragonLord Knight armors, The Seeker and Chaos Seeker sets, weapons, pets, and more!

DragonLord Knight and Chaorrupted Knight Armors!

There are TWO member-only farming quests for the war. They give 6 Chaorrupted Gems as a reward, double what you'd get from fighting war waves!

Astral StarCaptain Armor!

The Thief of Hours Class  is Live!

Everyone can use some extra time in the middle of battle... and with the Thief of Hours Class, you'll have that! Check out Cysero's Design Notes for the details on the newest Dex-based Thief Class.

This NON-MEMBER class is available from Ragnar in Battleon for AdventureCoins OR you can rank up your ChronoSpan Reputation to 10. The AC version will be sold both in the Rep Shop as well as from Ragnar.

Fiery Fall Shop in Battleon!

The closer it gets to the holidays, the more the AQW team gets fired up! Head to Battleon tonight to see the hottest gear in the Fiery Fall shop!*

Armors, weapons, and 3 pets: 2 come with quests which include reward items AND items used in a merge shop available from the 3rd pet! Collect them all!

* The Fall Dryad Armor has a female appearance for both male and female characters!

The Dryad Pet is ALSO available as an armor from the Fiery Fall Shop!

Coming Friday: the Darkest Black Friday Shop!

As the sun sets earlier each day, darkness falls faster... and that means it's time for the Darkest Black Friday shop! This Friday, find all your favorite Black Friday items along with NEW, shadowy gear!

Check out the Male Black Friday Armors here!
Check out the Female Black Friday Armors here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To those of you in the United States, have a happy, safe Thanksgiving!** Enjoy the turkey (or Tofurkey), stuffing, cranberries, pierogies, spanikopita, or whatever other dish your family enjoys. Safe traveling, and enjoy the releases!

Working with the rest of the AQWorlds team as we pushed to get 2 weeks worth of releases done in 3 DAYS has only reminded me just how thankful I am for everyone who contributes to creating the game we love to make for you!

And we are doubly thankful for all of YOU! Without your support, there wouldn't be an AQWorlds or an Artix Entertainment! Have a happy holiday and Battle On!

** Everyone else, happy Thursday!

November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

There Is So Much To Be Thankful For!

Tomorrow is the American Thanksgiving Holiday. It's a tradition that began when some of the first colonists came to this land and sat down with the natives who helped them survive the early brutal winters.

There has been a lot of time between here and there and a lot has happened, but one thing has not changed... we set aside this day each year to step back, take a look at our lives and really appreciate all that we have.To be truly grateful that we have food to eat, water to drink, people to share it with, a home to return to or even just for being alive.

Everyone celebrates differently, but usually there is a big meal with a lot of friends and family and generally some Turkey (or Tofurkey, I've done that a few times). As usual, we invite you and your famalies to share in our Harvest Festival (Oishii is doing the cooking again but Samba has arrived to help her out this year).

In today's release you will find all the previous year's maps and adventures as well as returning seasonal rare armors, weapons, pets and other items. You can visit Scott the Pilgrim over by the Parade floats and check out his seasonal merge shop.

You once again have the chance to get the seasonal Kung Food Fighter Achievement Badge by pelting your fellow players with food and Members can unlock the Turdraken Member Only Area with its own special unlockable shop and Seasonal house!

You will need to do the previous years releases to access Friday's all new content, but it couldn't hurt to stop by and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving too!

Friday, ALL NEW HARVEST ADVENTURE!

The day after Thanksgiving in the United States is called Black Friday. It's the first official day of the holiday shopping season and stores go CRAZY with sales and half-off deals for this one day only!

Lucky for you, we will be keeping OUR seasonal Black Friday Shop open for more than one day. You will be able to get all of last year's seasonal Black Friday Rares, plus a bunch of brand new items, all black, for this special day!

We will ALSO be introducing this year's special Thanksgiving Adventure where you visit some of your friends and help them give thanks, including Yulgar, his daughter Aria, his mom Grams, King Alteon and his three beautiful princess daughters and Artix's parents!

Black Friday HeroMart Sale!

Faith from HeroMart wanted me to pass this message along:

"HeroMart will be selling a bundle pack of AE merchandised worth over $100 for only $49.95 from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. The sale starts November 25th at 12:01 EST and ends November 28th at 11:59pm. The bundles will include the MQ Artbook, AQ Novel, NPC CD, ED t-shirt, HS t-shirt, and ED poster."

Quibble said that he will be staying for another week at least but probably not much more than that.

Child's Play

If you guys have been reading the Design Notes for the last few years you know that every year around this time I run around the Underground Lab and remind people that Child's Play is now up and running and to donote whatever they can.

Since 2003 Child’s Play, has remained a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in their network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. Over the years, you as a community have answered the call and come together to raise millions of dollars for it.

This is not just any charity. This is gamers and game developers from all over the world coming together to make a real difference help some people who really need it.

For the past several years, thanks to your generosity in the form of Member Upgrades and AdventureCoins, you have made it possible for Artix Entertainment to join foces with some of the biggest names in gaming by becoming a corperate sponsor of Child's Play.

This year is no exception! Thanks to you (Special thanks to all the 3rd Upholders!) we were able to help support Child's Play with another Platinum Sponsorship! This year means more to me than every before. I was able to contact All Children's Hospital right here in Tampa Bay and get them in touch with Child's Play. Now they are one of the many hospitals that will benefit from the charity and... from you. Maybe you want to get in touch with your local children's hospital and let them know about Child's Play too!

Within the next few days you will see the Artix Entertainment Logo appear in the Platinum Sponsor area on the website and every time you see it, I want each of you who have contributed to the continued growth of AQW to feel a real sense of pride knowing that you have also selflessly helped some kids who really need it.

On behalf of everyone on the AQW team, and everyone here at Artix Entertainment, I want to thank all of the AQWorlds Members,  AdventureQuest Guardians, DragonFable DragonLords, MechQuest Star Captains, Epic Duel supporters and everyone who has purchased any ACs, ZTs, DCs, and NGs...Thank you for making this possible.

You guys are the best! Happy Thanksgiving!

November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving release x 2

I can almost smell the Tur'Draken

You know, battling food and blowing up horrifying food abominations popularized by the NFL has been a long standing tradition in AQWorlds this time of year. However, I have always felt that the Thanksgiving offering we serve you in-game needed less cheese and more epic-sauce. That is why the AQWorlds team is creating 3 ALL NEW adventures for you. And they are coming out this Friday! Alina just announced that the 3rd area is a Member area that has... wait a second. *yells into across the lab* "ALINA....? Did you really write a series of quests about my zombie parents!?" That should be... um... well, I always felt Thanksgiving needed more undead.

Wednesday Releases

All of our games will be releasing their new quests, items, and updates on Wednesday instead of Friday. AQWorlds and DragonFable will be having double releases this week. (Crazy considering the team only has 3 days to do it...  Go! Go! Go!) On wednesday night, Oishii will return in an encore of our Harvest Festival from the past three years. Be sure to bring your Pigrim armor. (Is that what Scott Pilgrim wears?)

Black Friday and the 1/2 off shops!

This Friday, is the infamous shopping day known as "Black Friday." Retail stores across the U.S. open early, and frenzied shoppers rush in like a swam of Horks to take advantage of special promotions. We have a little tradition in-game... half off weapons! Literally. *dramatic pause* (If you are new to the game, Yulgar actually releases a bunch of our popular in-game weapons that are cut in half.) Also, we will be releasing tons and tons of black armor and items.

YOU CAN HAZ MOD Contest

The first drawing will be held for the special contest next Monday. Good luck to everyone holding onto their golden cheezburgers. Hope you win! (I really do. I want to hang out with all of you!) A lot of people have noted that you get 1 wish, and are anxious to see the "Wish Menu." But, I think it will be more fun to have the winner make a wish BEFORE they see the menu. Let us call it... a test to see what their heart is really made of.

P.S. This picture on Facebook has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. But feel free to share!

November 24, 2010

Cornycopia 2010!

It's Harvest Time!

Happy Turdraken day everyone! We have a special holiday in-game event for everyone to enjoy. It features the return of OISHII and the last two years worth of Cornycopia content plus a new area!

Head north from Oishii and speak to Scott the Pilgrim! He's in charge of the Harvest Parade that is set to march through Swordhaven and Shadowfall but something has gone wrong!

You'll need to battle your way through skeletal turkeys and chaos infectred paraade balloons (patterend after some recognizable figures) to reach the end of this year's event!

There are tons of items for free players as well as the return of Twig's MEMBER ONLY area, and the Kung Food Fighting achievement shop filled with some seasonal favorites from last year!

And, because Thanksgiving is a time for going a little overbaord, Scott the Pilgrim has some non-member AND member quests with some amazing new drops, and a special event shop where you can pick up some NEVER BEFORE SEEN seasonal rares for everyone!

We are introducing THREE new armors, ONE new helm, ONE new cloak, SEVEN new weapons and FOUR new pets this year! A Warning to members! When you complete Scott's last quest this year, you will get to choose ONLY ONE of the pets, so be sure to pick your favorite! There is no going back!

If you have a Twitter, Facebook or Myspace account then you probably were given a Harvest Scythe by a friend.If you are a member, you may now UPGRADE that tot the GOLDEN HARVEST SCYTHE for FREE By taking to either Oishii or Scott the Pilgrim and hitting their Harvest Scythe Button!

Friday is BLACK FRIDAY!

It is the busiest shopping day of the year. Black Friday (so called because it is the best sales day of the retail year, which keeps a lot of stores "in the black") happens in the U.S every year on the day following Thanksgiving. You will see crazy Half-Off signs everywhere.... and if you log into AQWorlds, you will ALSO see one in Battleon in the form of BELEEN!

Beleen will be offering you most of the same great Black (sigh...AND pink) seasonal silly rares as last year with a few exceptions. The Pretty-In-Pink DOOMknight has gone perma-rare and will not be offered again. You will also notice a few additions to the shop like the Black Ninja armor (why didn't we have one of those already?) ... and the PINK Ninja Armor... for some reason.

We will keep the shop up for a week so if you're out fighting for your life in the rush of mad shoppers you won't have to miss out!

Toilet Set From Ballyhoo!

Speaking of missing out, by popular request we are extending the availability of the super-weird Toilet set for another week. I made the thing for a laugh on World Toilet Day, but suddently I can't open my inbox without a tide of e-mail begging to extend the time to grab it. So... ok.

This set is for anyone who can get their hands on it. All you need is a little luck then go visit Ballyhoo in Battleon and watch her ads. As soon as the ad ends you will get some gold, maybe a few free AdventureCoins and you might even get one of the four pieces of the Toilet set.

See-ya Skyguard Stratos!

This Friday, the Phearless will be hoisting anchor and leaving Battleon!

You'll still be able to /join airship to get the drops and we will be adding it as a permenant part of the game when we continue the Skyguard storyline, but Captain Stratos' AC SHOP will be leaving forever! If you want to grab some of the guarenteed rares from his shop, make sure you get them before Friday. Once the AC shop is gone, those items will never be seen again!

...Except being carried or worn by people who got them.

...and on the AQW Wiki.

BattleOn Holiday Sweepstakes!

Don't forget that you can be one of five winners in the BattleOn Holiday Sweepstakes! All you need to to is starts a Battleon Master Account, and you can improve your chances by linking your BattleOn Game Accounts to your Master Account!

The Drawing is December 10th! Don't forget!

A Time For Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is a day for slowing down, looking around and being thankful for all that you've got. Maybe it's family for you, like it is for many of us here at BattleOn Games. Maybe it's having some of the greatest friends in the world, like me. Maybe it's as simple as having enough to eat and being healthy.

Whatever you are giving thanks for, we want to say THANK YOU for playing these games. It seems like we say that a LOT but also, not nearly often enough. We try and stay as close to you (the players) as we can and listen to you when you tell us what we're doing right and what wwe're doing wrong. We also try, whenever we can, to give you all that you ask for and surprise you with a little more.

No matter what you think of us, know that we appreciate every single one of you. It doesn't matter if you're a free player who has just joined the game or a long-time supporter who helped make it possible for us to donate to Child's Play this year and years before. We're glad that you decide to have fun playing with us on AQ Worlds.

Thank You and Happy Holidays!

November 22, 2010

The BattleOn Handbook

It is not just a job... it is an AdventureQuest!

There are only three days until our Harvest Festival begins. It starts at the same time as the Thanksgiving holiday starts. Knowing that everyone would be on super crunch schedules we did the usual... an unnessasrily long staff meeting to distribute and review our new official BattleOn Employee Handbook! Yes, it is official, forged by boodthirsty vampire lawyers and legally binding. Here are a few highlights for you.

Pg 54. Section 906. Nose Pointing "The Nose Goes"

Effective Date: 11/1/2010
In the event that a trivial action must be performed by one individual in a group of equally qualified personnel, the last person to touch their index finger to their nose shall be responsible for performing the task"

Pg 53. Table Gum

Effective Date: 11/1/2010
The person who takes the last piece of gum located in the center of the DragonFable table shall be responsible for replacing it. This can be done by purchasing a new container of gum and placing it at the center of the table during the next business day.

A.) Shaking the Table Gum container to determine the quantity of gum remaining is not permissible. Therefore, if you shake, you take.

B.) Tricking non-DragonFable team members to partake from the Table Gum container is allowed and strongly encouraged.

(Yes, those are really in the handbook)

Meanwhile... J6 has just arrived at the Secret Underground Lab!

AQworlds artist J6 has just arrived here. Literally. He is standing behind me watching me type this. He says, "I need to leave!" (No worries, we immediately chained him in front of a computer and drawing tablet.) He and Cinazul had a 3 day drive from Montreal, Canada. They said the trip was like going back in time. See, it is starting to snow up there but it is crazy hot down here. So all of the leaves were gone on the trees when they started but as they got closer to Florida the trees started having leaves on them. They said it was like going through the seasons in reverse! Hmmm, I wonder if they will end up staying in the DoomKnight room.

Forum Question: Oishii is cooking again for the Harvest Festival. RUN!!!!!! Are there any "Rare Dishes" you would like to see on the menu?

Forum Question 2: Would you be interested in a pet that allowed you to access your bank? What about a shop? (You know, so you can sell stuff without returning to town?)