Design Notes

May 24, 2012

Undead Rage!

Zombies swarm in Swordhaven

Black smoke rolls through the streets of Swordhaven; blasts of energy shatter walls and rip up the street. To the left, an arm smacks into the gutter, raising a wave of... some dark liquid? Ahead, Robina quickstabs a zom- oh Goodness, that used to be Sir Ripp. He was so sweet... Was. *shudder*

Battles to the left, the walking dead to the right. Kneel next to an older man, new to town. He mutters incoherently - "Let the bodies hit the floor. Never dying, nevermore." He closes his eyes. Run on, gripping the bag of potion bottles, irreplaceable vials stuffed tightly inside.

Scenes flickerflash. Bombs crash. Blades clash.
Teeth, claws, blood, jaws.

run

RUN

Cross the bridge. Sir Render slices the zombie reaching, reaching. Hurl a vial of dark orange liquid. The ghoul sits on the bridge, chewing on a leg. FLASH The smell of char rides the breeze. The zombie chews no more; the leg lays, sizzling.

Rolith, where is Rolith? Where is ANYONE? Strangers fall, friends lie still. Knights bent on slaughter. Zombies hunting dinner. All around, the children cry. Women scream. Men die. Rolith stands just ahead, blade shining in the last light of day. Noxious fog rolls across the bridge.

Race the fog. Fires burn, blaze, roar - illuminate the end of all we've known. Rolith screams, points, turns away. Fire glistens on a gash across his cheek. He stabs the zombies in front, to the left, to the right -

SO MANY

run

RUN

Don't look back can't look back. An undead Knight looms over Farmer Westin's youngest girl. Her teddy bear is in pieces. She screams. Rip the blade from its sheath. Poison glistens on the edge. Swing. Thrust. Slice up. Silence.

Smoke blends with fog. The cloud creeps forward, rolling steadily closer.

Grab the girl and run. Pull the stragglers along, they'll follow behind.  

We've got to try to reach Battleon. Safety's there. It HAS to be.

We MUST fight!
 

May 21, 2012

Status Update

Stuff Happening Right Now!

This is just a quick post telling you some of what's going on right now and some of what to expect.

The Artix and Sepulchure Action Figures are on sale at U.S. Toys R Us locations all over the United States and also on HeroMart.com

People have been mailing us, tweeting us and letting the community know through the AQW forums as soon as they get their own collector's Artix or Sepulchure figures and sometimes they get BOTH! We've even gotten a few YouTube videos of people receiving their boxes from stores or in the mail and letting us watch them open them up!

It's a little early to say but things are looking good for a SECOND SET of collector's figures but that's a LONG way off. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

We also have a brand new poster for sale at HeroMart.com which is the Good Heroes of Lore poster, drawn, inked and colored by our own Diozz (who you may remember from his Live Draw event!)

Diozz is pretty excited about his first poster!

There are no pictures of this yet on the site but the poster also comes with the Soul of a Hero armor set, including the Great Spirit of Heroism and Valkyrie of Heroism animated cloaks, also drawn by Diozz!

The team only signed 50 of there and half of those are already gone but there are a few hundred of the unsigned ones if you don't want your pretty poster all cruddded up by a bunch of game developer signatures.

We've also got an Art Contest going on right now!

The Themes Are:
1) Artix vs. Sepulchure
2) Zombies
3) Any Combo of the above options

The Contest Info page can be found here! Please read the rules carefully and PLEASE don't waste our time with stuff you rip off from the internet. You'll get caught and we'll spend a lot of time here at the lab making fun of how stupid you are. Don't be that guy.

STUFF COMING SOON!

Now let's hop into my time traveling phonebooth and dial the number for the near future.

This weekend, AQW Zombies continues as the world of lore falls further and further into the clutches of Sepulchure and more and more of your friends succumb to the zombification effects of the vile green mist.

In this alternate timeline, the traveling sales moglin Quibble Coinbiter is still traveling from town to town selling his never-before-seen, slightly-used rares and items and this Friday he returns to Battleon with a load of Zombie and Zombie Slaying themed AC RARES and ITEMS!

We'll also be trying a couple of new things in Quibble this time...

1) INVESTMENT TRINKETS: This is a new idea that I think most of you will like. Quibble will be selling small AC trinkets for about 1000 ACs each/ What do they do? NOTHING! They just sit in your bag and take up space.

BUT... a few days after Quibble has left Battleon, these investments will appreciate in value! You will be able to sell them back for MORE than you bought them for!

That's right! Buy it for 1000... sell it back for more.

There will be two versions of this trinket. A Member and a Non-Member. They will BOTH appreciate in value after Quibble leaves but the Member one will appreciate for MORE than the non-member trinket AND Members can, of course, buy both.

2) DAGE ARMOR SPECIAL: Most of the items in Quibble's shop will stick to the normal pricing that we've been with for a while but Dage the Evil is working on a special Zombie Killer armor that will be 3000 ACS! We expect the higher price to make this one of the rarest AC armors in the game.

Oh yeah, as a Member Bonus, there will be a Member Only version of the Zombie Killer, exactly like the other one... except it only costs 1 AC.

SOON: Looking For New Mods!

Reens and Stratos will soon be in search of new Mods for AQW!

I cannot stress enough how much we appreciate how much the mods do for the game but there is a lot of game to patrol and most of the mods are volunteer staff so Reens has said that she will be looking for a few extra hands.

AS soon as the search has begun we will post all the information that you need to know to apply. Please do not spam our e-mail and Twitters asking to be made a mod. Being able to read carefully and understand what you're reading is a big part of being a mod so read this part carefully. Begging for us to make you a mod now will revel that you did not read this paragraph. That's a pretty good sign that you aren't mod material.

Until we ask for applications, please review the HOW TO BECOME A MOD page.

SOON: DeathKnight Member Only Class

It won't be this released this week and probably not next week but I'm currently building a Member Only Death Knight Class (It will have different art than the DK Armor that came with the Doom Starter Package). It will take Rank 10 Doomwood Rep BUT there will be an AC Shortcut. Both versions will be Member Only.

214 days until Just Another Day

May 18, 2012

AQWorlds: ZOMBIES!

The ultimate "WHAT IF" begins...

If you have not played through the storyline of DoomWood Parts 1 & 2, stop reading, log in and do them now! Especially Part 2, because, as other players would tell you, the story is deep, insane, full of twists which have resulted in tonight's very mysterious release... AdventureQuest Worlds: ZOMBIES.

(Spoiler Alert: If you have not finished DoomWood 1 & 2 stop reading now. Go play it quick!)

Gravelyn is one of the most interesting characters in the game. She was raised by the undead, and her Father is the DoomKnight, Sepulchure. When Sepulchure was defeated by the Chaos Lord Drakath, Gravelyn inherited her Father's throne. She became the leader of the forces of Evil.

Zombie Light Warrior Armor in the 50% shop!

It has not been easy for her. There have been numerous attempts to overthrow and thwart her. Even Noxus, who's defeated talking skull is attached to her staff refuses to respect her. We believe that Gravelyn has power and inner strength, but she has not shown us what she is capable of... yet.

So in the last cutscene, we saw her in a moment of defeat, make a wish under her breath that her Father, Sepulchure was still here. The wish, in the most unexpected way, was granted. (By the way: I do quietly read a lot of the things you post to each other and must say how impressed am I that so many of you figured out the significance of that Tomb.)

Floating Horror Cape in the 100% Shop!

But not even a wish can bring Sepulchure back... so instead, in a true act of chaos, the Champion of Chaos, Drakath disrupted time, space and reality -- causing the entire game to COMPLETELY RESTART from the beginning.

Zombie Hunter Hunter Armor and Globular FaceMorph in the UnRare AC Shop!

You remember, right? The beginning of game? When you got struck by lightning, fell down a cliff, went to the Castle of Swordhaven when the final showdown beween Good and Evil was starting? You fought your way through Sepulchure's army of the undead to get to King Alteon's throne room... then Drakath showed up and pretty much destroyed everyone and everything? BUT... what would have happened if Drakath has never showed up?

Tonight... we find out.* BATTLE ON!**

* Note: You no longer have to manually turn your war medals in! The war meter raises after every 5 zombies you slay!

**Zombies lag due to dead limbs and poor dexterity, but you might experience lag of your own due to large numbers of heroes battling while using the new war functionality.

Use Your Brain to Get Zombie-riffic Rewards!

Tonight's release brings you 4 shops stocked with epically undead rewards! Talk to Rolith in the War Camp to access the Unrare Undead AC Shop (this shop will not go rare!), and the Zombie Merge Shop (collect Zombie Skulls, Noses, and Toes!), a 50% and 100% War Shops (get the meter high enough to unlock them)! /Equip this undead gear and you'll be unstoppable!

Zombie Pirate in the UnRare AC shop, Cutlass of the Dead in the Zombie Merge Shop!

NOW AVAILABLE! Collector Action Figures

The Sepulchure and Artix collector figures are now on sale at www.HeroMart.com and in most U.S. based Toys"R"Us stores. They went up at noon today... and OMG!!!!!!!! Thank you all so very much for supporting us during our 1st ever collector figure release! We have been packing boxes and shipping them non-stop since Noon.

The problem with the "Secret Underground Lab" not being on floor #1 is we have to get all of the boxes to street level... so we have been bringing your boxes up via the elevator. This was the 1st load... you should see the HeroMart Chamber O_O. As expected, the Rare Black Armor Variant figures are going fast. (Note: We limited it to only 2 per order so people could not hoard them -- keeping it fair!)

Remember that some Toys"R"Us stores have them too... we do not know which, but if you spot one, please take a picture and tweet it to me! Oh, and Miko just made a cool looking web page showing off the figures!
Check out the new Collector Figure Webpage