artix.com

(Kiara) Artix Has Joined the Fight

Progress of the Undead Invasion

This morning Artix sent word to the Underground Lab. He has made it safely to the other side of the world and has already slain several undead. An anonymous source sent us this picture:
Artix Fighting Undead

It's very dark, but the blurry person jumping to attack with his axe is Artix. Our source tells us that none of the undead shown in the picture survived.

It's going to be tough, but I believe Artix will be able to quell the invasion. So far, the undead have lost every battle, but there are still many more to come.

A Day in the Underground Lab

Some of you have asked what it's like working in the Underground lab. It's crazy... and awesome! There's never a dull moment with so many games to work on and new projects to keep track of. Depending on what day it is, sometimes I hear people running through the halls of the lab, screaming. Usually this means it's Friday or very close to Friday, and someone's lost a piece of art or code. Sometimes it means there's such a huge bug in the systems that the whole lab will detonate if we release it. But no matter what it is, the situation gets resolved and the work atmosphere becomes calm and creative again.

Report for Artix

I'm going to send Artix a report from the lab later this week. If you have anything you'd like me to include, like any new tricks you've found to be effective against the undead, leave them in the comments and I'll add them in!

Alina

AQW: Chaos, Magic, and Mayhem!

AQWorlds' first guest-author event starts Friday

Chaos in your veins... And in Lore's magic?! THAT sounds catastrophic! Join the AQWorlds team and 30,000 of your fellow players at aq.com for a massively-magical special in-game event! Featuring characters from author Sarah Prineas' novel The Magic Thief, you'll have to race against time and treachery in order to save the missing mages of Lore. And if you can't prevent Drakath's plot from succeeding, ALL of Lore's magic will be tainted with Chaos!

Check out all the latest info on the event page!

During the event, you'll get a chance to learn about how magic in AQWorlds operates: ley lines, nexuses, and focus stones are all crucial if the mages of Lore are to guide and guard the home they love! Look for a new piece of information on how Lore's magic works AND get event updates and sneak peeks each day on the AQW Design Notes!

WHAT:	The Magic Thief guest author event with Sarah Prineas!
WHEN:	March 23rd, 2012 at sundown!
WHO:	The cast of The Magic Thief novel, the AQWorlds team and YOU!
WHY:	Sometimes even the greatest magicians need a little help from a thief!
HOW:	Join us in-game, right here at AdventureQuest Worlds

Send J6 to outerspace!

AQWorlds' lead artist, J6, is astronomically talented! So who better to be Artix Entertainment's ambassador to the galaxy? He has a chance to win a contest to go on the ultimate quest - into space! And YOU can help send him up there, where he belongs! All you have to do is head to this site and vote for him. You can vote once per day, per computer and with all our help, he'll have the chance to draw the first-ever extra-orbital AQWorlds reward!

As of this writing, J6 has 24,949 votes, and 99.9% of that is YOU guys helping one artist realize a life-long dream. It's amazing what the power of the AE community can do when they band together. Nothing is out of reach, not even the moon!

Look fly like a J6 with HeroMart's newest t-shirt!

Head to Heromart, Artix Entertainment's real-life loot store and snag your very own J6-style shirt! These fly off the shelves faster than the speed of light, so if you want to look like a bounty hunter* as you battle through life, this is the shirt for you!

And any bounty hunter worth their guns wants to score the critical fashion hit they'll get when they equip the epic promotional rewards that come with purchase - the J6 Helmet and the J6 Cowboy Armor!

* This shirt does not give you license to act like a bounty hunter. Unless you're in space.

Concept Art on the Horizon

Yergen Here! I am neck deep in dungeon making (and having a blast doing it), but I thought I would give you a sneak peek of a possible future location that we are working on. I'm not allowed to give any details right now on why or what this place is, but the concept art that Llussion is working on is really impressive. First off is a concept for a massive castle wall.

The next image shows a town square like area.

These are beautiful concept sketches. It’s going to be a blast making them, and more importantly, running around in them! Good job Llusion.

What Makes Thyton Awesome…

In coming up with these concepts Thyton, Llusion, and I sat around discussing the mechanics of a kingdom. Thyton takes the extreme tactical approach building an impenetrable fortress. A super fortress! He thinks through and problem solves all major attacks (air, sea, and land) options. He then designs, and places elements that will counter, or slow down the attack. The ideas are flawless! He plans it out as if he were the king, protecting the people. That’s the approach he takes on everything. To him it has to be believable. It has to work. And that’s what will make this game amazing! Then of course I ask how a farmer will take his fruit from outside the impenetrable wall, to the town market, passing wall after wall, guard after guard, swerving back and forth in a maze of streets every day? “Hmm.”, he says. “Maybe I went a little too tactical…”.

Mystery and Magic

Mysterious Package

I was going to make this post earlier today and tell you how ordinary the day was. Not a single person had a panic attack yet and no one collapsed from exhaustion. That's no fun... but then the mailman came.

Usually when the mailman comes, he's here to take an elevator full of HeroMart packages to mail to you guys. But THIS time, he came with a package for us. Package deliveries are usually exciting events here in the Underground Lab. We've gotten odd-flavored Japanese Kit-Kats, one-piece toilet paper, delicious cookies, hand-made figures, posters, slippers, etc... you get the idea, every package we've ever gotten always turned out to be really awesome.

Today's package was from Artix.

That's crazy! He's all the way on the other side of the world, fighting off an undead invasion and somehow, between his axe swings, he's found time to mail us a package. Well, that's not exactly true. He mailed himself a package. The package is from Artix and addressed to Artix.

We're all itching to open it. I think at least a handful of people have already sniffed it. We know it's holding something awesome inside because all packages delivered here contain awesome things, but we can't open it until Artix comes back! What do you guys think is inside?

Friday is RELEASE DAY!

Update on this week's upcoming releases. There's a lot of good stuff coming this week!

AdventureQuest Worlds
This Friday is AE's first ever author event with Sarah Prineas, author of the Magic Thief fantasy book series. For the first time ever, you'll be able to adventure side by side with characters from a novel!
Something is wrong in Lore - all the mages have gone missing! The word around town is that Drakath is involved and he's trying to taint all of Lore's magic with Chaos. Log in tomorrow to meet Conn, a young wizard apprentice, and team up to save all the missing mages of Lore... before it's too late.
www.AQ.com

Check out these Event-Rare Mystical Blades:
Mystical Blades from the AQW Magic Thief event

EpicDuel
Bunny Battlesuit Bonanza: Thanks to your assistance last week, the leporids have their battle suits and are ready to rock...almost. The suits lack the onboard computer systems they need to retake the Biologic Preserve. Log in tomorrow to enlist the help of Delta V's top tinkerer Ulysses to program the suits and help the leporids.
www.EpicDuel.com

DragonFable
Au'Mydas seems to be losing the war, but time is running out! If you don't help the war meter reach 100%, then Au'Mydas will win and all of Lore will be smothered in his golden kiss. Log in this Friday to defeat new bosses and win the war! War Challenge: If the war meter reaches 100% before midnight on Friday, you will unlock a special rainbow lightsaber reward.
www.DragonFable.com

MechQuest
There is an ancient legend of an underground realm and tales of a magical instrument that could turn the tide, if you can win through to its location! This story will bring you NEW ORIGINAL music, NEW quests, the opportunity to unlock NEW weapons, and NEW starship items!
www.MechQuest.com
HeroSmash
This week in HeroSmash go scavenging for treasure! Golden Claw in the "Ruins" has found a treasure chest full of exquisite, but damaged, treasure. If you help Golden Claw repair the treasure, he'll gladly share it with you! Don't forget St. Patrick' Day is leaving tomorrow for another year, check it out before it's gone!
www.HeroSmash.com

AdventureQuest Classic

This week's second part of the Energy Orb Quest will take you on a hunt with Radagast for the energy orb in hopes of luring in a new numbered beast! Only one slight problem: a mother Thunderbird has mistaken the orb for one of her egg and getting it back might not be so easy. Also coming to the Limited Time Shop this week is the Incendiary Bow weapon.
www.BattleOn.com

AQ3D
Check back tomorrow to see a new 3D update from Yergen.
www.Artix.com

Can you read Binary?

HINT: It does no decode into "Enjoy your Ovaltine."

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01101010 01101111 01100010 00100001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100011 01110101 01110010 01110010 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101111 01101101 01010111 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01010000 01100001 01110010 01110100 00100000 00110010 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01100011 01101000 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01101101 01101001 01100101 01110010 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01000110 01110010 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101111 01101101 01101111 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01101101 01101001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110100 01110111 01101111 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100011 01100101 01110000 01110100 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110 00100000 01010011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00101110 00100000 01000010 01000001 01010100 01010100 01001100 01000101 00100000 01001111 01001110 00100001

Hint #2: Maybe you could use google to find a web based binary translator?

quinta-feira, 7 de junho de 2012

End Your Week with Something Ghoulish

Yergen here! It’s Friday, and I thought I would show you something that Thyton was working on. He likes to sometimes just doodle. But his doodles!!!

Look at this creature! Just looking at it makes your imagination run wild. What is this creature? Where would it live? What does it eat?? If it were to attack you what would you do? I know I wouldn’t want to run across this in the middle of the night. Could you imagine waking up in the middle of the night and seeing this perched at the end of your bed? *shudder* We have made a lot of improvements in the game engine and the characters. Next week I'll have more stuff to show from Llusion, and Thyton as well as maybe a model or 3D model or two... maybe. Well that’s it from me. Have a good weekend!

AQ3D, Artix and the Undead

AQ3D

I checked in on the 3D team today and... wow! The game is coming along nicely. It's hard to believe that just a few months ago we had nothing, not even a single 3D pixel. The team has been working extra hard following self-imposed deadlines and all of their hard work really shows. At this rate, they'll have the game finished in no time!

Yergen and Thyton have already come up with an incredible storyline (the first of many) for the game, and now the team is starting to think of the finer details and they need your help!

How do you feel about voice acting in our existing games so far? Would you like to see more voice acting in the 3D game? Would you like someone famous to voice act a major boss or are you happy with anyone as long as the voice acting is done well?

Which are you looking forward to more: questing with your friends or by yourself? (This is just a curiosity question. You will be able to do both, of course.)

Are you looking forward to discovering hidden quest lines and secret areas in the new world?

What do you think is missing in other games that you would love to see in AQ3D?

King of the Pyramid-Mountain

The war isn't over yet, not even close. We received another image from a different source a few hours ago. It's incredible how many undead there are. This invasion is possibly the greatest invasion the world has seen in many years, but I'm very confident that Artix will be able to crush it.

When I Close My Eyes I See Dungeons

Yergen here! So this week the team has been hard at work. I mean REALLY hard at work. We are busting butt to get a working phase 1 dungeon put together. Some key elements we want to see in this phase 1 is a base player (currently we just have the female, but don’t worry, there will be a male too.), running around in a dungeon with monsters in it that animate and attack you. Xero , and Llussion created some amazing dungeon pieces inspired by designs by Thyton. My task has been to take all those pieces and layout the dungeon rooms. At first I was like “No problem. Easy-peasy”, but then I started getting into it and my tune changed. When creating a background for one of our 2D games you create one view. Our artists are amazing at creating that one view, but in the 3D game, you can run all around that one view, so the candelabra against the wall has to look good from all angles. And the view from one way may look fine, but when you turn around, the whole thing looks empty. I could tell right away that I had a lot of work to do… However the more I started getting into it, the more fun I started having. Then when you start adding lights to the room it gets even better. Then comes the part that could almost never end… Details. Deeetaiiiillls! Details in these dungeons really give it life and character. They tell the story, without “telling the story”. The more details you add the more life the room gets. Unfortunately you could add detail till the end of days, at some point you have to say “Save… and done!” The bigger the room, the more details that are need, and we have some pretty big rooms! Adding all this stuff has been a blast to do. I’ve always enjoyed adding details to everything I do. It’s funny; I had someone read my stars about 20 years ago, and said that I am a Saggitarious with a Saggitarious rising. Then they said that I enjoy making worlds. Pretty crazy huh? That is EXACTLY what I am doing (and enjoying myself).

THIS IS CONCEPTS!!

I promised some concepts, and I am delivering one massive piece. Llussion created this to show the scale of a kingdom. This piece is beautiful, and big! Llussion said that from wall to wall is around 700 meters (in game)

The original was so big he had to scan it in four parts, and then stitch it together. Best word to describe it… Epic.

Well more dungeons to populate, so back to the grind stone. Yergen out!

Friday is RELEASE Day!

AQ3D Questions

Thank you so much for answering the questions in my last post! It's amazing to see everyone come together and contribute such wonderful ideas. I'll be sure the 3D team reads all of your responses and considers them before making any important, game-changing decisions.

If there's anything else you would like to pass on to the 3D team, leave it in the comments and I'll make sure they see it!

Friday is RELEASE DAY!

Update on this week's game releases.

AdventureQuest Worlds
This weekend in AQWorlds, Good and Evil aren't always what they seem to be! What are YOU willing to sacrifice to save a life? Lions and poisons and burning, oh my! Members of the Alliance rally and two NPCs decide to battle side by side for the rest of their lives! Make sure to login Saturday at 10AM server time for the release of the newest Limited Quantity Shop, featuring the Zard, and Dragon armors! Nothing's happening Sunday. Honest.
www.AQ.com

Play through the storyline to get your very own invitation to attend the in-game wedding of Rolith and Alina on AQW's fourth birthday on October 12, 2012!
Invitation to Rolith and Alina's Wedding on October 12, 2012

Invitation to Rolith and Alina's Wedding on October 12, 2012

EpicDuel
The Bionic Battalion Saga Continues! Brachylagus and Capensis are not the only rabbits preparing themselves for battle: Myxoma will have her day as well. It’s come to her attention that little clueless Lepus is still in the Biological Preserve, and Myxoma needs your help in preparing a rescue mission for Lepus. Log in tomorrow and help save little Lepus!
www.EpicDuel.com

DragonFable
This week is about revenge! Warlic has been after Alex since he arrived in Swordhaven and Alex has had enough. Now he's looking for some revenge, even if it's not a direct confrontation.... This Friday, log in and help Alex decide exactly how he to get back at his rival!
www.DragonFable.com
MechQuest
The war with the Leprescythe and Lucky Warriors is nearly over - soon you will come face to face with a Lucky Chieftain and have the opportunity to open reward shops. Also some new weapons will be hitting the shops so stay tuned!
www.MechQuest.com
HeroSmash
Log in tomorrow to get your hands on the ultra rare Nightwraith Armor and Gear. They'll only be available in-game for one week! If you snooze, the rare set will be back for a single day in November, but after that, it will be gone forever.
www.HeroSmash.com
AdventureQuest Classic
The last Energy Orb quest is here! With the energy orb in your possession, it is time to lure in the numbered beast known as the Thunder Stalker! Plus: Get the Incendiary Bow in the Limited Time Shop!
www.BattleOn.com
AQ3D
Check back tomorrow for another update from Yergen!
www.Artix.com

A Thyton Concept Cornucopia

It’s Friday, and this has been a full week for us on the AQ3D team. Llussion has been hard at work conceptualizing and coming up with some amazing designs (like the ones in my earlier posts). Xero has been quietly pounding away creating wicked monsters based on Thytons concepts. Zhoom, Minimal, and I have been deep in these dungeons, and we have a good concept finished. Thyton, on the other hand, has been busy creating these…

These are some amazing concepts for monsters that could appear at some point in this game. Imagine fighting some of these bad boys. How many of your friends do you think it would take to take one of these creatures down? I’ll tell you what, if I had my Yergen Sword of Yergen, I would take them down in a good chop or two.

You All Have Some Great Ideas

I was reading through some of your ideas and suggestions you all have. These are some good ideas! Riding around on a dragon sounds really cool. Better than having a dragon riding around on your back as you walk around. Minimal, and Zhoom are working hard to make the best game possible. Yergen out!

Artix is Back and He Wasn't in the Box!

Artix is back in the Underground Lab!

He actually arrived on a plane, not in the box that he addressed to himself and shipped to the office (as some of you suggested). That was a relief! If he had been in that box, he would've only been about 2 feet tall or VERY compacted. Also, he probably would've suffocated by now.

Actually, late last week we got a second box from Artix, also addressed to Artix. If he hadn't arrived on schedule, we would've opened both boxes just to make sure he wasn't inside one of them.

Yesterday we FINALLY got to open the boxes... technically Artix opened the boxes himself, but the stuff inside was for everyone at the lab! Inside were lots of yummy goodies, foreign CDs, video games, action figures, coasters, wigs, and lots of other really cool things! It's now official that if a package arrives at the Underground Lab, it has awesome stuff inside. This should become a written rule for the Underground Lab Official Employee Handbook. (Yes, the handbook exists, in case you were wondering... and it has rules in there about eating the last piece of gum from the DF table, also rules about [confidential information has been redacted].)

Artix really wanted to make a post yesterday, but as soon as he walked into the lab, he was buried under an avalanche of stuff that just sort of piled up while he was gone. He's slowly unburying himself and I'm sure he'll have a really good post for you guys when he can actually sit down at his desk to write it.

Artix's Statue

Earlier today, an AQW player sent Cysero a really cool video of an Artix statue that he built in Minecraft. Artix really liked it and wanted me to share it with all of you.

New Releases

This week's new game releases

AdventureQuest Worlds
In the return of Lore's most egg-citing holiday, we've got an egg-streme Grenwog battle which drops epically sweet gear! Go on Cabdury's hunt; it'll have you hoppin' all across the land, and for tasty treats that you can only get this time of year, you'll need to /party up with friends to take down well-known enemies that hold the clues for how to get the most egg-cellent equips in AQWorlds! And don't miss out on all the new gear in the Player Suggestion shop and the Treasure Chests!
www.AQ.com

EpicDuel
The Bionic Battalion Saga continues! While the Bunnies are preparing to rescue Lepus, other citizens around Delta V need your help! Be sure to visit citizens all around the world for new missions and new rewards for players of all levels! Also make sure you continue to collect the mysterious blueprint scraps. No one knows what they're for yet, but they look VERY important!
www.EpicDuel.com

DragonFable
It’s a bad Hare day! The Grenwog hare has been all over lore, seeking out the best hiding places for his eggs. This year he’s decided that what would be fun is an egg hunt! It’s a non traditional egg hunt this year as you must collect the eggs for a merge shop, allowing you to select the weapon or helm of your choice! One problem; the Grenwog Hare can’t remember where he hid everything. You will need to search all over lore for the places where he has hidden the eggs in order to complete this event! You will want to work together on the forums to find all the hiding places! Good Luck!
www.DragonFable.com

MechQuest
It is the time of year for Spring Holidays - Chickees, Eggs and Bunzillas. The seasonal rares are coming back along with the quests from years past. The shops will have a couple of NEW weapons this year - a brand-new Head and a Back Arm!
www.MechQuest.com

HeroSmash
Head over to the Fairgrounds and check out Pyotr Rabbit and his carrot cache for a healthy and delicious springtime snack! You'll also find awesome Easter items, but for a limited time only so hop to it! The Easter goodies will be going live on Easter Sunday. While you're at the Fairgrounds, make sure to get your seasonal goodies from the Fool's Day Shop before it leaves for a year on Sunday!
www.HeroSmash.com

AdventureQuest Classic
Loco has returned to cause havoc for another April Fools Day in Battleon! Now he looks to possess you and turn the entire town against you through malicious pranking! PLUS: The Incendiary Bow has been added to the Limited-Time shop!
www.BattleOn.com

AQ3D
Artix will have a lot of interesting things to write about on Monday (AQ3D updates, stories from his adventures, etc.). It's definitely going to be a post you don't want to miss!
www.Artix.com

The Secret about Girls...

Return to Akiba

I missed you! It is great to be back at the lab working on the games. For the past two weeks I was in Japan. For most of the adventure, I was in the town of Akiba (Akihabara), which also known as "electric town." Imagine a city dedicated to, and overflowing with buildings dedicated to anime, arcades, robots, games, music (vocaloid!), comics and cosplay. I was so inspired by the town, that upon returning home from my first visit two years ago we created a place after it AdventureQuest Worlds ( /join Akiba ) . During this trip there, I spent my time studying design, trying out the new games, hanging out with a long time player, TravelingTom, and coming up with fresh new ideas for the future our gaming community. I also infiltrated several Vampire lairs. More about this later... today, I want to talk about... girls!

About 7 blocks of arcades, cosplay, games, music, cosplay... otaku heaven!

Meet Poly. She is a Countess. (a... um... Poly Count-ess!)

The 3D girl pictured below, is the current low poly count, ready for game play, female character model. I spent today working with Dage and Yergen on the art. They say the eyes are the gateway to the soul. So, I believe the secret to creating girl characters... is the eyes! Ours still seem a little blurry to me, but Xero said we can dedicate more space to them to give more detail and shine - making her more human. If you are not already a guru of 3D creation, you might be wondering, "What is that weird box with the stretched face to the right of the girl?" That is called a Diffuse Map. That is what we paint, and then stretch around the 3D model. The diffuse map for the body even looks weirder... which I will post for you tomorrow. So please come back to check it out!

(Actual Game Play graphics)

It is pretty crazy that we are making this all from scratch -- for the team's first 3D game I feel we are off to a great start!

Comment Question: What do you think? Other than, "WHEN CAN WE PLAY!?"

Bunnypocalypse

World premiere of the song!

...and I thought that Japanese TV commercial I posted in the upper right was strange! O_O Just wait until you see the full FRIDAY THE 13TH release at AdventureQuest Worlds this Friday!

Today at the Lab, we had voice auditions for the voice of the Evil Teddy Bear Deady. It was between Cysero, Warlic, Oz, Galanoth, and me. We did the voice recordings, and sent them, without labels (So he would not know who the voices were) to Voltaire and asked him to choose one. Last time Deady was voiced by Michael Sinterniklass -- best known as the voice of Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dean Venture from the Venture Bros. For this event, one of us needs to "stand in" for Deady's voice -- and frankly, we are all scared to death to be picked. Who wants to try to be a stand in for Leonardo!? Oh no... Voltaire just sent back an email with his pick. *gulps*

Writing code to "merge armor, skin, and items" together

Zhoom really has his hands full today. He is writing code to make the 3D game put the skin on the character, then merge the armor over the skin (with transparency), then merge any additional items (belts, gloves, boots, etc) on top of the armor. I would have thought there was something built in to do this type of thing automatically... I guess not. I looked at the code on his screen in horror as it is some of the most advanced image manipulation code I have ever seen. I wanted to post a full shot of the female in armor today, but based on your feedback we are re-doing her hair and making it more life-life (Good call!) Check back tomorrow and I should have a screenshot of the female in armor for you -- maybe we can get that oversized sword textured too!