ARTIX
Artix Krieger
| Monday, January 4, 2021
(Cover art above by @Medo_Meadow )
As we bravely march onward into a new decade... let us first take a moment to look at our video game making adventures together over the last year. Grab a frothing stein of moglinberry juice and gather around the fire to warm our hearts in the way we know best... it is story time!
Where to start!? O_O So much has happened....
Artwork by Dage the Evil!
Congratulations on our 17th year of making video games together! 1.8 million unique new players joined us on adventures this year. (Not too shabby!)
Looking back, the biggest thing to note-- is both our team and community have been growing and improving. The art, code, and creativity just keeps getting better. What skills have you worked on? How have you leveled up this year?
Possibly the craziest thing of the year was legendary bands Korn & Alice in Chains performing battle concerts in both AdventureQuest Worlds and AdventureQuest 3D. It was such an honor to work with these iconic bands we absolutely love! We received rave reviews in the press, including massively popular game news website Kotaku.
Our first musical event with a special guest was waaaaay back in 2009 with Voltaire. What made this new Battle Concert 1st of its kind was...
I am not sure anyone will ever truly understand how much work went into these first ones... but I am so proud of the game teams who worked for months to make it happen. Way to go all! There is a brand new Battle Concert in the works and it will be announced soon.
The best (and most important thing) that happened in 2019 was the release of the Artix Games Launcher. It future proofs all of your favorite Artix Entertainment games. This extremely small, light weight, and instantly loading program lets you play our games from your PC, Mac, or Linux computer. Already have it? Great! Need it?
Download the Artix Games Launcher here
We teamed up with the creator of Cookie Clicker to create AdventureQuest: IdleQuest. It is an addictive idle/clicker game built into the Artix Games launcher. Create a custom party with any AE Universe characters you want from Dage to Korin.
Also, be sure to join our Artix Games Discord Server and hang out with other players and the team.
Can you believe, that we have been updating our major games every week, without break, for 17 years? Not sure if there is a Guinness Book of World records for this, but pretty sure our gaming community is unique in this category. The fans and teams are both relentlessly dedicated....
I would like to give massive kudos to all of the game teams for their hard work, passion, creativity, and listening & iterating on your awesome feedback. What they do is not always easy, but they sure love doing it. Check out all of the video games we made together (thus far XD).
No one will forget that day 27,000 Moglins arrived here at the Artix Entertainment "secret underground lab" XD. From the design and prototyping, to the Kickstarter, to production/regulation compliance, to manufacturing, and then shipping... it was one crazy adventure! I mean, we know the burn rate second/inch of a Moglin. Never thought that was something legally required to know, LOL! Want one?
All 12 Moglins are now available on HeroMart.
We did a game jam at the beginning of the year where we split into small teams and made a ton of fun little games. The card game Dungeonborne was released on the Android and Apple app stores. An early version of Bigger Sword was released on the web using WebGL for you to check out.
Viewed in detail, each year is a roller coaster. We have our good times and also the rough ones. This year was no exception. Most tragically, was the murder of rising star artist Saiacosta in Venezuela. Also the passing of legendary original AdventureQuest writer Falerin. We also lost a few familiar faces. To those who moved on this year to pursue their personal goals and dreams, we wish you success. You know, the only thing you can truly count on in life is change. It that is not always a bad thing. Just like the Winter cold always comes before the warmth of Spring, so do bad times come before the next good ones.
If you have been around, then you already know this year we were on the receiving end of a record number of attacks against our servers. But in a twist of irony... instead of killing us, they made so much stronger. 2019 was a better year than the previous. I would love to talk to you in detail about this specific subject in a later post.
Lightening the mood, we were extremely lucky this year. Our community gained some amazing new game developers. Including...
Long time player Robbie had his 3rd battle with brain cancer last month. If you are a regular on Twitter, then you probably know him best as Mika's brother. I am excited to share that his procedure went well and he is recovering great! While visiting him at the hospital he mentioned one of his favorite things in our games was when we did the gift boxes that magically opened, but you could equip and wield the box until it did. That is why we brought that back this year. He was so excited.
Story wise... the most outrageous event of the year was this year's April Fools. We announced that our next AdventureQuest game would be exclusively for the 8-bit, original, 1985 NES console. >_> The fact that it was true made it 1000 times more funny XD. We even got a prominent mention in the Washington Post and also a write up in Dev Cart magazine. The game is nearing the finish line and the physical carts and boards have arrived at the lab. If you backed the project, looking forward to sending you the finished game in physical or digital format in early 2020. If you missed it... you can still get it on the Dungeons & DoomKnights BackerKit.
Massively OP released an article summarizing Kickstarted MMOs. We got mention in their review as "kicking ass and taking names all year." We have loved all of the comments from the returning players who talked about how much better every part of the game is becoming. This was a huge year in terms of functionality, game play, and improvements -- PVP, monster AI, new dungeons, 3D sounds, the battle concerts, class ranks, seige war, and new big bosses like Trollenstein, Fleshette, and Thrash -- but we are far from done. Please check out the Game Plan to see the incredible amount of things we have accomplished and all of the juicy addditons we will be working on next.
For over a year, AdventureQuest Worlds Mobile has been being worked on in the shadows. The process of converting vector-based Flash art, animation, and Actionscript code to modern, GPU, raster-driven graphics has been a challenge. There are some things we haven't talked about (like how we originally hired a company to figure out how to convert the game, and after 6 months it was apparent that they could not do what we needed). We also don't talk about the behind the scenes horror stories of how people that either had been hired or had been chosen to lead up this massive project got sniped by other videogame companies or downright broke down into tears. So I am very happy to share with you that as I write this, Warlic has created a functional base prototype of AdventureQuest Worlds Mobile, which allows you to log in with your existing character and all of your data, and placeholders for all of your art. Since Warlic also created the Artix Games Launcher, it leaves you wondering... why is one of our main music guys one of our top coders. (Classic Artix Entertainment!) Of course, he hasn't been doing it alone; he's joined by AdventureQuest Worlds team members Yorumi, Ghost, and J6. He is in the final stages of perfecting the system which we will use to convert the art. If you missed the LiveStream where I leaked our plans, our goal is to create a working alpha and then do a Kickstarter to raise funds to help convert out 10,000+ unique items.
Also... for the current AdventureQuest Worlds, I am writing DoomWood Part III with Memet. Hope you like it.
Also, because a few players asked... yes, you will be able to play the existing version of AdventureQuest Worlds using the launcher on your PC/Mac/Linux machine. Both the launcher version and mobile versions of the game will let you log in with your character and use your items (both old items and new ones made in the future). Our goal is to expand how you can play AdventureQuest Worlds.
I think it was the Idea Guy one.... what was your favorite?
It is impressive to look at how much all of our artists and the artists in the community have grown! Just compare any artists work from the beginning of the year to their best new work.... it is inspiring to see everyone continuously learning, pushing, and improving.
On that topic... the art above was created by AdventureQuest Worlds super artist J6. This was created as a secret Santa from Alina to Cysero who's favorite superhero is the Green Lantern... and also, obviously loves the Mandalorian XD. I really love this aspect of our culture. These people are so creative an amazing... every day I ask myself how I got so lucky to be able to work alongside them.
Hey! If you have not heard this recently. Thank you for being an important part of our video game community. I would like to share something personal with you, and I think this is really important. You only get one shot in this lifetime. Read that again. If you, like so many people across the world, are setting goals this New Year; whether it is improving yourself, learning something new, accomplishing a dream, or even just taking the first steps toward accomplishing your dream... set your goal. Then, I want to ask you these three questions:
Because I can tell you what most people are going to do when Number 3 happens. They are going to quit. Everybody seems happy and excited when the going's easy. But when things get tough, it is the rare person who finds the grit and fortitude to get going. TO keep going when the times get bad or really, really bad. Those who fight through the bad times... the ones who find a way to victory no matter what... these are the people who actually understand our battle cry, "Battle On!"
People like you and I.
It is the start of a brand new decade. Endless opportunity is waiting for us. I would love to share my goals with you in detail. Be sure to keep an eye on all the game websites as they lay out their game plans. If you would like to share your goals with me, please post them to me. I linked all the places you can find me below. I will give you my unrelenting encouragement, positivity, support, and (if needed) a swift kick in the rear side of your armor for motivation. Whatever you want to do in life, you've got to get started now. Right now.
I look forward to us accomplishing our goals together in 2020.
Happy New Year and...
Battle On!
Artix and all your friends at Artix Entertainment
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtixKrieger
• Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/artixkrieger
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artix/
• YouTube: https://www.artix.com/youtube
P.S. It is my birthday today. The giftboxes opened in AdventureQuest 3D... be sure to grab yours if you have not already.
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