November 30st, 2007 (yes, 30st)
WHEW! What a week...

Lets recap, shall we?

Earlier in the week we rolled out:

1) The ability to look at any weapon in the normal shop or your inventory with the item viewer.
2) The interface addition of the Dragon AMulet Features button, with of the promised features currently being tested by in-house staff.
3) Temp Inventory tab, in your normal Inventory.
4) Five new inventory slots for sale in my shop in Falconreach (Cysero's Superstore of Savings!).

Then came the intentional updates yesterday:

5) The ability to use potions outside of combat, via your inventory screen.
6) The ability to see any merge shop weapon in the item preview window.

And now, today's release:

7) The second quest in Thyton's ninja chain.
8) A new Cor Demi Codex Dragon Coin store in that new quest with two new powerful items.
9) Six new weapons and one new pet in my shop in Falconreach (Cysero's Superstore of Savings!).
10) A Dragon Amuelt weapon merchant inside the weapon shop in Oaklore keep to help our new players with Dragon Amulets.
11) Sir pass now stops any player who has not yet delivered Celestia's message to Captain Rolith and faced Drakath in Oaklore, from going to Falconreach.
12) New awesome character pages!
13) The War was finally defeated, and now you can fight the X-304 and get levelable rare holiday weapons.

Guys, that is a LOT of stuff. Thanks to everyone who broke their brains and fingers (typing) getting all of this out AHEAD OF SHCEDULE for you all to enjoy, or complain about, or both. Have a super-duber weekend, or else!

November 29st, 2007
Mo' Interface Improvements, Mo' Problems

A few additional goodies rolled out today under your noses. This time, it was on purpose.

1) Merge shops now have the item preview tab, like normal shops and your inventory.

2) You can now use potions outside of combat. If you open your inventory, you will see two potion bottles in the lower left of the screen. A lot of players have been requesting this improvement for a while and we finally got around to building it in.

You can thanks Zhoom for those.

Some of you have noticed that there are level requirements on the merge shop for butterbomb, the holiday rare pet. This was an error. It was supposed to be JUST the blacksmithing items that had these requirements, but this code leaked to ALL merge shops. We're currently fixing this right now so you will be able to get the higher-level, rare, holidy merge items very soon. We'll leave the war up for a little extra time for those of you who want to get a weapon or pet.

Sorry about that.

Tomorrow's quest is nearly ready, and you will recognize the setting. You will be asked by Thyton to head to the Ruins of Kordana. Those of you who have run the other Kordana quest will find that taking the ninja entrance changes the map somewhat. Those of you following the story might want to chat with Kordana. She provides a few clues to the history of the Wind Orb.

The CorDemi Key will also unlock a new Vendtron machine with two new very nice items.

Tomorrow should also see some new weapons in my shop, as well as a new DC pet, and a DA store in Oaklore Keep for our very new players. This should help you get past that nasty Hydra if you can scrounge up the gold!

So much time and so little to do.... is that right?

November 28st, 2007
Oops...

Some of you may have noticed that the Item Preview is now live in the game. If you haven't check any normal item shop or even your own backpack, and you'll see a tab over in the upper right of the interface that lets you see a preview of any weapon currently in the game!

You will also see a few other small changes to the game. If you head into my shop you can now buy another 5 inventory slots for the same price as the last 5.

Another feature you will see is that your Inventory, Quest Info and Temp Inventory icons in the lower center of your screen have been moved around a little. The temp inventory is now a tab in your normal backpack. The quest chest has been moved right a little bit and in the center is a shiny Dragon Amulet.

This button will give you access to a host of new features coming soon to the game. Features like the Dragon Amulet only ability to summon your dragon from anywhere... as well as the skill to FEED your dragon, and this is a skill that ANYONE can use! We haven't decided what other features the DA button will include but we have a big list to pick from already. Have an idea? Let us know on the forums, that's where the feed dragon button idea came from.

All of these features were INTENDED for a Friday release, but I accidentally rolled them out a few hours ago, noob that I am. There will still be a Friday release with a few other features that I didn't include in the roll, as well as the next Indiana Jones spoof...er... ninja quest.

The Thankstaking War grows ever closer to it's silly end. Prepare yourself for leftovers!

November 27th, 2007
Meeting of the Masters
Deep within the secret underground lab a gathering has begun. From all reaches they have traveled* overcoming dire peril and braving even the most impossible seeming weekly deadlines. Our story begins around a large wooden table and blank white board.... let us look at the cast.

* Actually, only Galanoth traveled... the rest of us were already here.

Galanoth: The Game Master of AdventureQuest
Cysero: The Game Master of DragonFable
Warlic: The Game Master of MechQuest
Artix: The.. uh... well, I do stuff! Really!

Our agenda? It encompassed nearly everything. We picked a charity to support this year which Cysero will announce in the near future. We began wildly planning ambitious expansions for all three of our games. Our priorities are getting all of the old projects completed while completing new functionality for houses/spaceships for DragonFable and MechQuest. Since they share the same engine we can develop new functionality for both games at the same time. First step is getting closets where you can pick up your classes/uniforms. Zhoom added a preview item tab to the shop and inventory so you can see what things look like before you buy them. We also moved the temp items into a tab of your inventory (and we going to make potions drinkable outside of battle via your inventory screen). These changes will go live as soon as they are done being coded and tested, most likely on Friday with the release of the new Ninja Quest. Also for DragonFable as some of you now know, we re-wrote the ending of the upcoming Pirate and Ninja chains to guide us right back to the main plot of the game. We trained Geo and Aisha on how to build quests so we can make the quests faster. Rolith moved to Florida on Sunday and starting tomorrow we will have a super boost of bonus programming power. Which is good, because each game now has a dedicated programmer -- previously poor Zhoom was doing DragonFable AND MechQuest (Not to mention the databases, emails, minigames and a staggering amount of additional things...) Our little team is getting pretty strong! Thank you for making this possible. Possibly my most favorite part of these planning sessions is to dream up the wild things we want to do and then actually put a plan into action and make them happen. I believe that the team, you and I are all capable of doing anything. Funny thing though... the more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn. Completely off topic question... do any of you play an instrument?

P.S. On November 5th I told you that I was thinking about life goals. Thank you to those of you who so bravely shared yours. Not all of them were serious but I was surprised to see such a mix of real life and game related goals... and realized, I am exactly the same way. You gave me some really interesting ideas that I had to ponder for a long while -- in fact, you changed my mind about a few goals. (Of course this is not something new, you change my mind a lot with your posts, even when you are being silly.) I am working on revising my list and am looking forward to posting it for you soon. It is my hope that we will be able to accomplish some of these goals together.

November 26st, 2007
Thankstaking War - Leftovers!

This was a conversation that I had with Ghost this morning over chat:

-------------------begin transmition--------------------

Ghost says: G'day!
Ghost says: So what's the plan for this week?

Me says: Hiya, where's what we're doing this week: WE GOTS the war end with the X-304 and the titan fight with the XXL-304, WE GOTS the introduction of 5 more inventory spaces for sale in Cysero's shop for the same price as the last 5, WE probably GOTS new DC items in Cysero's shop as well as a new DA only weapon store in Oaklore for new player Dragon Amulet holders, WE probably GOTS a tab of button that will allow you to see previews of the weapon art in shops, and finally WE probably GOTS a button that will allow you to summon your baby dragon at any time in any place.

Ghost says: oh man, that button is going to get a lot of love

Me says: that's the idear!

Ghost says: hehe

Me says: the players have been howling for this kind of thing for a while and it's about time that we gave it to them. It will be an extra load so it will be DA only, but still it should get a lot of use. This should be a fun week!

Me says: is it ok with you if i post most of this conversation on the design notes?

Ghost says: sure thing :)

-------------------end transmition--------------------

I can't stress enough that everything listed here may not come out all this week and / or may change between what we have planned and what we release, but there ya go, now you know all the goodies that we're working on this week!

November 22nd & 23rd, 2007
"Turducken"
Once upon a time, Cysero told Zhoom and I a tale of a nearly unbelievable dish known only as the <dunnn dunnn dunnnnnnnnn> Turducken! What is a Turducken you ask? Well...

I am typically not great at math, but let me give this my best shot...
Turkey + Duck + Chicken = Turducken

It is a monstrosity of culninary chaos. You actually put the chicken inside of a duck, then put the duck inside of a turkey and cook it. Zhoom went with me to my girlfriend's for Thanksgiving and to our completely shock.... they made a real honest to goodness Turducken! It was the closest thing to eating a Dragonfable monster that I have ever experienced. Sir Loin in Oaklore keep needs to learn this recipe! This may have been completely new to me, but many of you may have known about this and many other cooking crazys... like the Chocolate Covered, sugar Coated, Deep Fried Twinky (It is like a Doom Twinky -- each bite takes a day off your life!).... have any wierd food stories to share? See you on the forums!

P.S. It is also "Black Friday" today marking the beginning of the insane holiday shopping season. The day got its name from the myth that many retail stores are "in the red" (because they used to write down losses in red ink) most of the year until the holiday shopping starts and then suddenly become profitable and can start using the ol' black pen again. Today is reguarded in the states as the busiest shopping day of the year. I hope Yulgar is ready!

November 21st, 2007
Thankstaking War!

WHEW! Sorry guys, this has been a very full week for is. We only had until tonight to get the release done, tested and debugged. So technically for us Monday was Wednesday, and today is Friday so HAPPY FRIDAY!

I have been working feverishly on this war that we're about to launch, Warlic has been working himself blind on the massive MQ release soon to hit the server, and poor Zhoom , Geo and Artix have been running around between both games making changes, testing and fixing code wherever they were needed.

I'm really tempted to show this year's war boss because I think he looks amazing. Drawn by Thyton, colored by yours truly, and animated by Ghost, i think it is the best monster that DF has ever seen. I'll save the X-304's as a surprise, but let it be known that Dr. Voltabolt has been reading some How-To books or something because there are light years between last year's X-303 and the X-304.

It should make for an interesting boss fight and an even more interesting Titan Battle!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America, where everyone tries to take a moment out to be really greatful for the things in their life that they might normally take for granted. Everyone has something to complain about usually, but this is a special day for trying to look at things differently and see what you're lucky to have.

We're really lucky to have you all playing our games, and we're REALLY lucky that you laugh at our jokes. They're pretty bad. Thanks for playing, MechQuest, DragonFable and AdventureQuest! We have a lot of stuff coming out that you won't want to miss, so stick around... we'll make you thankful that you did!

See? Bad jokes.

November 19th, 2007
Triple Trio Week!
This Thanksgiving week we are having a special Wednesday evening release in all three of our games!

• MechQuest: Grand opening of the Police Station* with brand new quests, monsters/mecha, and unlockable equipment and uniforms! (Part 1 of Werewolf Biker Gang Case)
  
• DragonFable: Return of Dr. Voltabolt, the infamous Dentist/Technomancer. Last year he created the techno turkey terror... this year he was attempting to making an automated pumpkin pie machine. Instead, his he created a destructive mechanical Dragon named....*transmission abruptly ends** *
  
• AdventureQuest: Be the first to experience a brand new forum-player created holiday to celebrate the Harvest. Beware the unstoppable Turkeysaurus Rex***! It all starts Wednesday afternoon.... wooohooo!

* 10 gold says there is a quest involving doughnuts
* *<Plugs the mic back in> We did not want this to leak anywhere else. The correct answer was <font="ari </p>><td> </font>.
*** Dibs on the gizzard!

Lions and Panthers and Dracula and the Opera
I love the DragonFable design notes most. That is why with less than 3 working days worth of time left to get these releases up I am going to make the rest of the team here very nervous while I take my time telling you about my adventures this weekend. It is important! Seriously! Because it involves Vampires... and I want YOU to be prepared.

I am a very simple person*. So you will not be surprised to find out that I have never been to an Opera. However, my girlfriend politely reminded me that I missed our third year anniversary** during the chaotic work frenzy that has been taking place for the last two months. I am not sure if you have ever seen a Paladin in the dog house before.... but let me be the first to say, "woof!". Those of you who have been a long time player know me pretty well at this point. I always have good intentions, but I always bite off more than I can chew*** and get side tracked easily (look, shiny object!). So, to make it up to her, I left early on Friday (first time I have left he lab before 9pm on a Friday in months) and took her to see the Opera La Bohème at the Tampa Performing arts center****. The opera was beautiful, but... never mind that... I SAW DRACULA THERE!

* Minus the whole undead slaying obsession
** BAD ARTIX! BAD!
*** Which would be "kibble and bits at the moment", hehe.
**** More like she dragged you kicking and screaming... but to your credit you only called the lab once to see how the release for DF was coming. (Note: That might have been because your phone was taken away after that)

The opera was beautiful, but... never mind that... I SAW DRACULA THERE! I am NOT making this up. He was in a black cloak, floppy wavey shirt with sideburns and pointy ears. He even had a cane. But I had to be sure it was the real Dracula, not some weird fella from downtown Tampa with a snake neck collar obsession. Unfortunately there were no reflective surfaces (at least none I could trick him into passing) and it would have probably been in poor taste to throw some garlic from the buffet on him. Fortunately The lady in the seat next to had a digital camera! What luck! But this brings up a very controversial issue. Vampires may not show up on normal cameras... BUT would they show up on digital? To answer this question I had to do a fair amount of research. Of course some of you may be calling "hootanany!" because in classic lore Vampires do indeed have reflections, however they are just scared of them. And in other myth photographs and mirrors take a part of your soul and legend says Vampires do not in fact have souls. I examined their shoes and can confidently say, on my honor, that shoe wearing vampires in fact have two soles. One under each foot. So the lady next to me fired off two shots from her camera of the mysterious vampire looking figure. As I went to examine the results Act 3 began.... and lost in the tears of the emotional closing (I was not crying, my eyes were... um... just a little strained from my constant vigil making sure the actress's character was not going to return as a Zombie.) I never got to see the proof ont he camera. In hind sight I should have given her my card and had her email the picture to post for you. In the future I will not make such a terrible mistake! Then, the next day we went to the zoo and see a baby Panther named Lucy. She was soooo cute! We need a zoo in game. What kind of animals would you expect to find in a DragonFable zoo? (it seems like it might be wrong to actually fight animals in a zoo... but it might be neat to have a zoo-break-out and you have to go recover all the animals pokemon style) See you on the forums!

November 16th, 2007
The Forge is OPEN!

Head to Yulgar's shop and he'll teach you ALL about making weapons... the HARD way.

There are a LOT of people living in falconreach and who do they then to when they want a Additional Cow Bell Of The Wharf, or a Skeletal Beacon Of Cheese? Yuglar of course! With all the new business that he's getting, he could use a little help around the shop.

Each item that you make will get you one step closer to being a MASTER BLACKSMITH, abd being able to make your own amazing weapons just like Yulgar does.

You Doom Weapons fans out there will also be happy to see the latest upgrade to the doomies are available in the recipies that Yulgar is willing to teach you.

Once again, those wise individuals who have purchased Dragon Amulets show how wise they REALLY are, as they will be able to craft more than 50 of their own weapons. Free players only get to craft weapons up to level 10.

Remember, this is only the beginning. This new crafting system opens up a ton of doors for future updates. Other blacksmiths will eventually become available with their own massive list of items to craft, helm crafting shops, leatherworkers to make your own belts... what about an alchemist to make your own potions, or maybe even your own class builder.

Enjoy the update guys, and have a groovy weekend.

November 15th, 2007
The Forge

Here is your sneak peek at the forge where you will be crafting your own weapons. The system that we made up looks just that... made up. I've never seen a system like this for leveling your skill and it should be pretty fun for most of you.

That mysterious figure will be your blacksmithing trainer. If you do some pretty simple work for him around his forge then he will gladly tell you how to make a HUGE assortment of brand new weapons!

You will be able to make weapons up to five levels higher than your current level. This means that if you're level 10 you will be able to make up to level 15 weapons from the recipies that the trainer will teach you.

This trainer will teach you how to make weapons all the way to level 35, which will be some of the strongest weapons in DF! He will give you free use of his forge any time that you like, all you need is the skill, the materials (which you will be able to buy from him in most cases, some powerful weapons may take a rare-ish world drop), and the will to craft your own finely honed weapons of monster bashing!

Fun, right?

November 13th, 2007
Weapon Smithing for Pun and Profit!
Have you ever dreamed what it would be to slam a giant hammer onto your thumb which is resting on a molten hot metal thingy? Well if you have... you have come to the right place! We are getting ready to introduce DragonFable's first profession -- BlackSmithing!

Blacksmithing: Forge your own Weapons
That is right -- you will be able to unlock recipies and build some new weapons of your very own! (Or perhaps upgrade some of your existing ones to a higher level) We are very excited about this. Read below to see how to level your skill and get recipies that will allow you to craft items.

Leveling your skill
First, because leveling up your blacksmithing skill will be a brand new.... hmmm, I guess technically it is a minigame.... but it requires more thinking and less killing. While it is hard to describe, it may be the first trade skill learning game ever put into an RPG that requires you to create a pun. It is definately wierd enough to be something you would expect and enjoy from Cysero, Zhoom and I!

Recipies
As your skill increases you will unlock the ability to create new items with Blacksmithing (Swords, Staffs, Daggers, Maces, etc). You must go to specific place to create items. For this release, it will be Yulgar's forge. You will have a 100% chance of making any items you get the materials for.

Example:
Item A + Item B = Item C
Mithril + Sword Mold = Mithril Sword

As I am sure you can imagine... we can go wild with this. For the first Blacksmithing release there will be a reasonable selection of recipies you can unlock. Then we can add more and more! (Also, as I am sure you are thinking... if this goes over well, we can also add Jewlery Crafting, Sewing [for cloaks], Armor making, etc)

Check back again for more infomation as we build it. Have any ideas for combining items that are currently in the game? Let us know on the forums! (Actually, you guys are going to have a lot of ideas.... can someone maintaina list? Be sure to make things level specific since certain items are found in specific level areas)

November 9th, 2007
Run of the Kessel!
This week's brand new quest is live. Thyton in the Shadow of the Wind Village has a special task for you.

For as long as anyone can remember the pirates of Osprey Cove have dominated the seas off the coast of Sho Nuff Island. Finally the ninjas have a secret weapon to hit the pirates where it hurts the most... in the ocean.

Using their ninja wind magic, the ninas have built a watercraft capable of matching their own inhuman speed and stealth. The Kessel is ready for it's trial run against the pirate blockade, but the ship is experimental and the test will be dangerous.

Do you have the courage and spilt second timing to make it through the blockade in one piece. Find out in DF's new quest, including the game's first in-game-minigame!

While you're in the shadow of the moon village be sure to check out SnakeEars' ninja pet shop for top of the line ninja pets to accompany you through your adventures becoming a true ninja!

I liked that so much I think I'll put it on the homepage!

November 8th, 2007
Food Tales From the Golden State.

I spent this weekend in San Francisco with my friends Mo (who lives there), Jax and Pedro. I'm going to tell you all about it. Sorry.

It was my first trip to that town and lemme tell ya, I had a BLAST! What a great city to hang out in. There was so much to see and do.... So much neat architecture, so much history, so many great museums, and lots of nice people!

One thing, tho, stuck out above all others... the food. I've had food before, and i've had good food but I've never had food like this. Every single meal that we ate was an experience worthy of it's own story complete with illustrations, but there was this one place that was beyond legend....

It's called E Tutto Qua (270 columbus ave.)! It is locted on a street corner right where Little Italy and Chinatown meet. The four of us were walking along (Mo was giving us the So I Married An Axe Murderer tour of SanFran), and this guy start telling us how hungry we looked from the front door of an Italian restaurant . We were inclined to ignore him, but he was a fantastic salesman and soon we were all looking at the very reasonbably priced menus and promising him that we would be back for dinner.

Several hours later we walk into the place, and it was hoppin'! The line was halfway around the block but the guy recognized us, greeted us like we were family and ushered us inside where we sat down and were treated what I can only describe as THE BEST MEAL THAT I HAVE EVER HAD! All of us agreed, the food was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I've had good food of all kinds, but I've never been moved close to tears of joy by a meal before.

Do you understand what I'm saying? I almost cried.

If you live in San Francisco, or plan on going any time soon, do yourself a favor and eat there. You'll thank me.

This Weekend.

I am proud to say that DF is finally getting it's first Minigame within the larger game, in the form of the FIRST NINJA CHAIN QUEST! Rolith is hard at work trying to get it to function just the way that you want it.

Thyton and the other ninjas have got a surprise in store for the pirates surrounding Sho Nuff Island, but this new secret weapon is not entirely safe. They need someone to test it out. This quest will be a race against time and will require split second timing. Do you think that you are ninja enough to take the challange?

SnakeEars, the ninja pet shop owner, will be opening her shop in the Shadow of the Wind Village! Have you ever wanted your own pet sneevil ninja? I have.

What other kinds of ninja or pirate pets would you like to see? We've got two shops that we need to fill up. Let us know on the forums!

November 5th, 2007
Last Week... amazing!
I am so proud of the team. Last week we had 5 (yes sir, Five!) releases between DragonFable, MechQuest and AdventureQuest. The PumpkinLord armor, like the desert after a big meal was by far was my favorite (See the image below) Ghost really outdid himself on that armor. Geopetal created the skills. Rolith and Zhoom coded it while Cysero modified the zone so that you could upgrade it. Last week was pretty crazy. In between massive bug fixing for MQ, getting the projects for last week done and the ones coming up started.... we had a number of major crisis -- from payment system problems (fixed), I was in a car accident (Nobody was hurt, thank goodness), the toilets at the secret underground lab ALL BROKE (bad.... bad.... bad... bad... bad.... still not fixed yet), poor Aisha was half eaten by ants and required medical help (this is a really funny story but I cannot tell it online), then her computer spontaneously died taking the new (not the old-new one, it is the new-new one) DragonFable redesign with it, and finally.... and have you guys noticed a pattern with this one? Following the new game release I got sick and spent the weekend with a fever trying to put my breakfast cereal into the fridge (and other terrible but hilarious fever-stories.... no undead this time... unfortunately... but there was the time I tried to put the remote control into the DVD player instead of the DVD.) Did I mention there were 5 releases last week? Fortunately today is a perfect day and everything is back to normal*.

* Gorgeous weather, clean air, birds in the sky, and only 3 crisis so far! (2:55pm EST) scratch that, #4 just spawned.

Forum Question
I have been thinking alot about goals and the things I would like to accomplish in life. So, I started writing a list of all of the things I wanted to do. Funny, most of the the things on this list are pretty simple. They just take the effort to go do them: Draw a manga, be in a band, make a PG-13 rated zombie movie.... there are a lot more, but you get the idea. Some of them are huge, like... I would like to build a castle. I was wondering what your goals are. What would you like to do? Who knows, maybe we can do some of then together. I will post my current list tomorrow.... but you have to go first. And hey, if you are going to make a list, THINK BIG! See you on the forums.

November 2, 2007
PumpkinLord Armor and DA Chest are here!
Hey all, just a quick update! The PumpkinLord Armor is here now! Between Ghosts absolutely awesome animations and the programming skills of zhoom and Rolith it's really super fun to play with. Watch out for tummy-ache's though! The DA only chest is also available! It has three new very cool looking capes, made by Cysero, and four new helms!

Mogloween Concluded!
Here is me, wearing the Pumpkin Armor, holding the Potent Hallow'd Edge, Pumpkin Helm, and Ghostly Green Cape. Those last 2 items will be available for gold from the DA ONLY pumpkin chest in the Cauldron SIster's Camp, along with several other Mogloween themed helsm and cloaks.

We are testing the skills on the armor now and Ghost has once again gone above and beyond on the animations, and geopetal has devised a lot of interesting skills for you to play with. With a little luck we will get this release out early but don't hold your breath.

I just wanted to say thank you to ALL of the players for making this a great Mogloween event! We all had a lot of fun, and we hope that you did too. The event will stay up for another week so that everyone can play with the pumpkin armor before it vanishes for another year.

There IS a chance that WHEN we add housing to the game (big porject but it is on the to do list) that DA WARDROBES will be available, with some or all of the armors that you've unlocked available for easy access. Want to be a ninja? want to be a pirate? Want to be a pumpkin themed powerhouse? just open your closet.

In addition to having your own place that you can decorate and show off some of your most prized items, we've been talking about a lot of the little things that we want to put into the game. Of course, our heads are filled with the most insane ideas imaginable but we have to try and keep it possible. Even still, we have a LOT of new ideas that have come from working on MechQuest, this event and chatting with some of the mods and AKs so don't be surprised if you start to see a lot of little things that will make DF a lot more fun to explore!