Did you know there are only 13 days until Lucky Week? That does not seem right somehow, but that's the way the calendar tells it. If calendars could talk. Which they can't.

But yes, 13- THIRTEEN - days until Lucky Week! We've got a prodigious amount of planning to do before we can start implementing ANYTHING. We need a plot and a script (not the same things!) not to mention a design document which will tell the artists what prettypretty arts to art up and which will tell Rolith what codes to download from the inter-matrix.

And once the art, rewards, and code are done, it'll come time for assembly and, after that, testing. Lots and lots of testing, because we're planning on doing something just a little... different... this Lucky Week. In fact, it's SO different that it won't fit into a whole day.

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It's FRIDAY! And man oh man, are we in a TGIF mood here in the Secret Underground Lab.

We spent part of the morning teaching Beleen to sing ("London Bridges Falling Down" fell flat until we had a voice-box breakthrough) and broke for pizza. Friday is usually pizza day.

A secret project was displayed in the war room, Ai No Miko kept sneezing and Mido played rock and trance music all day... It was a pretty good day, all told.

And, of course, we were working all da- Oh. Did you want me to talk about the release? Was I keeping you waiting? Sooooorry! Just having a bit of fun with you!  Here are the release details!

First up is the release we had to delay from last week. That's right, it's En and Tropy time.*

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Happy Monday!

If you're in the United States, Happy President's Day! If you're not, then again, let me wish you the most joyous of Mondays and may the rest of your week be merry.

My week WILL be merry! Now that Ravenloss is (mostly) over (apart from getting Pellow Village/SoulWeaver/ and SoulAlly out in the near future), I'm starting a new project. I'm really excited about it, because I think it's going to help improve the gameplay experience for new players AND existing players who want to make new characters.

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Hi guys!

As I write this, the war meter for Greed's side is sitting pretty at roughly 99.5%! You guys are ALMOST done with the rest of the war! And to reward you for all your hard work, we're introducing scythe replicas of the Judgement Wheel halves as soon as the war meter on Greed's side hits 100%.

They'll be sold for Dragon Coins from the War Chest in RavenLoss. They are some of the absolute prettiest weapons we have in-game. DEFINITELY worth your time and DCs to pick up!

So... ready for a peek at the art? I thought so!

Here's the Judgement Wheel: Guilt and below it is the Judgement Wheel: Innocence! I'll be oooh-ing and aaaah-ing; feel free to join in. I won't tell if you do.

                                                                OOOOOOH!

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Where is my one romance? Where is my shiny stun? Where is my happy ending? Where have all the Cherubs go-o-one? 

(Aaaah, the Design Notes have been pinkified! Noooooo! This BETTER only be for today, or I'm going to have VERY stern words with Beleen!)

Big Daddy is missing! But that's not the only problem. And if THAT wasn't enough to get your heart pounding, Falconreach is over-run by PINK undead! It's bad enough when they're grey and green and slimey, wandering around going "Arrrrooo?" and trying to kill you.
But now they're pink and slimey, wandering around going "Arrrrooo?" and trying to HUG you. To death.

They might just be trying to squeeze a little extra affection out of you but... I don't think so. Not when something has obviously altered them! But for what purpose? WHO would turn perfectly dreary undead into these pink, affable, very CHEERY undead? It just doesn't make sense!

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Happy Hero's Heart Day 2011!

This is the pinkest, heart-iest*, lovingest day of the year, and we want to celebrate it with you! And what better way to do that than with a brand new weapon set? Yay!

Coming later today will be the Poison and Roses weapon set from True Mortal. Be careful how you hold these weapons, because the love these weapons inspire is oh so beautiful, but very, very deadly!

Last week we released the previous years of Hero's Heart Day events, and THIS year's event will go live this Friday!

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The ChaosWeaver war meter is within 3% of the goal! That means in the next hour or two, you should unlock the Boss battle! And then, oh then, you'll see what has transpired due to your choices in the war.

May the Elemental Lords have mercy on you. But! Thanks to some of your fellow heroes (even possibly yourself) mercy WAS shown in this war, and that may make all the difference in the future. But I won't spoil plans any more than that for now.

Go, fight, win! The hour is upon you, and you will not be found wanting! Not if you're the hero I think you are.

Some news about the war:

Here are the war rewards we have ready for you!

• ChaosWeaver Defender scythe series
• RavenLoss WarMonger scythe series
• The Equilibrium Gate Key scythe series
• And if you chose to defend the ChaosWeavers, you'll get access to the ChaosWeaver Champion shop and cutscene. (The shop contains the BabyWeaver pet!)

Unfortunately, we were not able to finish everything in time. So the following will NOT be released when you finish the war tonight:

• Pellow Village will NOT be ready to explore at the end of the War. We will work on that next week.
• The ??? pet will be found INSIDE Pellow Village, so you'll get that once you are able to explore.
• SoulWeaver class will NOT be unlocked for everyone because the SoulAlly cutscene is not ready. SoulWeaver testing for DragonLords will be left up in it's place. REALLY sorry about that! It should be ready in the next week or so.

We're really sorry about not having everything ready, but you guys just BLEW us away with how fast you did the war!

We ALSO have all previous years of Hero's Heart Day for you to play! So once you've beaten the war boss and sated your bloodlust, head on up to Falconreach and get your LOVE-GROOVE on! Deliver Snugglegrams, beat up a beating heart, meet Safiria, and help Ash get a girlfriend! What's the story for THIS year's Hero's Heart Day? You'll find out next Friday!

And don't forget about the Artix Entertainment Gametastic Game Challenge! For the past five days, most of the AE staff have been working on ten teams to get out TEN minigames for you to play! The challenge ended a half hour ago, and we are DONE!

Both Team Robot Unicorn (Rolith, Alina, Geopetal, and J6) as well as Team B055 Fight (Ghost and Artix) finished on time! Ai No Miko is working on the game pages now on the Game Challenge Portal site so that you can test them all!

And as a SPECIAL BONUS, J6 made 11 pets based on the characters in Team Robot Unicorn's game ("Gnome Man's Land") in AdventureQuest Worlds! Log in now and get yours! (I'm buying the airship. SQUEEEE!)

You are battling valiantly! But if you fight HARDER, you'll get shiny, shiny rewards from Tomix and True Mortal added into the War Chest! 

How much harder do we have to fight, you ask? If you reach 35% on the Greed side by midnight Friday you'll get the Warmonger Crown helm. If you reach 60% on the ChaosWeaver side by midnight on Friday and the scythe will be yours!

And to whet your appetite a little more, here's a picture of the ChaosWeaver reward!

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Impeccable coordination and uncanny timing are the hallmarks of the ChaosWeaver Nation's army. Each warrior faces forward, grim eyes fixed on the foe before him, gnarled hands tightly gripping sweat-slicked weapons and they steel themselves for another fight. And another fight.

Endless battles, each a small war unto itself. All parts of the whole, greater War for the Nation! Fear is not an option. The interlopers must be annihilated! Invaders, ruthless, destroying Homeland and People in the name of... what? Conquest? Glory? Helping a friend?

BAH! All those might be good reasons for a hero. But NOT for the ChaosWeaver Nation, a wounded people who are fighting to take back what was stolen from them.  And take it back they will! Through force, through strength, by blood and steel.

Djissek, the time hasss come for djyou and djyour brethren in armsss to break away from the Army. Djyou vill lead a sssmall group- asss other Chosssen Onesss ill lead their own sssmall groupsss- and djyou vill ssseek out thisss Wheel and djyou will TAKE it and it vill become OURSSS! There vill be MANY groupsss sssearching. Ve mussst find it before the greedy Ssspirit!

Yesss, General. I underssstand. Ve vill not falter. Ve vill NOT FAIL!

Hi guys!  It's MONDAY! 

If you haven't heard what the Artix Entertainment game crew is doing this week, let me fill you in.  We've got 9 teams ranging from 1-5 people per team and we have five, count'em FIVE, days in which to make NINE minigames!  (That's roughly double the content AE puts out in a normal week!)

It should be an awesomely fun challenge!  Most of the DragonFable staff are on one team: Rolith, geo, and I are all on Team Robot Unicorn along with J6 from AdventureQuest Worlds.  So... what are we making?

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A lone figure rushes through the almost empty streets, peering into buildings, tunneling through moldering piles of trash.  Looking, looking... always searching for a goal, THE goal.  The best, the only prize.

As he searches, he takes the time to corrupt the creatures of the village, be they spirit-like Embodiment, lowly sneevmole, or cannibalistic cave creepers and death widows.  He grasps their heads in his dirty-yellow hands, brushing his fingers over their eyes, whispering softly to them. Entracing them.  Converting them. Swaying them to his side, corrupting them as their souls slowly, irrevokably become his.

As he releases each creature, their eyes glaze over and a greedy, hungry rage fills them. And fear. Fear of failure, fear that they will find the Hero, the SoulWeaver, and the PrettyPretty Girl and NOT stop them from following their new Master. The figure flings them away from him, disgusted that he has to take time from searching in order to create stumbling blocks in his pursuers' paths.  But he knows that they are the only things that lie between him and his enemies. So he takes the time. And he searches. Somewhere, surely, is his prize. He needs only to find it.

He is rushing through the streets, and muttering all the while:

Wheel so fine, so fine to grab, to take and hold; hold the prize, to grasp, so nice to grasp the wheel, so nice, so hungry the power that consumes; power so much, so much, so sweet; sweet power, pretty power, power that devours, dream your power, power your dreams...

To war, heroes!

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The ENTIRE AE Team is taking a one week break from making games... TO MAKE GAMES!

Yes my friend, you read that right! Next week, starting on Monday we are having the 1st ever one-week-long AE Game Making Challenge! Sound crazy? ... well, then maybe you should join in too!

WHAT!? You are making 7+ new games next week?
The entire staff (everyone from AdventureQuest, DragonFable, EpicDuel, MechQuest, AdventureQuest worlds) will be forming into small teams of 2 to 3 people. Each team's goal is to create a new game in only 5 days. The rules are: Anything goes & make anything you want! So far there are 7 teams. The competition starts on Monday and ends Friday night... at which time we all get to play everyting that they make! If you can program or draw, you are hereby invited to create teams with other creative players and create games too!

How will the contest be judged?
You and the staff will both judge. We are going to post several polls on the forums which will rate the completed games in different categories (Overall, Fun, Graphics, Sound/Music.)

Is this a good idea?
100% YES. After doing the weekly releases every week, for so many years, the team needs to mix things up and get their creative juices flowing. That is something that all of the big games will benefit from in the following weeks. Also, it will be really interesting to watch and see what happens!

What will the games be like?
Everyone is making whatever they want... so your guess is as good as mine, LOL! But there is only one week to make the finished game so they will likely be mini-game sized or prototypes/alphas for larger game concepts. Teams can create their own artwork, sound, and engine from scratch or are free to use things thay have already made. The goal is to be as creative as possible and have fun, there are no rules... just games!

Can I watch?
We would love for you to watch and help us with ideas while we are working on the games! We are going to post a special design notes for all teams and we are going to periodically stream live video in AdventureQuest Worlds. (A sneak peek into the secret underground lab... about to be 3.14159% less secret.)

What about the normal Big Game releases?
This Friday (just like every week) we have exciting releases coming out for you. Next weekend the games will all be running their special Valentine's Day events. So this really was the perfect time to do this. The best part is... if all team are successful, you could get 7 new games to play next Friday too! Maybe we can add achievements for beating all of them to the Master Account?

AWESOME! I cannot wait!
Enjoy the releases this weekend. Starting Monday... we are making some games! (I cannot believe how much I am looking forward to this. It feels like Christmas.)

Stepping through the Gate is like walking through a waterfall; power slowly washes over you, coursing down your skin and soaking inside you, covering you in a thin layer of chill that vanishes with a POP, remisiscent of a bubble bursting, as you break through to the other side. Find yourself standing on the edge of an island in the middle of the Void.  Welcome to Pellow Village, once a part of Ravenloss, but now ripped from the land it was formed in, left to float in isolation.  Containing power and greed, hunger and ambition, trapping them in a place where they can do no harm. As long as the Gate stayed locked.

But all that has changed now. A lone figure hurries through the streets, pausing every now and then.

Mine mine mine, it will be MINE!
Here little undertog, hello lovely deathwidow, hellow ugly sneevmole. Come to me, here to me, feel me weave inside your mind. Remember the SoulWeaver, the Hero, and my pretty pretty oh so pretty girl. Remember them and keep them from following me!

Past the building, through the shadows, oh the shadows, deep dark shadows. On my way to destiny! On my way to immortality! No one will stop me, no one CAN stop me! The power will be mine!

The Hero is NOTHING. The SoulWeaver is a FOOL. Tainted by magic he does not understand. And more prey than predator.  They are nothing to fear! And my little lovely one, she has turned against me. She would have stayed with me, she would have been mine all mine all mine, but now she is dead to me. I will take her to the Other Side and leave her there, where no one else can have her!

Aaaah, you are a funny creature! You feel like the spiders, but not.  I do not have time to understand you.  You will become my creature! Do you like the feel of me inside your mind?  Can you feel the stirrings of greed inside you?  Yesss? YESSSS? You will guard my back, too! ALL the creatures of Pellow Village will guard my back!

Down the street, around the corner.  Evidence that the villagers went mad! Look into the eyes of the children. The ones who learned to be nothing aren't sad! I am the voice of reason! I am the power that will be! The Judgement Wheel will be mine, and Greed will become all that IS!

The ruins of old buildings line the streets, concrete corpses of a time long gone.  Empty of life, no more than shells.  The darkened windows resemble lifeless eyes, silently watching the streets. Creatures stalk the avenues and alleys of Pellow Village, eyes glazed over, entraced by the weavings Greed tied into their minds. Hungry to attack the enemies of their new Master.

This is the future of Lore if Greed reaches the Judgement Wheel and grasps the mantle of immortality. The fate of the world rests with you, hero!