June 29, 2007
Friday Release

It is time to begin!

Moglin Punter (Happening now!)
The Final version has been released at EbilGames.com! Beat all of the levels with a "perfect" score to unlock the SECRET LEVEL which will reward you further with a special password. A password!? Yes.... a top secret password that can be used to access a special shop in DragonFable with items that will prove you have some Twilly punting skills!

MechQuest Pre-Registration (Happening now!)
The AdventureQuest and DragonFable community is hereby invited to create your accounts thanks to those who partipated in the sponsor event last week! Sign up at MechQuest.com

Dragon Leveling (Happening now!)
In today's release you will be able to begin leveling up your full sized Dragon and unlock amazing battle skills for the war and zone-ending Titan fights and the Dragon Arena!

Special Event: Vacation! (Happening now!)
Cysero had a great idea.... <points shoreward> to the beach! There Just happens to be one near Falconreach. I am sure a little fun in the sun will do us all good. There is no way there would be an army of millions of light monsters there..... not a chance! (Event features new rewards for all players)

Coming Next....
The Dragons have been launched and our little game is really starting to take off. Coming NEXT it is time to release the new zones, increase the level cap, and unleash the boss monsters you have been waiting for. Expect a rematch with Xan, meet Fae & Zhoom, play Artix's story (the in-game continuation of the video), level up new classes (Ninja, Pirate), check out new weapon, hair, and item shops, and prepare for your first encounter with the most powerful villian in the world.... Sepulchure. All of this and more coming next. (If you can, and have not already... get a DragonAmulet and never miss a thing!)

Today's Forcast: 99.9% chance of Godzilla

June 28, 2007
Back to the Furniture
Great Scott! The Flux Capacitor I attached to my chair will never work unless we can harness 1.5 gigawatts from a lightnight bolt! Then I can go back in time... all the way to June 27th, 2007* and write a short but clever design notes post causing..... <ZAP!!! followed by THUNDER! and a chair wheel shaped fiery skid mark on the floor>

* But oh no! But what if I get trapped back in time!? ALL THE WAY BACK IN June 27th, 2007. I would have to endlessly search (years even) for a way to get back to the present.

June 27, 2007
Time Continularity Plot Hole
My fellow gamers and friends.... I know this may be hard to believe but please hear me out. I have traveled..... <dramatic pause*> BACK IN TIME to write this post. To prove it I can tell you what will happen tomorrow! Um.... shoot, I went back in time around 10am so I really did not see anything that happened. But I do know what we were going to do for Friday....

* With really cool music -- like a.... Doooooo eeeeeeeeeeee ewwwwwwwwwwww or maybe a DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN..... and hey, what the heck, let us go all out with a " <Ouch!>
" Artix, cut that out.

Friday! Friday! Friday!

  • Full Size Dragon Training goes live on Friday!
  • Moglin Punter (Punt Twilly) final Goes live on Friday!
  • ..... plus, a special reward for beating Moglin Punter goes in DragonFable!
  • MechQuest.com Pre-registration (and new website) goes live on Friday!
  • Finally.... there is a 80% of Godzilla (I am being totally serious... so keep your fingers crossed!)

June 26, 2007
Sponsored by Red Potion!

Have you been mauled and maimed by a poorly drawn monster*? Did you step on a trap which released poisonous toxic gas**? Did you fall off your Dragon and you cannot get up***? Most likely your hp is just too low. But fear not, there is hope! Enjoy a cool smooth vial of Red Potion. Great taste, less killing! <scene of Ash drinking> "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" <cheesy product shot with ash smiling and a <TOOTH SPARKLE!>. Enjoy Red Potion.... and now, new Diet Red Potion with 0 calories!

* No sir-ee! Not in this game Mr. -- our graphics and spulingh is gud!
** Bad Daimyo, bad!
*** New product opportunity targeted at Dragonlords over the age of 60

Forum Topic: Relive some of your greatest Red Potion drinking moments with us on the forums... or are you one of those *shudders* BLUE POTION DRINKERS!?

Breaking BIG news
AdventureQuest.com is ours!
WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO! Congratulations to the A.E. team and the entire community on getting AdventureQuest.com! This is HUGE! Story time is below....

Punt Twilly (Moglin Punter Beta)
Hahahahahahahaha! <Applauds Warlic and J> This is the best minigame ever! I sent my mother a link to it just a few moments ago and she said she was laughing so hard my father thought she was injured. Well, what are you waiting for? The beta has just released -- check the news on EbilGames.com! Help us test the game and make suggestions in the forums. If you unlock the secret level, keep that password handy. Next week, your prize will become available in DragonFable (when the final version of this minigame goes live).

June 25, 2007
I Really Haven't The Faintest Clue What To Call This Post.

On the forums people keep talking about a"good design notes post" versus a "bad design notes post". I'm curious about what makes a good one good so that we can do that more often.

Some people aren't big fans of the way that they have to feed their baby dragons once per day and the rate at which the baby dragons get their abilities. I will grant you this, it IS a long time. All that I can (am willing to) tell you is that we have reasons for things being like this and we think that they're pretty good ones.

For THIS Friday we hope to release the DragonRiding skill leveling quests ( for Dragon Lords must ride their dragons into battle, using the power of the Dragon Amulet to make their dragon temporarily assume full battle form, as they did against Exodus), and hopefully the DragonArena where DragonLords can pit their skill and their dragons against one another.

We will also be releasing a little shop for the VERY skilled Punt Twilly players. The full release of the game will provide you with a special password for defeating every level. You will be able to enter this password somewhere in DF (we will tell you where when we get it set up) and open a shop with some very special hats. These hats SCREAM to the world, "HEY WORLD! I have terrible fashion sense but i'm REALLY good at the Punt Twilly game, and hey these stats aren't too bad for a free hat,"!

If we get all that done we might have time to fit in a little something extra too. Rawk!

-C

June 22, 2007
Friday Release!
Baby Dragon Feeding and The Official Punt Twilly Minigame!

UPDATE: The Baby Dragons have woken up! They are hungry and need you to teach them, so go see Lady Celestia in Sunbreeze Grove today and give them something to chew on, besides Twilly.

This and MechQuest news + Answers to Oishii's final exam coming soon..... *whispers* You Dragons are going to be SCARY powerful over time as you feed them. I was actually intimidated looking at the spreadsheet Zhoom and Cysero made on Baby Dragon skills.

"That's no castle... it's a Space Station!"
According to Anoril (Who, as one of Cysero's Defenders, I am obligated to trust with my life... or else he will kill me) today is the 1 year anniversary of the so-called "Great Cysero Rebellion" . For those of you who weren'r around let me recount the tale, in all of its glory.

~~~~~There I was in my shop...
When suddenly the door was blown open and the hallway became a storm of laser fire between my shops loyalists and the invading rebels. After the firefight Lord Asparagus entered my shop and lifted one of the loyalists by his neck.

"What have you done with those plans?" He demanded.

"We intercepted no transmissions. Aaah....This is a Dragon Coin shop. Were on a diplomatic mission." Answered the loyalist with his last breath.

"If this is a Dragon Coin shop...were is the proprietor?" Asked Lord Asparagus, and tossed the loyalist aside like a rag doll.

I knew that it wouldn't be long until they found me, so I placed the plans into the memory banks of one of my orbs. I placed the orb in one of the escape pods. I sent it to find Lady Celestia, she was my only hope.~~~~~~~~

Shortly thereafter I was taken prisoner and held captive until Artix, Zhoom and Twilly, and Lady Celestia snuck into and freed me from the Deathst... a big castle. That's how I remember it anyway.

Let me tell you a bit about how the baby dragons will work. Once per day you will be able to feed your baby dragon. The type of food that you feed it determines how many training points you earn for that day. There will be three types of food. 1 point food that Celestia will sell for gold... 2 point Special Dragon Chow that Lady Celestia will sell for Dragon Coins... and 5 point Super Dragon Chow that will be a VERY rare drop from DA ONLY dungeons.

You can put these points in one of 5 skill pools. These pools are Protection, Elemental Magic, Fighting, Assistance, and Mischief. Each pool has 5 unlockable abilities that will unlock in order as you put more points into that pool. Each ability will also grow stronger as you add points, until it reaches maximum strength and you unlock the next ability in the pool. Your baby dragon will pick when it wants to use these powers but the more Charisma and Luck that you have, the more often the dragon will use its powers.

The points will cap out at 500, but there are 200 points per pool, so you will only be able to fill 2 and a half pools max. You much choose your skills wisely.

June 21, 2007
Final Exam Day!

Ready? Did you study? Too late... here we go! (WHAT??? Well, as you know Oishii is attending some sort of design school college thingy. One of her classes started by taking a week to teach her and her fellow students how to create a folder. The following week they learned about procedural assets and shaders. Go figure.... for kicks, here are a few questions from her final exam* so you can sample the chaos she just experienced. Do you have what it takes?

* Actually, I am not allowed to use the real final exam, but, lol, this is pretty close to what her final exam looked like. Extra points for creativity! (I love our community)

Final Exam on Data Structuring
Answer the questions below the best you can and you will be strictly and brutally graded on the thourghness of your answers (but not your spelling... because I am not a hypocrite.)

1.) What is a folder?
2.) Name two asset management containment structures
3.) What is A.I. and name 2 A.I. SDKs that modern games employ.
4.) Explain the different game types: RPG, etc....
5.) Explain the difference between normal and procedural game assets.
6.) In excrutiating detail from start to finish.... define a pipeline for creating a toaster game.
7.) What is a mouse?
8.) Define "Shader" and list at least two programs which do "shading".


<slams the ruler down on the desk.... the clock is ticking away! This is a timed test you know! See you on the forums :-)>

June 20, 2007
GAME SERVER ISSUE!
NINJAS! They've invaded AE HQ (again) and Zhoom and I were fighting them off with whatever we could find. After throwing Oishii at them I ran out of ideas so I had to hit one of them with the server.

This has caused a Database Connectivity Error to occur when you attempt to do anything with the game. We apologize for that. Zhoom is working as fast as he can to get the game back up and running while I hunt down the rest of our black-clad visitors.

DON'T PANIC! We will be up and running again as soon as we can. Shouldn't be too long.

Again sorry for the inconv...THERE'S ONE! *runs after ninja*

-C

_________________UPDATE________________
Ninjas gone. Game working as of 5:19 server time.


A Clarification Of Terms Often Used In The Gaming Community, Which Can Be (And Often Are) Misunderstood To The Detriment Of Said Communities Social Health And Well-being.
A lot of people on the forums seem a little confused about what a MechQuest pre-registration means. Allow me to explain. Pre-registration does NOT mean that you will have access MechQuest in it's beta stages. Just as the beta testers for DF were Guardians, so will the beta testers for MQ be Guardians AND Dragon Amulet holders.

However, in order to play any of our games you must be registered for that game. All registration does is secure you a USER ACCOUNT (think LogIn ID for DF) for that game, and assures you a very low USER ID (but not a character ID, to get a low character ID you will need to be an early beta tester). People who Pre-register for MQ will have their accounts all ready for them, when they are able to play. If you are DA holders or Guardians then you will be able to play during the beta stages of the game. If you are still free players then you will be able to play when the game opens to the public.

If you decide to support either game by buying a Guardianship or Dragon Amulet, even after you have pre-registered for MechQuest, then you will be able to beta test and go through the nightmarish process of trying to make a new game function alonside us. Fun, right?

-C


AQ/DF/MQ Creative meeting today!

By the time you read this the entire team will be in a top secret* meeting! The topic of discussion? You guessed it... MASSIVE crossover plots, new events, and the expansion of AQ and DF. I have not gotten the Coke update from MechQuest.com yet today -- I will post it as soon as it comes in!

* Apparently I am really bad at secrets.

Story time! (The Legend of AdventureQuest.com)
Do you know why AdventureQuest is at Battleon.com? If not... sit around the camp fire with your fellow adventurers and let me take you back to how it all began. <Insert wavy flashback (not-so-special effect) here> It was a warm summer day and I was letting Daimyo out in the back yard while on a 3-way call with Warlic and Galanoth (Note: Galanoth did not have a name yet at this point) We decided to call the game... AdventureQuest. It was so ridiculously redundant we could not help but to laugh every time we said it out loud*. At the time, AdventureQuest was just the inside of an inn with 4 monsters** hosted in a sub directory of my personal homepage. That is when you guys showed up and caused the insane crazyness and chaos that we have all enjoyed together for the last 5 years..... we have really had some good times. *I actually just smiled and stared up at nothing for a serious amount of time before realizing I had not finished the post yet!* Whoops, back to the story.... By the time we were able to afford a domain name for the game, AdventureQuest.com*** was taken. I always used to sign all of my letters, "Battle on!" so we pitched it to those of you who were on the forums and everyone thought it sounded good (better than renaming the game for certain!). And then it was done... our new home was Battleon.com and the town was named (and for the record no one ever really declared this, it was just one of those wierd things that happened) the town of Battleon! We have been very happy at Battleon.com but.... well, let us just say that I think everyone at one time or another has asked me why AdventureQuest was not at AdventureQuest.com. So we.... OMG THE AQ/DF/MQ creative meeting has just started! *AFK*

* Well, I was laughing...
** Poorly drawn at that! *flexes*
*** By a travel company no less.... we asked if they could sell us discounted trips to Lolosia and they never responded.

June 19, 2007
Dragon Skills and Moglin Punting *whispers* Friday!!!

Cysero and Zhoom are working on the baby Dragon skills! All players will be able to feed their baby Dragons once per day allowing their Dragons to gain new skills. Meanwhile, Warlic completed 50 stages of Twilly punting madness for those of you who enjoyed the DragonFable intro a little too much*. This new miningame is 100% guarenteed to go live either Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or um... Monday... or sometime next week or thereafter? (It will go on EbilGames.com of course!) Finally, the server maintence last night went GREAT! Capt freed up 4 Gigs of space on the DF database and Zhoom added some fields that will allow you to permanantly change your class without losing your base class in the near future!

* As much as we did.

June 18, 2007
And
ONE THREE Games to Rule them all!
This is a true story. Last week, on a warm and sunny day, Daimyo and I walked passed a big tree. Suddenly out of nowhere a giant hawk swooped to the ground! The wing span of the hawk was huge. It had its back to me as it attempted to gain control over whatever prey it had just snatched from the tree. That is when I saw it.... a squirrel charged down the tree, across the grass, and slammed full force into the side of the hawk. It was unthinkable.... The tiny squirrel which stood no chance against this giant hawk just rammed full speed into it! The hawk was shocked and began to move as the Squirrel attacked again. Then I saw something that I will never forget as long as I live. The Hawk retreated to the sky..... as he flew away in fear, from a tiny squirrel, I watched the Squirrel and its little squirrel buddy that it just saved run back up into the tree together. This is a true story, it happened last week.

It is funny how the actions of even the smallest creature can change how we feel about taking on challenges far greater than ourselves. P.S. If you ever get attacked by a deadly flying monster with claws that is five times your size.... I will charge into it at full speed just like that squirrel!

MechQuest: 9,800 more until registration!
Just to clarify the breaking new news at MechQuest.com pre-registration will be open to everyone (all countries) when it opens. However, the Coke promotion that must completed before signups start can only be done by those of you in the U.S. We are all pretty excited about a game that will give us a little diversity from sword and spell slaying. I am going to be spending Mon, Tues, and Sat working on MechQuest and Wed, Thurs, and Fri I will be working with Cysero on DragonFable. If you think I am out of my mind, just wait until you hear about the MMO plan. It is good to be home... I missed you guys a lot! Now, it is time to start some trouble!

The Return Of Artix.
He's back from all of his voyage! He was gone for a very long time but he has returned to us unharmed and mostly sane. We had time to say "Hi Ar..." before he dove straight into work on MechQuest! He now has to divide his attention between three games (and countless other projects) so he has to get his attention span enlarged to fit everything inside it. The surgery is scheduled for Friday.

SPEAKING OF FRIDAY: Geo and I have begun working on the baby dragon training and we've already got a pretty solid roadmap of how the baby dragon is going to work. Zhoom is hard at work killing bugs that you guys found in the DragonLord Armor. After the babies have started eating solid food, we move on to training the fully grown battle form dragons, and the Dragon arena. Then we do some other stuff.

I'd tell you about that stuff but then I would run out of material for the design notes, wouldn't I?

-C

Oh yeah...

The AdventureQuest and DragonFable game servers will be OFFLINE for scheduled monthly game database maintenance tonight.

IMPORTANT (And Exportant to!)
Server Maintenance: Completed!
AdventureQuest, DragonFable, The Payment System, and my Toaster will be down for maintence between 11pm and 3am EST today. Rest assured that Cap'n Rhubarb and Zhoom would never accidentally put 1,000,000,000 gold on your character while doing whatever it is they do to the poor database servers..... hmmm, what DO they do to the database servers? Pep talks? Massage? Take them for a walk? Add new fields for the upcoming guilds, castles, multi class tracking, and customizable items? No idea... really! During that time I highly suggest playing some minigames at EbilGames.com! Do not worry, we will be up before 3am when the WoW servers go down for weekly maintance (Yup, we know all about you guys... and we have you covered.)

Completely Ureleated to Server Maintenance
The Design Notes war between Artix and Cysero has officially begun... expect typos.

P.S. "Optimus Prime Rib" -- Awesome HeavenAtheme! *Still laughing*

 

June 15, 2007
The Armor Of The DragonLord.

For the past week the priestess, Lady Celestia, has locked herself in her small cottage in Sunbreeze Grove, only venturing out to speak to you about your dragon. If you pulled open the solid oak doors to her home you would have seen stacks of parchment and piles of heavy, ancient books covering every flat surface. Patiently, she has been pouring over the old tales of the ancient DragonLords from early morning until her last candle burns itself out deep in the night, humming a simple tune and sipping her favorite tea. She has read the legends, tales, myths, rumors, ballads and histories, all to try and locate a complete and whole set of DragonLord armor for you. Finally, she thinks that she might have found something...

DragonLord Armor: Has been released. Speak to Lady Celestia for details.

NOTE: The baby dragons need a little more sleep and will NOT be waking up today. You will not be able to begin their training quite yet.

...later

WHEW! We were later than usual in getting this update out and we hope that we killed all the nasty little bugs that started popping up at the last minute (it's like THEY KNOW!). But I'm happy to report that the DragonLord APPEARS to be fully functional and really fun to play! Also released, as promised, were 6 new dragon heads, bringing the total to 46, and 6 new wings for a total of 14. I hope that you guys enjoy playing the class as much as I do because if you don't there is something wrong with you and you should see a doctor.

Have a good weekend! Or else!

-C

June 14, 2007
Of DragonMasters and Typos!

Ok, I've got some Forum issues to tackle today.

FIRST: The DragonMaster Armor.. We has originally discussed making thisa DA armor that was the first step in becoming a DragonLord. We trashed the idea for seceral reasons. Somewhere along the line, some hopeful players suggested that the DragonMaster Armor would be for free players while the DragonLord Armor would be for DA players only. People began repeating this rumor to each other and soon, before we could stop it, our beloved free players (we DO love you, you know) were getting their hearts broken left and right when the forum Mods would tell them the truth.

It needs to be repeated. We have no plans to build a DragonMaster armor right now, and the rumor that it was intended for free players was only a rumor based on wishful thinking. If someone reminds you of this, don't flame them... instead, think back to that first hopeful player who started the rumors and curse his/her name for building your hopes up.

There WILL be many new armors for both free players and Dragon Amulet holders as we expand the world of Lore futher with the TWO NEW ZONES that we have planned (it's about time that you met Zhoom for the first (second) time. )

SECOND: A lot of people have been making fun of me for my typos. So, i've decided to pry all the vowels off of my keyboard before typing the next part. Give me a second.

Thr. Nw y cn't tll f ths r typs r nt. Ths s th lst tht wnt t hr bt t.

Y cn xpct t 6 NW DRGN HDS ND 6 NW DRGN WNGS tmrrw, n ddtn t th rls f th DRGNLRD RMR! G tlk t Ldy Clst f y hvn't gttn yr drgn gg yt!

-C

June 13, 2007
How To Raise A Dragon!

Artix has vanished again on another of his grand adventures and left this week's release in our capable hands. I just don't have the energy to be quirky today so intead I will give you guys some coming attractions.

FRIDAY: This friday we hope to release the quest in which you can obtain your DragonLord armor, and the quest which allows you to train your new armor up. This will be a new system that allows you to obtain your armor starting at lvl 8 and every level after that, you can go on a quest to get your next ability until the armor has its full set of abilities. Ghost has been animating his brains out to make this armor's attacks unique and interesting and so far it is only mind blowing. He can do better.

*reminder: The DragonLord class armor is ONLY available to Dragon Amulet holders. There has been a lot of talk and theories on the forums about a DragonMaster class but as of right now there are no plans to develop this into a class armor.

FUTURE: Many of you are wondering how the baby dragon is going to work once it wakes up. So are we. We have a pretty good idea that it will work like this. Both DA and Free players will be able to train the baby dragon by logging on and feeding it once a day. By feeting their dragon they get one stat point to allocate into different pools (like stat points work when you level your characters up). The different pools will give the dragon different abilities to access during battle using its own AI when fighting beside it's master, depending on how many points you have in that pool. You miss a day of feeding... you miss a stat point.

I must away. Zhoom has been coding all day at a furious pace and his fingers are little tiny nubs now. I have to to the programmer store and get new ones for him.

June 12, 2007
Bluetooth Update!

Zhoom and I each got new cell phones recently. A good amount of today was spent trying to find each other wirelessly over our bluetooth enabled phones (even tho we were sitting less than a meter from each other), so that I could give him some of my MP3s to replace his ringtone. We've had no luck yet, but we haven't given up the fight. We have managed to FIND each other, which is the first step. He has mamaged to send me Artix's contact information (which i had).

We REFUSE to shell out the six bucks for the data cable that DIDN'T come with Zhoom's phone. Geopetal has informed me that her new cell phone is also Bluetooth capable. We might be able to user her phone as some sort of file sharing middle-man (woman). It will take hours of work and concentration to call this experiment a success, but we can't give up until the secrets of wireless connectivity reveal themselves to us.

I will keep you guys posted on how we are doing.

Oh yeah, five more dragon heads, and at least five new tails will be released by 8 this evening (server time) . Oishii has produced six more heads and Thyton has drawn us six more wing types, all of which are in production (and all of which look rad). With some luck, the DragonLord armor, and the ability to fully train it up, will be ready for Friday's release.

June 11, 2007
Showing Our Colors!

We didn't like the dragon colors. There were only 9 of them and none of them looked very good, so today we applied a new set of colors to select from (72 total I think) and we also added 15 new dragon heads. More heads, at least 6 new wing types and several new tails are on the way (probably tomorrow, amybe not the wings) and the DragonLord armor should be coming friday.

I'd tell you more but Zhoom keeps throwing pencils at me, and it's getting dangerous to continue typing.

-C

June 10 & 11, 2007
Happy Birthday DragonFable!

Wooohooooo -- Congratulations everyone! Today is the one year birthday of DragonFable. Oooooh cake! <The Baby Dragon goes to blow out the candle... but breathes fire!*>You can join in the festivities by donning the DF Birthday hat in Patch's Barber shop and joining your friends on the forums remembering the good times we have had during the last 12 months.... and discussing the GREAT times that are about to come (Feel free to make a wish). If you were one of the brave ones who believed in us and supported us when we made DF live one year ago.... Victory is yours**!

One year later, we are very proud to say, "NO SERVER CAP ON DRAGONFABLE!" <The applause just keeps going, and going, like the energizer bunny> We worked so hard on so many things and it is great to see them all in the game --- including PvP, Stackable Items, Merge Shops, Pets, Guests, new Towns, NPCs, Story Quests, Wars, the Video, forum contests, hordes of new items (some with specials!), and we already have what appears to be over a years worth of new art created for you. Even as you read this the team is coloring, animating, writing*** and coding the insane things you will be seeing soon... hmm, if Dragons hatched now, what will the event be for next year's birthday? Any ideas? Whether you have your DragonAmulet or are a free player, we are making good things for you. Look forward to the level cap raise, DragonLord saga, Guilds, Housing, and new Zones featuring Ninjas, Pirates, Necromancers, Paladins, Liches, Elemental Mages, Rangers, the secret of the DOOM weapons and more!

We would like to thank the Dragon Amulet holders (DAs) for making this game possible. It is because of your support that we have been able to afford the servers, bandwidth, and Cysero's yogurt**** which allows ALL players to enjoy our weekly releases without a server cap. Thank you for believing in us... we will continue working hard and not let you down!

Another thank you and congratulations to everyone! This is a HUGE milestone in DragonFable's history. I do not know how to put into words what a true honor it is for the entire team to work on this game for you. We have accomplished so much, but this is only the beginning....

Happy Birthday DragonFable -- Battle on!
Artix, Cysero, Zhoom and the DF Team

*Very cool looking if not an ironically counter-productive use of the fire breath weapon!
** And so is the right to say, "I told you so!" (P.S. Go easy folks, or the moderators will hunt me down... again)
*** With lots of typos of course!
**** I discovered that while I was gone, Cysero was working late at the office every night.... some nights he was there until 3am, and one night he stayed so late that he just slept there! In my book, that crazy mage earned all the yogurt he can eat.

June 8, 2007
The Dragon Eggs are hatching NOW!

7:45 pm EST - WE ARE LIVE!
The DragonLord Saga has begun.......... *waves goodbye to servers* (The forums have already been completely destroyed) This is an authentic late night DF release.... Battle on my Friends! More updates are on their way.... new Dragon heads, more colors, the Dragon Arena, DragonLord Armor quests, and much much more! Prepare for three weeks of Dragony goodness, and it all starts NOW!


7:30 pm EST
LOL -- You know you are running behind then you get PMs from the staff and phone calls from team-member's parents asking* "WHEN ARE YOU GUYS RELEASING!!!!?". I do not think we can hold out much longer... bugs or not, we are going live within the next half hour. We are going to update the Dragon skin/horn/eye/wing color pallete again shortly after launch -- so check in again shortly for more color options for your Dragon! Hold on to your hats (or helms) friends.... The DragonLord Saga Part 1 is preparing to launch!

* Demanding and threatening to withhold dinner

7:00 pm EST
Fixing last minute bugs.....

6:30 pm EST
Geopetal just ran through the Titan battle quest and managed to make her character 6 stories tall.... we are, um, fixing that now. We are finalizing the color pallete for the Dragons, and fixing a few bugs and we are ready to roll. ALMOST THERE!

6:00 pm EST
It is only a matter of time now! Of course.... we still do not know how much. *gulps* The Titan fight is in final balancing and we are in testing. If I had to stake my life on the EXACT time of this release... I would probably order a coffin online first. BUT -- there is somethign important you should know before this release, and you will be the front line at handling this question. You MUST choose an egg for your Dragon to hatch.... and you will not know what it means until long after your Dragon hatches (Cysero is so evil) So if you have not already chosen an egg.. do it now! The release will be live soon!

5:00 pm EST
Editing: Round 3.... and testing!
We have 20 of the 40+ Dragon heads ready for this release. Zhoom is making it so you can customize your Dragon at no charge until after the rest of the heads are released. It is getting late... we are starting to get nervous....

3:30 pm EST
Legend of the Dragon Boxes
It is written in legend that TWO boxes were gifted upon mankind that would determine the fate of our world. First, was the White Dragon Box. It is said that this box would be cared for by the greatest hero in the land and the Dragon hatching from it would one day save the world! Then, there is the Black Dragon Box.... legend says it would be obtained by the most vile and evil villian in the world who would hatch a Dragon of unspeakable darkness to destory the world. The conflict to come will pit the good dragon from the White Dragon Box, against the evil dragon from the Black Dragon Box. It will be a battle for the fate of the world and everything is going exactly according to... WHAT THE HECK!?

3:00 pm EST
We are getting close! Take this moment to go look at your Dragon Egg one last time...

 

2:00 pm EST
Today, the dragon eggs found in both the White and Black dragon boxes will hatch. You have already done so much, so we are not going to stall you with any additional quests. When the release goes live.... you will proceed immediately to the moment you have all been waiting for! The Baby dragon will initially be very weak... perhaps our weakest pet ever (the strongest things always start off this way). Each day you will be able to train it making it into the most powerful pet of it's element (whichever one you choose) in the entire game. For special quests, the Dragon arena, and exclusive areas players with a DragonAmulet will be able to make their Dragons full size and ride them to battle against Titan sized creatures. These dragons will have a full set of skills that you will influence by training your baby Dragon. This release will take place over three weeks with the very first part starting soon!

TODAY: Expect your Dragon to hatch (BEST CUTSCENE EVER!), then customize your Dragon with the first heads, tails and wings, element and be the first to see 2 new front facing NPCs, and go on the first ever Titan battle quest... which will take place somewhere very near and dear to all of our hearts.

Below: Ghost's Dragon Animation Sketches

12:00 pm EST
This is the best compliment post ever!

More coming, shortly*!
* Replace with actual name if your name is not shortly.

The Return of Artix
Aburptly dissapearing, leaving Cysero in charge of the most important week in DragonFable's entire history while flying off to 5 major cities and a dozen meetings over the last four days.... what was I thinking!? (Note: Geopetal writes in Purple and Cysero writes in Green) Well, whatever I was doing it must have been very important! Unfortunately they used that MIB mind wiping thing on me so I do not remember a thing! I returned to the secret underground lab at midnight last night. Things are crazy here! The lab smells like coffee and Dragon parts and the sound of typing is so intense that it sounds like an army of insect monsters clack, clack, clack -- swarming to anihilate! I would hide under my desk... but it is gone! They ran out of room writing on the white-boards and just started writing code on the walls... madnesss... madness I say! Just what you would come to expect for a good Friday launch. Wether you are a veteran of our launch day madness or just joining us for the first time.... I look forward to crashing the servers with you tonight. Battle on!

June 7 , 2007
"Men (and women) at work"
Hey all! We've been hard at work on getting everything ready for the release. The Lady in White will return tomorrow, we'll also get another peek in Sepulchure's lair. Last, but definately not least, the eggs will finally hatch and you'll also get a small taste of what it is to ride a dragon this week! The quests for the DragonLord armor itself will begin soon.

We'll be burning the midnight oil (cooooofffffeeeeee) to get this release all done in time for the servers to go *boom* on Friday. The cutscenes are being wrapped up and we've been hard at work at testing the Dragons skills and making sure that the dragon is able to get to where he needs to go.

June 5 , 2007
"Let's Hide"
Geopetal: Cysero, have you seen Artix?
Cysero: Yeah, he's about this tall, brown hair.
Geopetal: No I mean, have you seen artix recently?
Cysero: Yeah... he still looks like that.
Geopetal: *sigh* CYSERO, WHERE IS ARTIX?!
Cysero: OOOOoohhhhhhh! I dunno.
Geopetal: *slaps her forehead*
Cysero: But he did send us this postcard.

Geo: "Dear friends, Better Crypts and Grave yards has picked ME to be this year's Mr. Undead! I know we have a lot going on with the dragons hatching on Friday but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity... blah blah blah... sent around to rate the countries best undead-fighting-graveyards.. .blah blah blah... good luck, see you soon. -Artix

P.S. Cysero is in charge??!"

Cysero: *big silly grin* Are you thinking what I'm thinking Geopetal?
Geopetal: I think so C, but how would everyone carry their weapons if they were changed into rocks for a week?
Cysero: *blink blink *
Geopetal: That isn't what you were thinking, was it?

Cysero: No, it wasn't. Listen: This will be a big weekend for DF and the servers will PROBABLY explode. The dragons hatch on Friday and everyone who has their egg gets their own dragon, but the full release will roll out over the next 3 weeks. Things will change a lot over those weeks depending on how the players feel. It means a lot of hard work for us... and Friday is coming fast.

Geopetal: Ok, so what's your point?
Cysero: My point is this: All that sounds really hard, let's hide instead. Wanna go bowling?
Geopetal: What?! No! We have to finish the dragons. The DF players have waited a really long time for this and it's going to be great! We've got to finish this for them.
Cysero: Fine. Dragons first. Then bowling.

June 1 , 2007
EbilGames.com (New!) GOES LIVE!
Go to EbilGames.com and play
We have just released our new minigame site with the full release of our latest three minigames, including Deady! You are able to download many of our games to put on your site. Why are you still reading this... head to ebilgames now, Zorbak commands it!

Just opened: The EbilGames.com Battleon Forums -- Discuss the games!

P.S. I have a special favor to ask -- Can you help us spread Jimmy the Eye and Deady around the internet? There is a download link on both of the games where you can download a .zip file continaing the games and sample HTML code. Those of you who frequent other flash minigames sites that allow their users to post games -- can you post it there and put a link to us? Thank you!

FORUM QUESTION: What minigames do you want next? Warlic, who will also be working on the upcoming Mech game, will be creating a few new minigames too. My vote is to finish punt Twilly, but I would also like to see the "Wack-a-sneevil" guys on the forums see their game become reality. What do you think? Have any wild new ideas?

Zhoom's new Sword
Zhoom's sword has been updated to match his upcoming NPC which will make a special appearence in the hatching quest (Which will be REALLY bizzare). You can see it if you PvP against him in the arena (ID# 2) Once the Dragon Eggs hatch next Friday it will be followed by a few weeks worth of new Dragony quests, monsters and the highly anticipated levelable DragonLord armor. We are expecting his release to be the greatest train wreck in the history of the game (Servers crashing, bugs, flame engulfed moglins jumping out of windows... you know, the normal sort of thing you have come to expect from us.)

Players: We love watching a good train wreck!
DF Team: Whew... it is fourtunate that we are so good at making them!
Players and DF Team: YAY!