May 31, 2006
The Release is coming!
We are just over a week away from our release. So many of us can see the potential in this game. Every story has a beginning...and you are one of the great players standing right at the beginning of this one. Thank you for being a part of it! Our plan is the same, new areas to DragonAmuletexplore, lots of new stuff, lift the level cap, and allow you to get the best items and more gold so that you are ready for what is to come next! We have the core game stable, so next we will be working to release more ways to personalize your character -- advanced classes with new skills (including Guardian), main storyline (plot) quests, weapon special effects, and skills like fishing, mining, cooking, alchemy. Not to mention Guilds, Castles, and AI-driven PvP. We have ambitious plans for DragonFable -- and we can do it! Below is information on how you can help.

DragonAmulet
Finally! Next Friday you will be able to purchase a DragonAmulet for your character. This magical amulet will allow your character to enter an ever expanding number of special areas in the game and equip the most powerful items. It will also unlock an additional three character slots. It is just like Guardianship in AQ and the price will be $19.95. In addition to being one of the very first to obtain a DragonAmulet -- which plays a vital role in the story, you will also be supporting the growth of DragonFable, helping us achieve all of the goals. Because you are a Guardian, we are making a special offer to you: For a little more, you can upgrade your entire account. Yes, your entire account -- including all of your existing characters AND all new characters you make on that account. That is a total of 6 characters with the DragonAmulet.

DragonCoins
If you have been to Cysero's shop in the game, you have probably been wondering how to get these coins. They are an ancient form of currency with a mysterious origin. Along with your DragonAmulet you will get 200 of these VERY valuable coins. Suggestion: If there is an offer to get more.... take it! (and horde them until Castles come out) Trust me on this one.

May 30, 2006
A Date has been set!
Friday, June 9th, 2006 -- We wipe the word Beta off of the DragonFable website! I want to tell you more, but OMG there is so much to do! Wish us luck.

May 28, 2006
VICTORY!
Congratulations to the Guardians on winning the first DragonFable war! The special prize shop will be available until the end of Tuesday. These items are excellent... only seconed to the DragonLord weapons. A special thank you to you for playing in the beta. The prize for the mages has been fixed and will function as a staff. Congratulations!

The Doom Weapons... what are these things?
This... this.... is unthinkable! Did they actually grow in power? By simply being in your backpacks on the battlefield... did they charge up with unnatural dark energy? Is it possible you were feeding them by battling the undead? Are they cursed? Are they some sort of a test? Is it dangerous to even own one?

P.S. On a game developer's note... these things are the most powerful items in the game. Were they not supposed to get nerfed? .. or even removed? WHY DID THEY GET STRONGER? WHAT IS GOING ON?

May 26, 2006
Undead Army Approaches!?
See the homepage for an eye-witness report from old man Grizzleguts!

May 25, 2006
Doomwood: One evil forest that plans to branch out!
Most of the time when a web comic artist is running behind schedule he/she skips releasing a comic. In my case, I am running behind schedule on the game so I made you a web comic. This is one forest I recommend not taking your character for a stroll in! (Note: No players were harmed in the making of this web comic) View the comic

May 24, 2006
What will the Dragon Amulet Bearers be called?
Lloyd Laff a lot on the forums made an excellent point. In AQ, Guardians are called... well... Guardians. What will characters with a Dragon Amulet be called? Gorobei was pushing along the right line of thought. Without giving away too much... those who wear the Dragon Amulet are destined for for something amazing. Perhaps they should be called... The Destined? Let us know your thoughts on the forums. Also, I wanted to show you some of the new monsters on their way. J6 just finished animating these three... In addition we have bandits, Warlic's favorite -- the flying eyeball, an aqua sneevil, and an ice yeti (Maybe IceMaster Yeti will be showing up in game too!)

May 22, 2006
Technical Victories!
While we are working towards our next big release I would like to congratulate the team on getting the tough stuff done! Capt. Rhubarb and Zhoom worked together and got the load balancer setup up. (Load Balancers make a bunch of servers appear to be just one. AdventureQuest uses this and so do a lot of big sites like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) This means they also got cool stuff done like the backend filemanager (I upload once and... BAM... all the servers are updated with the new files instantly). AQ and DF are made up of hundreds of files (Many thousand in the case of AQ) and just keeping track of them all can be a tricky task.

New Stuff
Cysero has 5 monsters in the works and 22 new dagger models that Oishii is coloring now. J6 has dedicated a large amount of time over to DragonFable to help us get the new monsters animated. Additionally, since Galanoth has been sneeking some of my weapons into AQ I am going to port a few of my favorite AQ monsters into DF. Any favorite monsters from AQ yo uwould like to see ported over to DF? Let us know on the forums. We liked the idea of using the Seekers to hunt the last of the Guardians! (Thanks Blackfire)

DragonStones
Also, as a secondary in-game curency we talked about Coins and Tokens.... but I think we finally decided on DragonStones. A DragonStone is a magical stone with a glowing rune on it. Those who know the rarity and value of these items are likely to trade very... very... very impressive weapons, equipment, and pets for them. Yes, a pouch full of these stones will come with your DragonAmulet.

May 19, 2006
Playing with Action Figures
Do you remember how you played with Action figures? You know… G.I Joe, Transformers, He-Man, etc. We had a long and very eye opening series of talks about it… and were surprised to find that the way we play games now is very similar to the way we used played with Action figures. We would love to hear your personal stories on the message forums… I will start by summing up some of ours:

Artix: I always created huge armies (undead zombie theme when possible… even with robots… undead robots rule!) and always used a lone action figure hero to charge head on and destroy them all.

Cysero: Would carefully lay out devious traps then guide a small party of action figures to their terrible doom picking them off one at a time.

Safiria: Always played with friends and would go on rescue missions where the key was stealth…. Sneaking past foes instead of combat.

Warlic: Had all out wars pitting all of his different toys (regardless of genre, size, or um… self build) in a giant battle completely justified by science! His favorite character was Storm Shadow.

Zhoom: Played with a wheel. (Judging by his name, our guess is that he rolled it very fast.)

I have no idea why talking about this stuff is sooooo much fun, but it is. Anyone who says differently needs their sig picture changed to a My Little Pony as punishment. Someone please start a thread and lets share some stories. By the power of the Ewok Forest and Castle Grayskull!

May 16, 2006
New Town and Quests Live!
We fought through bugs, battled with lag, broke more stuff than we fixed... but it is here! Login and see what you think. We have been making edits and updates all day based on the message forums -- thank you so much!!! The current Game Build has been upgraded to 2L8 (Appropriate since we were supposed to be at this point a month ago) Lets all look forward to the live release which will be 2G84DB8. (Actually, it will be 3... just 3. My favorite number!) But before that... we have our first big in-game event coming up!

New Record!
... and it is Tuesday. But we would like to call it TWO THOUSAND-THS DAY! Congratulations to the players of DragonFable, we hit 2000+ simulatanious users (and look, no server crashing!) 2010 as of the last time we checked. That is like 5 more than the number of years that have passed since the Millennia!

Bugs Squishing Hammer of Justice +2!
Our apologies again. The bug fix from yesterday made some... um.. new bugs. "Oh noes! They have learned how to multiply themselves!" Zhoom fixed it and uploaded a new version just a few moments ago. We will be releasing a new version of the game tonight with the final version of town and the two new quests.

May 15, 2006
New Town going live tomorrow! (And sorry for the bugs today)
We will be releasing the New Town as well as two new quests tomorrow: The Linken Lumber Mill and The Sneevil Secret Base. To get the quests previously given out by Fae... I mean.. um.. who is Fae? Ash will serving as the official town crier for a while and you will be able to get to most of the quests from him. We apologize for the NaN and Anti-healing bugs in the game today -- if you refresh your browser these bugs should now be fixed. We need to get this new town launched as soon as possible... we need DragonFable's first war!

May 12, 2006
Build U2 Features!
Zhoom just make the new version live. Below is what we need help testing!

  • You can now level up in the middle of a Quest
  • Improved Inventory (w/ new icons too)
  • Improved Shop

New town coming Monday! (Maybe Tuesday)
I will be working through the weekend to finish up the new town -- it is looking SO GOOOD and is much more functional than the existing one. In game, Artix and the gang will be departing, so say your goodbyes this weekend. Next time you see them, will be.. um.. the first time you see them!

May 11, 2006
Tomorrow's release!
We have a brand new inventory and shop system ready to go live. A new version of the town is nearly complete which has been compacted into a single file... no more multi-download-waiting! You will be able to level up in the middle of a quest AND exit quests without fullly completing them ( keeping the gold and exp you have earned too!) Next week we will be releasing new monsters, you will be able to explore the first of our three new Areas and be the first to see the new Intro quest. Look forward to watching Artix crumble under the pressure as deadlines slip through his fingers like sand!

May 10, 2006
Is that Dragon laughing at me?
"9 Dmg? Hahahahahaha!" *Begins to cast Firebreath*

May 9, 2006
Special Announcement
Congratulations to Furfur and Enzik, the first to wield the Twin Blades of Doom! As per our tradition we have crafted two new daggers in their honor which can now be found... somewhere.... No one knows... Not even Enzik and Furfur! *Dings the gong* Let the hunt begin!

This just in: A third set of Daggers is being smithed by the Utilitarian Mage, Cysero for Lord Max II. What is a Utilitarian Mage you ask? Well, there are two types of mages... Battemages who use their magic for combat, and Utilitarian Mages who use their magic to.. um... light street lights, unclog sewer jams (Alligators get stuck from time to time) and finally, to create magic weapons!

The Dragonlord's Arsenal
Several brave adventurers have already discovered magical items deep within the dungeons which require the power of the DragonAmulet to unlock. There is a legend which surrounds these items.... a legend that.... OMG! Lookout it is.... *silence*

May 8, 2006
One-ish week left!
We have the three base classes released, now we need to start getting these new areas up! It always seems like a lot less work when you are just thinking about it. Below is a list of expected improvements coming this week:

  • Better Inventory (Easier to see and select your items)
  • Better Quest System (You can get exp from a quest if you leave it early)
  • New Areas (We have no idea what to do first, but we better get it up fast!)

May 6, 2006
E3... are you serious?
Everyone knows that E3 is the biggest game related convention of the year. All of the big companies show off their stuff and it is all magazines and websites will be talking about for a good while after. Getting an unsolicited invite to attend E3 was an incredible honor for our small and growing team. This is our chance to shake hands with the biggest names in the business. Since our beginning we have been shocked (and you might be too) to find out just how many game company execs and famous folks (and their kids) have AdventureQuest accounts. So, which member(s) of the team will we send in then? If you guessed Artix, Galanoth and Safiria -- you WOULD have been correct if it were not for the deadlines and unavoidable responsibilities. But because E3 is a big chance to make some business contacts and meet with a lot of the people we have relations with face to face -- we sent in three members of our elite business team. The business folks do not get mentioned much... first because they do not have online names (yet), and second, because for some reason talking about advertising costs, legal bills, tax planning and accounting are a lot less exciting than the upcoming DoomKnight class and legendary Shadow Weapon collection. Not sure why *looks perplexed*. But what makes this entire post worth reading.... is that my Father is going to be at E3. *the sound of jaws dropping and hitting the floor makes it almost impossible for you to hear your own thoughts*.

May 5, 2006
New Record: 1632+players online!

Special Announcement
The Rogues have been unleashed and the game has been upgraded to Phase 2I (Two Eye). Which is ironic since.... um.... you can only see one of the character's eyes. New quests coming next week! Also, 18 players were accidentaly sold what appeared to be heavily underpriced editions of the Daggers of Doom by Sabrina... their daggers turned out to be fake replicas! Fourtunately, Sabrina has apologized and is offering to buy the fake ones back for 500 gold. The real Twin Daggers of Doom are now available for 20,000 gold and as per our tradition, the first player(s) to earn them will get an item added to the game in their honor.

Is anyone else curious about these Doom items? What are they, who made them, where did they come from? *Thinks* Gosh, I hope they are not the property of some Unstoppable Diabolical Undead Overlord capable of launching a full scale assault on the small defensless town in order to... nah, it could never happen.

Artix Entertainment at E3
A few months ago we were very suprised to recieve an invitation to E3. (Does that mean we are a real gaming company?) Safiria and I spent a lot of time talking about it and who should go and what should we plan to see while we are there.... (Please use this moment to guess which member(s) of the team will actually be going to E3: Artix? Galanoth? Zhoom? Safiria? Nythera? Cysero? Captian Rhubarb? or Perhaps another Team member?) ... *dramatic pause*.... The plane takes off on Monday, there will be a special post this weekend with the answer (Hint: You will never guess this one in a million years... and it is crazy... pure madness!)

Rogues are about to be released!
I was up until 3am last night... Hungry... Tired... Nearly fell asleep before I finished it. But that is what you get when you stay up late to watch a movie! OMG, Final Fantasy: Advent Children was so good! Moving on to a completely unrelated subject... Yesterday, we finished the Rogue (ON TIME!). We are taking the server down today for some heavy database changes and when it comes back up... lets get stabby! Battle on!

Health and Mana for all!
I agree heavily with the threads about Mages having more mana, Warriors have more health and so forth.... I think AdventureQuest did it best . Start at 100hp 100mp and let the player decide what he/she wishes to put points into to get an additional bonus. So when the server comes back up, all charracters will be enchanced with more Mana as if they started with 100hp and 100mp. The formula to calculate your new amounts is: HP and MP = 100 + ((Level-1) *5). Also, the drinking animation now plays when you drink your potion.... um, all the potions are currently red (this will be fixed later)

New Daggers added to the game!
Rogues love using pointy things -- and they can dual wield daggers! 27 new daggers have been added to the game. Some are in stores, some are in dungeons, and as you were expecting... the Twin Daggers of Doom have been released as well! New quests are coming out next week to take your characters on.... get ready!

May 4, 2006
Twin Daggers of Dooooooom!
As usual, things are a flurry of bugs and chaos at the hidden underground laboratory of Artix Entertainment. (Yay! Time for bizzare insider stories.) The rogue is levatating weapons... and when it attacks it is doing completely bizarre damage. Once I hit for 400 dmg with the default weapons *gulps*. More scary is that if you equip the rogue with a weapon, the moment he starts walking... the weapon disappears and he goes back to using daggers. I think he is stealing them! Also, the DragonAmulet has successully prevented the staff from entering and using almost every item and area in the game... the magic is too powerful for even the team to control. Not a single dagger has been added to the database, and new bugs are found with each passing moment! With a tight deadline looming, how will the DF team ever get your game released on time? *Dunnnn dunnn DUNNNN!* Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to "Twin Daggers of Dooooooom!" Same Dragon time, same Dragon channel!

Update
Servers will be offline for roughly 3 hours tomorrow starting at Noon EST. *Whispers* DOOOOOM!

May 2, 2006
The DragonAmulet
"What is that you say? The DragonAmulet... hah, that mysterious item is far to powerful to be anything but a fairy tale. It is inconceivable that it could grant the person holding it the ability to unlock the secret powers of items... or allow them to pass through the magical barriers that the Dragon Ancients placed across the land so long ago. It has to be some sort of a rumor.... if someone were to get their hands on item like the DragonAmulet.... they would be.... *shivers* unstoppable. "

Rogues sneaking in this week!
This Friday we are ramping up to release the Rogue class. Rogues specialize in dual wielding stabby things and get many other bonuses for using daggers! We also also aware that many players from the forums are interested in the ROUGE class, which specializes in looking great at blushing, appearing in movies like Moulin Rouge, and/or living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That being said, do not worry if you spell it wrong on the forums, Artix seems to type it that way every other time... and obviously his spelling is *coughs* um *coughs* flawless! This is why we have decided to announce a special cheer: BEWARE THE MOGLIN ROUGE! The Moglin Rouge is a Ninja-Moglin who secretly switches the U and G in Rogue making players look bad everywhere! Now that we caught on to him we can easily identify his handywork. Beware friends.... beware of the Moglin Rouge!

May 1, 2006
The Enchanted Grove
A new area featuring a good number of never before seen staffs has been added to the game. Speak with Ash and visit the Grove. Also, the game Sound FX have been toned down a bit to make the sound better on all speakers... especially for the FireBall. We redid the AI for the Minx Fairy which will be added soon.... it is... so.... evil! It will be the first monster to actually use its mana. Battle on!

New Dungeon to be released!
Cysero is filling up a new quest with new staffs (lots of staffs!) and other weapons. This new area features an enchanted forest full of the monsters from the Faerie set. We might be able to release this dungeon as early as.... tonight! Also, I am fixing the sounds in the game. A new version of the engine should be released tonight with fixes for fire/energy/ice/darkness.