AQ2D
Artix Krieger
| Monday, December 11, 2023
Greetings,
We are preparing to begin a series of "tech demo" tests. These tests will be short, buggy, and crashy. Transparently-- anyone but the most hardened of game testers will find the first tests frustrating. The game is not finished. Nothing in the game is final. To anyone still thinking that this is a Beta or full preview of the game please let Zorbak whisper one gentle word in your ear, "stahp."
I could really use your help setting the expectations correctly as well as debunking some myths and rumors about our game project. If you have joined us for a pre-alpha or a tech demo before, then you know exactly what to expect. If this is your first time, then hold onto your helms.
A lot of people are still asking if they will be able to log in with their existing characters and stuff. The answer is yes. We are working towards the ultimate goal of a new version of AdventureQuest Worlds that allows ALL players to log in on PC, Mac, Android, iPads, iPhones and play the game... with your existing character and items. (Wishlist on Steam)
Note: The first Tech Demo will be PC only.
#1 This game is taking forever to make!
Well, this one is 100% True
#2 A YouTuber told me 2 years is enough time for a fully completed game
If we were building a new game, yes-- 100% absolutely. But converting the current game has been wildly complex. Making it so you can log in with all your stuff has been the thing of nightmares. We love this game and are determined to make it work for you-- no matter how long it takes.
#3 The 2011 iPhone 3 Video
Half-Wrong, Half-Right! Over a decade ago I posted a YouTube video of two AQWorlds monsters fighting on my iPhone 3. I was really excited about it. It was the first time we saw artwork from AQWorlds running on a phone. Granted, just those two monsters maxed out that old phone's processor. Some players believe that the video was the start of this project. It was not. It was not technically possible to make this game until around 2019-ish when phone processors and memory were sufficient. That did not matter. My social media feed has been filled with "You have been working on this for over 12 years! Where is it!?" since. We have not been working on this for 12 years. But, it begs the question, when DID this project start? We spent nearly 6 years in the background experimenting and trying different things that did not work. The earliest attempt at AQWorlds: Mobile for was targeting WebGL (Unity/C#) in 2017. We invested heavily in it and even hired an outside company. No luck. It was moved to the back burner because devices of that era were just too weak to run it. Not to mention the wall that we ran into when attempting to convert the game's huge amount content. We never gave up. But we did go back to focusing on the weekly releases of the other games. It was Warlic that had a series of breakthroughs in 2020 making the game project possible again. Not bad considering he was building the launcher and other projects. Then Yorumi joined him to work on the server. With each little victory it seemed more possible. We officially announced the project with the launch of this website in March of 2022. For the longest while it was just the two of them-- with art and animation help when needed. We built a working prototype and took it to PAX. Then the content team started forming under Reens. We now have J6, Ghost, and newly Nulgath on art and animation. So what is it? Have we been working on it for 2 years? 3? 6? 12? The current version has been in development for about 3 years. But...you know, the more I think about it-- way back when I saw that video that I posted on YouTube, we ALL were thikning the same thing.... "How could we get AQWorlds to run on a phone?". The dream of making AQWorlds playable on your phone (and not in Puffin) really did start in 2011. So perhaps what we should really be saying is... "You have been dreaming about this game since 2011, when is it finally going to become reality?"
AdventureQuest Worlds
Do you remember the FIRST AdventureQuest Worlds test waaaaaay back 2008? No one had even seen the game before. We unveiled a prototype of our experimental MMORPG created in Flash. The test was limited to upgraded players of DragonFable, MechQuest and the original AdventureQuest. For the very first time our players logged in, saw each other on the screen for the first time, could talk to each other for the first time... and then the servers crashed. I think that first test lasted 5 minutes. The next day we had an accidental database goof and lost all of the accounts. I do not remember what broke at the next test... but that was the point. We kept fixing things until the game stopped breaking. A few months later, in October of that year, the beta... which most people consider the full game, launched for everyone to play. The game was extremely primitive in those early days. But it grew exponentially.
AdventureQuest 3D
Were you around for AventureQuest 3D's tech demo? The MMORPG actually had two very different tech demos.The first one.... where the game as called "Legend of Lore" and it ran in your web browser. This first version of the game looked very different. Then, without warning the technology we were building it on on went poof. The team was heartbroken. The project was discontinued. Up until that moment, Artix Entertainment had only built games to run in your web browser. This was the event that changed all of that. We started rebuilding AdventureQuest 3D as a cross-platform game. The tech demo for this project was weird, crazy, and laced with bugs.... but one of my favorites. Back then the tech demo was called "AQWorlds3D"... and to this day, some players still call it that. Again, it looked WAAAAAY different than the final game. I do not know which YouTubers are reading this, but it might be fun to do a "Then and Now" video showing the difference between those original tech demos and what they evolved into. In every instance the art, animation, and game-play improved.
This is uncharted territory...
AdventureQuest Worlds Infinity introduces one horrifying difference between the tech demos we have done in the past. That is... you had nothing to compare it against. If Infinity is a remake of AQWorlds, your expectation is that it is going to be exactly like AQWorlds! (Spoiler: It will not be.) So, if you are a serious player of AQWorlds who loves the game, you have a very important role. You need to tell the team what you like and what needs improved. You must remember that this is not a finished game. Like the tech demos that came before, radical changes happen at this stage. That is exactly why we have tech demos.
The tests will be short. The team will be present and watching carefully during the tests. We expect a lot of problems.... just as every tech demo we have done in the past. There will be an official post to go along with each test which I will update in real time. The tech demo server will shut down after each test. New tests will be announced here.
Players who upgraded in AdventureQuest Worlds and became "15th Upholders" last October were promised access to the Tech Demos. We are upholding that promise. We are also aware that there are many players who are frustrated because they missed getting it and there is no other way to get in the tech demo. If you are feeling this way, then please know that there will be many more tests in the near future-- alpha, beta, and at some point we will NEED to do a stress test with as many players on as possible. At that point the tests should have moved to Steam where we can update the game more easily.
Last week Captain Rhubarb and I added a new page to AQWorld's Account Manager. It shows your eligibility for upcoming tests. It will also be where you download the tech demo version of the game for your PC and Android device as they become available. You will need to re-download the game as each version is released. This is temporary. In the future we will be moving the PC/Mac testing to Steam. Steam is nice because it updates the game for you automatically.
Not exclusive to the Tech Demo (It needs rebuilt)
Infinity uses a new combat system. It will allow us to do more creative things than the existing game. However, if you play the three base classes during the tech demo, it should feel roughly the same (probably a little rough around the edges.) Spider built a new class specifically to show off some of the things we can now do-- directional AOE attacks, transformations, etc. Ghost's went crazy on the animations. In all fairness he was told the sky was the limit. Turns out your computer's maximum Video RAM ram is the real limit XD. We are aware that this class has issues. It is scary using it in the tech demo. This class will need to be rebuilt. Completely rebuilt. For this reason Spider and other members of the team have been letting everyone know that this class will go away after the tech demo. Perhaps a more accurate way to state this is the broken, memory hog version of the class will go away and we will try making it into something viable to be re-introduced in a future test. We just do not anyone to think that is is some sort of exclusive. The class was built soley for the purpose of showing off some of the new things we can do in Infinity. The class uses skills that do not work with AQWorlds. So if you have it and log into AQWorlds, it will just have auto attack and no other skills.
The tech demo is an important step in our goal of finishing and releasing AdventureQuest Worlds: Infinity. But, it should be stated over and over and over.... "This is not a finished game." and "Anything can/will change." Also, note the tests will be short and the servers will only be online a short while. At least in these early tests.
Time: To be determined
How many users can the tech Demo Server Support: We are about to find out...
The tech demo is a success if players log in, look at the game and think "Hey, this is a good start! Keep going." If the bones of a good game are there, then we are on the right path. Then... immediately start coming up with lists of all of the things that need tweaked, added, and improved.
It does not matter if we have been creating this for 2, 6, or 12 years.... we are going to keep going until it is finally finished. (Your great-great grandchildren are gonna love it!)
Battle on!
Artix
