AQWorlds
Artix Krieger
| Tuesday, September 30, 2025
The game's story is officially the FINAL BOSS FIGHT of AQWorlds Infinity.
As I write to you today, the team has unified with a plan on how to move forward. But that was not the case last week. This is a behind the scenes story of what it really takes to re-build a game that millions of people love and care about.
The team was flying high on the positive vibes from the last tech demo. We had finally pulled it off. A full adventure with cut-scenes, quests, loot, special boss fights, and a full set of starter classes. The game proved it was viable... and more importantly, fun. It was time! Time for the big one! Time to start converting the whole freaking main story!
Seemed like such an innocent question. (**Dark foreshadowing intensifies**) When AQWorlds was first launched, we started with a design notes which told the story of how the Eternal Dragon of Time was slain by Galanoth.... and the dragon's Hour Glass shaped heart spilled its sands. These sands became the different timelines of our games. This was to convey that it was not a direct continuation of the DragonFable story, but rather a similar but entirely different dimension in our multiverse. The story opened with the impending attack of Sepulchure and his evil undead Shadowscythe army preparing to invade. We set the stage for the final showdown between King Alteon the Good and Sepulchure the DoomKnight. Millions of players coming from DragonFable signed up and played it. What happened next... when an unexpected villain (you know who) crashed the party and changed everything, jaws dropped. There was equal parts fascination, outrage, and curiosity of what would happen next. DragonFable players knew who all of the characters were. But millions of other players who learned about AQWorlds through our TV commercials, ads, and word of mouth had no idea who these characters were. Maybe you were one of them? It must have felt like dropping into the middle of a TV show you had never seen before. I wrote the original story, and knew this would be a problem moving forward. The intro of AQWorlds was always one of the things that I wanted to go back and fix for new players. Infinity seemed like the perfect time to "do it right." So I started drafting....
One huge advantage AQWorlds Infinity has over DragonFable... is we can make "Scribble Maps" in literally a few minutes to test an idea.
We can actually walk around the Scribble Maps. (StickQuest when?)
JX builds our background art... when he saw my incredible drawing skills he probably began to worry about his job security.
I mean, seriously. Just compare my beautiful flying castle scribble drawing above to his "attempt" at re-creating it in color below!
JX is sooo good. I cannot imagine a world that is not fueled by his art.
But... if you like scribble trees, I have your back.
The goal of my intro was to match it to the comic book that we are also creating. The comic book is titled "Gravelyn" (Grave-Lynn) and tells the AQWorld's story through Gravelyn's eyes.
It is weird that the comic has not been released yet. I wrote the comic with Memet around the same time I was finishing up Dungeons & DoomKnights. Gravelyn was also an important part of that game's story. The comic was drawn by Alfred (who has gone mysteriously missing these past two months-- let me know if you hear from him). We see Gravelyn inside the Undead Flying Fortress. She was born there. She grew up there, raised by the undead inside its walls. It is insinuated that she may never had seen the outside world. Possibly she does not even realize she is not undead. It is her birthday... a very special birthday... this is the day her powers will finally manifest. But something goes wrong which leads her outside of the castle... where things go worse. Including an encounter where she meets you, Twilly, Artix, Robina, Warlic, and Galanoth.
There are a number of MAJOR inconsistencies with the comic and the back story quests found in AQWorlds. Of course, there are huge inconsistencies between DragonFable and AQWorld's timelines as well. Given the weekly-release driven structure of how we build our games, and how many different writers work on them, it is an understandable issue to have. For example, Gravleyn first appeared in AQWorlds. Her story developed and fan theories developed about who her Mother was. DragonFable independently did a storyline which introduced baby Gravelyn. While cool, it definitely threw off her timeline and age from what it was intended to be. All of the core cast are roughly 18 to 25-ish year old. Notable exceptions are Ash Dragonblade & Princess Tera. Gravelyn's story was not the thing that sparked madness within the team. Nope... that honor goes to this guy....
Drakath is secretly one of Artix Entertainment's oldest characters. If you played the original AdventureQuest, he was a Darkness Dragon. If you played DragonFable, he was a exiled Prince leading bandits to reclaim his mysterious Father's crown. He joins and aids the DoomKnight Sepulchure to achieve this goal... disaster ensues. Few people know that some of my oldest written stories (almost a decade before AQ, when I was still in grade school) featured Drakath and Artix fighting. Nearly a dozen writers in our studio have different takes on this villainous character. So when I tried to simplify and retcon the moment he got his powers from the amulet.... ooooooooo-wwwweeeeeeeeeee did I stir the hornets nest! It started "World Lore III."
When I showed my idea for the new intro to the team... Actually, that is not accurate enough. When I showed it to a PORTION of the team... Erm.. the second I posted the document in chat, every writer, lore master, content builder descended upon it like a horde of dragons. I knew the team care about our characters and were super protective of them.I NEVER KNEW THEY WERE THAT PASSIONATE! My first draft caused what can only be explained as a digital fist-fight. Digital chairs were thrown. Metaphorical chainsaws were being revved up, and no... it was not "Groovy." Three generations of talented writers with very different visions of AQWorlds: Infinity's long term future collided into the week-long battle royal of the century.
And you know what.... I am legit happy they did.
Because it means they actually care about this game and its future.They actually care about these characters and stories... because it means something. Half of the arguments were over what they believed YOU would think if we did something, or did not do something. They were really fixed on building something you would approve of. And it was not just one of them, it was all of them.
As you know, we will be running both AQWorlds and AQWorlds Infinity at the same time. AQWorlds will continue getting brand new content (our production pipline starts with creating content for AQWorlds and then converting it using our tools) as Infinity re-masters the areas on its way to catch up. And because of what happened this week, we were forced to coordinate and plan together in a way that benefits the future of both games.
So I ate a senzu bean and tried again... this time based on what everyone came up with. Honestly, it feels way better. It is more of a throw back to the original intro, with an introduction to some core NPCs, and a focus on the looming Invasion. It no longer matches the comic book. It is more in line with that the game needs-- both for you, other active players, and for brand new ones. JX started doing the art for the 1st part.
Sorry I went so long winded on this post. There is actually a whole lot more I would like to share...
Love ending on some good news
Battle on!
Artix
