Beleen
Welcome to the newest Battleon Briefing, heroes! “Brief” though? Ha ha! Maybe slightly briefer than Artix's Kickstarter Update Post. We have a LOT to cover this week. But first, did you get your Star Sword from the new release? Also, after that scammer issue from the other week, we re-opened the Benevolent Founder upgrades on our website to make those slots available. This will only be available until the end of October for existing backers on the AQW Account Manager.
Last week, Aranx and J6 launched Infinity's 1st two Star Swords, and hooolllly chickencow, the release was out of this world! These stellar additions arrived just in time to celebrate the AQWorlds Upholder event, and Artix took the lead on the writing, adding a collection of gags and cutscenes alongside Ghost on cutscene duty. This resulted in a super fun and smooth release that our heroes seemed to love!
Well... things went mostly smooth. Our one teensy-tiny, itty-bitty, galaxy-sized hiccup was when Warlic forgot to sync the live version with the testing version, meaning NOTHING loaded at first. Oopsies! Thankfully, Warlic moved at the speed of light, and our players were off making a name for themselves amongst the stars 🤩
We discovered that scammer issue the other week. It is finally being resolved with Kickstarter. It left a lot of previously sold Benevoloent Founder slots suddenly open. Since many players asked us if they could upgrade Benevolent Founders after it closed, it seemed logical to allow existing backers to upgrade their tier on the AQW Account Manager. There are no codes needed when an upgrade it made on our website. The upgrade happens instantly. Which prevents the problem from the scam completely. This will only be available until the end of October. If you already have an AQWorlds Infinity Kickstarter pledge, and you’ve been staring wistfully at the Benevolent Founder tier, wondering what could have been... then this is your FINAL chance! You can now upgrade your existing pledge to Benevolent Founder through your AQW Account Manager here.
The Infinity team is hard at work bringing together the next big content release, and the upcoming lineup is looking mighty mighty MIGHTY fine!
Ok so I guess there’s still plenty left to do in our quest log, but the team is working toward bringing all these pieces together for the next heccin hefty release. No, these were not Artix’s exact words… but he did kick down the door, yell “RELEASE EVERYTHING!” and then sprint away before anyone could stop him.
Gather ‘round, heroes, and give a standing ovation to Spider! He is nearing the finish line on completing a custom tool he designed to convert (and preserve) AQW animation assets, and the results are looking fantastic!!! Sneak a peek on this huge Kickstarter post from Friday of the tool he’s been building and see this incredible tool in action.
How incredible are we talking here?! How about
18,000 assets converted with just 85 issues reported! That is a 99.53% success rate!! NOT TOO SHABBY, SPIDER 👏 👏 👏
Suffice to say, this is an AMAZING result for a conversion process dealing with all the quirks and complexities that AQWorlds EVERYTHING is known for. And once Spider hands this tool over to Warlic, the plan is to convert thousands of items and apply patches to special items that need extra attention and TLC. Because, yes, even digital chinchillas have their diva moments.
Yup, there are still challenges we will need to tackle. Some assets are extremely resource-intensive — for example, Pets can be particularly heavy, especially if they’re Gorillaphants — and some items are simply not suitable for a direct port. The team is also working on Unity shaders to preserve the charm of AQW's original art style, and now I’m honestly wondering if one of these shaders will be named derp.cginc.
Silliness aside, what’s next for Spider’s tool? ... Testing the conversion process on cinematics, ofc!!!
With tens of thousands of items still ahead, and with probably 5 or 6 or 7000 hours of cutscenes to convert, there is absolutely nothing intimidating about this task at all. Nope. Not a single thing at all. *backs away nervously*
You’ve totally got this, Spider 🫡
/flee
Alrighty heroes, here’s your last last chance reminder: Benevolent Founder upgrades are available only until the end of October. If you already have a Kickstarter pledge and want to upgrade, log into your AQW Account Manager and upgrade your existing pledge.
Thank you all so much for continuing to support AQWorlds and Infinity (and maybe my coffee obsession too). Your feedback, enthusiasm, and support help shape what comes next… and we cannot wait to show you more!
Stay spectacular heroes, and we will see you in the next maximum briefing.
Battle on!
