Beleen
Ahoy, adventurers! Talk Like a Pirate Day is nearly here, which means we are legally obligated to ask: ARRR ye ready for another Battleon Briefing? It be time to hoist the mainsail, grab yer favorite bevvy, ‘nd prepare yer finest pirate voice because there be a whole shipload o’ news to cover, mateys!
The team has also been doing a LOT of testing throughout the game lately. Play, test, break things, fix things, repeat! Which sounds fun until you realize “playing the game” during alpha development mostly means “it shouldn't do that” and “can you make it do that again?” followed by a resounding “…no.” This is how games are made, folks.
Last week’s Manticore release for Aranx’s birthday was a huge hit! But one of the things we discovered during testing involved a particle effect that had been rotated on all three axes instead of two. Which is impressive, because with my limited understanding of particles, I think — very scientifically speaking here — it essentially means the particle realized it did not need to stop at 2D and therefore gallivant into the fourth dimension 👩🔬
The response to the new Statue colors has been fantastic. Players have been having a blast seeing their statues come to life — or, rather, a very fancy version of themselves standing completely still. As nature intended, ofc.
We’ll put those particles back in their place, don’t you worry. Nobody needs to freak out and call the particle police. Probably.
Now for the mega important stuff: ALPHA PIRATES! This year’s TLAPD is sailing into port with a bounty of Alpha Pirate-themed quests! And yes, we're calling ‘em…
BOOTY CALL.
I said what I said. AQW is almost 18 years old. We have earned this Rated ARRR humor 🤣
So come this weekend, grab yer mates, find yourself a seaworthy ship, and prepare to plunder some…
looty booty!
Aka quest rewards to get upgradable versions of Alpha Pirate. That’s obviously what we meant. Mostly.
Here's what the Infinity crew has been up to behind-the-scenes:
🕷️ Spider and Nulgath are working on monster projectiles
🧹 Pixel Pete’s been working on the UI
🪺 Tunik has been working with nested APOPs
🌠 Diogon updated the UI art
🧙♂️ Warlic has added in aggro reactions on monsters
🛠️ Tutulio’s been working on NPCs and the Screenshot tool integration
💀 Sir Fainal’s spearheading Swordhaven Invasion, Farm, and the upcoming Alpha Pirate armor quests
👻 Ghost is bringing life into the undead invasion of swordhaven cutscenes
🌲 PineOak has been polishing up tools and systems
🏴☠️ Immortal Joe’s been programming Pirate Class
🗺️ J6 and Crulon are perfecting the Sanctuary map
🏎️ Zhoom’s working on the user-data migration side of things
🤴 Artix says the game client is feeling increasingly “game ready,” and we’re anticipating a big release very soon.
And yes… we're talking big. Big BIG. So big, in fact, that it's getting its own Kickstarter post. More on that soon, so keep your spyglasses pointed toward the horizon! Or on Kickstarter.com. That totally works too.
As you can see (or "sea," hehe), there's a LOT happening right now, and we're getting closer to the point where you'll be able to get your hands (and hook hands) on more of it. So keep yer cutlass as sharp as yer tongue, and be sure to keep your booty safely secured, because the next stretch of the journey is going to be a BIG one.
Battle on!
