Artix Entertainment:
Artix Entertainment (LLC), is a game development company that works primarily with web RPGs.
[edit] History
Artix Entertainment (often shortened to "AE") was founded by Adam Bohn in 2002, while introducing Artix Entertainment's first game, AdventureQuest. The game was immensely popular, and by June 2004, over one million accounts had been created,[citation needed] although Adam Bohn said he would have been happy to at least have 100 people play it but the large amount of players has taken him by surprise. Following the success of AdventureQuest, Artix Entertainment developed a second game called DragonFable in 2006. In late 2007, a third game, MechQuest, a sci-fi RPG was released. In May 2008, the company announced the development of their fourth major game: a fantasy MMORPG called AdventureQuest Worlds, which is currently in Gamma phase.
[edit] Publications
[edit] Role Playing Games
Currently, Artix Entertainment has three major RPGs with a fourth in development. The fourth project, AdventureQuest Worlds is an MMORPG,[1] and is currently in Gamma.
[edit] AdventureQuest
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Main article: AdventureQuest
AdventureQuest was Artix Entertainment's first project - a fantasy web-game set in the world of Lore. AdventureQuest uses basic graphics, and has a server cap that prevents players from accessing the server until there are enough open spaces. While free to play, players can upgrade their characters to become Guardians to receive more in-game benefits, as well as bypassing the server cap. AdventureQuest has two mods developed by Artix Entertainment: Zardwars and Archknight. Zardwars is a Guardian only modification, and the coding only extends to random battles with the lizardlike Zards. Zardwars was originally developed to test having multiple game databases. The game staff have announced no plans to extend the game thus far. The other modification, ArchKnight, is also Guardian only, and was the code base for the two other Artix Entertainment RPGs. "Archknight" has been discontinued, and replaced by Dragonfable.
[edit] DragonFable
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Main article: DragonFable
After AdventureQuest gained popularity, Artix Entertainment began development of another game, DragonFable, also set in the world of Lore, but five years before the beginning of AdventureQuest. DragonFable uses far more advanced graphics than AdventureQuest, and does not have a server cap that prevents players from playing until there is an open place on the server. Like AdventureQuest, DragonFable players can upgrade their characters to become Dragon Amulet holders, and receive special in-game benefits.
[edit] MechQuest
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The third game, MechQuest, while also set in the world of Lore, is a mecha RPG, and is more scientific than magical. Mechquest's game system is based on Dragonfable's. Mechquest takes place 5,000 years before AdventureQuest. MechQuest currently has an upgrade similar to Guardianship or Dragon Amulets, known as Star Captainship.
[edit] AdventureQuest Worlds
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The fourth game made by Artix Entertainment. Unlike their previous single-player games, AdventureQuest Worlds is a fully-functioning MMORPG. Like its predecessors, it uses Flash animation, but a much simpler style, to keep the game running smoothly. The storyline, which has not developed very far yet, incorporates elements of all three previous games, due to a fusing of the timelines. While in the past Artix Entertainment made their games public during testing phases, in AdventureQuest Worlds they only allowed players who had paid accounts in one or more of the other three games to play.
[edit] EbilGames
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In addition to their main projects, Artix Entertainment also develops content for a minigame site, EbilGames. Currently, there are nine minigames available on the site, as well as an animated feature called Ask Zorbak, where Zorbak, a minor NPC from both AdventureQuest and DragonFable, answers questions that are emailed to him. Currently, there are twelve episodes of Ask Zorbak.
[edit] The Zardian
The Zardian is Artix Entertainment's newsletter. Released bi-weekly, the writers consist of forum members and staff. The Zardian project was started in September 2007. The content of The Zardian largely consists of topics regarding other games by Artix Entertainment as well as other topics of interest.
[edit] Videos
Artix Entertainment has also released two animated shorts. The first, Artix vs. the Undead, was developed with the help of Milton Pool, an animator for Cartoon Network. Artix vs. the Undead was made as a teaser for some of the storyline in DragonFable. The second short, Death From Above, was released as a sneak peek to the MechQuest storyline and was developed by J6 of the Artix Entertainment staff.
[edit] Core staff
Note: Most of the staff members are known only by their nicknames, as Artix Entertainment has not released their real names.
Adam Bohn is the project lead, heading up all three games. Tony Deller leads AdventureQuest development, while Cysero leads DragonFable development, and Warlic is the head of MechQuest. Zhoom, Minimal, Captain Rhubarb, and Rolith are the lead programmers. Outside of game development, Courtney Nawara is the head of customer service and the Artix Entertainment help pages. Reens is the head forums administrator.
[edit] References
- ^ "Dragonfable design notes: "AE's MMO" (May 28, 2008)". Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
[edit] External links
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