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Artix Krieger | Monday, October 30, 2017

"I stalk the dark creatures that stalk the night."

ShadowStalker W is Lore's foremost expert vampire slayer, werewolf hunter, and ghost exorcist. He is ever willing help the victims of these creatures-- for a price. He is the 23rd of his line. However, should the events unfolding in Darkovia proceed unchecked, he may very well be the last.



The ShadowSlayers

The ShadowSlayers are deeply intertwined through Darkovian history. The forest of eternal darkness has beared the fruit of many legendary heroes and villains. Perhaps it is the natural law of things, that when humans are oppressed by tyrannical vampire nobles, that one rises to defy them. Certain scholars argue that the darkness itself selects one to maintain some type of twisted balance as it works towards its master plan. That being said, very little is actually known about the ShadowSlayers. Are they cursed themselves in some way? It is unknown how you find one, let alone become one. As for their origins, the only mentions of the 1st ShadowSlayer exist in a rare book known as the Book of Darkov. This book is a collection of tales and superstitions collected from all corners of Darkovia.

AdventureQuest Lore

The original Darkovia was a heavy fan favorite of the original AdventureQuest Web-Based Flash Game. The area focused heavily on the conflict between the Vampires and Lycans (Werewolves). When you first entered the adventure, you met VampireSlayer E. This was, of course, an obvious tongue-in-cheek parody of one of my all time favorite anime characters. He taught you the lore of these supernatural creatures before you went to their respective castles & lairs. Years later, in the MMO AdventureQuest Worlds, we introduced a female hunter named ShadowSlayer Z. The lore around the ShadowSlayer started taking shape in our world. Because AdventureQuest 3D is a "re-imagining" the previous slayers are not cannon. But they both did exist before our story takes place, and they will be referenced through pages of the Book of Darkov, armors, or surprises as the story progresses. To the enthusiastic and loyal AdventureQuest fans, we are excited to blend AQ's, DF's, and AQW's Darkovia into something both fresh and familiar. (Note, I would really love to make a comic, book, or TV show of this and future releases one day.)

Darkovia Part 1 will be the next AdventureQuest 3D release, raising the level cap to 18

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Artix Krieger | Monday, October 30, 2017

Top 10 Reasons Darkovia is going to be late

You do not need to be psychic nor a tester to have forseen Darkovia is going to be a few days late. So here we go... let's count down the top 10 reasons why!

#10 Pantless Werewolves

Since our werewolves do not wear pants, we're just waiting for their fur to grow.

#9 Everything in the release worked on the first try... so we are going back to put bugs in.

Putting bugs into a release requires diligent effort! Our bug-placers must painstakingly test the game over and over to make sure that random, indescribable bugs that cannot be reproduced pop up when you least expect it.

#8 Artix & Cysero think they're writing a visual novel

The Darkovia Saga Part 1 is extremely plot heavy with over 22 dialog cutscenes which introduces an interesting cast, and sets up the future releases. (This is the only entry on the top 10 that's not a joke)

#7 Stranger Things

Did they HAVE to release it on Friday? REALLY!? (If you are watching it, be sure to keep an eye out for my buddy Joe Davidson who plays "Nerdy Tech Guy" in his white lab coat in several episodes.)

#6 We're reading your class feedback... still.

There are thesis papers shorter than some of your commentary on the new classes.

#5 The Dev team's deadline was accidentally set for October 2018

"You mean Darkovia was for THIS YEAR!?"

#4 When its ready o'clock is stuck at "I just can't"

Knew we should have gotten one of those fancy Apple watches instead.

#3 Waiting for the private servers to release Darkovia... so we can steal it

"What a twist!" - M Night Shyamalan

#2 Were still waiting for Team Frogzard to win

Huh? ...what do you mean the war meters froze when the Drickens hit 100%?

#1 <NEW! Create your own>

Please make it funny, not mean :D It sucks more than a vampire and bites more than a werewolf that Darkovia did not launch in October. Not that it really had to. Unlike the Friday the 13th and Mogloween releases, the new Darkovia area is permanent content that will be available all year round. For those who might be tempted to blame the class improvement release, please let them know that the coding team and content team work separately so this was definitely not a blocker. The honest reason Darkovia will be late was the amount of extra work & content we put into Friday the 13th and Mogloween. It has definitely not been for lack of effort-- we were here until the wee hours of the night every day last week and many of us worked diligently through the weekend. As it has been very challenging accurately predicting our release times with this new cross-platform 3D game, resulting with no end of egg on my Paladin Helmet's visor, from here on out I will include more detail of where we are at exactly with an upcoming release, and refrain from announcing hard deadlines. At least until we have smoothed out our game releases to a reliable schedule like our other games. You may see us struggle, but you'll never see us quit." Battle on!

P.S. This is a special design notes post because it marks the first time you have seen me intentfully write with contractions. I also think I made up the word intentfully.