Artix Entertainment

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Artix Entertainment, LLC
Type Limited Liability Company
Founded 2002
Headquarters Land O' Lakes, Florida
Key people Adam Bohn, Project Lead
Industry Computer and video games
Products AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest, and AdventureQuest Worlds
Website http://www.artixentertainment.com

Artix Entertainment (LLC), is a game development company that works primarily with web RPGs.

Contents

[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 multi-player game called AdventureQuest Worlds.

[edit] Publications

[edit] Role Playing Games

Currently, Artix Entertainment has three major RPGs with a fourth in development. The fourth project, AdventureQuest Worlds will be an MMORPG.[1]

[edit] AdventureQuest

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 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

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

Main article: MechQuest

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

Main article: AdventureQuest Worlds

In Issue 24 of The Zardian news E-Zine, Adam Bohn officially announced the fourth full game by Artix Entertainment. It will be a fully-functioning MMORPG and players will be able to import their characters from all three other games. Like its predecessor, the AQWorlds game will use Flash animation. He also stated that to keep the game running smoothly, characters will be drawn in a much simpler style than in the other games. Alpha testing by verified players began on Monday, June 2nd, 2008. The homepage was released on Thursday, May 29th 2008.

[edit] EbilGames

Main article: EbilGames

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 JD Adams of the Artix Entertainment staff.

[edit] Core staff

Adam Bohn is the project lead, heading up all three games. Tony Deller leads AdventureQuest development, while Cysero, whose real-life name is unknown, leads DragonFable development, and James "JD" Adams is the head of MechQuest. Outside of game development, Courtney Nawara is the head of customer service and the Artix Entertainment help pages. Rena Bouchard is the head forums administrator.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dragonfable design notes: "AE's MMO" (May 28, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-28.

[edit] External links


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