Chronomancer
Hey there, champ! I love killing time in my favorite video games. Don't you?
Trove of Useless Things (Stories)
Welcome to Uncle George's Storytime Trove! All of the stories you unlock will be kept there so you can access them later.Land of Rising Evil
Did you know that "Land of Rising Evil" was the ORIGINAL name of AdventureQuest? Only because Artix was trying to get the acronym of the game to be L.O.R.E.-- and that, is why the world you are standing on right now is called Lore.
There were other name contenders including DailyQuest, but every time the guys wrote the initials of that one, they wanted ice-cream.
The game needed a name that matched the humor of its creator, and also started with an A so it would be alphabetically listed at the top of game lists. Clever boy. When Artix said AdventureQuest everyone laughed at how absurd it was. The two words practically meant the same thing. No one would seriously name a game that, right? That was the moment it was certain that the official name would be… AdventureQuest.
Drawing of Bean Twilly
Do you see that picture hanging on the wall over there? Yeah, that one of the green-bean with troll hair wearing sneakers. That is the original Twilly. Artix was watching DragonBall Z and drawing on his computer. He wanted Twilly to be a time traveler that brought things back from the future. Which explains the tennis shoes. Twilly was the very first NPC added to AdventureQuest. He was placed in the Inn beside Yulgar and Robina.
In fact, in the very first version of AdventureQuest was literally just the inside of Yulgar's Inn. You fought random monsters by clicking on the door.
A month later, Artix redrew Twilly. This time he was red moglin with a giant red feet and a football shaped head. (Inspired by Stewie from the Family Guy.)
Oishii would join the team less than a year later and redrew Twilly into his final adorable form. All other moglins were based on her design.
Moglins are the gamer-pet mascots of all Artix Entertainment games.
Cysero's Left Sock
In the early days, the team did not have an office. They would just drive over to Artix's house and work around his kitchen table. There were so many cars outside every day that the neighbors called the police on him. When the police came, they invited them inside and had them play test DragonFable.
Zhoom, Cysero, and Artix would work at the dining room table. A long ethernet cable stretched into the toom and was connected to a hub. Thyton would sit at the counter and draw. Safiria and Nythera would do player support from the spare room where the rest of the computers were.
Eventually the team rented office space that was half of a dentists office. The team jokingly wanted to offer free dental work with Guardian upgrades.
Key to Yulgar's Bathroom
For 20 years the team has done NON-STOP weekly releases. That's not just in one game, either. The dedication to do that through holidays, disasters, and when times were rough is hard to imagine.
One time back in 2007-ish, the Secret Underground Lab (the office) was robbed. The thieves took everything. Even the router. The team still found a way to get the game's releases live that week.
Why the weekly releases though? Two reasons. First, the philosophy of "constant and never-ending improvement" is at the core of the team. Second, is the dream of being a video-game version of Saturday Night Live where every week has fun adventures, special guests, and is something for all players to look forward to.
Broken Window Bill
Have you seen the youtube video with Artix, his axe, and the window?
It is titled "Video Game CEO "Axe-ident"
In the video, it appears that Artix breaks the glass with is Battleaxe. But that is not true. Artix did not actually break the window.
(Giving a moment for all the people saying. "WHAT!?!?")
The window was already broken and was scheduled to be replaced that day. So Artix came in before the repairman, setup cameras and broke the already broken window.
Then, at the end of the day, when the new window was installed… Artix filmed the first part of the video. Yup, the windows you see in the first part of the video is the same one that is in the lab right now.
So, the video is actually two videos stitched together from different times on the same day. There is a jump cut in the middle that tricks the eye to make it seem like it was all the same take.
Safiria's Fan Letter
Real-life Safiria is super charming and always the center of attention at social events. In the early days, she was single handedly responsible for taking most of the team to their first conventions. If you have ever been to a anime/fantasy/sci-fi convention, it is quite an experience!
The one thing the team had NEVER seen… was Safiria being shy.
That was until that one time she spotted Aurelio Voltaire at 2005-ish convention. She all but hid. Then she asked Artix if he would introduce her to Voltaire. Which was extra weird, because Artix did not even know who he was yet. But, oh boy, was he about to find out.
Needless to say, the events that unfolded after that moment resulted in the dead mini-game, out first ever musical live event, a string of epic Friday the 13th events, and a lasting creative friendship.
Super insider secret. The story above is why the team wrote that bit where Voltaire asked if you would introduce him to Elvira in Zombae: The Dating Sim. It is a meaningful callback.
Captain Rhubarb's Name Badge
In the early daus of the AdventureQuest Worlds Alpha…. the team did not have backups yet. Which makes sense, the game engine itself was only a few months old and changing rapidly. An alpha test was announced and 10,000+ people signed up and flooded the lone server when it opened.
The day after the test, a mistake in a database command permanently renamed EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in the game to "Captain Rhubarb". Literally everyone's name was Captain Rhubarb. There was no way to undo it. No way to fix it. No backups. So what would you do in this situation?
Well, Artix declared it new holiday, "Muligan day!" And politely asked everyone re-created their accounts-- and in return, everyone was awarded a "My name is Captain Rhubarb" name badge to commemorate it. These is something magical and special about these weird moments.
The following year at DragonCon, a player who attended the AE panel brought EVERYONE real-life "My name is Captain Rhubarb" name cards. We have the best community.
Dage's Fan Art
You know Dage the Evil as either the head of the Undead Legion, or one of Artix Entertainment's most iconic artists. But did you know he started as a player?
Dage had entered his fan art into several AdventureQuest/DragonFable art contests. When top artists J6 & Nulgath were asked to look for apprentices from the community, well… Nulgath chose Dage. It was only a matter of time until Dage rose to challenge his former art master.
If you have played Dage's storyline in either game, it is shocking how it parallels what happened in real life. Of course, in real life the team is all friends. But the competitive spirit of these super artists, always striving to improve their craft and take it to the next level… is very, very real.
Noise Complaint Letter
As the team grew, the studio was moved a few times. The "Secret Underground Lab" is currently on the second floor of building in Northpointe Village (which looks exactly like the 2D art version of it in the game, AdventureQuest Worlds.) Underneath where the team builds games are the professional offices of doctors and business people.
So imagine their surprise when the team was voice acting the "RAWR" commercial for AdventureQuest Worlds. A day of non-stop screaming and roaring at the top of their lungs.
We respectfully moved our swordfighting, sound recording, and other floor shaking activities to after normal business hours. But you can still overhear stories of people talking about the team… and how they all bring their dogs up there and do not wear shoes. Well, some of us wear shoes.
Ring of Doom Ticket
Artix bought one of T&A's old wrestling rings with the intention of starting an illegal underground zombie wrestling federation. At the core of the project, was a wrestling video game called Ring of Doom.
The idea was to film short fights that would premiere weekly featuring characters that would be released to play in game. A big part of the game was allowing players to try to predict what would happen in the upcoming matches and get points if they were right.
WWE's Pat Tanaka and Hulk Hogan's Micro Championship Wrestlers trained the team after hours on how to wrestle. Other local cosplay wrestlers were brought in to train and film too.
The set was made to look like an underground nuclear waste dump. The room the team built this two story arena in was ridiculously small.
After an injury at another event, and the team being stretched too thin, the project was cancelled. Only a handful of fights were filmed, and none have been edited to date. (But they still could be.)
Last Board of Falconreach
The game DragonFable had one of the most memorable wars in all of Artix Entertainment history.
The players of the game defended their hometown of Falconreach against a horde of undead lead by the DoomKnight, Sepulchure.
The fighting was brutal. A bar at the top of the screen showed the combined efforts of all players as they fought back the undead. The undead were relentless, destroying sections of the town and pushing the defenders into an impossible situation.
The promise of reinforcements gave hope. But when news arrived that their reinforcements had been slain and re-animated to come attack them… the situation grew desperate and hopeless.
The players fought until one frame of town was left…
They fought until one board of town was left…
And they never gave up.
The heroes won.
That single board that remained was a symbol of what they all stood for. The new Town of Falconreach still stands today in the game of DragonFable.
Pony vs Pony Bet
One of the strangest Artix Entertainment games was "Pony vs Pony"
Why would a skulls, swords, and spells fantasy game studio made a game about ponies?
Artix lost a bet with Rolith. The terms of the bet were loose. If he won, he was allowed to make whatever he wanted. Artix realized what was happening when he saw graphics of ponies on the file server. The game was extremely fun.
Also around this time was when the band. They Might Be Giants, appeared in AdventureQuest Worlds. One of the band members asked why the team did not add missiles, chainsaws, and laser cannons to the ponies. Oh, Artix tried. The artist wanted the game to be true to form. But that is being rectified in the AQWorlds version of the 20th Anniversary Event. Can anyone say Zombie ponies?
Death Ads
Artix Entertainment has had a few firsts, but "Death Ads" takes the cake. Searching for "Artix Death Ads" will bring up a Kotaku article that will shock you. How is it possible no one thought of Death ads before that?
Jimmy the Eye
In our game world, Warlic is a Blue Mage. In real life he is a musician, coder, artist, and a very funny guy. He created Jimmy the Eye, the worlds most famous flying eyeball.
But Jimmy…. was not originally a flying eyeball.
When Warlic was in middle school, they would play paper football. You know, fold a piece of paper into a football and flick it with their finger to try to score against someone holding their fingers like a goal post.
But the paper football hit someone in the eye.
They said the paper was cursed and drew a bloody eye on it. Named it Jimmy.
Later, Warlic would draw a series of silly comics about an evil paper football that was after peoples eyes. He was always drawing that and flying eyeballs. Somehow the two things were crossed and.. walla! Jimmy the Eye was born.
Warlic created a video game called Jimmy the Eye in Pascal where you had to fly across a screen dodging things to save the Eye Princess.
We need an Eye Princess in AdventureQuest 3D.
Queenident Odessa's Crown
If you played our giant stompy robot game, MechQuest, then you may remember helping the Queenident (Queen + President) save the world. Her name was Odessa. She was named after Warlic's daughter. And surprisingly looks like her.
However, there is more to this story.
His daughter was renamed Odessa because that was the gamer-name his wife used. And here is an important life lesson. Once you give your child your gamer name… it feels really weird to keep using the name.
So his wife picked a new gamer name since then.
And this is the reason Artix did not name any of his children…. Artix.
This public service announcement was brought to you by Gamers who game good.
"The more you know!"
Table Gum
The teams at Artix Entertainment work collaboratively around tables. At least they used to before the pandemic resulted in the "telecommute apocalypse." But back in the day, every table had…. Table Gum!
There were few rules at the lab. But one sacred rule was…. whomever takes the last piece of table gum, has to but the next container.
You could not see trough the containers, so there was no way to know. And the other rule was… "No shake before you take." (To stop people from checking if there was any gum in there before opening it.)
So when you come visit the Secret Underground Lab, and you see table gum… be prepared.
EbilCorp Handbook
10 years ago, on this very week of October, Artix Entertainment's 10th anniversary was taking place
The fictional evil company, EbilCorp, was launching an all out attack on the Artix game network. Every single game was being attacked by EbilCorp themed monster. The sinister Chairman Platinum taunted the players through videos in his limo. He told them that his monsters were there because of a virus… and if the players could not beat the monsters in time, Chairman Platinum would shut down the games and delete all of their characters. While this seemed like pretty good motivation to fight his minions and protect the games in that special event… there was ONE BIG PROBLEM….
A lot of players believed it was true.
Yup. Player support got endless emails from players scared to death about their accounts. 10 years ago we caused our very own "War of the Worlds" style panic within our playerbase. Needless to say that is not a mistake the team will make again.
AFK Safely- AFK Leaderboard
The AFK Timer in this map only has been extended to 24 hours. Please do not use 3rd party tools to prevent being timed out. You can AFK for 24 hours straight hours in this map without needing to move your character.

- Leaderboard Quests

Location: Yulgars AFK Quest
