Adventure Quest Dragons

[Baba Flores]

Getready for nonstop action and adventure! AdventureQuest Worlds is the best MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) that is browser based. There are no downloads or software to install, and this 2D MMO fantasy RPG is free to play! Brandish your blade, conjure your spells, and heed the call of Battle On!

The Avatar of Energy has fallen, and the Avatar of Cold Thunder rises. Iona's storms will rage until Lore is nothing but a frozen, lightning-scarred waste. Destroy its core so Queen Victoria can strike the final blow and end the threat once and for all. Log in now to battle through the final story update in the Cold Thunder Saga!

We know a lot of you have had unexpected schedule changes recently. To help keep your spirits high and game time fun, we're making sure that when you log into AdventureQuest Worlds, you have even more to do. More rewards to hunt for, quests to complete, and battles to win. Log in every day for a new item, boost, buff, or surprise.

Five years ago, we launched the Wheels of Doom and Destiny from the Carnival of Fortune. They were one of AQWorlds' most popular features and starting today... the Wheel of Doom is BACK! /join Doom and talk to Swaggy to buy Fortune Tickets, then spin the wheel and get prizes.

Decide whether you will be Good or Evil! Choose quickly, because Chaos monsters have already invaded Lore! Join thousands of players in the battle to defeat Drakath and his 13 Lords of Chaos, then return as we expand the world of Lore with new stories and zones each week.

I woke up so excited to write this post for you that I was literally singing about it in the car. Out of tune.... and an awkward attempt at a high note resulted in the spilling of my coffee. It is ok, I was parked. Never sing about idle games and drive-- it is the law! BEHOLD... A MONOCHROME TEASER POSTER ANNOUNCING WHAT WE ARE BUILDING WITH CRAZY AWESOME WEIRD COOKIE CLICKER RELATED BACKSTORY!

But what is an Idle Game? It is basically a game that plays itself. Well, sort of. You make all of the major decisions. But the tedious, grinding and farming is done automatically by the game. Because of this, you can leave Idle Games running in the background while you do other important things... like work... or *coughs* play other games, like AdventureQuest Worlds.

Personally, I have been wanting to create an idle game FOREVER!!!! Well, at least since 2005 when I registered IdleQuest.com with aspirations of making an animated, self-playing RPG. There was also the idle game that Rolith and I called, THE BUTTON. What started as an inside joke about my obsession with clicking of DragonFable's big shiny red button turned into a skinner-box style game concept. The idea was you got a point every time you clicked the button. You could use the points to buy upgrades that automatically clicked the button for you or made your clicks worth more. Rolith even made a multiplayer version of this that he posted a few years back (anyone lucky enough to have been there for that?) We had so many weird conversations about making this game but it always kept getting pushed on the backburner. Then late one Friday night, we received a link for Cookie Clicker...

OMG!!!! Some one made it! It was called Cookie Clicker. And they made it way better than ours would have been... because they were smart enough to build it with cookies! Rolith and I are extremely competitive when it comes to Idle Games. We ended up staying at the lab was into Saturday morning racing to get some absurd number of Cookie Clicker's Antimatter Condensors. You know... so we could make cookies from the space in-between space. It did not stop there. I played Cookie Clicker legit and hard core for months. The only problem was, I needed to leave the game up and running in a web browser-- and I switch computers a lot during the day. So I bought a cheap computer that I left on 24/7 that did nothing other than run the game. I could remote into that machine from anywhere in the world to monitor my cookie making progress and buy more cookie upgrades.

Cookie Clicker was an international phenomenon. The game spawned a huge number of other idle games on the web, was imitated by fake knock-offs like "Cookie Clickers" (note the S on the end of Clicker) on iPhone and inspired other mobile games like "Make It Rain".

How did this happen? Well... you know how we have super players of our games who go to pretty incredible lengths to send me messages in-game or Facebook or Twitter or at conventions, or send huge packages of candy to the lab etc? Because, yeah... I totally stalked the creators of Cookie Clicker in a simliar way to how I started a friendship with Voltaire, One-Eyed Doll and our other celebrity guests that appeared in our games. You know... I sent videos, mailed a broadsword, and um... man, this sounds creepier a lot than it was. (Maybe.)

Cookie Clicker was created by Orteil. He coded it in notepad and did all of the pixel art from scratch. He is also hallarious... but way too humble to ever take credit for his genius. Cookie Clicker is hosted on Dashnet which is run by the incredibly kind and smart Opti. Because both of their names start with an "O" it is really easy to accidentally respond to the correct person if you are not paying close enough attention. Which is exactly why I did five times in a row after luring them into AQWorlds chat.

I am not sure if I can accurately explain this... but Orteil and Opti have that honest and true indie game making spirit. You can see how much heart was put into Cookie Clicker. Just talking to them re-inspired in my everything that made me want to make games in the first place. So I asked them one very important question...

Dragons is an idle game where you hatch a Dragon egg and then raise it to a full size, element-breathing, world conquering, Dragon. Except there is not one Dragon... there are lots. Each Dragon will have a unique story told through the simple Idle Game style interface. Each Dragon is also obsessed with a different type of Gem which is what you will initially click on to earn points for your Dragon until you get upgrades so the Dragon can earn gems on it's own. True to the way of the idle game, we are adding a feature so your dragons will continue earning gems even when the app or website is closed.

The Dragons are being drawn by Dage, Thyton and Oishii. Originally we were going to anime-style shade them, but both Dage and Thyton's painting skills are getting so amazing that we asked them if it would be possible to paint them all. So far the results have been breathtaking. Yergen is working on subtle animations to give them even more life.

We painted the interface too. Warlic is coding it as you read this. It is hands-down the most beautiful thing our team has produced yet. Meanwhile, I have been working on the writing the stories and progression system with the Cookie Clicker guys. I *REALLY* enjoy working with them. Hope they feel the same. This game is a lot smaller in scope than our other game projects. So, why am I more excited about this than I have ever been about a game before?

Games easily grab attention, feed the imagination, and motivate their players. Participants in this presentation will be challenged to explore, dissect, and evaluate what makes games engaging for players and apply what they have found to their own learning challenges and course syllabi. Using games for student engagement doesn't have to look like Call of Duty and you don't need a PhD in Computer Science to create them. The most engaging, game-like experiences in learning contexts can take very simple forms, such as narrative or quest. Together, participants will reflect on the parts and pieces of games that make things a little more exciting, and go on an adventure. By the end of the workshop, active participants will be able to embrace game-based elements into their own classes and training, and leave with a solid implementation plan. So, grab your adventuring gear and let's quest!

Krys Ziska Strange is Assistant Director, Innovation & Technology, in the Office of Digital Learning at University of Arizona. She also teaches courses focused on gaming culture and a game-based course focused on social issues. She earned her PhD in Curriculum & Instruction, focusing on faculty identity and professional development, her Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Wayne State University and her Bachelor's in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Methodist College.

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