Artix Entertainment is an indie gaming company that trades excusively in browser-based Flash games. All of their games are
free to play, but generate revenue by allowing you to
bribe your way to victory, usually in the form of permanent upgrades and/or special in-game currency only availible by purchasing with real-world money.
AE started as Adam Bohn (more widely known by his 'screen name' "Artix von Krieger," or, usually, just "Artix") and a few of his best friends in high school, piecing together a rather
crude RPG in
Adobe Flash (Flash was relatively unknown at the time)...It took off in a
major way.
Their prototype game (called
Land of Rising Evil) soon turned into
Adventure Quest, nowadays with
thousands of players online at any given time. Their second 'game project' was another RPG in the same vein, called
ArchKnight. A demo was produced, but the game never progressed beyond that stage, although the main story and some characters have now been integrated into
DragonFable as sort of 'minigame'.
Then along came
DragonFable that same year, which proved to be a huge success- possibly even outdoing
Adventure Quest itself. From there, they just started expanding exponentially, and today, their portfolio also contains
another RPG (featuring
Humongous Mecha), a Flash-based
MMORPG, a slew of minigames and many more RPG in the works.
Most of their games so far take place in the same universe- or at least in
alternate timelines of the same universe, separated by anything from
''five years'' (and two-days worth of travel) to 5,000 years and a few million light years away... The only exceptions to this are
EpicDuel and
HeroSmash, the first of which is unrelated to the Artix Entertainment continuity due to the fact that it had been developed independently prior to the merger with AE.
Games:
- AdventureQuest: (2002) Flagship game, and original creation. A fantasy RPG, featuring dragons, elves, magic potions, mad wizards (benign and otherwise), attack kittens, werewolves, heroes, pirates, ninjas, kungfu masters, frogzards and other assorted insanity.
- DragonFable: (2005) Prequel to AdventureQuest, set five years earlier. The setting is pretty much the same as AdventureQuest, just way earlier, in a different location...
- MechQuest: (2007) Another prequel to AdventureQuest- this one set 5,000 years before it. It features Humongous Mecha, Faster-than-Light Travel, general sci-ficness and very little traditional magic. It also features quite a few prominent characters from other AE games, and/or copies of the selfsame (maybe), which is... interesting, to say the least!
- AdventureQuest Worlds: (2008) AE's resident Flash-based MMO, happening after the Time Dragon was slain and merged the other games together (of the same continuity)! The setting incorporates many elements from both AdventureQuest and DragonFable, but mainly the latter game.
- WarpForce: (2009) Expansion to the original AdventureQuest and uses the same gameplay elements and style, except with a more spacey flair due to its setting.
- EpicDuel: AE's second Flash-based MMO. EpicDuel was developed independently by Epic Inventions, LLC, a smaller gaming company which was purchased by Artix, and the developers brought on as Artix Entertainment employees. It takes place outside of the world of AdventureQuest, since it was developed with its own mythology in mind.
- HeroSmash: (2010) AE's third MMO, though the second once actually created by AE, like EpicDuel this appears to take place in an entirely different world to most of the other AE games though details are pretty limited right now. It is a superhero based game and is currently in the beta stages of testing.
- Legend of Lore in 2012 has recently been announced (which will be in 3D) and should go into beta in Summer of 2012, there is very little information on this game at the moment except that it will be aimed at a more mature audience than AE's other previous games.
- "Oversoul" (2012) Now in Beta, it is mildly successful, it is a bit like Pokemon in the way that you can possess other characters, but is possible not to. The micro-currency is 'Soul Gems' which, on victory, allow you the chance to guarantee (Think of a Master ball from Pokemon) a character possession. There are currently over 115 characters to possess, and has recently released its second quest. But, because it is still in Beta, the servers are down at random times(Although not as often as in Alpha) which to leads to minor rage in the forums.
Tropes associated with Artix Entertainment:
- Allegedly Free Game: Most of their games' online adverts always say Free To Play! until you want bonuses... (See Bribing Your Way to Victory)
- Art Evolution: The original art of Adventure Quest and the most recent art nowadays, especially the monster's graphics.
- Author Avatar: Practically all important (and a lot of secondary) NPCs are either based on and named after staff members. Most notably Artix himself, who appears in-game himself as an overzealous holy Paladin.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: A majority of their major games offer the opportunity to permanently upgrade your character to give them access to the best equipment, and then goes further in making various types of in-game currency necessary for buying the very best available (practically) only by real-world purchase or completing sponsor offers.
- CamelCase: All of the games.
- Crisis Crossover: The 10th anniversary Gameocide event, where all six main games went to war at the same time, with only one week to defeat 10 million monsters. And the players pulled it off.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In any given AE game (excluding mini-games), the worst consequence death will have is that you have to start the quest over.
- Death Is Not Permanent: See above.
- Direct Demographic: AE has a very close relationship to its player base, often directly involving them in the creation process, creating quests that are impossible to finish without the cooperation of several players (despite being in single-player games), and sometimes even bringing forum antics into the games themselves.
- Fan Dis Service: This picture from the September 14, 2010 MechQuest DNs
◊. Complete with Troll Face. - Idiot Hero: All player characters are this.
- Improbable Weapon User: AE likes to give their players odd weapons, such as deadly cupcakes, candy-cane rockets and squirtguns.
- It Will Never Catch On: Flash-animated RPG games in 2005.
- Light Is Not Good: Sek-Duat, Kingadent Slugwrath, Brilhado, The Inquisitors of the Citadel, and Maximilian Lionfang
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Vaal, Vampire-Lord Incubus, Sepulchure, The DeathScythe, The Nightmare Queen, Kathool Atchoo, Nythera? Yeah, not so nice.
- Parental Bonus: Many of these jokes and puns.
- Shout Out: Loads and loads over the years. Minor examples include the Frogzard Hunter, Robina Hood, Light's Sabers and Kent Parker's comic book store.
- Villainous Breakdown: Chairman Platinum does not take it well when Operation Gameocide fails.
- Wolverine Publicity: Drakath who also appears in AdventureQuest, Dragon Fable and Adventure Quest Worlds (the latter as its Big Bad).
- War Is Hell: MechQuest and EpicDuel are the prime examples.
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