September 30, 2013

CON-Fusion

Wow, what a super crazy weekend!

Been up super early creating new items that are now rare; the Elite Cursed Katana and the Cursed Katana. So, I bet you are all saying "What now?" - It all started last Friday when I accidently added the wrong smuggler outfit, even more so was the fact it was the wrong price in Smash Coins. It was too late before I learned of the mistake and attempted (away from my office) to correct the issue the best I could. But instead more people got the wrong smuggler outfit at Fame pricing! We care deeply for our players and want to make sure all are happy, but it is not always easy on the weekends to fix issues quickly. While I do work late into the night many times, am up early in the morning to work on projects and work through many weekends, I too need to stop and deal with real life issues and sometimes just relax. In this case I was away most of the weekend - Saturday was at Alanti-CON 2!

Well, I was there for a few hours, it was a long drive and I accidently made a wrong turn on the highway costing me a few hours. It was nice to see fans celebrating their favorite comics and sci-fi shows. I had, however, hoped to see local gaming developers like big CONs have. But I did have fun seeing people having zombie survival presentations and really cool hand made cosplay costumes and items. Also got to meet Drakaina a Fantasy Muse - who inspires many artists for their art (cosplay photos, comic art and art illustrations) and fights to stop animal cruelty. I was sad Robert Malliet (Stargate SG-1) could not make it this year as I love anything with a name like STAR, SPACE or TIME related sci-fi. Next year I am planning to be better prepared and early!

So you now asking what I did on Sunday? Fixed my hotwater tank and pipes! With winter coming preparing one's castle is important. FYI I try to do most stuff myself vs hiring someone to fix something (Never do something unless you KNOW what you are doing!).

Lastly many asked when the storyline will continue. We are working on it. Monsters are being made, art is in the works, quests are starting to form into something great. But please understand I cannot do everything at once. So one week maybe storyline/quests and another shop or events (not both). That is down to the time we have and resources available.

Tags: Randor the Red

September 27, 2013

Week of Chaos

Hiya Smashers!

Many have asked 'where are the event RARES?' As I stated while ago, we are trying to focus on storyline instead of shop updates. We had planned on some new items for TLaPD and F13 shop, but we had issues with art coding. Our new artists are still learning their way around. Art is just a small part of game development, the other half of that is coding. Errors in code can cause bugs or art not work at all. We discovered these errors and have fixed most of the art. I will put art as it gets fixed correctly (not before).

Also this week, I added a new Chaos Eye Shield for the new T-shirt on HeroMart (www.HeroMart.com). Due to a mix-up, it will also include the Dark Chaos Eye Shield (Members Only), a color variant of the Chaos Eye.

This weekend, I will be heading my way to ATLANTI-CON! So if you're lucky, you will see me there during the morning. I was hoping to go for the whole day, but family issues has change my plans. It will be interesting to see who will know what I even look like! (I will be wearing my AE 10th Anniversary T-shirt, trusty goggles, and new HS ID badge).

Before the TLaPD event is gone, we will be adding more items. Friday 13th will be back again this year, so the art team will work on getting some new rares ready. Next up, cos-play and more quests. Wonderp Bread is working hard on some new monsters while we work on making the boss quest work correctly.

Tags: Randor the Red

September 20, 2013

TLaPD 2013

Hey Smash … -er … -ers … zzz …

What?! What? Oh, sorry there folks. I've been working overtime on Movie Plex expansion! What's a movie theatre without viewing rooms? The lobby has been rebuilt and new rooms will be added. The biggest issue was scaling. Yergen wants it to be social-type game, and I like that every player is the hero/villain … so we meet in the middle. Yes, many have asked if Yergen was still involved in HeroSmash. The truth is … he never left—he is the Game Lead! I just run things as he works on other new AE game projects. He's always keeping an eye on things and is one of best people to work with. Yergen has created a special parrot just for TLaPD!

Starting off last week was code-training with Dumoose! I am an artist, not a coder, but a lot of the game requires code to work. The more knowledge you have, the better. A better understanding of how things work allows me to understand the pros and cons of doing things. I learned that we need more planning on areas to make Flash work in our favor, but now I have a lot of new ideas! One new feature in the Movie Plex—the 'Action' doors! We use blockers to control where you walk and pads (think of them as virtual teleporters), but flying bypasses blockers and when you fly into a pad to more to next spot. This can cause confusion when flying so these new action doors will help solve the problem. Making new doors takes more time but will be worth it.

Due to coding, script, and art, the Movie Plex is not quite complete. A lot of final details need be done. We are also designing another monster for it (WIP). I'd like thank the HeroSmash team for their support and hard work. Without them, the game would not have any small updates while we work on major releases.

Mr. Midnight wrote more quests, but the newest one was a lot to learn, as it require coding I have not done before. Now expect to see more in the future like a game wide Easter egg hunt one day. We also testing sound on the fire hydrants, code still needs tweaking but it has come a long ways from early versions that cause chaos of overlapping and never ending sounds. But as I come to understand how things work the better I getting at making reality happen. Once we have a good working model it will be applied to the other items (trash can and mail box). New items can be created so we can have towns with tons of things to smash! No littering, please.

This week we are re-releasing Friday the 13th! I hope that will keep you busy, at least until we can release more Movie Plex content. A few more items will be added over the weekend. With new artists comes new issues. As they learn new skills, this sometimes causes issues in the artwork and they have to be corrected before releasing.

Tags: Randor the Red TLAPD Market Sreet

September 06, 2013

Movie Plex Phaze I

Hey Smashers!

Mr Midnight and myself have both been planning out quests, while the rest of the team is working hard on artwork. We started on Market Street as we continue to seek and destroy the unusual bug with the gremlin monsters. Quests will be set-up for both good and evil players. Movie Plex is getting a facelift and a new secret 'boss' room. We've also started adding street signs (needs adjusting as we are trying to create a better city map).


Like all of you I am super excited about having a quest writer. The HeroSmash team is shaping up and we are super focused on making the game better for everyone!


While the are no new items and quests this week, we will be rolling out the updated Market Street map. Next week we plan to roll out new quests and start adding cosplay gear inspired by movies selected by you, the players.

Tags: Randor the Red Market Sreet

September 02, 2013

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day!

Once again Labor Day sales have returned! This year we have added a gear to allow you to be a fireman, construction worker and teacher!

The winning writer is... Wait for it... Hang on... Here we go... Hey I just found my watch!... Mr. Midnight!

There is no Dragon Khan this year in HeroSmash as we are now focusing on getting a bigger release done. Now we have a writer on board we plan to start getting quests out, which we all have been waiting for!

Happy Labor Day!

Tags: Randor the Red Labor Day Dragon Khan