Artix Entertainment

Artix Entertainment, LLC. (often abbreviated to AE) is an independent video game developer and publisher that creates browser-based role-playing games using the Flash and Unity engines. Their games are also known as Battleon Games. As of June 2012, they are known to have over 150 Million users in their games and about 30 employees at the headquarters, which is located in Land O'Lakes, Florida.

History
The company was founded by Adam Bohn (better known to players by his pseudonym, Artix von Krieger) in October, 2002. Over the years they have developed and released seven role-playing games, three of which are MMORPG's and four of which are single-player RPG's. They have also released several mini-games. They currently are developing a new game, AdventureQuest3D: Legend of Lore.

AdventureQuest
AdventureQuest was Artix Entertainment's first project released in October, 2002. Now it is also referred to as AdventureQuest Classic and The Original AdventureQuest. The game is also called Battleon sometimes because of its domain name. The game is set in the fictional world of "Lore", a tongue-in-cheek reference to the original game name, Lands of Rising Evil. While it is free to play, players may upgrade their characters to become AdventureQuest Guardians in order to receive exclusive in-game benefits.

WarpForce
Artix Entertainment's expansion to AdventureQuest, WarpForce, was released on July 17, 2009. It is a sequel to AdventureQuest, specifically relating to the recently-completed five-year Devourer story arc in AdventureQuest, and many crossovers between the two are planned. It was built with the same game engine as AdventureQuest and, like AdventureQuest and Artix Entertainment's other single-player RPGs, is free to play with an optional one-time fee.

DragonFable
After AdventureQuest gained popularity, Artix Entertainment began to develop DragonFable and released it in June 9, 2006, set in a similar universe as AdventureQuest. But unlike AdventureQuest which featured a 2D background with the player clicking the edges of the screen or doors to move around, DragonFable has a 2.5D movement system.

MechQuest
The third game, MechQuest is a science fiction RPG set in the a similar universe as the previous two games. MechQuest game system is a fusion between AdventureQuest and DragonFable. Players can control their own giant robot (called mechas in the game) to fight evil forces invading planets around the galaxy.

Nic Stransky complimented the graphics and simplicity of the game, but wrote that melee could feel inconsistent and that players may wish for more strategy.

AdventureQuest Worlds
AdventureQuest Worlds is the fourth major game made by Artix Entertainment and a browser MMORPG. It is also the first multiplayer MMORPG created by the company and also the first multiplayer game to be created in Adobe Flash. The game was released on October 10, 2008. Like its predecessors, it uses 2D-3D animation, although in a much simpler style to account for the increased server load and incorporates elements of all three previous games in its story. Unlike its predecessors, however, membership upgrades are not a one-time payment, but are instead purchased only for a certain number of months.

Play is similar to many MMORPGs, with players being able to chat and fight both in-game monsters and other players, in limited areas. Characters can be customized in appearance and gear, and character classes are available to train in game. Combat is not turn-based as in Artix Entertainment's previous RPGs, but is real-time and allows for group battles. Special events take place often, with many holidays being celebrated in-game. Other special events include wars, in which players collaborate to defeat enough "waves" of monsters to win the war over several days, and live events with guest stars like Voltaire, One-Eyed Doll, George Lowe, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, the cast of Ctrl+Alt+Del, Ayi Jihu, ArcAttack, They Might Be Giants, and Michael Sinterniklaas as the voice of Deady.

EpicDuel
On December 2, 2009, Artix Entertainment announced that they were taking on a new MMORPG, EpicDuel, which they acquired from Epic Inventions LLC, who were developing the game independently. This is now their sixth major RPG. EpicDuel battle system is primarily based on player versus player gameplay.

HeroSmash
HeroSmash is a superhero-themed MMORPG that has entered beta testing, based on AdventureQuest Worlds. Beta stage is playable to all players in the game that possesses a Master account. The game was originally going to be called SuperHeroQuest, but "SuperHero" was a trademark from DC Comics and Marvel Comics which stopped Artix Entertainment from using the name they wanted.

Pony VS Pony
A puzzle game inspired from My Little Pony. The game was released in 2011.

AdventureQuest 3D: Legend of Lore
Artix Entertainment is currently working on their first 3D game, AdventureQuest 3D, due to be released for alpha testing to all players who have purchased any packages in any of the games created by Artix Entertainment.

OverSoul
A Player versus player and Player versus environment game where you possess characters and use skill cards to battle. The game was created by Artix Entertainment's artist, Milton Pool (better known as Nulgath or Miltonius). The game is currently in Beta Testing phase and is available to all players. Alpha Testing took place from 13 September 2012 to 31 October 2012.

Master Account Mini-games
In early 2010, the BattleOn Portal was launched allowing players to connect all of their accounts to one master account. Work also began on a system where progress in portal mini-games could be saved on the master account. The first of these mini-games is BladeHaven. Beta testing for the game began on October 14, 2010. Only players who had upgraded in one of the company's other games could participate. The game was released to the public on November 5. In 2011, the staff had an mini-game developing contest and ended up making and releasing 10 mini-games on the portal site.

Other games
A test Guardian-only game known as ZardWars was developed in order to test how the servers would react to more than one database.

Another Guardian-only game called ArchKnight was made, though it was replaced by DragonFable before the game could be sufficiently developed, with the promise that ArchKnight would be worked into the new game. On February 19, 2010, the ArchKnight game and quest chain was continued and finished in DragonFable, and was made accessible only to those with upgrades in AdventureQuest and DragonFable.

Payment
Payment in AE games consists mostly of both a one-time payment (or subscription, in the case of AdventureQuest Worlds and HeroSmash) to unlock extra content. Most games also have "secondary currencies" (microtransactions) which are gained through offers or from spending real world money. These currencies can be used to buy in-game items.

AExtras
AExtras is a system of obtaining the previously payment-based secondary currencies in Artix Entertainment's games. It was first introduced in AdventureQuest Worlds before becoming available for all its major games and portal. In December 2010 it was discontinued in all but the Master Account System to encourage users to connect their accounts and earn rewards from there. Players can obtain free secondary currency or membership through the completion of third-party offers.

Other Media
In November 2010 Artix Entertainment published its first novel, "The Dragon's Secret", written by AdventureQuest player, Lyra Trice Solis.

Artix Entertainment has also released two animated shorts. The first, Artix Vs. the Undead, was made as a teaser for the DoomWood storyline in DragonFable. The second short, Death from Above, was released as a sneak peek to the MechQuest storyline and was developed by J6 of the Artix Entertainment staff, and can be viewed in the game MechQuest.