EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

September 06, 2011

There's nothing quite like it.  At least, not in my limited experience.  A mini-Universe of condensed nerd culture that forms and dissipates every Labor Day weekend is truly remarkable, and I'm happy to have participated in it for the second time this year.

Departure

Just after the crack of dawn, we loaded the Awesome Party Bus of Doom with costumes, luggage, and laptops, snacked on coffee and muffins, and began the long trek to Atlanta, GA for Dragon*Con (after waiting for Stratos, of course).  The journey was long and fraught will peril...in the form of ZOMBIES!  Well, not real zombies, but zombies on a popular TV series Korin brought for us to watch that happens to actually take place in Atlanta!

Pizza N E 1?

After we arrived safe and sound at the hotel (no zombies other than cosplayers!), we promptly received our badges and checked into our rooms to decompress and gear up for the fan meet-n-greet pizza party in Artix's suite.  It was great fun to see you guys in real life, even if you didn't look anything like your in-game counterparts.  I guess hotel security confiscated your armor and weapons!  Voltaire even stopped by for a special guest appearance!

The Panel

It was extremely amusing to see AE staff dressed as their in-game counterparts.    We had more cosplaying staff than ever before, and Artix's paladin armor received a major, full-metal upgrade!  I can't even imagine what the players and hotel staff were thinking as we filed into that room on Friday. 

This panel was even longer than last year's, but it didn't feel like it.  If anything, we could have gone for another hour or two!  There's always so much to do and show and tell and so many questions to answer.  We hope to post some clips on our DNs once they're edited, but if your Youtube-Fu is strong, you may be able to find a camera phone clip or of the panel's highlights. 

Thanks again to everyone who was able to make the journey out and see us in person!

Everybody's Workin' on the Weekend

Dragon*Con is a time for work and play. A time for AE staff to recharge their batteries, make connections, and converse with fans.  This convention, a much higher percentage of time was devoted to work than previously. Most of our games were releasing major updates and some staff even stayed behind to put in insane hours over the weekend to make sure the releases were as polished as possible. Titan himself rolled THREE DIFFERENT RELEASES for EpicDuel to install interface fixes, improve stability, and, of course, release the Draconic Multi-class Weapons! Did you pick them up? If not, you're in luck, because we decided to keep them in game until we roll our next release (possibly Wednesday) to ensure everyone has a chance to get them since we released so late on Friday.

New Game?

As if the stresses of preparing for Dragon*Con and our panel weren't enough, we decided to launch a new game  (a several major game releasing) during the convention: Ponies Vs Ponies.  There were some technical problems with the launch, made even worse by the fact that it was impossible to communicate with the outside world during the panel in the Sheraton, which had apparently just installed their dwarf star alloy walls.

Why do we do this to ourselves?  Because we love you, that's why!

Nightwraith Is Bad at Cards

Truth.

Card games are games for which I have zero skill.  The gaming public learned this fact  when  Practel challenged me to a vicious game of BattleOn Battle Cards.  I was utterly devastated by his relentless onslaught.  He used every opportunity to counter my attacks, negate my blocks, and steal my paltry defenses.  Such spectacular failures are often the stuff of myth and lore, the details too fantastical to be accurately recounted.   This monumental defeat will haunt me until next Dragon*Con, when I have a stack of "custom" cards (maybe?).

Though I wasn't able to capture any cards, we DID manage to give away ALL of Charfade's signed EpicDuel postcards at the fan table!  If you have one, congratulations!  You're one of 100 people with a card!

The Road Home

It seems to be tradition that the weather for the last day of the con reflect our emotional state upon leaving -- sad and gray.  Once again, we trudged to the bus and loaded our collective experiences in the overhead bins on the bus and began our trek back to Florida.

For those of you who have never been to Florida, we have some fascinating weather patterns here.  Within the span of a minute, the weather can go from sunny and dry, to a torrential downpour, and back again.  This happened the entire ride back on the bus as we watched awful cartoons from the early 90s (THEY WERE COOL  AT THE TIME), recalled the best con stories, and tried our best to sleep.

When we finally arrived at the lab, the sky was angry yet again, but there was no rain in sight.  We had finally unloaded our costumes and luggage from the bus and were about say our goodbyes (until the next day) when suddenly: Drip, drip, drop, ASLPPPPPOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!  The entire sky opened its fearsome maw and instantly soaked everything and everyone not  loaded in a vehicle.

Now, it's back to business as we work on another release for Wednesday!  Bye Dragon*Con!  Dragon*Con 2012 can't come soon enough!

Tags: Dragon*Con Nightwraith