I ran my 3rd 10K race in 3 weeks... and you know it's gonna be used as a metaphor for how we are taking the game from early access to fully 100% live!
"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
I walked into the diner with a limp. It hurt. I was meeting Zhoom there. He asked me if my leg was still hurting that bad. I said, "This will probably make for a good story when we talk about what we are about to do." We were there to create a detailed game plan of exactly what we still needed to do in order to complete the early access phase of AdventureQuest 3D... and flip the switch declaring it 100% live on all devices. We made a pretty darn good list.
Two days previous... I called Zhoom at 6am and got him to do another 10K race with me. This one was for a charity that a local school was running. It was also our 3rd race in 3 weeks... pretty crazy that we had never even run one before that.
If you are just joining us now, there is an important thing to know. I hate running. My motto was, "I learned how to fight so I never had to run!" It was not too long ago that I could not even run a mile non-stop. I started running to purposely do something that I hated... something that would push me physically and mentally to overcome something hard that I did not want to do. I started real small... and have been getting a little better with each event. I feel it is important that we inflict things upon yourself that push us to be better. Ultimate goal: "Better than yesterday"
But also... suffered two knee injuries. (Probably because I only had two knees.)
You need to see the finish line in your head... but also know there's always the next race.
So we sat at the diner this morning. We sat at the diner staring at the list of AdventureQuest 3D features, game content, and "other". The ink was not even dry yet. We could do it in 4 months. If the whole team went all out that is. Loot improvement, combat improvement, new classes, world story and areas, inventory management, quest layout changes, and more. We knew we still needed to take it in and run it by everyone. They would have input. Things they felt were important. Everyone would have to be on board. Because we all needed to be running to the same finish line. But of course, it is not really a finish line. It is more like a new start line. But that just... sorta messes up the whole metaphor.
On Saturday morning as Zhoom and I were reaching mile 3... my knees got a sharp pain. Like running on swords with the blade pointing in the inconvenient way. It was bad. Really bad. It had actually started a week earlier at that Savage Race-- you know the one with the ninja obstacles and cow poo. Thought my knee would have healed through the week. Instead I was suppressing a scream. There were only two choices. I certainly had the option to stop running... walk the rest of the way... maybe call an uber o_O. But no. As you guessed, I made the clear and relentless decision that I was going to continue running and reach the finish line no matter what. I did. I did it because I am not a quitter... not publically nor even secretly. Sure, there are lots of people who are going to say, "Oh man, Artix, that's a bad idea. Why would you do that to yourself? You should have taken it easy." But who are you you going to trust to keep going until they get something done? The guy who quits... or the guy who's willing to bust his own knees just to reach the finish line of a stupid race. One of those two has what it takes.
The new Game Plan for AdventureQuest 3D will be way harder than a 10K. But I am not running it alone. You have an entire dedicated AdventureQuest 3D team which will be making this massive push together. Most of them are far better runners than I am (metaphorically and literally.)
I tried my best not to let anyone notice my limp walking into the AdventureQuest 3D team meeting this morning. Everyone was gathered in the room. Korin always sits on the floor. Dage is active in the meeting-- which is always surprising as it looks like he is completely fixated as he continues painting on his monitor. The room is full. It is always a big huddle. Everyone is cautiously optimistic. I mean, we have made plans before... things took longer than expected, or changed. That's true. But that's why we train. In a way, you could say we have been training for the past two years. You have too. I think it's time we kick off this new race and show what we can do. Grateful that you are here to be a part of it.
By next Monday we will have a polished and approved new Game Plan. We will update the official one here on the website. So once again you will be able to see the exact order we are working on things (Like the new Battleon, saga story, raising the level cap, new classes, releasing all of the emotes, etc) and how much is left before we hit our major goal... and throw a world wide release party to celebrate.
I feel like if you made it to the end of this one, you deserve a race medal :D But more important, I would like to hear what features you think are most important. Even if you have already stated it before-- it would help either reinforce the list we have, or help us expand what we will be doing next.
Until then... as the legend goes. "Whomever can pull this painful metaphorical sword out of my knee shall be King!"
P.S. Will be catching up on comments for the last few posts tomorrow.
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