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2023-10-15RSSMany small improvements

Today brings a number a small improvements, each so small they may not even deserve paragraphs of their own! But hey, why not?

When browsing through your Cookbook, you'll now notice that all ingredients and results are now links to their respective items.

Very similarly, when leafing through your Combinatorial Knowledge, you'll again see that both ingredients and results are now links to their respective items.

Character names in the character selection screen and also in the sidebar now have the title attribute, meaning they will display the whole name on hover. This is mainly of use for those of you who have chosen names longer than can normally fit in those spaces.

In your Campground, you'll see that each of your improvements now reveal how much opulence and power they're giving you.

Much like was already true in the Market, for each item sold in a store (like the Item Shop), you can now hover over it to see how many of that item you currently have.

Finally, when you successfully cook or combine using a previously unknown recipe, the resulting message will specifically note this.

2023-10-10RSSThat's not very magic!

I've just fixed a rather major bug which caused max MP bonuses to not be awarded at level up. In particular, this made Mages much more difficult to play than was intended. The bug was introduced with some refactoring in mid 2021, any level ups that happened between then and late yesterday were affected.

While the bug is now fixed, there is unfortunately no way to determine which previous level ups were affected. As a result, I've simulated the entire sequence of level ups for each character, from level 0 to their current level and if that simulation produces a max MP value higher than what you had before, you now have the higher value, otherwise nothing changes. This should cover all instances of characters hit by the aforementioned bug, and also gave small buffs to many characters that had slightly better luck this time around.

In less dramatic news, the trips at Holiday Island now display their level requirements, although you can still only see trips for which you already meet the requirements.

2021-05-16RSSIntroducing accuracy!

As alluded to recently, accuracy is the direct counterpart to dodge, and it is now live! All players start with 100% accuracy and can modify this both upwards and downwards with a variety of items. Monsters generally have 100% accuracy as well, although there are a few exceptions.

As to how specifically accuracy works, basically your accuracy and the monster's dodge chance get added together and that becomes the effective dodge chance. When monsters are attacking you, a similar process happens, but taking the monster's accuracy and your dodge chance, of course. So, if you have 125% accuracy and the monster has a 20% dodge chance, the effective dodge chance for that attack will be -5%. Similarly, if you have 60% accuracy and the monster has 10% dodge, then the effective dodge chance will be 50%. If your accuracy is high enough, it is possible to never miss now. Additionally, if your accuracy is low enough, it's also now possible to never not miss.

Speaking of items, several existing items have grown new properties, and there are also 5 interesting new weapons.

Finally, as a bonus, I've tweaked the vertical alignment of checkboxes and radio buttons so that they hopefully line up with inline text better. Aligning text and other non-text elements vertically is basically the most difficult problem in web design so I'm sure this will work horribly in some cases, but hopefully it's better overall.

2021-05-10RSSMore observant Wise Sage

The Wise Sage has decided to take note of the most diverse players, which is to say, those that have killed the largest number of distinct monsters. Unfortunately, the Wise Sage's memory isn't what it used to be and only kills starting from early 2009 count towards this. Nevertheless, moving forward he will be more vigilant.

2021-05-09RSSDodging and more!

So, since basically the beginning of Game!, the dodge chance for both monsters and players has been hardcoded to 4%, but today that changes! First of all, players got a slight buff to 5% dodge by default, but so did monsters. The main reason for that is because 5% looks better than 4% in your Profile. Speaking of which, your dodge chance is now visible in your Profile. 16.83% of monsters were rebalanced to have higher dodge chances (some significantly higher) to make things a little more interesting. Don't worry though, methods to counter these overly dodgy monsters are coming soon...

Of course, monsters don't get to have all of the fun. Items and sets can now offer increased dodge chances. Also, in totally unrelated news, there are 4 brand new items out there to find, 2 of the existing sets have been buffed, and 1 of the existing pets has been slightly buffed.

Additionally, the sidebar was slightly reorganized, to combine both Level and EXP into a single item. The raw EXP number is still visible in your Profile should you be curious, but I expect the Level progress bar is sufficiently informative for most cases. The main reason for this is to tidy up the view for smaller screens, as every row can have exactly 3 items now.

Finally, the action buttons and dropdowns (at the bottom of the screen) now become disabled when you execute an action, until the page reloads. Before, if you clicked fast enough, it was possible to end up with multiple requests simultaneously in flight, and that could land you into the next battle without you realizing what happened, as you would only see the results of one of those requests, but they would all happen.

2021-05-03RSSLots more food!

In exciting news for all hungry Game!ers out there, there are now an additional 18 recipes, as well as 17 new items and 2 new combinations. That's a lot!

Also, in somewhat related news, quests have titles now. The main reason is so they can be displayed at the Quest Master a bit more cleanly. This is also handy if you want to refer to a specific quest by name rather than picking something about it.

2021-05-01RSSMassive UI overhaul

Although it will be almost completely invisible if you're using a normal sized screen, the UI has just had a massive overhaul. The overall top and side bars will now behave somewhat better on smaller screens (those under 900px wide). Essentially, the sidebar gets smushed into the top bar, and most of it is hidden by default. You can click anywhere in the top bar to slide out a panel that has everything you would normally be able to always see on a larger screen, but on smaller screens needs to be hidden by default. The discoverability of this panel is very poor and definitely needs improvement somehow, but I haven't figured out a good method yet. So... for now, just make sure that if you haven't already read this news item yet, that you read this news item.

I haven't touched any other UI elements to account for smaller screens yet, and the usability of various screens will vary quite a bit (the Inventory in particular is going to suck), but most aren't extremely horrible. In general, they were designed from the beginning to scale to different widths and font sizes, but the small screened devices common today really push the extremes.

2021-04-24RSSInterface tweaks and gamebox refactoring

I've completely reworked the CSS for the gameboxes (those are the boxes that just about everything in Game! is displayed in). They look very similar to before, but it requires 35 fewer images than before (a 97.2% reduction!) and a mere fraction of the CSS, thanks to CSS linear-gradient() and border-radius mainly (and also being able to delete all of the IE6 and IE7 compatibility cruft). This should speed up page loads a little bit (mainly for the cold cache case) and it also makes them work reasonably fine with multi-line titles instead of blowing up catastrophically like they used to.

The potentially more interesting part for you is that in conjunction with the above refactoring, I've also redone the login/landing page and account creation page to use CSS flexbox. Surprisingly enough, flexbox makes the layout a lot more flexible and in this case, arguably less ugly. Those pages should make better use of the available screen space now.

It is my understanding that some people like to subject themselves to using a browser without a mouse or keyboard on a tiny screen that they carry around with them everywhere. Although I can't say I fully understand this phenomenon, the aforementioned pages should be somewhat more usable for this case now.

2021-04-22RSSMore food!

Due to popular demand, I've added several new food items and recipes. More specifically, there are 10 new items and 11 new recipes. Chefs, warm up your Portable Mini Ovens!

In a bit of related news, this also pushes Game! to over 400 items! Woo!

2021-04-18RSSBigger actions!

This will be immediately obvious, but I've reworked the actions area to feature significantly larger actions (Attack, Run, Back to ___, etc). They are slightly taller, but they're also buttons now that collectively span the full width of the screen, which should make them significantly easier to hit, and it should also improve the consistency of their placement (which was already reasonably good, but more or less worked by accident).

I'm sure that sounds like a pretty trivial change, but it actually involved quite a bit of yak shaving due to a non-trivial amount of hardcoding based on assumptions that the actions area size would never change... Surprise! It did! For example, the way fly out boxes (like when you click on an item) were placed was completely rewritten and significantly simplified. It should behave pretty similarly to the old one, but a number of corner cases are better handled, and hopefully I didn't break anything along the way.

Long story short, enjoy your super sized actions!

2021-04-11RSSNew quest and items!

I've added a new lower level quest to smooth out the quest progression a bit, as the level gap between quests there was pretty large in comparison to the rest. In conjunction with the new quest there's also 9 new items and 4 new combinations. Happy hunting!

2021-04-10RSSAnother pet!

After a brief slumber, we're back with a new pet and also a new item to go along with it. Of course this means that not all items have art anymore, but that's a fixable problem, just as soon as someone artistically inclined has the right kind of itch...

2016-08-01RSSHTTPS enabled

Since SSL certificates are free these days (in this particular case, courtesy of Let's Encrypt), I've gone ahead and enabled HTTPS support, go ahead and try it out. You probably won't notice much difference aside from the padlock in the URL bar.

I believe I've worked out all the kinks, but for now the plain HTTP access works like it did before. Most likely I will redirect plain HTTP to HTTPS in the relatively near future. Let me know if you run into any issues in the mean time.

2014-02-08RSSNew art!

Kariloy has come through again and finished off the last four items that were missing images. Huzzah!

2012-07-10RSSLost art

In what somehow ended up being the first update in nearly a year, we have some new (old) art. These guys got lost somewhere between me and the pad of paper they were drawn on, only to reach their final destination now. Anyways, without further ado, I present you with two new item images.

2011-08-16RSSNew art!

To go along with this randomly selected Tuesday, we've been graced with four new images. This rounds out the last few missing images for monsters (for now), although we're still left with a few missing images for items. Enjoy!

2011-07-03RSSMarket tweaks

Today brings two notable changes to the Market, one of which is substantially more noticeable than the other.

Completely unnoticeable, but very important to note is that the "current market reservations" numbers shown at the Market and in item dialogs no longer include items whose reservation price is below the regular sale price of said item.

Much more noticeable, but still worth mentioning is that the Market now shows you how many of a particular item you have along with the listing as you hover over said listing.

2011-06-28RSSTavern optimization

I've optimized the way the Tavern works significantly. In particular, those with a lot of history stored in localStorage should notice substantially faster page loads, as only a small portion of the history is loaded immediately. If you want to see the rest of it, scroll up and click [ more history ].

2011-06-27RSSThe Casino opens!

To much fanfare, the Casino has opened in the Pseudo-metropolis. Additionally, the level requirement for the Pseudo-metropolis has been lowered to 11 to match that of the Casino. The existing zones in the Pseudo-metropolis retain their original level requirements.

Additionally, an existing zone has been changed. Previously, it didn't serve much purpose, while now it does.

In other news, I've added one new item and one new cooking recipe.

Also, Juliana sent in two more images, which are now up. Likewise, Filipe did the same with two images, which are also now up.

Last but not least, two of the existing windfall items are now available via new methods. For more background, have a look through this thread.

2011-06-16RSSNew art!

Our newest artist, Juliana Duque, has filled in drawings for two of our more alliterative monsters. If that rings a bell, have a peek, they're quite good.

2011-06-09RSSMore history in the Tavern

Due to popular demand, the Tavern now stores chat history locally (using HTML5 Local Storage) and persists it from page to page. In other words, you can see more than 5 lines of history in the Tavern now, provided that your browser supports this. If your browser doesn't support this, then you'll get the old behaviour.

2011-06-05RSSItem display updates and assorted tweaks

I've cleaned up the way items display in stores, the Market, your Inventory and Cook pages. Basically, the item text itself will now be red if the item is too high level for you to use/equip/eat, and the specific actions that aren't yet available (because the item is too high level, for example) will now be marked with red instead of the entire line being made red. Actions that are always available (such as cook, sell, and fiddle) will never be red now, as they're always available.

That whole paragraph probably sounds a lot more confusing than it really is, but it should all become clear next time you see an item that's too high level for you.

In other news, I made a small tweak to character profiles such that they also now show how you last died (if applicable).

In other other news, the Market and Swap Shop now have now have "refresh" buttons, so that you don't need to leave and reenter them to update the listing. This will probably be useful in the cases where it's useful, but not in the rest of them.

2011-04-27RSSPack Rat updates

I've made a few tweaks to the way the Pack Rat Trainee rummages through your inventory. In particular, you'll find that it is now possible to be considered to have at least one of every item. Previously, this was not possible without leaving some quests unresolved, and due to the fact that two items in particular were mutually exclusive.

2011-04-01RSSGame! moves to fully 3D based engine

As has frequently been demanded by Game!ers, Game! will be moving to a fully 3D based engine, and at the same time will also become a first person shooter. I'm sure that sounds crazy, but the reason it sounds crazy is because it is! Don't worry, all the existing gameplay you know and love will still be around, but will also be blended with the very popular experience of an FPS.

Stay tuned for more news as we roll out this amazing new feature over the next few days.

2010-12-26RSSMerry Festivus!

As everyone knows, today is Festivus. Unfortunately, due to budgetary concerns, we were unable to procure standard issue Aluminum Poles for everyone. However, not all is lost! We were able to obtain not quite as standard issue Miniature Aluminum Poles, which will just have to do this time around. Merry Festivus!

2010-12-02RSSGame! is back!

After an extended outage (thanks to Bell), Game! is back in action. Apparently, I was physically disconnected on their end, for reasons unknown to both me and them, all they had to do was connect it again.

Time to give your characters some much needed attention!

2010-08-30RSSMore information at level up

It struck me today that there's quite a bit more information that could be presented each time you level up. Consequently, I went ahead and started displaying that information. This should be obvious the next time you level up, keep your eyes peeled!

2010-07-12RSSNew features, art and tweaks!

Based on input from the forums, I've added the option of making your reservation price at the market public. Item reservations were added awhile ago, but the reserve prices you set were not public, meaning people would be able to tell what's in demand, but only be able to guess at the price that people were actually willing to pay. Now, when someone makes a reservation public, that reservation is listed much like an item for sale would be listed, but the difference is you're selling your item to someone else instead of buying the item from someone else. Essentially, this means is that (if there's demand), you can now sell items on the Market just as easily as you can buy them.

I should note that you don't need to make your item reservations public, it'll just increase the chances of you actually receiving the item you've put on reserve (though normally at a higher price). I should also note that unlike private reservations, public reservations expire after 30 days and your gold is returned to you. Chances are if nobody fulfilled your reservation within 30 days, you need to be less cheap, you cheapskate.

As suggested in the forums, I've added a use again link when using items, and I've also tweaked the set viewer to display the required level to wear the entire set.

Surprisingly, this wasn't suggested in the forums, but I've added some colour to the item bonuses, such that the difference (in brackets) is now green or red to highlight whether you'd be gaining or losing by equipping said item. For example, if the new weapon provides 50 attack, and you'd gain 15 extra over your current weapon, you'll now see Attack: 50 (+15) instead of Attack: 50 (+15). While a very small change, it was never suggested and I never thought of it until now. Of course, it's also possible that you simply didn't notice the numbers there, or didn't know what they were for (they are completely unlabeled, after all). In any case, now you know... at least until you forget.

For extra luck, Kariloy and Filipe have also sent in 13 new pieces of art, and these are now in place.

In relatively minor news, there's 29 new random buyers of items when selling from your inventory.

Also in very very minor news, the close button for dialogs is now less ugly and theoretically more accessible.

2010-06-20RSSNew art bonanza!

Kariloy and Filipe have been quite busy lately and have cranked out 45 new pieces of art, all of which available for your viewing pleasure as of today. Enjoy!

2010-04-24RSSBug fixes and TvT tweaks

Today brings us a few important bug fixes. First and foremost, you can no longer unintentionally lose expensive quest related items, and raiders can no longer escape rage by leveling up.

I've also tweaked the way notification for the Tavern via Telepathy works. More specifically, you'll no longer receive explicit notification when people join and leave, only when they actually talk, as well as for death messages. The actual messages present in the Tavern have not changed, only the notifications presented for said messages.

2010-04-01RSSHealer tweak

Due to popular demand, the behaviour of the Healer has changed. More specifically, the Healer will no longer heal you. If you need to recover HP and/or MP, you'll now need to gain a level, die (and then get revived), or use the appropriate item.

2010-02-28RSSMajor content update!

Major is actually a little bit of an understatement, but today brings us a wide range of new stuff.

First and foremost, we have two new quests, heavily inspired by technohat's quest idea. While strictly speaking this is not the most difficult quest yet (as new quests frequently are), it does have a twist or two to keep things interesting.

In slightly less questy news, we also have 19 new items, 2 new combinations, 5 new monsters and a slew of new zones. The actual number of new zones varies depending on how you're counting them. More specifically, if you're counting them correctly, you'll find 7 new zones, otherwise you may come up with a different number.

Likely of interest to all Mages is the fact that several of the new items introduced today are Mage oriented weapons. I won't bother explaining in too much detail, as it should be obvious when you stumble upon them.

In completely unrelated news, the Master Pack Rat is also seeking some new items.

2010-02-16RSSTavern via Telepathy updating updates

I've tweaked the way the Tavern via Telepathy (TvT) informs you of things as they're said, particularly when you have it minimized. If you're paying attention, you'll notice that now when somebody says something, it'll highlight the TvT icon in orange as well as periodically show the last message in the titlebar (which is especially useful if you're in another tab).

In a related note, Tavern history is now preserved a little better. In the past it was possible to have messages scroll off without ever seeing them, as if you left the TvT minimized for more than 5 messages and then caused a page refresh, you'd only see the most recent 5 messages when unminimizing the TvT. Now, messages aren't marked read until the TvT is actually unminimized, and consequently you'd still get to see every message in the previously mentioned situation.

In light of the fact that most people normally have the TvT minimized (which is not what I had expected), this should make the TvT quite a bit nicer to use.

2010-01-30RSSNew features, new items and new combinations!

Based on popular demand, it is now possible to see in the campground dropdown whether or not a particular character is currently raidable. Also based on popular demand, your characters now express a little bit more of their sense of item preservation, so they'll be less likely to make the same mistakes twice when cooking and combining.

Finally, today also brings us three new items as well as two new recipes and one new combination.

2009-12-26RSSMerry Festivus!

In compliance with the International Festivus Celebrators of Game! (IFCoG) bylaw of yesteryear, standard issue Aluminium Poles have been distributed to everyone. Merry Festivus!

2009-12-23RSSNew quest, new items, new areas, new combinations!

First and foremost, today brings us a new quest. Now, this quest is noteworthy in two distinct ways. The first point of distinction is that today's new quest is the highest level quest thus far, while the other point of distinction I will refrain from hinting on, but it should become obvious towards the end of your newfound journey. The third point of distinction in the increasingly inaccurate list of two is that today's quest is also the most expansive quest yet, at least in terms of the number of areas directly involved.

In collusion with today's new quest, we also have eight new items, six new combinations, eleven new areas and nine new monsters.

Oh, and if you do that whole Christmas thing, consider this an early Christmas present. If not, consider this a belated... whatever you last celebrated present.

2009-12-19RSSTwo new pets, new quest, new features!

Of interest to most everyone is the fact that today two new pets are available. In a potentially related note, there are also two new items and two new combinations to be discovered.

Today also brings us a new quest, however it is more of an intro quest to illustrate the importance of stamina, as this seems to be a common source of questions for newer players.

Also, based on input from the forums, Game! has grown several new features. Namely, easier gold entry for large quantities, a minimum level tooltip for "Last adventure", more collapsible boxes at the Financial Advisor, more informative abbreviated quantities, and the ability to exceed 100% stamina. Have a feature idea of your own? You know what to do...

2009-11-18RSSNew items, combinations and campground improvements

One could say that today is different than yesterday. While that's typically true, today it's especially true. The reason for such extreme truth is that today there are two new items, two new combinations and two new campground improvements. What are said new things? Well, you'll just have to find out for yourself...

2009-10-31RSSHappy Candy Day!

As you all know, today is Candy Day, which has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, despite sounding very similar, falling on the same day and involving wanton candy consumption. Anyways, in continuing with this completely unrelated to Halloween annual tradition, there are two new items, which could possibly be candy related, and which you may actually already be able to find in your Inventory, but only if you're lucky.

2009-10-26RSSFiddling!

Fiddling is a convenient new way to experiment with potential combinations and recipes. In the dark old days before fiddling, doing so required three clicks, whereas now with fiddling, the same task takes only a single click. For those of you taking notes, that's a threefold increase in productivity! Actually that's slightly hyperbolic (but only slightly!), nevertheless I think you'll still appreciate the new fiddling interface.

For those of you too busy to read the previous paragraph, try the new [ fiddle ] buttons in your Inventory and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

In other news, about a week ago the Wise Sage deemed it useful to start noting the best lemming impersonators as well as the most violent players, but he forgot to tell anyone until now.

2009-10-17RSSNew quest, items, combinations and art!

Today brings to everyone a new quest. Bucking the trend of increasingly more difficult and elaborate quests, this quest is actually quite straightforward and is more of an introductory quest than anything else. Not to put it down though, it does serve the important task if introducing one to the combination system, which as you all know is quite important if you hope to be a successful adventurer!

Aside from today's new quest there's also 6 new items, and 6 new combinations.

In completely unrelated related news, Kariloy brings us 5 new pieces of art today.

Last but not least, this is the 200th news update. 200 doesn't seem like a particularly large number, but if you go back and look at all the news that's been posted, it seems like a bit more.

2009-09-19RSSNew food, combinations and sweet sweet revenge

As I mentioned before, campground raids were still subject to changes, and today brings a small but significant tweak. With the previously introduced raiding rules, it was possible for attackers to chew through all your raids or all of their raids and then prevent you from retaliating. Well, that's no longer the case, as of right now, revenge does not cost a raid for either the attacker or the defender. Thus, if you're attacked 5 times at the stroke of midnight by one person, you now have all day to unleash your rage upon them (up to 5 times), even if neither of you have any actual raids left — revenge is special that way. To look at it another way, when you're raided, it costs both the attacker and the defender one raid, consider the raid it cost the defender reserved for the rest of the day... you're guaranteed the chance to get your revenge, although you need not exercise it if you don't want to. Just play around with it and you'll probably figure it out in less time than it took you to read this paragraph.

Even if you're more of a pack rat than a raider, there's still quite a number of new items and knowledge for you to collect today. Less vaguely, there's 13 new items, 9 new recipes and 4 new combinations.

2009-09-05RSSCampground changes

I've just made a few fairly major changes to the way raids work, if that's your sort of thing you'll probably want to keep reading. Not that you wouldn't want to continue reading normally, of course.

First of all, a new stat, Rage, has been added. Rage isn't a lot like the other new stat (Bravery), in fact it's completely different in that it only impacts the campground, and consequently that's also the only place it's visible. You may have noticed that when other people raid you successfully that you get angry at them, well, now Game! notices that too, and adds to your rage stat accordingly. Well, that's nice, but what does Rage do for you? When you have Rage towards another player your campground power is increased when attacking them or defending against them, with more Rage leading to more power, of course. On the flip side, your Rage towards a player will melt away quite quickly should you raid them successfully, because it feels good to win and all. Additionally, because memory fades over time, so does Rage. Use it or lose it.

So, is that all? Well, no, there's quite a bit more yet. The next thing that comes to mind is that now if you conduct a raid on someone and fail by a relatively large margin, there's a chance that you may drop one of the items you have equipped. Also, before you go ahead and unequip all of your items before raiding people, the items you have equipped now contribute to your campground's power, which they did not do before.

Finally, the number of raids you get per day has changed. Basically, the number you get per day has increased, as the formula to determine the number you get has changed slightly.

Finally finally, (and this is a big one, maybe I should have put it first) raiding now costs a raid for both the attacker and the defender instead of just the attacker, and you cannot raid someone who has no raids left for the day.

I think this addresses a number of issues people had with raiding, do you? Why not discuss it in the forums!

2009-08-30RSSNew art!

There's quite a bit of new art today. The most noticeable change is that Filipe has filled in the map for the Zone of Zones, though he also sent in a new monster image as well. AtomicSnarl also sent in two new monster images, which are now up as well.

2009-07-28RSSNew art, forgotten news

AtomicSnarl sent in another image, which is now up. If said image had come a day or two earlier, it would have allowed all monsters and items to have art again, but alas, yesterday's update put an end to that (as none of those came with art).

This isn't new per se, but rather I forgot to mention that 2 new combinations were also added yesterday. So far, one of which has been discovered by one person, and the other discovered by two people. However, nobody's surpassed the previous total of 68 yet.

2009-07-27RSSNew quest, new items, new monsters, new pet, and more!

First and foremost, you'll likely be pleased to know that I've added another quest. It's probably the most challenging quest yet, so make sure you're prepared before you embark on it, unless you're already way above level 22, in which case you'll find it's not as challenging as it would be at level 22.

Along with the new quest comes 6 new items, a new pet, 2-4 new zones (depending on how you're counting them), and 5 new monsters. A new stat, bravery, has also been introduced. To start, everyone has a bravery of 0, but should you find a way to increase your bravery, you'll be able to adventure in more dangerous places earlier, as if you were higher level than you actually are.

Additionally, pets that help you run away now actually help you run away instead of only pretending to do so. The timestamps in the tavern are now presented in a nicer fashion, and the timestamps no longer rely on your local clock as much, which should solve some of the oddness some people without perfectly synced clocks were seeing.

In other news, when adventuring at Holiday Island, you'll now get the option to directly take the same trip again that you just took, instead of having to go back to Holiday Island and then select that specific trip again.

Finally, at the Quest Master, if you've already fulfilled the requirements for a quest but not actually seen the quest description yet, you'll now see the quest description on the first visit without completing the quest, then on the second visit you'll actually complete the quest.

2009-07-14RSSForgotten art

I've added one new image from Kariloy which I thought I added awhile ago, but apparently I didn't. So, now I really did (unless I didn't).

2009-07-11RSSMovable Tavern window and dialogs

It's now possible to drag around the Tavern via Telepathy window as well as all the other dialog windows (item descriptions, player profiles, set descriptions, etc).

Additionally, AtomicSnarl and Kariloy sent in a new image each, so those are up now as well.

2009-06-28RSSPlayer profiles, class portraits and more, oh my!

I've added player profiles, which are slightly similar to the existing Profile page you have, except that they're for other players, and they show a slightly different set of information. So, anywhere you see player names, you can now click them and see that player's profile.

Filipe has sent in eight new class portraits (four for each class), as you increase in level you'll notice that your class portrait changes. While this serves little purpose aside from looking cool, it does look cool.

AtomicSnarl has also sent in 3 new monster images which are now up.

Your Inventory page should now render quite a bit faster, however this'll probably only be noticeable if you have an especially large number of items (or a very slow computer).

Finally, a few corner cases with dialogs have been fixed. For example, if you're viewing the description for a set and you click on one of the set members, it now opens in a new dialog within the same page instead of opening a new page (like it did before).

2009-06-11RSSRSS, what a mess...

Apparently most of you haven't noticed (or cared), but Game! has had an RSS feed of the news for quite awhile. In fact, it's had it for so long that the DTD for the RSS standard it was using (0.91) was removed, which made some clients start exploding. So, I've updated the RSS feed to RSS 2.0, which is six times trendier and otherwise mostly the same, but slightly reduces client explosions. Since I can't tell if nobody cares about the RSS feed or if it's just that nobody notices it's there, I've added a redundant RSS icon in each news update which points to the RSS feed, which complements the standard markup to tell the browser there's an RSS feed for that page. My theory is that people don't notice the latter (Firefox indicates it in the URL bar, for example), as it seems that every other page sprinkles redundant RSS links in the actual page. Beyond that I don't really have any good evidence either way, but we'll see soon enough. In the mean time, you could discuss the matter in the forums, if you were so inclined.

2009-06-10RSSMore art!

5 new pieces of art have just been added.

Also, in rather unrelated news, when adding additional items to your list at the Swap Shop, the extra dropdown now appears at the top of the list rather than the bottom, which should make larger lists easier to manage.

2009-06-01RSSHealer upgrades

Thanks to Kariloy, the Healer is now actually a Healer instead of an Inn. If that last bit there about the Inn didn't make any sense, you should read the next paragraph.

You may not remember this, but originally the Healer was actually the Inn. Shortly after adding stamina, the Inn was swapped out for the Healer, as you didn't actually regain stamina by resting at the Inn. However, the original artwork for the Inn continued on, as it was sufficiently ambiguous.

2009-05-29RSSEmail alerts!

Based on popular demand, Game! can now send you email alerts! Basically, this means that when you receive messages in Game!, they can also simultaneously be sent to your email address. Nobody likes spam, so this feature is off by default, but you can enable or disable it in your player preferences on a per message type (Campground Raids, Player messages, Swap Shop, and Market) and per player basis. Also, messages are now generated when someone makes an offer on something you have up at the Swap Shop, as well as when they rescind an offer on something of yours.

Email alerts are batched up every 5 minutes, so if somebody buys 100 items from you at the Market in quick succession, you won't get 100 emails, just one (with all of the messages in it). In an unexpected twist, if there's no new messages, no email will be sent.

In semi-related news, you can now update your password and email address via your player preferences. It's worth noting that these are still per account and not per player, I just didn't want to clutter up the character selection screen.

2009-05-20RSSAn ATM, character portraits and class descriptions

Due to popular demand, the Bank has splurged for an ATM with which you can not only deposit gold, but also withdraw it.

In completely unrelated news, there's several new pieces of art, thanks to Filipe. Particularly worthy of note is that the character classes now have portraits, which you can see in the character selection screen and in your Profile. I've also added some class descriptions to replace the old list of initial stats (which weren't really very exciting) to display when creating a character. Right now there's just one portrait for each class, but soon there should be more, whereby as you gain levels fancier portraits will replace the older ones. The Swap Shop has also gained a visible gatekeeper, make sure you keep an eye on him.

2009-05-17RSSMany Tavern updates

Today we've got a slew of updates to the Tavern (and Tavern via telepathy), which I'll discuss briefly here.

Most notably, messages about people joining and leaving the Tavern now disappear after 2 minutes as they're mostly just noise at that point, and they tend to drown out most actual conversation.

Also noteworthy is that there's now a user list at the side of the Tavern so you can see who's in the Tavern without doing a /who. The new user list can be hidden with the cryptically named "Show user list?" checkbox directly below (and slightly to the left of) the user list, at least in the Tavern via telepathy. I didn't bother adding that option for the actual Tavern, as there's really no need (there's tons of space there, whereas via telepathy is a fairly tight squeeze).

Finally, now when you mouse over something that's been said in the Tavern you'll also see when it was said, which could be useful.

So, feel free to chat it up with fellow Game!ers and try out the new Tavern features!

2009-05-05RSS2 new quests!

Actually, I lied... slightly. It's really more of a quest with 2 parts, but logically it's 2 distinct quests, with the option to complete the second depending on having completed the first one.

In loosely related news, there's also 7 new items, 4 new areas, 2 new spells, 2 new skills, and 5 new monsters. The behaviour of Minor Life Drain has also changed slightly, it now returns a small portion of the life drained from the enemy to you.

In completely unrelated news, death is also slightly more glorious now, by which I mean Kariloy has drawn up a fancier bit of art for it.

2009-04-25RSSAn art milestone!

As of this second, every monster and item in Game! now has art. That might not seem like much, but it's actually a first, as content has always been developed first with art added afterwards, and the artists have only just recently managed to catch up.

In related news, half a dozen new pieces of art have been added, thanks to Kariloy and Filipe. A specific highlight of the former is that the Wise Sage has been upgraded from pen to pencil.

2009-04-13RSSReservation system tweaks

The items in demand list at the Market now only shows the top 25 reserved items (when expanded) instead of all of them as it used to. This makes the number of items you've seen (as reported by the Pack Rat Trainee) a little bit more meaningful, as the Market doesn't give out a (nearly) complete list of items to anyone who asks.

2009-04-02RSSNew art!

Filipe has sent in another piece of art which I'm sure you'll enjoy (should you stumble upon the rather rare item it has been bestowed upon).

Oh, and just in case you didn't notice yet, much like every other year, yesterday was April Fool's day.

2009-04-01RSSGame! to be third expansion pack for World of Warcraft

I'm pleased to announce that, after extensive negotiations, Blizzard Entertainment has announced definitive plans to acquire Game! for use as the third expansion pack in its smash hit MMORPG World of Warcraft. President and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment Michael Morhaime was quoted as saying, "It was really a no brainer for us. We just found Game! yesterday, and the potential was immediately obvious to us." When prompted on what caused the outsourcing of WoW development, he continued, "We were running out of ideas, and nobody really uses Windows anymore, so we've been left out in the cold without a native Linux client. Game! solves both of those problems for us. Besides, what else are we going to do with the billions and billions of dollars we have sitting around?"

A playable demo will be available at E3 in June, with final release expected in Q4 2009.

2009-03-28RSSMajor interface updates

In a similar fashion to the already existing item groups in your inventory, most every box is now collapsible, at least where it makes sense.

Due to popular demand, it's now possible to delete single messages. You've always been able to delete all messages in one click, but apparently that's not quite fine enough granularity for many people.

The "Offer an item" and "Reserve an item" dialogs at the Market have been moved up a bit, to make it easier to reach them, particularly when you're repeatedly putting items up or repeatedly reserving items.

It was also pointed out that when you have enough gold that the display in the sidebar gets abbreviated, it's impossible to tell exactly how much gold you have. Given that it took this long for anyone (including me) to notice, it's probably not a very big deal, but you can now see the exact amount of gold you have right below your EXP in your Profile.

2009-03-27RSSA minor update

The detailed descriptions that slide in when you click on an item or a set are now placed better in a few corner cases where before the top would have been partially or completely obscured.

2009-03-23RSSReservation improvements and new art

The reservation system has seen a few improvements. Namely, you can now reserve items that are already on sale at the Market. This is useful if the item you're looking for is currently priced too high for your tastes, or if you're just too lazy to read through the items on sale (as reservations that can be immediately fulfilled are indeed immediately fulfilled).

Also, Game!'s newest artist, Filipe, has sent in a handful of new images (4 to be precise). Enjoy!

2009-03-15RSSLots of new stuff

Lots is probably a little bit of an understatement, but today's update is mostly a collection of smaller changes.

The two most obvious changes are that monsters now have a variety of resistances and vulnerabilities against different attacks. For example, a Red Dragon takes less damage from fire than it does from cold. For magic, this was around for awhile, although due to a recently introduced bug it was inactive (meaning monsters had no special vulnerabilities or resists), but the bug has now been squashed. For physical attacks, this is largely a new feature (it was active briefly quite awhile ago, but I disabled it shortly after due to balance issues). In both cases, if you're stumped about a monster's resistances and vulnerabilities, perhaps you should consult with one of your more investigative pets. In conjunction with these newish features, item descriptions now display the damage type that the item in question inflicts (as well as the item type, which is more or less completely unrelated to the rest of this paragraph).

Due to another small (recently introduced) bug, the HP remaining estimation wasn't working quite correctly, this should be fixed now.

In a small but welcome feature improvement, item descriptions are now available directly from battle when the item drops, which should be quite a bit more convenient than having to make a trip to your Inventory to see the item's description.

Last but not least, Kariloy has provided us with 2 new images. Enjoy!

2009-03-03RSSArt extravaganza part 2

Kariloy has sent in another 8 pieces of art, and thusly, there's now 8 new pieces of art on display.

In an unrelated note, you may notice a change in your maximum HP/MP, due to a bug that was recently fixed. You can find the full details in the forums.

2009-03-02RSSNew art extravaganza!

Kariloy has been quite busy over the last week or so, and has brought us a grand total of 34 new pieces of art!

Rux is the unsung hero of the day once again, as he performed all of the cleaning necessary for said art to make it from the scanner to your screen. He says you can thank him by continuing to buy his items from the Market.

2009-02-15RSSCustom Inventory grouping

Due to popular demand, you can now create custom groups for your Inventory. These are much like the regular groups (Food, Headgear, etc), except that you can name them whatever you want and customize the items that go into them. Naturally, they're also collapsible.

In lesser news, I've also added 1 new item.

In even lesser news, those players who had already completed a certain quest (which requires relinquishing a certain item that they'll never see again) before players kept track of which items they'd seen will now find that they've seen the item they had seen, but can't see again. Or at least, that's what the Pack Rat Trainee tells me.

2009-02-14RSSTons of new features!

Of this batch of new features, probably the most requested is that of Inventory sorting. If that previous sentence didn't make it obvious enough, it's now possible to sort your inventory by something other than the default (of price).

Another thing which will likely result in much rejoicing is the fact that cooking and combining have been revised. (No, they haven't been changed back to the way they used to be.) That is, it's no longer possible to waste items, per se, if you make an unlucky guess, as you always get something in return now. In some cases, the items you get back aren't available in any other manner, so true pack rats will want to get busy. As a minor subnote to this note, there are also 3 new items.

Higher level fighters will also be happy to read that it's now possible to multicast spells from the Profile page. Not only can you multicast, but if necessary you'll automagically visit the Healer in between castings in a multicast. Decidedly convenient.

Healer prices have been tweaked slightly, of which you probably won't notice even now that I've told you.

Finally, the item descriptions are now more descriptive. In addition to the usual boilerplate, you can also see the current quantity you have for that item, the number of reservations currently placed on that item in the Market, as well as the current lowest price for that item at the Market, along with a link to buy it from the Market (if it's in stock).

In other news, you can now collapse Combinatorial Knowledge, much like most of the rest of your Inventory.

In other other news, there is no other other news.

2009-02-13RSSNew gift packages!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, the Great Gift Shoppe has added 2 new gift packages! That's good news for everyone, after all, it is a documented fact that both men and women prefer Game! gift packages to "real" ones.

2009-02-08RSS4 new pieces of art

Courtesy of Vastatio, the art count has just gone up by another 4.

2009-01-31RSSTown, now with more Town!

I'm sure it'll be obvious the next time you step into Town, but thanks to Kariloy, Town now is illustrated (much like the World Map). All of the buildings in Town may have moved around due to the fact that they're visible now.

Vastatio also sent in 2 more pieces of art, and thus, two more monsters have been illustrated.

2009-01-27RSSNew art, new artist!

AtomicSnarl sent in a slice of new art, as did our newest artist, Vastatio. Both of these bits are up now, enjoy!

2009-01-24RSSPack rats unite!

The Pack Rat's Guild has been formed in town. Why don't you mosey on over if you're into that sort of thing?

In other news, AtomicSnarl sent in another 2 pieces of art, so those have been applied as well.

2009-01-21RSSRequesting: Love

Normally news updates are about new features and content, but not today. Today I thought I'd share with you an amusing proposed transaction in the Swap Shop.

In other news, the next news update will actually be a real news update, I promise.

2009-01-10RSSTons of new food!

I've added quite a few new items desirable for those hungry adventurers out there. More specifically, there's now 15 new items and 15 new cooking recipes. No doubt this'll heat up the best chef competition, so don't be left out!

Also, adventurers no longer have infallible knowledge about what doesn't work for cooking and combining, sometimes you just won't be able to calm your urge to mix two clearly unmixable items, with predictable results.

Finally, the Wise Sage now rightfully recognizes the best bug finders.

2009-01-09RSS2 new art pieces

AtomicSnarl has artified the White Dragon for us, as well as the mysterious Squashed Bug, enjoy!

2009-01-06RSSWiser Wise Sage

Thanks to a tip in the forums, death by food is now remembered accurately by the Wise Sage. I guess that means there's never been a better time to commit spamicide.

2009-01-03RSSA new quest, more art, and better potions

Level 20 and up characters will probably be excited to know that there's a new quest that they can complete now. Lower level characters will have to wait to bask in the glory of the new quest, or something like that.

Enot has been kind enough to illustrate another 4 items and 2 monsters for us, you'll find them in places you might expect them.

Finally, potions are more potent now. More specifically, I've doubled the HP gain they give, so a potion that previously gave 15 HP now gives 30 HP. The rest of the multiplications are left as an exercise to the reader, or you could just look at the item descriptions.

2009-01-02RSSYet more art!

Continuing the arty trend as of late, today we have another new piece of art, this time from Enot, our newest new artist. Have a peek at the Lemon Tart to see.

2009-01-01RSSTavern updates, more art and Digging

I've tweaked the way the Tavern message notification works when minimized (ie, the numbers above the icon in the lower right). As indicated by the tooltips, the first number now indicates the number of messages, while the second number indicates the number of entries and exits of players to the Tavern.

Also, thanks to AtomicSnarl, the Drunken Lout is now illustrated.

In other news, it was just brought to my attention that a few days ago a Game!er submitted a story to Digg about Game!, so if you're so inclined, why not digg it and help spread the joy?

2008-12-31RSSMore art!

Just in time for the new year, AtomicSnarl brings us some new art! In particular, the Quest Master and the shopkeeper for the Magic Shop are no longer invisible.

2008-12-29RSSMore new art, item reservation tweaks

Game! artists have been busy today, and consequently have brought us 12 new pieces of art! 8 of these are from Kariloy, while the other 4 are from our newest artist, AtomicSnarl.

In other news, the item reservation system at the market has been given a few tweaks. You can now see how many of each item is on reserve, so if you're wondering what might be a good idea to sell, this takes out some of the guesswork. The other noteworthy change is that you can now place reservations on items that you already have, as well as items that you don't currently have.

2008-12-28RSSNew artist and art!

Our newest artist, AtomicSnarl, has cooked up some art for the well known Drug Dealer. Have a peek in the Dark Alley to see.

2008-12-27RSS2 new Wise Sage top 10s

The Wise Sage is now keeping tabs on who's been the most successful at finding new cooking recipes. In a similar vein, the Wise Sage is also now keeping track of who's best at finding new item combinations.

Unsurprisingly, Rux has pulled into an early lead, although he could still be overtaken in the standings, as he's still missing a number of combinations and cooking recipes.

2008-12-23RSSMerry Festivus!

Merry Festivus!

If you're still scrambling frantically for gifts to get everyone on your list, consider perusing the brand new Great Gift Shoppe. Not only can you send gifts to other Game!ers, but you can also send Game! gifts to anyone with an email address! Check it out in town...

Also, in the spirit of the season, complimentary Aluminium Poles have been distributed to everyone. Enjoy!

2008-12-21RSSCombinatorial knowledge!

In much the same way as your Cookbook remembers cooking recipes that worked, everybody has now gained combinatorial knowledge as well, which allows you to remember item combinations that worked.

Also in much the same way as your Cookbook is recursive, where necessary, so is combinatorial knowledge.

2008-12-12RSSTavern improvements

Previously the Tavern was triggering (relatively slow) memory leaks in most browsers, which was noticeable if you left yourself logged in for a day or three without allowing a page reload (like visiting another zone). This should be fixed now.

Theoretically garbage collected languages like Javascript shouldn't suffer from memory leaks, but in practice, they do.

2008-12-08RSSCookbooks for all!

Someone finally decided it was a good idea to start writing down those cooking recipes that actually worked, said person called this revolutionary device a Cookbook, and put it on their Cook page.

Said person also thought it'd be a good idea to have the Cookbook allow one to recursively cook items. So, if you know a recipe that requires items which you don't strictly have (but you know a recipe that can make those items and you do have the items for that) then the Cookbook will automagically do that for you. Amazing!

2008-12-07RSSMarket updates

When buying things in the market, if there's more of the item you bought still for sale, you'll see a [ more ] link after buying the first item, which you can use to show the next item of that type. This is mainly useful if you want to buy several of an item (and there's several in stock), or if someone beat you to the first item.

2008-11-30RSSMassive Market updates!

I've made a slew of changes in and around the Market which I'm sure you'll enjoy.

First and foremost, you can now multiput items onto the Market through your inventory, much like you can multisell items. In a related note, you can now define a default markup policy (to increase by a percentage, or add a fixed amount of gold (the default policy is +50 gold, to cover the stocking fee, as it always has been, presumably you'll want to change that)) for items you sell on the Market.

Also worth mentioning is the addition of the Financial Advisor, who can be found at the Bank in Town. The Financial Advisor is where you can set the default Market markup policy, as well as ask a number of questions about how your Market sales are doing and to provide insight into your own Market purchases. If you haven't bought or sold anything on the Market in the last few weeks... well there's no time like the present!

Finally, now when you put an item on the Market (not multiput), you have the choice of remembering the price you set for that item. This remembered price works almost exactly like the default markup policy, except that it only applies to that one item, and it overrides your default policy. You can see and forget your remembered per item prices at the Financial Advisor.

So, when you multiput items onto the Market through your inventory, for each of the items you put up, if you have a remembered price for that item, it'll be used, otherwise the default markup policy will apply. Furthermore, you can see what price will actually apply when viewing an item's details. The prepopulated price when selling on the Market directly (the old way) will also reflect the price that you've set out for that item as described earlier in this paragraph.

Perhaps sometime in the future, if the economy can stop simultaneously imploding, exploding and committing Seppuku, the Bank will also be able to start offering loans.

2008-11-19RSS1000 accounts!

Game! reached 1000 accounts earlier today. Shortly afterwards (at 1002 accounts), Game! also reached 1234 characters. Numbers are fun.

2008-11-16RSSInventory group rollups

It's now possible to collapse and uncollapse each item group in the Inventory.

2008-11-13RSSInventory upgrades!

It's now possible to sell multiple (different) items at the same time via the inventory.

Using the same new interface as above, it's also possible to combine items, which should be substantially easier than before. The old and crusty method of combining items is no more.

2008-11-04RSSDeaths in the Tavern

Death messages are now announced in the Tavern, for both hardcore and regular characters.

2008-11-02RSSEasier buying from the Market

I've AJAXified buying things from the Market, which means that it's much easier to buy multiple items at a time. Now you can simply keep clicking without having to wait for the page to reload each time (and then probably scroll down again too).

2008-11-01RSSHappy Halloween!

As everyone knows, today is Halloween!. Unlike Halloween, Halloween! allows people to buy candy at much reduced post-Halloween prices before distributing it to those that celebrate Halloween!. Unfortunately, this only works until the stores catch on, and then ruin will quickly sweep the world. But until then, unfathomably small portions of candy for all!

2008-10-27RSSContent updates!

I've added a new quest, a new monster, a new zone, a new combination, and 7 new items. Enjoy!

2008-10-25RSSTavern via telepathy updates

When you have the Tavern via telepathy minimized, it will now show you the number of unread messages you have.

It seems that the previous implementation of the Tavern via telepathy was triggering memory leaks in most browsers (with the notable exception of Opera), and this should be fixed now.

2008-10-24RSSTavern window should behave better now

A few people reported that the Tavern via telepathy window wasn't staying minimized when navigating from page to page after having minimized it (and a few people reported that it worked for them). This should be fixed now, if you're still experiencing it, please leave a note in the Tavern or the forums and I'll look into it.

2008-10-23RSSTelepahy for all!

Over the last few days, and under a veil of the utmost secrecy, a strange alien race has accidentally conferred upon the residents of Game! the gift of telepathy. People still seem to be experimenting with their new abilities, but at the very least, it seems that everybody can now talk in the Tavern without actually having to be in the Tavern, which seems kinda neat. The downside is that the aliens revealed afterwards that they were actually trying to cure cancer, but didn't succeed.

I, for one, welcome our new telepathy inducing overlords.

2008-10-15RSSItem reservations at the Market

Due to popular demand, items may now be reserved at the Market. First come first serve!

2008-10-14RSSNew Wise Sage stats

The Wise Sage has now started keeping track of how busy everyone else, or at least, how much stamina everyone has spent each day. Curious to see if you're the busiest beaver of the day? Well now you can find out!

Also, the "n pending offers" and "n unseen messages" messages now link to the Swap Shop and Messages, respectively. You'd think that'd be an obvious feature, but no, it didn't occur to me until now.

2008-10-13RSSImproved dialogs

In the past, dialogs (like the ones you see when you click on an item) would always open downwards. Usually this was fine, but sometimes it was fairly disgood, as they could end up off the screen. Dialogs now adaptively open upwards or downwards, depending on which way is better, which should eliminate scrolling in most cases.

In related news, dialogs also open and close with a snazzy new animation.

2008-10-02RSSTavern tweaks

The tavern has been tweaked a little bit. Now when you look around with /who (which you do automatically when initially entering the tavern), if there's no other players around, the Bartender will let you know who they last saw around, as well as when. The Bartender is also new, but doesn't serve any drinks (yet).

2008-09-30RSSStamina changes

Attack/defense loss in negative stamina conditions has been changed slightly. Stat penalties are slightly lessened, enough so that you will no longer end up with 0 attack or defense at -25% stamina. The reason for this is that stats that low can cause some rather unexpected deaths. For example, a 0 attack/0 defense (the case with -25% stamina, before) level 40 Fighter would get brutally slaughtered in 1 hit by even Holiday Island monsters, whereas they'd be fine at -24% stamina.

2008-09-25RSSWhat do you think Game! needs next?

There's a thread (with a poll) brewing in the forums about what Game! needs more of. Currently, it's a dead heat between "More quests", "More levels" and "More Rux". Go ahead and let your voice be heard, it's very likely to steer future Game! development.

2008-09-23RSSA new pet, pet stats!

I've added a new pet, a new item, and a new combination.

In other news, the Wise Sage has also heightened his interest in the number of pets that everyone has, and is now kind enough to share his findings with everyone.

2008-09-21RSSGame! has a new home

Game! has been moved to its new home at http://wittyrpg.com/. You'll need to log in again on the new site, but all of your existing characters will still be there. The old location will continue to work for awhile yet, but using the new location is preferable.

2008-09-16RSSThe Wise Sage strikes again...

The Wise Sage has done his homework yet again! This time he's pieced together who's relaxed and who isn't. Or, more specifically, who has spent the most on trips at Holiday Island. To figure out where you are in the grand scheme of relaxation, check out the Wise Sage.

2008-09-14RSSTwo bug fixes, layout tweaks

Previously, if you had items equipped which gave you maximum HP bonuses, healing potions would only be able to heal you to your regular maximum HP, not your post-item maximum HP.

In your inventory, equippable items which had a level requirement that was too high weren't being highlighted in red. Now they are.

I've also tweaked the layout a bit. Basically, there's a few more rounded corners now.

2008-09-09RSSSwap Shop improvements, news update notification

I've tweaked the Swap Shop a little bit. The most important tweak is that now all offers should be showing up properly again. The other more minor tweak is that I've changed the look a little to distinguish each bidder from the others.

Also, now when new news is posted, you will now see a message towards the top of your screen to that effect. Clicking on that message (and thus seeing the news) will remove the message until there's another news update.

2008-09-08RSSBetter stat calculation

The way stat bonuses are calculated has been slightly revised. Consequently, your stats may have changed a little. Also, due to a bug, in negative stamina conditions, defense wasn't being subtracted. This has been fixed now.

In other news, when eating food, you're now shown how full you are afterwards.

2008-09-07RSSHuge food update

I've added 22 new items and 21 new cooking recipes. Get cooking!

2008-09-05RSSLots of new food, a few tweaks

I added quite a few new food and food-like items, as well as related cooking recipes. All in all, there's four new items and four new cooking recipes. Four of each, coincidence? Very maybe possibly.

In other news, I fixed a few very minor bugs related to the Swap Shop layout. If you didn't notice them before, you probably won't notice that they're fixed now. Otherwise, if you did notice them, then you might notice that they're fixed now.

2008-08-30RSSA more marketable Market

As of right now, items will begin appearing regularly in the Market, thanks to Bargain Hunter. Bargin Hunter will put up 10 randomly selected items for sale at the Market every day at midnight CGT (Coordinated Game! Time). So, unless you already have every item in Game! (and none of you do, yet), then you might want to take a peek in the market now and then.

Also, the Dirty Needle is now equippable, previously it wasn't.

2008-08-29RSSSwap Shop Tweaks

I've tweaked the Swap Shop a bit. Most importantly, when you go to add another item now, your previously selected items won't be reset. Also, I clarified the note for bidders (by removing it when bidding), as they don't pay the 50 gold stocking fee, only sellers do.

2008-08-27RSSNew high level zone!

I've added a new high level zone (level 46), as well as 5 new monsters.

2008-08-26RSSBug fix and feature revival

I've fixed a bug with the displaying of set bonuses. Before, the set bonus would always display the bonus for whatever set you were currently wearing (or if you weren't wearing a set, just the items in the set). Now the set bonuses for the set are displayed properly.

In a related note, I've brought back a (rather useful) feature from the grave. When viewing items or sets, you can see the difference from your currently equipped item/set to the new item/set in brackets beside each stat, (like so). So, if you're pondering on whether or not you should swap out that Dagger for the Ultra Death Bringer QX6800 Platinum Edition, now you can make a more informed decision with less effort.

2008-08-25RSSNew content!

I've added one new zone, one new quest, four new monsters, and three new items. Enjoy!

2008-08-24RSSA few updates and a bug fix

The progress bar design for HP/MP has been updated, and has also been applied to the EXP portion of the sidebar, this new bar shows how close you are to the next level, much like the "next level" bar in the player profile. The screenshots page has also been updated to show off this and the slew of other updates from yesterday.

In other news, I fixed a minor bug where players didn't get fully healed when they leveled up, if they had a set bonus that granted extra HP/MP.

2008-08-23RSSA slew of spit and polish updates

I've made rather a large number of smaller updates that really add positively to the overall feel of Game!. If you have a quick look around, you'll probably notice many of them, the most obvious of which are the updated prettybox designs (what you're probably reading this news item out of), and the updated top and bottom navigation areas, as well as the left character pane.

Other notable changes include more elements shrinkwrapping to fit their contents better, especially form elements and the character boxes in the character selection screen.

There's more changes than that, but I'll let you discover those on your own.

2008-04-17RSSTemporary server unavailability

Game! will be unavailable for most of the afternoon today as the server is physically moved to a new location. Things should be back to normal late in the day.

2008-03-23RSSWiser Wise Sage

The Wise Sage is now 2.857% wiser than before.

2008-02-06RSSNew image

One new image has been added.

2008-01-19RSS2 new images

Two new monster images have been added.

2007-11-27RSSServer back up

After an unexpected motherboard death and a few days of outage, the server has been moved to a different computer and things are back online again.

2007-09-15RSSA minor cosmetic fix

In battle, when you didn't have enough MP to cast one or more of your recently cast spells, the links would get pushed down onto the next line. This is now fixed.

2007-05-15RSSNew screenshots

I've added some new images that show off the new dropshadows, as well as a few of the other things that have changed visually since the last screenshots were taken, which was apparently several months ago already. Time passes too quickly, except when you're waiting for your stamina to replenish...

2007-05-05RSSUI updates

I've changed the UI around a little bit, such that the omnipresent top and side areas along with the bottom area now have shadows. This should make them stand out and appear to be on top, as they actually are.

2007-04-03RSS4 new images

I've added 4 more images, as I hinted that I would a few days ago.

2007-03-29RSSA slightly different tagline

It was brought to my attention that Game! is more or less completely ungoogleable. It's as if "game" is a common word or something, strange isn't it? Anyways, I've changed the tagline slightly (see the title) to see what I can do about that...

2007-03-28RSSRollover healing bug fixed

I've also fixed the minor bug in the rollover scripts where some people weren't getting fully healed. Now everyone should be fully healed at midnight once again.

2007-03-28RSSNew images!

Yes, three new images in total, with a few more coming shortly.

Don't mind that we hadn't had any news for a month or two...

2007-01-20RSSBetter set manipulation

Due to popular request, it's now possible to equip and unequip whole sets at a time. See the new "Sets" section of your Inventory. This new feature also lets you see at a glance how your collection of sets is going.

2006-12-26RSSMerry Festivus!

Merry Festivus and Aluminium Poles for all!

2006-12-25RSSAwaiting Festivus, new blue

With today being Festivus Eve, the people of Game! eagerly and excitedly await the coming of Festivus Day...

In other news, the blue prettyboxes are more blue and less purple now.

2006-12-16RSSPrettier character boxes

I've (finally) made the character boxes pretty too. This applies to both the character selection area and the (almost) omnipresent side character information.

2006-12-16RSSFront page cleanups

I've improved the navigability of the front pages a fair bit by adding the top area with more visible links to create an account and log in.

I've also made the front pages a fair bit more consistent and cleaned up a number of things.

2006-11-18RSSMisty Plateau is accessable again

I've fixed a silly bug in the Misty Plateau that was causing it to not work properly. If you haven't seen it in action yet, now's your chance.

2006-11-05RSSScreenshots page added

I've added a screenshots page. Now you can see what Game! looks like without having to create an account first (not that that's very painful, but, you know...).

2006-11-01RSSMerry Halloween!

Merry* Halloween!** and Candy*** for all!

* Sure, Merry Halloween!, why not?

** Halloween! is like Halloween, except it happens a day later so everybody can buy candy the day after at vastly reduced prices and laugh at everyone who paid the full price. This is the way of Game!, or something.

*** Candy is actually "Fun Sized" Candy. Batteries not included.

In other news, this is the 100th news item. Time flies doesn't it?

2006-10-15RSSMapping the world map, return of the progress bars, many bug fixes

After years of wandering aimlessly, some kind soul (our main artist) has mapped out the world for us. Now we can continue wandering aimlessly, but with less of an excuse. Go ahead and check out the new world map.

Level progress bars are back, and so are fullness bars, have a look at your profile.

I've also fixed a rather large volley of minor bugs which aren't really worth mentioning individually.

2006-10-13RSSMessage notification tweaks

The message notification no longer looms over top of the main content area and is now actually a part of it. The main reason for this being that I think it was probably awkward for new players, and it makes more sense to put it in the main content area. If that didn't make any sense, just wait until you get a message and then you'll see.

2006-10-09RSSGame!, now with pretty colours!

Behold, the apocalypse is here! These changes should pretty much speak for themselves, so go ahead and have a look...

2006-09-23RSSMassive art update!

A grand total of 36 new images have been added. 22 of these are from Kariloy and 14 of these are from our newest artist, Dr. Goodvibes. Enjoy!

2006-09-03RSS2 new images

2 new images have been added. Apparently these got lost in the queue until now.

2006-09-02RSSPrettier prettyboxes, 7 new images

I've added a rounded corner to the prettyboxes (ie, what you're probably reading this from). Therefore, they're obviously significantly prettier.

7 new images have also been added, thanks to Kariloy.

2006-08-29RSSAdded "Quick nav"

I've added a "Quick nav" which lets you get around the front pages more easily. I plan to have the Quick nav also allow one to quickly jump to any area inside Game! too, soon.

2006-08-27RSSNew monster, image, and artist

Today's new image comes courtesy of our newest artist, Zorbels. Check out the Mermicorn in the Underwater Zone to see it.

2006-08-26RSS26 new images

26 new images have been added. As usual, thanks go to Kariloy for drawing/scanning the art and Rux for "cleaning" the art.

2006-08-25RSSMinor CSS/HTML cleanups

Very minor tweaks indeed. You probably won't notice even after reading this news update. These are in preparation for a few things... though I won't spoil the surprise (yet).

2006-07-29RSSpretty++

If you're reading this from the news page, it should be rather obvious, but I've prettied up all of the previously unloved pages, many of which hadn't been changed since Game!'s inception (well over a year ago now, time sure does fly...). Overall this should spiff things up a bit.

2006-07-24RSSNew area, many new items, other goodies

Out of the mists of time, rises a new plateau, conveniently located just east of Town. Those Fighters who believe they are wise enough may wish to have a look.

In completely unrelated news, I've also added quite a few new items.

2006-07-15RSS16 new images

16 new images have been added. Nearly all items have images again.

2006-06-24RSSNew quest, items, and monster attacks, starting item(s)

I've added another new quest, and several new items. Also, some monsters have alternative attacks now, expect to see more of these in the near future, try fighting a Tarantula for an example.

Some characters now start with item(s), rather than nothing, this has been applied retroactively.

2006-06-19RSSNew image

A new image has been added.

2006-06-18RSSNew quest, monsters, zones, items, and pet

I've added a new quest, and to go along with it, a slew of new monsters, zones, and items, as well as a new pet.

2006-04-29RSSServer back up, hard drive died and replaced

The server's main hard drive died yesterday morning. It has been replaced and everything has been restored from backups. This was the cause of the downtime since then.

2006-04-21RSS4 new images

Added 4 new images.

2006-04-03RSSDisplay unread message count on character select screen

The number of unread messages is now displayed in the character selection screen for each of your characters.

In other news, April 1st was April Fool's day, just like every other year.

2006-04-01RSSMajor gameplay and balance tweaks

Effective immediately, a few major changes will be occuring.

Each individual item can only be found three times per character.

Trades through the swap shop will be limited to a maximum of 2 items and 5000 gold in total.

There will be an additional 25% tax on all trades through the swap shop and market, regardless of whether or not the given item(s) trade.

Monster defenses have been beefed up significantly, and level up bonuses have been reduced by 75% on average.

The stamina cost to adventure in a given area is now proportional to the number of times you have adventured there before. The first visit will still cost 1% stamina as usual, but the second will cost 2%, the second will cost 3% and so on. There is also a similar, exponential, effect on the amount of gold and items monsters in a given area will drop, meaning that for every time you fight a monster, it will give you less gold and items than last time, on average.

Mage spells now all have a fixed cost of 3 MP. Mages are also now limited to 12 MP max, starting with 2 MP at level 0. Mages can no longer wear body armour or helmets, if they want to use magic, as the extra gear interferes with their magic casting ability.

Fighters that use two weapons at the same time now have their defense cut in half.

The amount of experience necessary to advance to the next level has been increased, this starts with level 5.

Due to many complaints about the overuse of the mouse in Game!, the user interface has been refactored such that the mouse is no longer used for such common commands like attack, or sell. Now all you have to do is simply type out their text equivalents in the command box and the action will be executed as before.

Hopefully these changes will bring Game! closer to class balance and harmony.

2006-03-27RSS1 image added

Added a new image.

2006-03-16RSS5 new images

5 new images have been added.

2006-03-08RSS"Fan Art" section added in forums

Based on user requests, I've added a "Fan Art" section in the forums. Enjoy!

2006-02-15RSSFixed long words in message center, links autolinked in message center

I've fixed an issue with long lines in the message center, in that ugly things would happen if you inserted a long "word". Long words are now broken up with spaces, and URLs are now autolinked in the message center.

2006-02-04RSS3 new images

3 new images have been added.

2006-02-03RSS8 new images

8 new images have been added.

2006-02-02RSS3 new campground improvements, 5 new items, 4 new combinations

I've added 3 more campground improvements, 5 new items, and 4 new combinations.

2006-01-31RSS6 new images

Added 6 new images (and fixed one of the previous ones that was added).

2006-01-30RSS15 new images

15 new images have been added. Nearly all items have art again now.

2006-01-29RSSNew pet, 10 new images, Raid points, new Sage listing

A new pet has been added, bringing the total count up to 9. This particular pet has been anticipated for quite awhile now by some players...

10 new images have been added.

Raid points are now kept track of. Send all feedback to the Forum sticky. Raid points are essentially a method for keeping track of how well you're doing at Raids, the higher the number, the better. They're also experimental, which means I'll probably still tweak the way they work, and might at some point reset them if I make major changes to the way that they're calculated, such that things can balance out again. The number is currently relative, and there is no maximum (I expect to cap this at a fixed number however, I just haven't yet). There is a theoretical minimum of 0ish, but I don't expect that anyone will get close to it. Right now even those players who haven't elected to participate in Raids will be listed in the Sage's list, this will be fixed very soon, and along with it the oddness of generally not being able to see yourself if you still have exactly 50 Raid points.

Oh, and if it wasn't explicit enough in the previous paragraph, the Sage now divulges information about another subject in the form of a list.

2006-01-28RSSMore descriptive "Go back" actions

I've changed all of the "Go back" actions to something more descriptive, more specifically, they all tell you where you're going back to now. I feel this makes things easier for the user, especially a new user. This should have been blindingly obvious to me, but clearly wasn't.

2006-01-23RSSNew message center features, new images

I've added a (frequently requested) feature to the message area, in that you can now see the messages you've sent to other people. These are kept until you delete them, just like normal messages. As a result of the way this was implemented, you may see old messages that you've sent that haven't been deleted by their recipient, nor marked by you for deletion yet. Next time you hit "Delete all messages", they'll be gone again. Sent messages have the normal white background, while received messages have a light grey background, such that they stand out more. The benefits of this should be obvious.

A few new images have also been added.

2006-01-19RSSNew combination, new images, minor bugfixes

I've added a new combination, as well as put up a few more images. Some minor bugfixes and UI changes have been made also.

2006-01-15RSSCampground raids added

Player versus player combat has been added (in a limited sense) in the form of campground raids. You can now raid the campgrounds of other players, potentially destroying some of their improvements and stealing gold. Before you can participate in campground raids, you must first evict the aura of peacefulness from your campground.

Right now you can only raid the campgrounds of those people who are within 3 levels of you, and have elected to participate in player versus player combat.

2006-01-01RSSWiser Wise Sage

I've improved the Wise Sage a bit, he now gives out more information. You might even say he's wiser than before.

2005-12-25RSSSanta!, 3 new images

Santa! has dropped by while everyone was sleeping and left a little something for everyone! Check your inventory...

3 new images have also been added.

2005-12-22RSS10 new items, new set, new combinations

I've added 10 new items. Furthermore, I've added a new set, several new combinations and some other fun stuff.

2005-12-14RSS7 new items, new combinations, and new campground improvements

I've added a number of new items, combinations and campground improvements. 7 new items in total.

2005-12-07RSS11 new images, several new items and campground improvements

11 new images have been added. Several new items and Campground improvements have also been added.

2005-12-06RSS5 new Campground related items, background on Campground

Like I said, I'd flesh out the Campground a bit soon, and that time has come. I've added 5 more items which are related to the Campground. There's actually 15 more beyond that which have been added, but they're not active yet as I haven't had time to think of descriptions for them, that will happen when I get the chance.

If you're wondering what the point of the Campground is, I plan to build Player vs Player combat around it, as "normal" Game! style Player vs Player combat wouldn't work very well. I have other ideas for the Campground as well, but they've yet to be firmed up, so I'd rather not discuss them at the moment.

2005-12-03RSS15 new images, new area

15 new images have been added.

You may also notice the new "Campground" area, this will be fleshed out soon.

2005-11-14RSSNew area and item, I'm not dead!

I've added a new area, along with a new item.

In other news, I'm not dead, honestly!

2005-10-23RSSNew Fighter skills, new images

A number of new skills have been added for Fighters. This should help address the slight imbalance between Mages and Fighters, especially at higher levels.

7 new item images have also been added.

2005-10-15RSSAvatars enabled in the forums

You can now have avatars in the forums. (read: I finally got around to figuring out why this wasn't working before)

In other news, I don't have any other news right now.

2005-10-14RSSNew food, new and improved recipes

A few new food items and recipes have been added. Also, a few of the existing recipes have changed.

2005-10-08RSSBetter EXP display, set screen bugfix

I cleaned up the EXP display a little bit, particularly in the sidebar where it was starting to flow onto the next line for some people, that EXP is now displayed in a more concise form. EXP is now also displayed (and commafied) in your profile. All other instances of EXP have been commafied.

I also fixed a small bug with the set screen where you'd see a couple of php warnings if you didn't have any of the pieces in the set yet.

2005-10-02RSSMonster strengths/weaknesses, improved top players display

I've done some tweaks to the battle system, and now certain enemies are more or less vulnerable to certain spells and/or weapons. You have been warned.

I also improved the top players listing at the sage a few days ago, but forgot to mention it in the news, so here you go.

2005-09-30RSS"Log out" behaviour changed slightly, character creation bugs fixed

The behaviour for the "Log out" button has changed slightly. It now sends you back to the character selection screen first, and from there, you can then actually log out. In retrospect, I think this makes more sense.

The character creation/selection screen has had a few bugs fixed which I didn't even realize were there. Namely, the hardcore warning will now only bother you when you actually click on "hardcore", rather than after you create the character too. Error messages (if any) are now visible again when creating a new character.

2005-09-26RSS25 new items, time remaining for swap shop

Approximately 25 new items have been added, nearly all of which are food items. This brings us to a total of 180 now.

The amount of time remaining for items in the swap shop is now shown.

This news update has officially been brought to you by The Future™.

2005-09-25RSS4 new pets, pet levels added, new items

I've added 4 more pets, bringing the total to 8. Pets also now have levels, much like players, which makes them more effective.

A few new items have been added as well.

2005-09-23RSSItem/set page improvements, new pet

I've (finally) added some much needed features to the item and set pages. Namely, they now give you an indication of how good/bad the item or set is in relation to your currently equipped items or set. A feature that has already (unintentially) caused some worry in players is that the sets page now gives you feedback on which parts of the set you have and don't have. Items which you have are linked normally, items which you don't have yet are grayed out and cannot be viewed through the sets page, items you have can be viewed normally.

I've also added a new pet, along with a few new items related to the new pet.

2005-09-21RSSScheduled Game! downtime

Game! will be unavailable from some time in the afternoon on Thursday 22nd until... whenever the Cogeco guy comes on Friday 23rd (between 8 am and 5 pm, hopefully). Sorry for the inconvenience, but there's not much I can do about it.

2005-09-19RSSSwap shop opened!

The swap shop is (finally) open! Using it, you can trade (multiple) items to other players for (multiple) items. It also introduces a much needed "bidding" system where you can simply offer a bundle of items for trade and instead of setting an explicit price, you can have a suggestion and let others make their own offers.

I think the Swap Shop is a huge step up in functionality from the Market, though overall they serve different purposes. If you're wondering, the Swap Shop is not replacing the Market, merely complementing it.

2005-09-16RSS4 new items, market sorting fixed

I've added 4 more items (not particularly high level however), they should be of interest to mages.

I've also finally fixed the market sorting. Not only is the sort state persistant now, there's also sorting options for the items that you have on the market (which of course are also persistant).

2005-09-15RSS4 new zones, many new items, new set

I've adding a whopping 4 new zones. This should briefly relieve (or exacerbate?) some of the tension at the top of the leaderboard.

In other news, I've also added quite a few new items along with a new set. Enjoy!

2005-09-13RSSCharacter select screen remembers a character's last position, marginally less bad rendering in IE

The character select screen now remembers where your character was at last. This makes a recovery after a browser close or any other similar event marginally more graceful.

In other news, Game! should be slightly less ugly in IE now. I still highly recommend you use any other browser however. See the FAQ entry if you have more questions.

2005-09-06RSSCharacter reroll completed

All characters have been rerolled and the Magic Shop is now open to all Mages. As a result of the reroll, all characters will have (slightly) different stats, they should be close to what they were before however.

2005-09-05RSSServer back up, check your inventory

Sorry about that bit of downtime, the server inadvertently lost power, and I couldn't do anything about it until earlier today.

On the bright side of things, I've left a small present in everyone's inventory to make up for lost time, have a look in your food section.

2005-09-04RSSCode cleanups, UI cleanups, new area

I've done some major overhauls to the underlying inventory system. While as a player you aren't likely to notice any difference, it means significantly cleaner and easier to manage code which in turn makes it easier for me to implement new features.

Speaking of new features, you'll notice that you can now cook and combine more than one thing at a time. There has also been some user interface cleanups in the Inventory section, namely that the categories of items in the dropdowns for combining are more clearly marked.

Also, a new area has been added, though you've probably already seen it by now, as I forgot to make a news update after adding it.

2005-09-01RSSInterface/display tweaks

I've done some relatively large interface changes. The first thing you'll probably notice is that the sidebar is a little trimmer and spiffier. After that you may or may not notice that there is a preference to add back most of the information contained in the sidebar, if that's what you prefer. Finally, the character profile screen has more information and is slightly prettier now. If things initially look off you may need to hold down shift and then click reload.

2005-08-31RSSMagic available to all *new* Mages only, new holiday spot, character profiles

As of right now, magic is available to any newly created Mage, not already created Mages however (yet). Due to the fact that not all magic is complete yet, newly created Mages will be difficult to play past roughly level 25, the trip to level 25 however is largely complete. When a suitable amount of magic has been added (such that all current Mages can still play after being rerolled), I will reroll all characters (Fighters also as they will, soon, have some way of actually using the MP they currently gain) appropriately.

I've also added a new holiday spot.

Oh, and I've also added a character "profile". You can access it from your top navigation bar. Essentially right now it just lists your skills and spells, I expect to populate it with more things soonish however.

2005-08-30RSSServer moved successfully

Server has been moved successfully and is back online (not that you'd be able to read this if it wasn't successful, but...).

2005-08-29RSSPlanned service outage

Game! will be unavailable for as many as a few hours during the afternoon of this coming Tuesday (ie, tomorrow), as the server is physically moved to its new home. Hopefully the move will be quick and painless and Game! will be back up again as soon as possible. This outage will affect both the forums and Game! itself.

2005-08-27RSSMore work on mages, new area, Tavern fixes

A pile more work has been put into mages, they are nearing (total) implementation very quickly. If all goes well, I hope to have them available to the public within a couple of days. Please note that when this happens, all mages currently out in the wild will be set back to level 0 (but will retain their experience points, inventory, skills, etc.), after which they can very quickly return to their previous levels, but with rerolled stats.

I've also added in another area to appease the higher level players.

The Tavern has also been the subject of a couple fixes. In the past, you would often see someone leave immediately after you joined if there wasn't anybody else in the Tavern at the time, this shouldn't happen any longer. Also, some characters were causing trouble (namely + being turned into space and & terminating the string when they weren't supposed to) and they shouldn't be doing that any longer. Long lines spoken in the Tavern are now broken up so as not to break the layout, long urls will still autolink correctly however (this was far more difficult than I had expected!).

2005-08-26RSSMages semi-implemented, more Tavern tweaks

Mages have been partially implemented. Partially in the sense that they're totally unbalanced and probably much more difficult to play now, I'm still tweaking them. You have been warned.

The Tavern has been tweaked a little more. It now includes a clock (syncronized to Game! time) so you can watch the seconds before midnight if you so please. Also, any lines that contain links (which begin with http://) are now autolinked.

2005-08-24RSSTavern tweaks, code cleanups

A few improvements to the Tavern have been made. Namely there is now the option to turn off the automatic scrolling as more messages come through, but the window title also updates as more messages are seen, thus you can still keep an eye on the Tavern while just having it in another tab or window. Technically the number that gets prepended to the window title is the number of times an update has brought at least one line of new text with it, which (while not exactly the same as) is generally pretty close to the actual number of lines of text, and still serves its purpose well.

I've also done some code cleanups with regards to the battle system. Pets are a little cleaner in the way that they relate to battle, which makes it easier to add more, among other things... The initial framework for magic (in the battle system) has also been laid out. Hopefully as a result you will see mages in a (more) playable state some time soon in the future.

2005-08-23RSS29 new images

29 new images have been added. About a third of these represent monsters, the rest are for items.

2005-08-21RSSInterface tweaks

I've changed around the interface a little bit. It's grayer and has more (dotted/dashed) lines. The various stores should be more readable now too.

2005-08-20RSSTavern (real time chat) added

The Tavern has been implemented. When you visit it, you'll notice that you can chat with other players (in real time!) who are also in the Tavern. More will probably be added to the Tavern soon.

2005-08-19RSSGraveyard (for hardcore), Market improvements

You may have already noticed the graveyard, it's there to honour those hardcore players who have died in the process of adventuring.

The Market has changed a little bit (again). You can now see the items that you have for sale, as well as remove them. You also no longer get a system message if buy something from yourself.

2005-08-17RSSNew mode of play: hardcore, skills, new items/zones/recipes

A new mode of play, hardcore, has been added to Game!. If you have at least one level 10 (or higher) character or hardcore character in your account already, upon creation of a new character, you will be given the option to select hardcore mode. In hardcore mode, death is permanent, thus you had best be careful adventuring! Oh, and you get a shiny red name to denote your hardcoreness.

Skills have been added! Visit the Skills Shop in town if you're curious.

Several new items, zones and recipes have been added also.

2005-08-15RSSForums added

Forums have been added! Have a look...

2005-08-14RSSMore items, new art

I've added a large quantity of new items, about a dozen in total. More than half of these new items are food. More is coming soon.

Quite a bit of new art has been done. A few old drawings have been redone, and a few new ones have been added.

2005-08-13RSSLots of new art

An absurd amount of new art has been added, 109 out of 112 items now have art, a number of items also have updated images. Several new monsters also now have art. All of this is thanks to Kariloy.

2005-08-10RSS3 new areas, misc bugfixes

I've added several more areas (3 to be specific) at the upper end of things.

I made the zIndex of the floating divs saner, in that whenever something new opens, it should be on top (rather than under something else, as it was sometimes before). I also fixed the error that would display (which was probably where the odd sizing and placement came from) in Opera when a floating div was created.

2005-08-09RSSSet viewing improvements, news link in nav bar, minor bugfix with regards to sets

I applied the new item viewing method to sets (only when you're viewing the set from the inventory screen however).

There is now a link to the news page in the nav bar at the top while you are playing so that those of you who aren't using the RSS feed (or wouldn't know how to even if you wanted to) can still see the news with reasonable ease. If you don't want to see the news link, you can turn it off in your preferences.

I also fixed a lingering corner case bug (which I only just noticed, of course) with sets where you would no longer get the set bonus for a set you were actually wearing if you removed another item which was part of an unrelated set. You could work around this by unequipping and reequipping any part of the set you were already fully wearing, however this is no longer necessary.

2005-08-08RSSVastly improved item viewing, more concise market listings

I have greatly improved the viewing of items. Instead of opening in a new window, the item stats are now displayed in a similar manner to the multiple buy and sell dialogs. The main difference compared to the multiple buy/sell dialogs is that the item stats dialogs use AJAX to snag the information, the end result is that both the page and the item stats load fast, but the item stats need not be preloaded upon initial page load. I think this is really slick stuff, and if you're still reading you probably do too. Even if you have no idea what I'm talking about, all of this should become obvious the next time you look at an item's stats. I have not converted this system over to set viewing yet, though I expect to do this soon.

There have also been some subtle changes to the Market. Only the least expensive of each item is shown now (because who would want to pay more if you didn't have to?). This should make shopping a little bit quicker and easier.

2005-08-07RSSNew quest, more art

I've added a new quest, it's slightly different from the other quests that have been implemented thus far, and it also brought a number of internal changes with it, the end result is that a few things are more flexible now. To those that just barely meet the level requirement, it may also be a little more difficult than the others, so beware.

More art from Kariloy has been added as per usual.

2005-08-04RSSConnection woes, should be better now

Sorry about the unplanned downtime yesterday/today, apparently a ghost decided to loosen the power cord on the router enough so that it wouldn't work anymore. Of course to compound this issue, the Internet connection seems to be shaky now, hopefully this will resolve itself as it hasn't been an issue in the past. If you encounter this, please be patient and the page should load sooner or later.

2005-08-03RSSMixed up all the zone positions just to confuse everyone... not really

I threw all of the zones in a blender and mixed them around for a bit, then poured them back out again, so if you're wondering why all of the zones moved, that's why. Well, not really. I added explict positioning for each zone instead of just letting them fill out awkwardly. Of course this means that it's not immediately obvious which area is the highest level, so I added the level suggestions to each, but I'm probably going to modify this a little bit yet. On the up side, this means that zones won't jump around anymore (besides the total chaos today) as you gain access to more of them, and areas such as the Large Crater make more sense with regards to positioning. Finally, this is probably a necessary step before putting in art for the overworld map, not that that's coming up any time soon (that I'm aware of...).

2005-08-02RSSInterface cleanups, new quest, more art

I've done some minor interface cleanups, mostly spacing issues. The top and bottom areas in the main window also now have a dashed border to indicate that they are indeed separate. The inventory window is now sorted correctly.

A beginnerish quest has been added, and an initial message is now sent to new characters when they are made to give them some initial direction.

More in the steady stream of artwork from Kariloy has been injected into the veins of Game! also.

2005-08-01RSSNew art!

Kariloy has sent in a ton of new art and I have added it, most additions are in the food department.

2005-07-31RSSMajor changes! New interface, new message alert functionality, new art and quests have been implemented

There's been a ton of changes to Game! today. If I miss some of them, I'm going to have to blame blood sucking aliens for that.

The first thing you will probably notice is that the interface has undergone a relatively major change. Because of the desire to keep the "action" buttons (for battle) in the same spot at all times and at the same time, somehow fit in larger monster images, I've made some changes. The top, left and bottom "areas" of text now stick to a particular window position, much like the background does now, the main content area still scrolls like normal. No, none of this involves frames either. If you're still using Internet Explorer for some reason, you'll probably still see the old layout as Internet Explorer does not support the necessary CSS attributes. I highly recommend you upgrade to Firefox if you're still using Internet Explorer. If you're not using Firefox or Internet Explorer, don't fret, just about every browser except Internet Explorer seems to work with the new changes.

Quests have been added! There's only one right now, but like everything else, expect more to be added soon.

As a result of the new interface, when you receive a message or messages, they will cover up some or all of the main content. However, you can also now hide this alert so that you can see the content like normal again. Hopefully this will make it more difficult to accidentally miss a message.

Finally, more art has been added. Many thanks go to Kariloy again for the new art.

2005-07-29RSSMore pictures, slightly new layout, minor grammatical fixes

You may notice that about 10 monsters have pictures now, 5 of the potions also have pictures now. Thanks go to Kariloy for these.

As a result of the pictures for monsters, I've tweaked the layout a little bit, you may need to shift-refresh the page to get all of the new layout.

I've also fixed up a few minor grammatical errors, if you didn't notice them before, you probably won't notice that they're fixed either.

2005-07-27RSSCooking implemented, more food added

Cooking has been implemented. There is a fair number of recipes (in relation to the number of food items) currently. Expect many more to be added. Have a look in the Item Shop if you're having trouble finding an oven.

Considerably more food has been added, most of it is still more likely to be found at lower levels, but this situation should be slowly getting better as I add more food.

2005-07-26RSSMajor set/item information display improvements, set bugfixes, more sets added

I've done some major improvements to the item and set description windows. Charms now show exactly what they do, and items show much more information about their set if they're in one. Also, information about the set itself can now be viewed in a similar manner to items.

Those of you who have already been playing with the sets probably noticed some of the bugs. I believe I've now squashed all of the set related bugs however. The number of sets has also doubled (to a total of 6).

2005-07-25RSSSets and multi-buy implemented

Item sets have been implemented! Currently the number of sets is rather limited, but this will be expanded upon shortly. You can try completing the "Povery" set if you want to see a set in action right away. This should be within reach of most every player. Sometime in the near future it will become obvious what exactly the sets do when worn.

You can now also buy multiple items at a time from the various stores, the width of the popup for this has also been fixed to 200px to work around an oddity in Opera. Thanks go to stfrn for reporting this issue.

2005-07-24RSSFood has been implemented

Food can now be found and eaten. If you want to see some in action immediately, Plain Toast is currently for sale at the Item Shop.

2005-07-23RSSHealer and Holiday Island tweaks, new areas, items, and combinations

The Healer has been tweaked a bit in that his prices are a little more reasonable now, and he's a little clearer in communication.

I've also added 2 more areas, thanks for the suggestions on that.

Holiday Island has also been tweaked a bit in that it now drops higher level items, making time spent there a bit more worthwhile.

Finally, there are a few more items to be found as well as a few new combinations.

2005-07-22RSSStamina, FAQ, and RSS feed added, misc tweaks

If you haven't already noticed, the concept of stamina has been added, I've added a few items about it to the FAQ.

Oh, and I've added a FAQ. There's also a link to it on the main page.

There has been some minor tweaks in Game! itself, namely the Inn has been renamed and prices tweaked a little bit, there are a few new charms, and there is quite a few new monsters roaming about.

Finally, I've also added an RSS feed for the news here, since nobody ever sees the main page. (that would require logging out!) Hopefully this will allow some people to actually see news updates.

2005-07-20RSSPets have been implemented

The pet system has now been implemented. Currently there are two pets available, but this will be increasing shortly.

In entirely unrelated news, I expect there to be a slight increase in demand for Black Knights.

2005-07-18RSSNew area: Holiday Island

Those of you with more gold than you know what to do with may be interested in the new area... Holiday Island. Have a look in town.

2005-07-16RSSNew areas added

There are an additional 4 areas now, many thanks to Zulehan for the monster ideas!

2005-07-13RSSPlayer to player messaging implemented

You may now message other players using the "Messages" area, you can also delete the old messages you have received.

2005-07-10RSS"Rest at the Inn" link added to main page, combinations of items added

I eventually plan to add something more elaborate to where the "Rest at the Inn" link is now, but for the time being, I'll just put that there.

You may now combine items into other items, check the bottom area of your inventory... combinations are still being added.

2005-07-07RSSMisc bugfixes, accessories added, new monsters added, autosell prices adjusted, "message center" implemented

I've fixed a number of bugs, namely the issue with the multi sell popup that didn't work properly if you simply hit enter instead of clicking on "sell", and similarly for the feature to put items on the market, these should both work now by just hitting enter. The other bug involved the level up bonus, characters over level 10 were not getting the correct stat bonuses when leveling up, this has now been fixed, but not applied retroactively. If you have a character above level 10 currently and you would like to have your stats fixed, let me know (they should go up a fair bit).

In other news, the accesory slot that you may have seen appear a day or two ago can now be filled, in that there are actually items for it. I put 2 of them on the market, but you can also find them from monsters.

Speaking of monsters, I've added a few more, have a look in the Spitting Camel Zone, the Dark Forest and the Mystery Zone if you're curious.

The guaranteed selling price of most items has also been drastically reduced. The selling price is based on the buying price, and that was originally set for items based on the idea that you would be able to buy them from the store, but now that you can't, and you find them more often on monsters, I felt that they were inducing a glut of gold into the economy. Thus, the sell prices of items have been reduced. This does not however affect the market prices of items, you can still try to sell them to other players for whatever amount you see fit.

Finally, starting now, messages are kept for a time instead of being immediately deleted. You can see past messages in the "Messages" area beside your Inventory. Player to Player messaging should be coming soon.

2005-07-04RSSItem shop is now open

\o/

The Item Shop is now open! There are now items besides equipment! You can also use them in battle! They might even work properly! *jumps off the soapbox*

2005-07-02RSSMultiple selling and market added, left handed weapons added

Selling more than one of an item at a time has now been implemented.

*update* The market has also been implemented now. Some other minor things have improved also.

I've also added a few left handed weapons.

2005-07-01RSSInitial announcement

Right, so because I should probably make note of at least most of the major changes to Game!, I'm going to do that here. As an added bonus (punishment?), you also get to see them.

Since this is the first news bit, the changes include... everything. Next up on the agenda is the implementing of items that aren't equipment as well as a trading/public market system where you can trade with other players. I'm also toying with the idea of adding a fixed number of "turns" that you can play on any given (real life) day, the main reason behind this even the playfield between those who have virtually unlimited time to play and those who do not. I also feel it's a good idea in that it forces those who want to be competitive to balance the risk/reward ratio of the higher level areas rather than just being able to sit around in the Spring Hill Zone 24/7. Those who don't care about being competitive just end up having to pace themselves.

More on the trading system... I think an Ebay like system would be great, but in the end I think I'll do something simpler, where there is no bidding, just explicit price setting by the seller and instant buying.

I'd also like to put in a "sell all", or "sell x of item" for the inventory screen so that selling off your 48 daggers isn't quite as tedious, I'm just thinking over what would be the slickest way to do this in terms of user interface now.

Oh, and finally, if you made a character previous to today, I'd suggest that you create a new one. I did a major overhaul in terms of balance of items, monsters and levelling. If you played before, you should find the new system to ramp up much more smoothly and there is no "invisible wall" somewhere around level 11 any longer.

Ok, so not quite finally. I've added a relatively large number of areas that one can adventure in, as usual, these will be uncovered gradually as you gain in level.

Ok, I think that's enough talking for now.