We’ve had a Fa-la-la-la-llama good time this year with you all! So much has happened in the Spiral, including the creation of your own amazing player generated content. The community created dozens of incredibly useful gameplay guides, fun contests, new ways to decorate one’s dorm, and many other activities. We still have several days left to go in the year too!
We are also proud of all the great content that’s made its way into the game. Highlights include the new Beastmoon Hunt and Deckathalon events introduced earlier this year. November’s game update improved upon these events and included new items for all players to enjoy. On the event side of things, just this month we began a wonderous sleigh ride adventure along the 12 Days of the Spiral! This yearly festive event always has something interesting to reveal each day. We hope you enjoyed the festive goodies that were offered!
As Professor Falmea said so well in her Producer’s Letter below, we are especially grateful to all of you in the community. Much of this year’s gameplay changes were in part thanks to your feedback and ideas!
Let’s take a quick look back on some recent activities that occurred across the Spiral:
NOV 05: A new Beastmoon Hunt map was revealed
NOV 11: We honored Veterans Day with a free Veterans Theme music scroll
NOV 12: Harvest Hannah returned
NOV 13: New Wizard City Underground update released
NOV 19: New Storm Deckathalon
NOV 25: Winter Bundle Pet available
NOV 26: KI Live: Happy Holidays!
NOV 27: Fairytale Wallpaper released
DEC 02: Winter Scroll of Fortune begins
DEC 09: The 12 Days of the Spiral begins!
DEC 09: New Santa Jaws Charity Mount
DEC 10: New Yule Logger Pack
DEC 15: New Festive Fox Mount
JAN 16: We'll be at PAX South this coming January!
Keep updated daily on the latest news for next month on Twitter and Facebook!
PRODUCER'S LETTER
My Dear Wizards,
As the temperatures grow colder here at Ravenwood, this Pyromancer must soon take her leave and travel to warmer climates. But first I wanted to chat about what an amazing 2019 we’ve had! This has certainly been a year of transition. We decided to take a few chances and do some different things than were typical in our first ten years, and I think for the most part, it looks like we hit the mark!
The Wizard City Underground
We’ve talked at length about the Wizard City Underground, but I couldn’t help mentioning it, as the community respond to our new side world and gauntlet was overwhelming. As a team we thoroughly relished the idea of revisiting and expanding upon existing lore from the first arc instead of going somewhere new. We’re glad to have taken the risk, and are overjoyed with how much positive feedback we received regarding the look, style, story, and the composition of WCU.
Our writers, designers, artists, and sound team always want to take you to exciting new places and show you new stories, so we’re overjoyed that you liked this fall’s new content!
Through December 20th KingsIsle celebrated the 12 Days of the Spiral. Each day we had a different surprise in store for your Wizards. Some days we gave away items like mounts and pets, while other days had discount offers. We even introduced a few new mounts and other items along the way!
The fun hasn’t stopped, as you still have a chance to participate in the giveaways. Two additional special events are also still ongoing for the next several days, the Winter Wonderland Decorating Contest and the Charity Mount Offers!
Winter Wonderland Decorating Contest
Charity Mounts!
ADAM ROUSH, CONCEPT ARTIST - INTERVIEW
The past few months and our plan to continue into 2020, we’ve been reaching out to official fansites for interest in interviewing developers on our team. From designers to artists and many others, we have an exciting lineup of developers for you to learn more about in the coming months.
Thanks to Adventures of the Spiral, read on for this first interview with our concept artist, Adam Roush!
Adventures of the Spiral: How did you get a start in Digital Art and how did you find your way to KI?
Adam Roush: I started learning digital art in college, around ‘07, with just a simple tablet learning Photoshop and Painter. I actually went to school for illustration and animation but became so enamored with concept art at my first industry job I kept pursuing that path. I had applied to KingsIsle and completed the art test three years before I eventually got the job. It took a long time to get here, but it’s been well worth the wait!
AoS: Do you remember your first piece of concept art (for KI and as a career first) – what was it?
Adam: My first concepts for KI were generic furniture, like lamps, chairs, tables, and boxes for the Aerodwarves in Empyrea Part 2. It was a simple and fun task to acclimate to Wizard style.
Tony Gaddis posts regular sketches and animations of his work. You can follow him on Twitter @TonyGaddisArt. Here’s a popular animation of the new Ratatoskr pet!
Matthew Fahey, Senior Designer, joins us in Part 2 of our Wizard City Underground dev diary series. He shares his insights into how we designed the underground bosses and combat mechanics. Watch the video below!
You can also follow Matthew’s Twitter channel @Mattnetic.
KI LIVE WITH SPARCK & PROFESSOR FALMEA
Our last KI Live of the year was super frosty fun! Watch the video below:
A tip submitted to KI Live comes from community member Snee432:
“With the new Hatchmaking kiosk option, we need pet snacks. Farming Troubled Warriors in Grizzleheim is the easiest way to obtain Couch Potatoes, which drop mega met snacks! Troubled Warriors are ice and have around 300 health. Couch Potatoes are a rank 3 seed, and can give you Captain Cantaloupe, Fancy Yogurt, and/or Golden Wheat Bread mega snacks, to help you train your perfect pet.” - Snee432
JOIN US AT PAX SOUTH 2020 IN JANUARY
Deep in the Heart of Texas, in historic San Antonio, DuelCircle is proud to announce their return to PAX South this upcoming January, and KingsIsle will be there with them!
DuelCircle’s 5th Anniversary Fiesta Party will be held on Thursday, January 16th from 6-10pm at Dave & Busters located within Rivercenter Mall, just steps away from the historic Alamo and the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. This event is free of charge for the community! RSVP here.
This party will be the best place to meet us at the show, so we hope you’ll be able to attend! As the date approaches, be sure to visit the DuelCircle PAX South Website for updates.
macOS UPDATE WARNING REMINDER
Apple has released its macOS Catalina update. If you upgrade right away to Catalina, you will not be able to play Wizard101 or Pirate101!
We are continuing to work with our partners on making both games Catalina compatible. To ensure your game access is not interrupted, please wait to install Catalina until we announce full support for the OS.
Thanks for your patience as we work on this updated functionality. We will notify you as soon as support for Catalina becomes available!
FAN SCREENSHOT SPOTLIGHT
This screenshot is from Chrissy The Blesser, taken during the annual Santa Run event. The Spiral was filled with reindeer and all sorts of other player mounts, pets, and of course santa themed outfits! Did you participate in this year’s run? Share your screenshots with us by tagging @Wizard101!
We would love to see more screenshots and art from the community for next month’s newsletter. Do you have something amazing to share? Send it to us in an email to community@Wizard101.com! We’re always interested in showing off more fan art, gameplay guides, and other content.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Community art by: Swordroll
Keep updated on what’s happening in the community right here in our Community News section! For every newsletter we receive direct from the community links to new gameplay guides, exciting upcoming contests, and much more. Thanks to the following fansites and other community leaders for their contributions this month!
Housing Headquarter’s is putting on their first Decorating Contest! Ends Dec. 21st.
We got the chance to work with some amazing people over at Radiance Reborn to host a massive PvP Tournament! Here is a look at the winners and how the tournament went.
We have our first ever 25 Days of Discord running the same time as the 25 Days of the Spiral!
Have you explored the Wizard City Underground yet? Take a look at our detailed quest line!
Interested in fast and effective strategies for the Wizard101 Renegade Druid in the Catacombs? We share our 4-round speed run and other tips.
Check out the new Wizard101 Level 130 crafted and dropped gear available in the Catacombs!
Confused about Spellwrighting? Eric's got you covered with this Beginner's Guide to this newly added ystem. Learn more about Spellwrighting and what it can offer for your wizards!
Interested in how to maximize your damage or achieve the One in a Million badge? Learn how charms & wards stacking can help you achieve your goal in this guide by Cody!
Whether you're a newbie or grizzled veteran making a second account, this Wizard101 Beginner’s Guide from Jeremy will teach you all the tricks you need to know.
The unaffiliated-with-KingsIsle “Community Newsletter” had a great selection of Wizard101 links this month. NOTE: Be sure to follow their Twitter page for more information. To subscribe to their newsletter, send a message to them over Twitter inquiring to be added or email them at community.newsletter.101@gmail.com. You can unsubscribe at any time by sending them an email with the phrase “UNSUB”.
FOLLOW WIZARD101
Question for our readers - is there a section we should add? Tweet your suggestion to @Wizard101 and we’ll select the top idea we can implement to win 5,000 Crowns!
Be sure to follow the game and its community on social media!
If you didn’t yet read our article on online safety, please take a moment to stop by our KingsIsle Blog and read the post titled Account Security Best Practices. There’s important information in the article to manage and protect your entire family’s accounts.
