Wakfu Forum > Devtracker| Posted on: Yesterday, 16:40 | |
AnkamaCommunity Manager  
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In order to temporarily fix the respawn issue with low-level mobs in village areas, there will be a reboot everyday at 4pm GMT. The reboot schedule will be maintained until the problem is fixed and mobs spawn normally. |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #38401 · Replies: 1 · Views: 54 |
| Posted on: Yesterday, 15:49 | |
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Ankama Community Manager
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QUOTE (lilazan @ 13 Mar 2010, 01:58)  Does that mean theres gonna be a server wipe next patch (or when theyre released)? Don't worry, there should not be a wipe with the next patch. =) Kaoly |
| Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #38396 · Replies: 17 · Views: 673 |
| Posted on: 12 Mar 2010, 15:16 | |
AnkamaAnimator / Graphic Artist
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QUOTE (Kaoly) Have you ever heard the Legend of Kuri? It is an old wives’ tale. They say that in ancient times, when Ankama was still just a sparkle in the eyes of Tot, Manu and Kam, one man bravely stepped in to be the 4th musketeer. Little did he know what lay ahead... Some say that his passion for the job sparked on the very first day, others think it grew on him little by little. But, one thing is for certain, no matter the time of day or night, if you come by Ankama, chances are you’ll find him here, working away with a fiery stare… completely besotted by the spell cast on him ages ago. Cowabunga! After a long day of scattered meetings of all kinds, I’ve finally found time to do today’s post. Today as a special treat, and for your eyes only, a big surprise - Pandawa posing! Despite their seemingly docile and festive appearance, the animation of Pandawas requires special attention. First they can carry other characters or mobs. This means that alternative ‘carrying’ postures have to be created. On top of that, there are animations for: - 'I lift the char/mob in front of me' - 'I throw char/mob I’m carrying - When I’m hit: 'I take the blow, being careful not to drop my passenger ' - When I’m hit: 'I take the blow, dropping the char I’m carrying’ - I’m tackled while I’m carrying a char/mob - When I’m dazed, I put one knee on the ground to avoid dropping the char/mob I’m carrying. - When I jump, so does my passenger. That makes 7 different events just for Pandawas carrying chars. Multiply by 2 for the ¾ front view (Pandawa is facing us) ¾ back view (the Pandawa has its back to us). That makes 14 animations. Add to this the animations for when they cast spells and when they are drunk (for the Drunken spell). The drunken spell is a condition that lasts a certain number of turns. So other animations are called for: the panda walking unsteadily, the Pandawa dead drunk. (To this day we still don’t know the alcohol content of their fermented bamboo juice ^ ^). In all, the Pandawa class will require about 40 animations (front + back), where the Iop did not need half that. Having done all the Pandawas animations for 'Dofus', 'Dofus Arena' and now 'Wakfu', you can imagine that I have intimate knowledge of the beasts. And that’s exactly why they didn’t appear in the February update. (I got tired of falling asleep on my keyboard ^ ^’) Before dealing with animations, I’ll first define combat poses in the case of the Pandawa, this is relatively simple: Type any of the following into google: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Tony jyaa etc... You’ll be spoiled for choice. Here is the inspiration for the Alcoholic state. (I suggest you see it, it’ll make your head spin!) I then take the 'build' (puppet) by Xav… which is quite like playing with dolls (This is starting to sound strange) The difficulty of the whole exercise is to bring personality and spatial depth to the characters, using 'rotate' and ‘stretch' tools deformation along a 2 dimensional axis. 1st set of sketches: ... final poses: Now we must test these poses with the Pandawa puppet to see if it looks right: Ouch, her thigh has gone a-wire. As we have one single skeleton for all character classes, each pose must use elements adapted to all classes. Oh and btw, Pandawas should be released in the next patch! Cowabunga! |
| Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #38291 · Replies: 17 · Views: 673 |
| Posted on: 10 Mar 2010, 15:43 | |
AnkamaGraphic Artist
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QUOTE (Kaoly) “Today‘s dev hour may contain scenes of a graphic nature” Yes, it’s Ntamak, the puppet maker, or monster master, as he likes to be called! You can probably feel his eyes glaring from the shadows, but don’t worry about that – this guy’s fiercest weapon is his pen… and with it he breathes life into lowly monsters and beautiful marvels alike! Hello to you all! Let me introduce myself, I’m Ntamak the panda... I design 'monsters' and help Xav with the creation of character classes. My role is to find the monsters’ concepts and draw them in Flash so they can be animated. If you haven’t read Baba’s post, this basically involves making ‘virtual puppets’. To facilitate the animation, I design monsters in simple poses, and separate them at each joint to make basic elements. I also design the facial expressions... Today I'll show you some clan members that I designed for Amakna and the archipelagos, as well as one of the prison guards and... ... as a special treat, some unusual crawlies... Ntamak |
| Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #38242 · Replies: 6 · Views: 458 |
| Posted on: 26 Feb 2010, 14:18 | |
AnkamaAnimator
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QUOTE (Kaoly) With all the excitement following the arrival of patch 0.211, we thought we’d bring you something light and refreshing on the Dev Hour! This week will feature Baba, a fresh face at Ankama who went from sending in Fanarts to being a 2D animator! Hello dear Wakfu community! ^^ It’s my turn to talk to you about our work inside Ankama! I’m an animator, but this week I’m doing a Graphic artist’s job - building a character. I’m sure you’re already familiar with the term, but just in case there’s a few Iops out there, I’ll explain! Building a character means to create a version of a monster, item, or character in a certain way that it can be animated afterwards. Here’s an example for you – Xa and his blop: Okay, well actually, since you’ve probably had enough of little jelly figures for a while, I’ll use another example. Here’s N’tamak and his crawlies. The first step is to create the front and back views: Once that’s done, we work on all the other views, and make sure to add all the elements in the same clip. So for example, in ‘HandR_Full’ I should be able to find AT THE VERY LEAST the back and palm of the right hand. The next step is to work on the basic facial expressions so the animators don’t lose any time adding blinks, crossed eyes etc: So that’s it, since I’m an animator, for my next post I’ll be showing you how we animate a Wakfu character Baba style... well I’ll do my best anyway. Watch out for the made in Ankama tutorial! Happy gaming!!! |
| Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #37970 · Replies: 8 · Views: 795 |
| Posted on: 19 Feb 2010, 15:29 | |
AnkamaGame Designer Lord
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QUOTE (Kaoly) Today’s Dev Hour features Tonio, the newest addition to the Game Designer team. Like any GD worthy of the name, Tonio is a Gamer through and through who plays games like DotA almost every day. You’ve probably heard urban legends of a guy who broke up with his girlfriend to finish Final Fantasy©, right? Well guess what… it was true! Don’t be fooled, despite his shadowy past, Tonio is quite the people-person and a real sweetheart - they say his shoulder’s been cried on more than any other! Truth be told, he even went as far as to pose in the buff for a school fundraiser... Now that’s dedication! =) Hello everyone! Today, rather than to burry you in new game patterns and obscure concepts, I'll leave you with this little enigmatic text ... Don’t worry – you’ll understand soon enough. Happy reading!
Zeorus will shed light on this text sometime soon... In the meantime feel free to extrapolate, dream, comment! I wish you all a great day and especially GOOD GAME! Tonio |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #37640 · Replies: 12 · Views: 511 |
| Posted on: 16 Feb 2010, 16:41 | |
AnkamaGraphic Artist
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QUOTE (kaoly) This week’s Dev Hour features Sephy. Sephy has been around for almost 3 years as a very talented Graphic Artist. He’s renowned for wearing bizarre hats indoors, and most importantly, for all of his artwork (just look at the cover of the Café Salé artbook or the WIP sign you see all over!) To unwind, this timid fellow has been known to sing a few tunes when times get tough, but only when the mood and the crowd are right. His repertoire goes from old corny French songs, to well-known tv ads. He must be more famous than we know, on a recent trip to Japan, they wouldn't let him in to the Karaoke boxes… apparently due to the flu… Mmm. You can see more of Sephy's artworks here. Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my turn to do a bad turn! Gather round, for your glittering, mesmerized eyes only, I will now reveal the new, the amazing, the terrible – arsenals. Maybe you’ve heard, maybe you haven’t but from now on, for (almost) every powerful monster family, there will be a pack of six weapons. Some will be droppable, and other may be crafted, but all will be handpicked from the following list: One-Handed or Two-Handed Sword, One-Handed or Two-Handed Staff, Wand, Dagger, Clock Hand, Shovel, Bow, Card or Axe. Without further ado, and to better illustrate my wandering words here are three arsenals, each linked to their own monster group. Can you guess which belongs to which? Remember that each and every one of these must be balanced to a T. Creating such beauties requires the skills of a craftsman, but also a keen eye for balance. Also, making sure that all weapon types have equal representation and stick to the spirit of the mobs is a must… for example, the Boowolf set will have tough, heavy weapons (swords, axes, shovels, hammers.) while the Crow set will have lighter, long-range weapons (bow, needle, card, dagger). I’m keeping a private inventory of all the different weapons (I’ve made sure to hide parts of it, so as not to spoil it for you). For now, there are 13 different arsenals, so no less than 84 weapons (the larva set is an exception with 12 weapons instead of 6, 3 weapons per larva type). Only yesterday, I added 4 new arsenals… it really is endless! Anyway, that’s it for now! |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #37542 · Replies: 3 · Views: 371 |
| Posted on: 12 Feb 2010, 16:14 | |
AnkamaMythical Level Designer
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QUOTE (kaoly) Let’s start this week’s Dev Hour off, with Poolay. Lead Level Designer, graphic artist at heart, you’d have a tough time not stumbling across one of his works. Details here and there have been punctuated by the acidic humor of this video game junkie. Did you know that Poolay is a spicy and original way to write ‘chicken’ in French?! For such a fearless individual makes you wonder what he’s so afraid of... Hey y’all, Having trouble talking with your mouth full or tearing yourself away from that oh so yummylicious pizza? Noooo problem! Lookie here - a new, revolutionary, never-seen- before invention in video games... smileys! Yeah you heard me! Wonder what those are, eh? The first sightings date back to 1953, deep within the equator forest, they say that… HEY! You at the back, stop dozing off!! Fine... Duncan, hit the slide. The goal, of course, is to enhance communication, to ‘yap without words’, as smileys cross the language barrier. An interesting suggestion is to have a class - or nation- specific smiley to express cultural differences. Srams would have a “hypnotic gaze”, Iops, a “bewildered” look and the rest… Shall I let you guess?  Talk to you soon, kitties Poolay |
| Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #37378 · Replies: 2 · Views: 168 |
[Pinned] [Contest] A Note of Tenderness...
| Posted on: 11 Feb 2010, 16:38 | |
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Ankama Community Manager
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... In a symphony of chaos! With St. Ballotwine just around the corner, it’s the perfect occasion to show your devoutness and admiration to those fearsome creatures that make order and justice reign as sovereigns on the devastated planes of Ankama – who else but our beloved Clan Members! Time to bring out your most beautiful, magical, fountain pen! The most romantic, poetic, moving, or even funny of you, will get rewarded for showing such depth and devotion. Contest procedure: You have 10 days to send in your letter. The deadline is Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 5pm GMT. After that, we will have 3 weeks to review your contest entry and choose the winners. The winner, or winners, will receive an exclusive emote for the duration of a month. With that emote, they’ll be able to kneel down in front of their favourite clan member. Also, in order to gloat and show the world just how unique they are, they will receive a special title, obtainable solely through this contest! Who are the judges? Who better to judge a writing competition than our beloved translators who spend their days juggling with words? HarvestPale and Kelloggs will be sitting at the judges table, as will Zidrune the French Community Manager and myself! Contest Rules: Please read these guidelines carefully, failure to follow them will result in disqualification.
Remember the deadline is Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 5pm GMT. Special word from our special guest members of the Jury:
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| Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #37327 · Replies: 48 · Views: 1,561 |
| Posted on: 31 Oct 2009, 19:07 | |
AnkamaCommunity Manager
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Official document of the CUGAA (Commitee for the Unification of Governments of the Amaknan Archipelago) Our suspicions have been confirmed. The contaminated ghouls have established their camps in the cemeteries of all four nations. During the next few hours at least, we are asking you to avoid all contact with them and with the general population. Our alchemists are still perfecting the remedy for this scourge. The essential ingredients are thistles (French translation: chardons) and ghostoplasm – in fact, this combination works perfectly – however, we still find it a little runny and it doesn’t taste as good as we hoped. After all, we can’t have our more immature citizens refusing to be treated just because the remedy is not pleasant to drink. The exact recipe will be handed over to all alchemists as soon as we have tested its effectiveness. |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #34813 · Replies: 15 · Views: 1,598 |
| Posted on: 30 Oct 2009, 17:26 | |
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Ankama Community Manager
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Official document of the CUGAA (Committee for the Unification of Governments of the Amaknan Archipelago) Dear citizens of Emelka, Mork, Ohm and Sevamor, The origins of this mysterious disease remain unknown. Professor Gray Fhon, an alchemist who’s already well known to the CUGAA for violating the ethics of his profession, has claimed responsibility for the outbreak, but the department of health are still investigating other possible scenarios, such as the mutation of the virus upon contact with ghouls. Whatever the case, things aren’t looking good. An unknown number of ghouls now roam free, transmitting the so-called Goul’s Grip virus to all who try to harm them. According to our sources, the ghouls are becoming more numerous with every bite. They seem to be slowly making their way to the cemeteries of the archipelago. We ask each and every citizen to exercise the utmost caution: avoid cemeteries in the coming days, avoid contact with anything that resembles a ghoul. In case of contamination, immediately shut yourself in your Haven Bag and have no contact with the outside world… except through Tofu messengers. |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #34803 · Replies: 15 · Views: 1,598 |
| Posted on: 23 Oct 2009, 15:55 | |
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Ankama Community Manager
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Official document of the C.U.G.A.A. (Commitee for the Unification of Governments of the Amaknan Archipelago) Dear citizens of Emelka, Mork, Ohm and Sevamor, Our Research & Hygiene department has today released a startling report. A new strain of an existing disease has emerged in our archipelago. The symptoms are fatigue, weakness and lowered defenses along with a dramatic change in appearance, and last for several hours. A similar disease, spread throughout the Archipelago in recent weeks by bats, was of far shorter duration and without serious consequences for the population. Our researchers are investigating possible links between these two diseases. No conclusive result has been reported to date. Given the highly contagious nature of this new virus and the government’s fears of a pandemic, the C.U.G.A.A. has decided to quarantine as many cases as possible. We ask the public not to panic, we have enlisted our best alchemists to work on a vaccine. Lady Zidrune, C.U.G.A.A. High Command |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #34547 · Replies: 5 · Views: 839 |
| Posted on: 13 Aug 2009, 10:53 | |
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Ankama Community Manager
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Quite the reaction I expected. But please don't put words in my mouth. Wakfu is not NPC free. In fact, it has never been (monsters are NPC). Me saying "Clan Member is more than a basic NPC" doesn't mean I want to make you believe they are not. It means we want to give them a real identity, a soul, something that make them unique. Why "Wakfu = no NPC" is the first place ? Where did this idea come from ? As I have already said, it's not that we hate NPC (it's quite ridiculous). We don't want a man who always is in the same spot and always say the same sentence. For exemple (a poor one, you're right), it's like the difference between Kokoriko village NPC in Zelda Ocarina of Time and town NPC in Majora's Mask. In the first game, it's quickly boring to hear the same thing from the same guy in the same place (I don't talk to them more than twice). In Majora's Mask, it seems like NPC have a life. And they don't always give you the same information. Both of them are useful in certain conditions. The question is : what do you want your NPC for ? In Wakfu, they won't be only decor, we won't place them only to fake life in the villages. YOU will be the life of the game. |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #31655 · Replies: 17 · Views: 1,925 |
| Posted on: 27 May 2009, 10:19 | |
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Ankama Community Manager
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Changing Devblogs is like moving house… First you are delighted by the entire thing with big clear rooms, clean white walls, and a décor you could have done yourself! Then, movers (or strong mates) intervene and carry dozens of boxes full of stuff you don’t even remember buying… and that’s when you realize you’ll hate that transition period! You know it’ll take you months to sort out everything, and meanwhile you’ll have that leaking tap and a plumber to call, not to mention the fact that that you won’t have internet access for at least three weeks!!! I’m pretty sure you’ll get this metaphor… What’s the news from our development team? Let’s see… The weeks were shortened lately (lots of French bank holidays) but the team is keeping up the good work! There’s no big exclusive news… No, “just” regular stuff… But we know you well, and can already hear some grumblings… So, just for you is a preview of the new aptitudes! Round of applause for Zeorus and Franho! Read More on the Devblog |
| Forum: Log Book · Post Preview: #29050 · Replies: 17 · Views: 1,270 |
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