Arcade09 Results Announced!

For the past few days, the center of activity has been Adz. His thread for posting Stratosphir screenshots has nearly reached 400 within a matter of days. As a major source of information, many people have turned to him recently. Today, Adz takes the spotlight again, but from behind-the-scenes. In a news post today, the winners of Arcade09 were announced. To those of you who do not know, Adz is responsible for counting the votes submitted for each competition.

So here they are, the results of Arcade09, the last pre-Stratosphir design challenge…

#10: Operation Nemesis by DuffyZeEmu

#9: Evolution of Speed Zone 3 by AragornII

#8: Crystal Caves by EyeOfSauron

#7: Beach Break by Amethyst

#6: Muka Sniper by Boberto

#5: Sonic Speed by Newah

#4: Virtuality: Aeriel Azure by Memphiston

#3: The Diamond Ruins by Saunby

#2: Evolution of Speed – Zone Two by Frodo

#1: Insert Witty and Attractive Title here by Bender

Bender’s intriguing title certainly paid off in this competition, as it claimed him first place in this challenge. Congratulations to all of the winners! As usual, 3rd place wins 250 Atmos, 2nd wins 500, and 1st wins 1000. But as some will remember, there was also a Play Challenge associated with Arcade09. Daimon won a total of 750 Atmos for his placings in The Diamond Ruins and Evolution of Speed – Zone Two, as well as Cheezyboom for winning 1000 Atmos in Insert Witty and Attractive Title. Congratulations to them as well!

With Stratosphir growing ever-closer, and the final design challenge before launch done, anticipation only grows. The time is coming soon.

As a bonus, Adz included a video listing the Top 25 levels. It can be seen here, along with the other results: http://atmosphir.com/news/2009/12/arcade09-results/

That’s all for today, thanks for reading!

Open Forum Announcement, Win A Google Wave Invite, Misc Announcements

To begin, the Atmosphirian would like to thank the community for their amazing activity in the open forum. It appears that this was a huge success, and we would love to continue to run this segment from now on. In order to do this effectively, we’d like to get your opinion on how often you’d like this to happen. At any given time, we would only like to have one open forum at a time. Would you like this to be weekly? Every other week? Every month? If you have an opinion, please tell us VIA Twitter at @atmosphirian.

To expand on our Twitter page, the Atmosphirian is proud to announce their first contest. Entry is easy; simply follow @atmosphirian on Twitter. That’s it. Next Sunday (December 6, 2009), we will draw three names from all of our followers to win a free Google Wave Invite. As with any contest, there must be rules.

1) No multiple accounts.

2) If the winner already has a Google Wave Invite, the prize may be transferred to someone else of their choosing.

3) Winners will be expected to provide the Atmosphirian with a valid Gmail account by December 12, 2009. Multiple prizes will not be awarded due to typos caused by the winner(s).

Good luck to all of you.

In other news, a clarification has been made regarding the launch of Project Stratosphir. Some community members have believed that the launch will be December 1st. Dave (OkaySamurai) stepped in on Wednesday to clarify. The current plan is to have Stratosphir online by the end of the month, although this is only a probable hope. In actuality, in the case of some serious event, this date could be pushed into next year. For now, however, it has been said that the expected release date will be “early December.” The official announcement can be found here: http://www.atmosphir.com/forum/index.php?topic=10978.0

In other news, Arcade09 voting has officially closed. The results are being counted, and you can expect the results to appear in the following weeks. It has not been determined if the results will be announced in a Jumpstart or through a news announcement.

The deadline is fast-approaching for Moderator Applications. If you have not applied yet, and would like to, be sure to act now. The official announcement can be found here: http://www.atmosphir.com/forum/index.php?topic=10933.0

That about wraps things up for today, everyone. Thanks for reading!

Moderator News, Arcade09 Voting, New Quick Look

To begin, the Atmosphirian would like to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving, or Happy Turkeylurkey Day as it has been named on the forums. Safe travels to anyone who is traveling, and have a great time!

There have been a few changes in the placement of moderators in the community. Long-time moderator Landorindustries has stepped down from his position in the Atmosphir board due to personal reasons. Therefore, former Support moderator Wowfunhappy has taken his place. Due to a lack of leadership in the competition section, former Ideas moderator Colinnn has taken over as moderator there. Please support these changes, and give them as much support as possible as they get situated.

For the first time in months, moderator applications have opened up. These applications are open to anyone in the community. From the applicants, the current moderator team will choose roughly five to join their ranks. Submissions are due by December 5th. The official post, with a link to the submission form, can be found here: http://www.atmosphir.com/forum/index.php?topic=10933.0

Voting for Arcade09, the last design challenge before the launch of Project Stratosphir, has been opened. Votes are due by November 27, which can be submitted to Atmosphirvote. Remember to vote for the levels you feel are the best-fitting for the current challenge. Good luck to everyone! Don’t forget that there is a play challenge in effect as well! The official post can be found here: http://www.atmosphir.com/forum/index.php?topic=10925.0

A new Stratosphir Quick Look has been released, featuring a new level named Linden’s Peak. This level, created entirely with the new engine, showcases many of the new features of the game, including scaling/rotation, new bomb-able blocks, moving platforms, and more! Be sure to check it out for yourself here: http://atmosphir.com/news/2009/11/quick-look-lindens-peak/

Well everyone, that’s it for today. Once again, safe travels and thanks for reading!

Platforms 1.11.09, Arcade09 Announced, Atmosphiric

November 1^st has been a busy day for Atmosphir. Early in the morning, the newest Platforms episode launched, totaling 64 minutes of discussion between Dave and Martin. Later in the day, Arcade09 was announced as the November design challenge.

Going in chronological order, the Platforms episode was filled with information. This was an mp3 recording of Dave and Martin discussing Stratosphir progress, answering your questions from Twitter, and discussing their gaming habits. The most important piece of information given regarded Stratosphir’s launch. Expected release date is early December, though a solid date has not been put into place. All of the features that will go with the launch have been implemented. Now Minor Studios is working on polishing up everything and weeding out the bugs.

Unfortunately, not everyone will receive access to the new beta at the same time. Right now, it looks as if roughly 100 people will receive invites every day. From what has been said, it sounds as if the current plan is to send each person a unique code that will activate their account for Stratosphir. It has not been determined how these invites will be distributed.

The rest of the podcast was spent answering questions that were asked by the community through Twitter. There were many interesting questions that both Dave and Martin answered. Given the time and amount of content put into this podcast, it would be much more beneficial to you to take the time to listen. There is no video to accompany this, so feel free to listen while you do something else, such as homework, cleaning, or playing Atmosphir.

Arcade09 was also announced as the November design challenge, which will be the first before Stratosphir’s release. This month the focus is on leaderboard-friendly levels. These levels should have simple gameplay techniques, fast-paced, and has a high replay value. Some levels offered as examples are Lunch Break Mayhem by EliteBlackDragon, Muka Carnivale Game by bigdrip681, and Leaderboard Tower by munchy365. You have until the 23^rd to enter a level, so get moving!

Accompanying this design challenge is a play challenge. Whoever has the best scores on the top three levels will receive atmos prizes. These prizes will match those for the design challenge; 1000 for first, 500 for second, and 250 for third. Since you will not know who the winners are until the challenge is over, it is recommended that you play as many levels as you can. As another rule, designers cannot earn points for the challenge on their own level.

Good luck to both designers and players!

Just another note the Atmosphirian would like to add on behalf of Boberto, one of the Atmosphirian’s biggest fans. He has decided to create his own blog, Atmosphiric. Expect these two blogs to partner up in the future for reasons unknown. While the writing style is slightly different than that of the Atmosphirian, both blogs strive for one thing: To bring you, the player/designer, the most up-to-date news in the Atmosphir community. Boberto’s blog can be found here: http://www.ritger.com/blog/

Thanks for reading everyone, and remember to continue to subscribe to our Twitter and YouTube channel!