After taking a month off due to the unfortunate company layoffs, KingsIsle's fan-favorite monthly live stream event, KI Live, made an exciting comeback last Friday. Joining Community Manager, Tom Purdue (Dworgyn in Wizard101 and One-Eyed Jack in Pirate101), was his brand new co-host, Leah Ruben (Professor Falmea), who is the Senior Producer of MMO Content. Together they delved into various game highlights, played alongside some Wizard101 and Pirate101 players, and hinted at a few exciting things that are going to make an appearance soon.
Here's a summary of the highlights in case you missed it:
Wizard101
At the beginning of the live stream, players were given the code "slothpowa" which granted a Slowpoke Sloth rental mount in both Wizard101 and Pirate101. The sloths then paraded around Wizard City and what a spectacle it was. I had never seen so many sloths in one place before!
In addition to organizing the sloth parade, Dworgyn and Professor Falmea also supplied a couple teases for what's to come ... the first being a brand new member benefit! The two co-hosts didn't get very specific, but they did say that the mysterious new member benefit will probably be revealed by the end of this month.
Also on the horizon is a new bundle. While Dworgyn and Professor Falmea didn't mention the upcoming bundle by name, some players have already found the $39 Cuckoo Clock Gauntlet on select Target shelves. When asked why some bundles can be bought before they are officially announced, Dworgyn and Professor Falmea gave a little insight into the bundle process. It seems official bundle announcements are only made once the company is reasonably certain that the cards can be found in most participating stores. KingsIsle doesn't want their players traveling a long way only to find that the bundle they were after is not available yet. When in doubt, call the store you plan on visiting in advance to double check that what you're looking for is there. The Cuckoo Clock Gauntlet which is modeled after Pirate101's Valencia will probably have an official announcement sometime very soon.
Last but certainly not least; be on the lookout for a summer update hitting the test realm. Two things that are predicted to come with this update are new friend list functions and a new skeleton key boss designed by Make-a-Wish visitor, Brandon.
- Dworgyn accidentally showed off a brand new options tab when testing the KI Live broadcast software the day before. The new tab in question had a "Friend Notifications" option. I wonder what that could be?
- The soon to come skeleton key boss was featured in a clip during the live stream. Brandon designed the entire battle so it should be interesting to see what he came up with. Just from the small glimpse we've already seen, it appears the Dragonspyre boss has a few cheats up his sleeve! Bring on the cheat testing.
Pirate101
Supreme Commander Kane himself made his KI Live debut to help celebrate the release of Valencia Part Two. As a result of recent events, Kane now apparently works alongside his fellow Armada elites in the QA department. Despite his menacing look, I think Kane is secretly a softie. Maybe he could even give me a chiropractor recommendation? By the way, thumbs up to everyone who worked on that cosplay! It was on point!
Even though Decius Duelmaster wasn't present for the live stream, he did throw Pirate101 players a bone from afar. About 30 minutes into the stream, Dworgyn held up what looked to be a morphing "cheat sheet" which might help players unlock some undiscovered hybrids. Have any ideas?
Mobile Games
The reduction of force at KingsIsle resulted in numerous unreleased mobile games being cut. All of the cancelled games were still in the initial stages, so what they were will forever remain a mystery. AlphaCat (which is currently soft launched in Canada) and EverClicker (which was previewed at SXSW) are still set to launch sometime in the future. Speaking of future mobile games, did you catch that quick sneak peek of KingsIsle's newest mobile game in the new KI Live intro? After the live stream ended, I went back and paused the show to get a better look at it. Jigsaw puzzles ... hmm.
KI Live wasn't the same without Leala and #JuliaFromKI, but I'm happy to see it back. I'm confident Tom and Leah will be able to keep the KI Live train chugging along. And as long as they do, I'll happily join them for the ride.
*You can watch the full recorded live stream here.*
