Get your Frigost beta key now!

Frigost is an entire new continent to explore in the world called Dofus. Discover new monsters, new quests to complete, battle through new dungeons.. Want to give that a try?

If you don’t have a frigost beta key, then here is your chance! It’s really simple:

1) Register yourself on the forums right here

2) Make a post in the official topic

3) Receive your beta key by a PM.

Have fun! Cya at Dofus!

Islands Of Wakfu Preview

At the Ankama conference #5 we’ve seen a lot of projects Ankama Studios is working on; one of these projects  is called Islands of Wakfu. It’s a 1-2 Player game for Live-Arcade on the Xbox 360. The release date  is unknown since Microsoft only releases a Live-Arcade game once a week. Ankama studios will have to wait patiently for their turn.

Story:

The game takes 10.000 years before the happenings of Dofus. The game starts when a purple clouded meteor crashes into an egg shaped planet. On this planet the flourishing race is the Elliatrop (The race of the hero in the Wakfu animations). In the story of this game it’s revealed what’s in the Dofus eggs; an Elliatrop child and a sibling dragon. The purple clouds form the crashed meteor influence the flora and fauna of this planet, and peaceful animals turn into vicious beasts; Blooming flowers turn into withered plants. The planet is changing. In the story a few things will be revealed. How the gods of twelve and their respective races are born and How the Elliatrop race gets fully extinct except one life Dofus ; the main hero of the Wakfu series. Read more

Slage: Ankama’s New Hack ‘n Slash Preview

About a week before Ankama Convention #5, Ankama announced they are developing a hack ‘n slash game called Slage. On the convention itself we got our first look at the game: It will be an online multiplayer game for the PC, Ankama’s first ever game in full 3D! The style is the usual colorful cartoony style we know Ankama is good at, with a touch of Diablo.

The game can be played in teams of max four players. As you control one of twelve classes (the familiar Dofus classes), you can fight your way through randomly generated dungeons. Special savepoints, called Phoenix rooms, are in place to regroup and change spells if you need to. Bosses are well-known monsters from Dofus as well, we got to see a pretty neat looking moowolf. This moowolf was promised to be one of the smallest bosses, so I think we can expect a few quite epic fights. Read more

Gamasutra Interview: Ankama Talks Dofus, Animation, Subscribers

by Brandon Sheffield

French indie MMO Dofus began when some web developers got together to make a game. With its charming graphical style and free to play area (a small percentage of the full game), Dofus has gained favor with players and critics, propelling the company from a small indie to a larger player.

Ankama was formed in 2001 by Camille Chafer, Emmanuel Darras, and Anthony Roux, and has since grown stealthily to 400 employees, including a new studio in Japan, focusing on animation and manga extensions of the company’s properties. The original game was done entirely in Flash, well before it became a popular platform for games.

As the company rolls out Dofus 2.0 and a new game called Wakfu, we spoke with CTO Camille Chafer and international marketing manager Cedric Gerard about Ankama’s past and future, including the new animation studio, the ups and downs of working in Flash, and player/subscriber numbers.

Read more

Ankama unleashes a new Wakfu trailer!

Cool new trailer from our French developers Ankama Studio’s

(and for the people who dont know Wakfu:

Wakfu is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online game) in which players dive into epic adventures with thousands of other gamers from around the world. Armed with weapons and magic, they must carve a path through a cruel, living world either through battle or through politics in a quest to gain control of the islands of Wakfu.

For the first time in an online game, the plants and animals which inhabit the world will all intereact to form a huge, worldwide ecosystem! Players can either protect the natural habitat or use it for profit… In Wakfu, even total extinction is possible.)

Gamescom: Ankama part 2

Well, Ankama gave us the oppurtunity to answer some of the dofus-community questions. Have fun reading!!!

1) Ankama is now putting a lot of effort into “class balancing”, which raises a lot of concern from players whose builds get heavily modified. Why is 1vs1 PvP the main source for the balancing? Ankama has long emphesized team play (dungeons, prospecting locks, etc), so shouldn’t the usefullness of classes in all sorts of fights, such as group PvM and team PvP, be considered? Read more

Gamescom: Ankama part 1

As far as I’m being told, at the E3 in 2004, Ankama had an extremely small stand in the very back of the expo. Located in France the company had 50 employees and were working on an MMORPG called Dofus. NiSuTe felt some kind of connection with the company and in the next five years we remained close contact. I am a Dofus player myself. Dofus keeps growing and growing and growing. But seeing this enormous stand of 200 square meters went beyond my wildest dreams. The company has almost 450 employees now and keeps getting bigger and bigger. Read more

Dofus: inter-server tournament that will whip up the crowds!

DOFUS’ first inter-server tournament throws open its doors and allows players from different DOFUS communities to face off against each other.

AN INTER-SERVER TOURNAMENT
The World of Twelve’s first inter-server tournament allows the best characters of all servers and all classes to face off against each other in epic combat. After a tough selection process based on two challenges (one of speed, the other of character), no less than 353 characters are about to challenge each other, much to the delight of the on-looking crowds! At the moment they are getting together into groups of 3 characters and will battle other teams during four weeks of exciting combat. At the end of these 4 weeks, the 64 best teams will face each other once more, until there is only one left. The winning team will then collect their laurel wreaths and several rewards, for themselves and for their server.

EVERYONE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE EACH OTHER FOR VICTORY
During the tournament, community challenges (in the form of riddles to solve, or groups of monsters to decimate, for example) will be organised in order to allow all players, whatever their level, to win points for their server. Each one will be able to show their team spirit by supporting their champions and fighting for their server to win the day!

MAKING EVENTS MORE EXCITING AND DYNAMIC
As a tournament, Goultarminator unites players for the same cause, but it also corresponds to the DOFUS team’s desire to make events more exciting and dynamic.
Sylfaen, DOFUS Community manager, explains: “Goultarminator is the start of a new, exciting way of doing things for DOFUS’ Community manager team. The objective is simple: to strengthen the links within communities through competition. The event will allow the team to test new tools which will help us make this kind of event a regular thing.”

A TOURNAMENT ORGANISED BY THE TERRIBLE GOULTARD THE BARBARIAN
Following the appearance of a mysterious Zaap (teleportation gate) in the Treechnid Forest, terrible things have hit the World of Twelve, arousing anger in the local flora and fauna … but also spreading panic amongst the inhabitants of Amakna. The mystery was solved with the arrival of a letter from Goultard the Barbarian announcing a tournament allowing characters from each class and each server to face off against each other in teams in a unique event…

So let it be known! Goultarminator is just the beginning of a series of tournaments, each promising to be more amazing than the last!

Schedule
Monday 3 August: Start of the tournament.
Saturday 29 August: Final.

Find out more about Goultarminator here.
The rules of the tournament are available here.

Note: a video of the tournament’s best moments will be put online on the official website.

NiSuTe Report : Ankama Convention 3

By: Enguerand Aubertin

Ankama held its 3rd convention at Lille on the 20th-20st December.
20,000 fans were expecting: this goal was achieved on the first day only!
I said “fans”, cos a convention is for fans and only fans. I mean, don’t expect anything for the others: if you’re not a fan, you will get bored in a few minutes. But for fans, it’s something not to miss!

The convention was held at the “Grand Palais”, in the London Hall (~15 000 m2).
Why going there? There was everything you needed to know and see about Ankama:

*Conferences with Ankama game creators
*Showcasing of Wakfu, Dofus 2.0, Dofus Pocket and Dofus-Arena Pocket
*The Dofus-Arena League Final
*“Café Salé” Exposition, with drawings especially created for this convention
*All of the Ankama comics (including Dofus Tome 10)
*The Ankama shop: the place to buy all sorts of goodies and comics from Ankama, and many things sold out on Sunday!
*Dedication sessions
*There was also a Wrestling show, but on Saturday evening only (too bad we missed it!)

It was on a Sunday morning, around 10:00 AM. I was a little late (the Convention started at 10:00 but my train arrived only at that time, and it wasn’t very closed to the “Grand Palais”).
I needed to find Maus and Maikel too (who kindly came along for a great day!).

At the entrance, Florence Di Ruocco (in charge of Ankama Communication, see the photo) kindly welcomed us and gave us the passes for the Convention. No access to the show without them, and the security staff was very strict on every detail!

When entering the Hall, a big Dofus monster (holding a Dofus ) stood just in front of us, so no mistake: it is the right place for fans! There was an inflatable castle on the right, cos the Convention also introduced Vampyro (a Vampire from Dofus and Wakfu)

*Inside, you could see the Wakfu animated series (but since we weren’t there for that, we didn’t waste time for that).

We first go and see Dofus 2.0: something like +100 PCs were available for visitors to play the upcoming Dofus 2.0 with updated graphics (in a Wakfu style). In about 15 minutes, you could make your own impression on this new version. Many people were always complaining about the new character design, but bugs were fixed and the game ran perfectly. Dofus 2.0 is set for a Summer release, so don’t be too much impatient!

Wakfu TCG (the card game ) was tested there, so we moved to check it out .
This convention was the occasion to play the game and see what rules are good/bad, have to be changed or removed… It was like a sort of beta test, and even if this game is to be released this year, they still have to work hard on it.
We interviewed someone from the Wakfu TCG team and we learned this card game has no relationship with the previous one (if you remember, we spoke about a card game from Dofus long ago), that it targets children but is still too much complex for them and that a video game (to play the card game online) will be launched along with the card game. The team in charge of it is composed of fans of card games but they didn’t try to copy existing games. Despite it is hard to bring fresh ideas, they try their best and we wish us good luck. Cards look great and the game seems promising.

We also met Alix Lepinay (in charge of Ankama communication for books and comics only).
He told us Ankama was trying to translate all of their books and comics for an international release this year! Keep fingers crossed cos it will be a very hard and long work! (for instance, the Dofus comic is filled with French word plays that won’t be easy to translate).

There’s already one publication in both French and English: Diary of Inhuman Species but what really impressed us was Mutafukaz 0: a comic created by Run, printed like a old book and drawned in the style
of the old US comics! Pretty cool! It also includes 3D-glasses: it really rocks!

Enguy : Succès Story of Ankama & Dofus

By: Enguerrand Aubertin

Ankama was at this year Japan Expo. Since we first meet them (only Thomas Bahon and Emmanuel Darras) at last year E3, the Ankama grew very quickly. They were first a small studio developing small (but quite good) PC games. And so came Dofus.

From video game to animation
Dofus is a 2D tactical RPG in Flash. Eveyrbody thought it would be a flop, since nobody ever created a major hit in flash! But they all underestimated the power of Ankama. Their teams are really good at everything: very skilled game designers, graphists, very good story boarders and so on. Dofus isn’t impressive at all graphically or technically speaking. But it’s very well done, with a great story mixing heroic fantasy, comic and manga, with references to many famous video games, mangas and comics (Mario, Splinter Cell, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Dragon Ball, Hunter X Hunter, SquareSponge Bob…). But on top of everything, what makes Dofus so different is its universe, is this charming “French Touch” Ankama masters! That’s why fans are so crazy about Dofus!

Ankama booth

Last year E3 (note: the last E3 as a huge gaming show!) is very far behind. Now Ankama can come and get a real booth. They are not hidden in a corner anymore, and they really deserve it!
Ankama booth was the 2nd largest one at the Japan Expo (only Nintendo had a bigger one, but not that much bigger). You could play games, buy derivatives products (such as badges, Dofus the Manga Tome 6 in avant-premiere, Dofus Artbook 3, Pandala, Mutafukaz…), get your purchases dedicated by a dozen of skilled and cool drawers (poor Kuri I annoyed once again!!! but I like the others too!). 50 persons from Ankama were here only to please fans, included a dozen of drawers only for all the dedication sessions! Wakfu was at the show too, but it will be another article! There were also several Ankama events during the show.
Ankama booth included the Ankama Shop, Ankama Edition and the latest one: Ankama Animations.

From video games to animation

Well, under the pressure of fans who always want new games and derivative products, Ankama showcased its new product: “Goultard the barbarian”*. Goultard is a (new?) character of the Dofus manga, sometimes powerful sometimes quite weak, sometimes nice or very evil! A very good character for this! But what happened to him? What made him become so strange? There are some hints in the 6th tome of the Dofus manga, but Ankama had the very good idea to create a ~15 minute movie!

Here’s an extract:

This movie is really incredible with amazing graphics. I also saw Blue Dragon (the anime) at the Japan Expo and trust me, even if Blue Dragon is beautiful, Goultard is even better! And Ankama didn’t unveil the final product: it can improve! If it’s a hit, there will be several episode broadcasted on a famous French Channel! (TF1 or France 3? I really don’t know but we will soon see 26’ episodes!). Even if you read the tome 6, you’d better see this movie, it’s a must-seen!
Here are some pics for you, who couldn’t be at this event:

The pressure of fans!
We can’t deny Ankama is doing its best to please fans. And fans are always behind Ankama!
During this event, hundreds of fans came only to see what’s new and to buy new products (just have a look at the photos to see how crowded it was!). The pressure is high, but it turned Ankama into a big studio, and Ankama can get bigger! It just depends on fans! Will they support Goultard? Will they play Wakfu? Will they read all the books? What we can actually say is it works, but will it last? Fan base is growing fast both in France and in the rest of the world. But Ankama grew very quickly so it’s always hard for a company to become so successful within 1 year only! Let’s hope all their upcoming games, books and movies will be hits, they really deserve it!

Ankama has several good surprises for everyone, and trust me it’s really great so I can only advise you to try their games and read their books, you’ll find something for you! Ankama creations can fit everyone, so don’t miss them! And they are all so fresh. I think that’s the key element of their success, but that’s just my opinion.

And I’d like to thank Thomas, Emmanuel, Kuri, Lichen, Alix and Ray!!!

For further information, please check Ankama, or come and see the other articles related to Ankama on NiSuTe
*Translation of the original French title “Goultard le barbare”.

Next Page »