Interactive Tutorial hits AE!

Hi guys!

This week has seen some changes to the game that most of you won't be making use of but hopes to expand the community and keep fresh blood flowing into the game. A new interactive tutorial has been added to the game allowing new users a fresh and easy way to learn how to play without having to read through walls of text or get overwhelmed with formulas before they are ready. Of course the original tutorials and guides will still be available but it is hoped that more and more players will opt to use this new interactive option when starting the game.

In other news Wizard is celebrating a few new additions to his family as he discovered with a shock that his new pet hamster was pregnant and a healthy litter of babies were the result. Would any of you be looking for a new pet hamster?

On the AEverywhere front we have been having more excellent and obscure entries. Lets take a look at a couple more shall we?


Our first group entry is by LightSpeed, mindlessdrone and arrogantb**tard. An epic setup indeed, its just a pity you couldn't run your full guild ops from it isn't it? That would be cool...


On the theme of education I took this one. AE101, its only a matter of time really!

That's it for this week guys, till next time, adeus.

Brinca Interview - Part II

Hi guys,

As promised guys here is the second part of our interview with Brinca!


You were recently at the core of the development of Astro Empires new layout. Did you find it challenging reworking a layout to be used by thousands of players?

Actually, the challenging bit was making the new layout engine so versatile that it wouldn't need another rewrite any time soon..

Of course that when designing a layout for a broad audience there are many factors that must be taken into account, such as keeping it compatible with several different browsers, tweaking the balance between what is pretty and what is practical, limiting bandwidth consumption and server load, etc, all the while taking care not to hurt anyone's feelings too much (especially the older, hardcore, fans).

In the past few months we have seen some small 3D images appearing on the games homepages, are these a sign of things to come?

Oh yeah, 3D artwork is definitely going to play a major role in the game's design, not only for ships, but also for many other things, most of which I'm not at the liberty to discuss.. I can say that we have ideas involving CGI that go well beyond anything that anyone has ever done in the browser-based game arena so far.

Development is important in a dynamic browser based game. What sort of cool new projects are you working on now?

I could tell you, but then I would have to shoot you, and who would then write our amazing blog articles..!? ;-) Seriously though, we have planned or already started work on 50+ new features, which will be released throughout this and the next year.

Some of these are mostly eye candy, but there are many actually useful tools, aimed to improve user creativity, sharing and communication.

As we know English is not your first language, how do you coup with working day in and day out in another language?

Well, I'm pretty at ease with English, since it's been a part of my life for a really long time (I attended an English school in Lisbon, have a Scottish nephew, read lots of books in English, regularly surf the Internet which is mostly in English, etc).

Also, in Portugal all movies and series are subtitled, so you get to hear the original language over the subtitle text, which is a great way to learn another language.

How did you get involved in Astro Empires?

I've known Wizard for a while back, but there was only talk of actually becoming involved with AstroEmpires when Xaman suggested it, while the three of us were hanging out at a local coffee shop.

We started off with a simple request to redesign the old layout, but things quickly evolved into dozens of ideas for improvements, features and campaigns, which eventually led to the new Layout Engine and DeepSpace skins (oddly enough, we never did get the redesign of the old layout done). With the rate of creativity pouring in every day, we have enough to keep our team busy for the next few decades..

Is there anything else you would like to pass onto our readers?

There are many exciting things to come, so stay tuned and check the site/blog regularly. We hope you'll have as much fun with these features as we're having developing them. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on the forum, since feedback is always welcomed (and yes, developers do actually read it).

Thats everything guys, catch you Friday!

Brinca Interview - Part I

Hi guys!

As some of you might have noticed Wizard this week announced the launch of Graphics Pack development kit. Any of you who have taken a hand at making your own graphics pack for AE you will know just how fidgety they can be and how difficult it can be to get your head around it. Well this new kit aims to make the process simple enough for anyone in the hope of allowing everyone to get involved and show they're own vision for Astro Empires! Details are on the forums.

We have decided to take this opportunity to interview the chief designer of the new game layout and visual guru of Astro Empires, Brinca!



Tell us a little about yourself. Who is Brinca?

I'm a portuguese designer/programmer with over 20 years of experience in the field, 10 of which working as a professional. I started programming at age 9, when I got my first ZX Spectrum 48K computer, and found that I liked making games more than actually playing them.. :)

I consider myself to be a sorta-geeky-but-not-quite, easy going workaholic.

Could you give us an idea of what you do as part of the Astro Empires team.

Although my primary skill is programming, I'm currently in charge of developing the design and other visual features of the site. I still do some programming (the new layout engine, flash/js scripts, etc), but nothing to do directly with game play or game mechanics. I also work as a general and creative consultant, since I do have a substantial amount of knowledge/experience in the Internet and Gaming industries.

Graphics packs are a core element of user content for the game, what do you feel we should do to encourage users to use and develop them?

A big part of our current strategy is to grow a wider and tighter community, getting more people involved with the game, but in more aspects than just playing. To this end we're currently building several tools to allow people not only to create their own customized content, but also to easily share it with their friends and online community.

A new Graphic Pack kit has just been released, loaded with many useful tools, documentation and examples, that will make Pack customization a breeze. An online repository of user-submitted Graphic Packs is being setup on our new community portal, which will allow users to download, comment and rank other user's packs. Contests and other competitions are about to be launched, and we're preparing a serious marketing campaign targeted towards design-related sites, hopefully to spark some interest from the design community.

We also think that as word of the new layout spreads, we'll attract the attention of more designers, who perhaps didn't like the limited text-only looks of the previous layout, but are now able to use the new layout engine to develop cool artwork for the game (which is a nice opportunity to expose their skills to thousands of users).

As for your part in this, you can give the new kit a spin and share your creations online through the repository, and/or spread the word with your friends, on your site, blog, facebook, etc

Do you have any phobia's? Perhaps the fear that nobody would like your new layout? ;-)

Well, I'm no stranger to failure, so I'm quite at ease with people's criticism, as long as it's constructive.. I'd say my biggest fear is overlooking some small detail in the production phase, that would later prove to be a pain to fix once deployed.. yes, having one of your blunders negatively affect the gaming experience of thousands of players probably qualifies as a programmer's worst nightmare.

We know that Xaman and Wizard have both played the game in the past, however have you ever given it a shot as a newer member of the team?

I definitely play the game, although mainly as an observer as I try not to influence things too much. If you have an active role in the game's development, I think it's mandatory that you play it yourself, since that is one of the best ways to test out the features, while scooping unfiltered feedback from the players themselves.

It's also great fun to watch people chatting in the forum about something you were a part of.. :)

What would be your perfect job? And no you can't say working for AE, that would be a cop-out :P

Sorry, but I do have my perfect job already.. :) I'm fortunately one of those lucky bastards that has ever known what he wanted to do, and is doing exactly what he always dreamed of doing.. ;)

Do you have any pets? If not what animal would you like as a pet?

I don't have any pets at the moment, but when living with my parents we always had plenty of cats and dogs around. The only pet I'm looking forward to right now is my baby daughter, due in the next few weeks.. :)

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We'll conclude our interview with Brinca early next week so watch this space. Catch you then ;-)

Hei Astro Empires

Hi guys,

Today saw Astro Empires open its doors to the Finnish people as we launch Finnish as an official Astro Empires language. Although Finnish has a relatively small speakership of 6 million we already know the Finnish Astro Empires players can punch above their weight and hope more excellent players will now have the ability to join the community.

At this point I would like to personally thank Kreivi and Niklas for their hard work translating Finnish. Without the hard work on players like them and the dozens of others working on AE's translation none of this would be possible. Keep up the good work guys!


On the AE Everywhere front we are coming down with excellent entries and we would love to see more! Keep them coming guys! Send entries to community@astroempires.com, guidelines can be found on the forums. Here are a few more entries to take inspiration from ;-)


We have another entry from Catfud, using AE as he ace's through the Fire and the Flames in Guitar Hero III.



Sheena has sent us an entry which answers everyone's question of how two Delta airlines pilots missed their airport ^^

That's everything for this week guys, till then, adeus.

Spotlight on AE Everywhere

Hi guys!

Well another week has passed and here we are with our latest news digest blog. In game news this week Wizard announced a new ‘Spotlight’ feature which will highlight non-game issues of note. Competitions, recruitment and events to name a few, oh and that’s not including a certain AE blog that I hear is quite good. *cough* What? :-P Get the details on the forums.

The more eagle eyed of you will have noticed the announcement of AE’s new contest on the blogs this week. The less eagle eyed will have seen it in the oh so subtle global announcement on the forums ;-) AE Everywhere is a contest encouraging AE players everywhere to take snapshots of themselves or others dealing with AE in an extreme or unusual way. Details are on the forums. We’ve already received a few excellent entries including Catfud and his attempts to teach his pet goat to play AE.


In other news since its Halloween tomorrow night Ikari will be heading out with friends clad in the costume of ‘Friend’ from ‘Naoki Urasawa’s’ 20th century boys. Pictures of him in costume will not be posted ^^

That’s us for this week guys, till next time, adeus.

Contest: Astro Empires Everywhere!

Hi guys!

Today we're launching a new contest for all Astro Empires to get involved in. A picture can say a thousand words, and we want yours to say twice as many ;-) First place will score a free years upgrade with second and third place taking six and three month upgrades respectively. So what excuse do you have to not get involved?!

Take an image of yourself or friend playing AE in an unusual or extreme way! Do you use 3 computers at once? Have you mapped out an entirely galaxy on printed sheets and posted them about your room? Have you ever accessed in a hospital? On your company fishing trip? After sneaking away from a date with your girlfriend? We want to see them and reward the best and most imaginative ones.

Here is an example shot to perhaps inspire you!


Some guidelines:
* Photos should demonstrate extreme or unusual play or fandom of AE
* Entries are to be sent to 'community@astroempires.com'
* Please include 'AE Everywhere' in your subject line
* Photoshop is allowed as long as a real photograph is at its core
* Multiple entries are allowed, however you can only win once!
* A selection of the best entries will be published on the blog
* Please include your username and server with your entry

* The best entries will be judged and selected by a panel of admins
* Entries close on December 31st
* The results will be announced in early January

Bonjour Astro Empires!

Hi guys!

This week has seen the launch Astro Empires 4th official language, French! We would like to thank Techloup, PhDCus, Zeus and Babel for all the work they have put into making this launch possible. Existing French players can now play AE in their native tongue and opens up the game to literally millions of new players.


To play the game in French you need to go to your accounts page, display, and change your language to French. I've played AE so long I can actually play in a language I don't know a word in... how about you? ;)

Till next time guys, adeus.