New Blood at AE HQ!

Hi guys!

This week has been exciting at AE HQ where the team has been expanded once again. Our latest developer, Helder, will be assisting Luis with 3D modelling for the new ship images as well as other further reaching images and game promotional material.

We hope this will be the start of many new 3D features and developments in the game; watch this space for the inevitable interview and sneak peaks at his work before anyone else in the AE-verse!

In game news Wizard launched the games new tour to allow new users to get a peak at what the game will be like for them when they sign up. Why not have a look yourself?

That's all for this week guys till next time, Adeus.

AE Everywhere Omnibus

Hi guys,

As promised here is our final omnibus edition of AE Everywhere where we will show you all the entries we received for AE Everywhere. Enjoy!

Thanks to Catfud for these entries

Thanks to Mr.Craaazy for this entry

Thanks to Vile and Zyi for these entries

Thanks to Xeno for this entry

AE: New ship Images released!

Hi guys,

This week we have something special for you. ;-)

I have taken an freely on display picture from AE HQ, granted it was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'. *shifty*

Kudos to those who get the reference!




These new pictures are early renders of our ship images for the game due later this year. I must say they have been based on works in progress and the final versions of the ship images will likely be quite a bit different. These images were put together for the new game tour which should be launched in the next few weeks.

In game news, Wizard has announced that the damage caused by wormholes is to be removed to encourage use of this rarely utilised feature. Reactions have been mixed over on the forums, why not join the debate yourself?

In other news Wizard has passed me a picture of his families latest additions, aren't they cute?


That's all for this week guys, see you Monday for the final part of our AE Everywhere Omnibus! Adeus!

AE Everywhere Omnibus

Hi guys,

As promised here is our second omnibus edition of AE Everywhere where we will show you all the entries we received for AE Everywhere. The final edition will be released next Monday, do enjoy!

Thanks to Catfud for these entries

Thanks to Lord Ted for this entry

Thanks to LightSpeed and mindlessdrone for these entries

Thanks to Tandrew for this entry

Thanks to Mr.Craaazy for this entry

Thanks to SirLagz for this entry

Thanks to sheenay for this entry

Thanks to myboycrais99 for this entry

AE Layout 2.0

Hi guys!

This week we're going to take a look back to balance all this forward looking we've been doing of late. This week Daniel Brinca, the chief designer behind AE's new layout will give us a short walk through of his work and its development. Enjoy!


Although many hardcore gamers would surely disagree, AstroEmpires was badly in need of a new redesign, since there was hardly any improvement in the graphics department since the game started. Most of us would agree that graphics are secondary to a strategy game, but I'm sure no one can deny that they do make the game more enjoyable, at least for the majority of players.

I was thus commissioned to improve the game graphics design by building a new skin which, at this point, was still supposed to be based on the legacy layout engine (now dubbed "v0"). A Layout Engine is used to render the html structure of a page, thus separating content from appearance, allowing the same content to be delivered in more than one way or medium. After wrangling with the old crampy system for a while, we reached the conclusion that it would be better to build a whole new layout engine from scratch.



This time however, we would focus on versatility and freedom of choice for the designer, creating a system sturdy enough to withstand the test of time. Anticipating all the hate mail we would surely receive from hardcore gamers/speed freaks, but also from mobile users and people on slow connections, we very quickly realized that there were in fact needed two separate layout engines: one optimized for speed of loading and low bandwidth consumption (dubbed "v1"). and another with all the bell's n' whistles and eye candy (dubbed "v2").

About four months later, the new layout engines were finally released to the public, along with three built-in skins: DeepSpace (using v2), DeepSpace Opaque (also v2) and DeepSpace Minimal (using v1). The DeepSpace theme (Fig. 1) was pretty much set from the start and hasn't changed much since the first concept (Fig. 2) , since it was decided early on that we should retain a similar look and feel to the original layout (Fig. 3). This layout also brought many enhancements useful for gameplay (such has different button styles, support for left-to-right languages, feedback boxes, row highlighting, better ticker, etc).


The home page has seen some more changes from it's first concept (Fig. 4), mainly with the advent of Flash animations, which gives some gloss to the site (more Flash eye candy, and some actually useful features, coming soon ;)).

We have planned many graphic enhancements and features to this awesome game, and our team is working furiously round the clock to get them ready for you. We have set in motion a revolution of which you have seen but the first early steps, so keep tuned! :)

Daniel Brinca
AE Graphics Department

AE Everywhere Omnibus

Hi guys,

As promised here is our first omnibus edition of AE Everywhere where we will show you all the entries we received for AE Everywhere. The next edition will be released next Monday, do enjoy!

Thanks to ArmyofHell for this entry



Thanks to Misaka Mikoto for this entry

Thanks to Catfud for these entries

Thanks to EvilWabbit for this entry

Thanks to Kathro for this entry

Thanks to Lincoln Burrows for this entry

AE takes the gold!

Hi guys!

This week saw the results released in the largest contest this side of the internet, but we'll get onto AE Everywhere later ;-) The results for BBGsite.com's Best Browser Games of the Year 2009 have been released and AE has struck gold. We would like to thank everyone who voted for us and made it possible for us to come out as high as we did in the awards. Thanks to your effort we won 1st place in 'Most Popular' and 3rd place in 'Favorite Strategy Game'.


This week also saw the announcement of the winners of our AE Everywhere contest. Full details are on the forums, or just look down so I won't repeat everything here. Regardless I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who entered once more and say that starting Monday I will start publishing all the entries we received so keep your eyes on the blog!

This week has also seen news away from the announcement boards, something you might have missed but we decided deserved some greater coverage. Over on the Helion boards forum users Miekka and Lu Bu announced their engagement. They met through AE and now plan to tie the knot in the summer. On behalf of the whole AE team we wish them well and many happy returns. Though I expect the first child to be called Ikari ;-)

That's all for this week guys, catch you Monday!

[Please note: Before I get messages telling me that there are no 'sides' to the internet, I know this, it was for comic effect you. Like this message]