First off I’d like to apologize for how delayed this blog post is. I recently took a trip to Florida to see my family and I haven’t had very great access to the game itself. I can stay up to date with the community though, so I am moderating the forums as much as I can but I have not been able to write any editorial staff reviews lately.

My life aside, Atmosphir received arguably one of the biggest new features in its history: teleporters. These simple yet amazing devices allow designers to place objects within their levels that can transport players instantly to other portions of a level. Below is a screenshot (courtesy of Dave Werner) of the new teleportation design props.

Like I said in the first paragraph: I’m sorry this is so delayed. Teleporters along with new star shoes that make stars when you walk around a level came in update 0.9.8.2 and Atmoball came in the earlier update 0.9.8. Sorry this is so out of order!

The star shoes sell for 100 Atmos each in the character marketplace and are pretty cool. I don’t like to wear them though because they may give away my position in multiplayer and I like to stay stealth-like. Atmoball is very fun too. I played my first game and won 26-1 I believe. Minor Studios really knows how to make multiplayer modes and I can’t wait to see what they implement next.

Have fun everyone! Stay posted here at Atmosphiric!

Above is a video Dave exported to YouTube. It shows off the features of the upcoming Atmosphir game mode: Atmoball.

Late yesterday Dave announced the new moderators that would be joining our moderator team. There are three:

Boss0Alex [Teams]
Prototype [Support]
KaitouKid [Ideas]

Congratulations you three! It’s going to be great having the extra help in the ideas section and throughout the forums. If you didn’t get picked, don’t be discouraged–it was a tough choice. We had to pick 3 people out of 62 applications.

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Also late yesterday, Dave left us some screenshots of an upcoming new game mode in Atmosphir: Atmoball! Below are the two screenshots he showed us in the thread.

Very little else was said about the matter, but I’ll keep you guys posted on what does come up.

As promised, I updated the header of the site when I got my Atmos. I tried to keep it as true to the original as possible by taking the picture with almost an identical character and in the same level. The new header also marks the time when I will be much, much more active. As school finally comes to a close, I can sit down and blog more. I have much more free time now as we only have a week or so left in the school year.

My phone broke about a week ago too, and to replace it I ordered a HTC Droid Incredible. I’m using an unlimited data plan with the phone, so with 3G internet on the go I’ll be able to update Atmosphiric whenever anything of importance within the Atmosphir community occurs. So stay posted!

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Atmosphir has been in a private beta stage for almost two years now (more like a year and a half). On June 7th that all changed. A week ago the Minor Studios team launched Atmosphir to the public–not as a finished product, but still as a beta. New users have been frequently posting on the forums and the kind members of our community have been welcoming them all.

But I must warn everyone on the forums now: As the community grows, the moderator team will be much stricter. It’s a great deal of work sending out warnings to every person who spams the forums, so temporary bans may become quite common. Now, don’t take my word for it, but the team has been discussing things of this nature and I just thought I would warn all readers. Make sure you behave your best on the forums, because we will not tolerate spamming and/or flaming.

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The following is a quote of Dave’s post announcing the next design challenge, Story10. The forum post can be found here.

“The next design challenge is Story10.

If you are an old-school member, you remember Atmosphir before info stickers. These wonderful simple little tools have added much-needed storytelling into the game, and it’s now hard to imagine them not being there. Yes, eventually NPCs and dialogue will take that to the next level, but it’s actually pretty impressive what users are already doing with multi-level adventures, secret messages, hints, and enemy dialogue.

In Story10, we’re looking for the best story-driven level – the only requirement is that you tell a compelling story of some sorts using info stickers, and preferably, the environment and gameplay. Some ideas to get you started:

+ A narrative-based adventure in one of the many worlds of Cirrus
+ A mystery level where info stickers provide clues to solving a bigger crime
+ A treasure hunt where there clues to hidden stashes of treasures
+ A trivia level where you have to know the answers to questions to proceed (pick the right door)
+ Having interesting characters/enemies who talk with you
+ An interactive story you watch from afar, like being in a theater
+ An Atmosphir recreation of a famous book, movie, TV show, video game, or song

Make sure to include [Story10] as one word in the title of your level to enter. The deadline is Thursday, July 1.

As usual, the top 3 levels as voted by the community will win atmos. But instead of a random winner this time, now that we’re live, the designer who has the level with the most number of plays by midnight PST on July 8 will get an Atmosphir tee-shirt – so tell all your friends to play your level!

Good luck!”

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That’s it on Atmosphir news! Make sure to subscribe to us on Twitter at @Atmosphiric for all the latest Atmosphir updates and check the site everyday because I’m going to much more active over the summer and hopefully in high school.

Dave just announced today that enemy characters called “Bungees” will be added to the game in an up-and-coming update. He compared them to Goombas (for those who play Mario), saying that they will be less intimidating for younger users and will be much easier to defeat.

The plan is for these enemies to have customizable skin, so that they fit with the mood of the level. Colors range anywhere from blue to yellow. I personally think these great new enemies will make a wonderful addition to my levels and I can’t wait for them to implemented into Atmosphir.

Today we delve into the depths of the dangerous and unstable world of multiplayer. Why do I say dangerous? Because players like daimon, KaituoKid, and I love to kick some butt. And why would I say unstable? Because connections can time out at any second, and objects like lasers may be left suspended in mid-air. I’d like to give every person reading this guide the best chance of winning a multiplayer match as well as the best experience while playing in one. It’s a short guide instructing you on the basics of what items are best for what circumstances, and what kinds of weapons are the best to use. It will also touch upon the optimal situations when First-Person and Third-Person views should be used.

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As of now, only about two thirds of all the weapons are available in Stratosphir. Below is a list of which weapons do the most damage at the moment. This is how the information stands now, and it will likely change quite soon. The best weapons in the game are the short sword and the pulse sword. Each only take three hits to knock someone out.

The best way to take a weapon better than your is to block, and then quickly hit the opponent while they’re stunned, or to jump on their head.

• Scimitar (Anubis Sword) – 6 hits
• Wooden Sword (default) – 5 hits
• Fists – 10 hits
• Pulse Sword – 3 hits
• Short Sword – 3 hits
• Bounce Hammer – 5 hits (I’m pretty sure, I honestly can’t remember)
• Head-bouncing – 3 hits
• Lasers – 4 hits
• Bombs – 2-4 hits depending on the accuracy of the shot

Hopefully soon, Minor Studios will effectively balance out weapons, because using my Scimitar is just annoying.

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In Atmosphir, there are many different preferences that you can set to get the optimal play experience. For me, I like to turn the auto-camera off, the auto-aim on, the First-Person off, and auto-block on. I haven’t found exactly what auto-block does, but it hasn’t seemed to effect me in any way. As for the other preferences, read below the find what time is the best to use them.

Auto-Camera. So far, I have not found any benefits of auto-camera. It just get’s annoying with the camera resisting the way I want it to be facing. If I were you, I would leave this option permanently off.

Auto-Aim. There are a lot of players who hate auto-aim simply because it helps you with your shooting, and they say it is cheap in multiplayer matches. I leave this preference on, because otherwise is almost impossible to hit people. It’s not very great, but it should be enabled all the time if you want the best chance of getting a KO. If you think you’re good enough, turn it off, and compare how many KO’s you get. I’m certain auto-aim will help you significantly.

First-Person. First-person shooting view is best used in an instance where you are 10-15 blocks away from your opponent. It is too hard to see during close combat, and when you are a large amount of blocks away from someone, it is very inaccurate. I’ve chosen to leave this preference off simply because there are more situations where I don’t need it than situations where I do need it.

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Hopefully I’ll see all you readers in a multiplayer session soon, and good luck! I hope this guide helped you to improve your playing skills, and that you enjoyed reading. Happy multiplayer-ing!

Munchy365 has made quite a name for himself over the past year or so by creating some of the most awarded levels in Atmosphir history. I received a PM from him yesterday asking if I would be able to help him test a new Co-op level he’s working on. I said ‘sure’ and joined his session.

Playing Co-op last night was a blast! I’ve never seen moving platforms used in such an inventive way! And almost throughout the entire level, munchy or I stood upon each other’s head, taking a ride to get to taller ledges. We had to work together with absolutely no jump power completely hazards puzzles and defeating challenging bosses all created by the wonderful mind of munchy.

I really look forward to the release of the level, and I recommend everyone plays it with a friend of theirs. It was a great level that can only get better!

On Friday night, the user marcod hosted a long-awaited Atmosphir LIVE Episode 14 podcast starring ZettaKuma and I in a Skype conversation. Marcod was contemplating a cancellation of the show, but after Friday night’s turnout, this thought has been wiped from his mind. We had nearly 20 people watching marcod play requested levels and ZettaKuma, marcod, and I battling it out in multiplayer Free Combat. I believe I won all of the matches we played, except the last one, which lagged out and didn’t work out very well. Everyone had great fun chatting with fellow players and watching the show. In conclusion, it was a great show, and we all can’t wait for the next!

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Also on Friday, Minor Studios released already the second update to the new version of Atmosphir–version 0.7.3. There were a few things added to the game, namely improvements on searching and searching filters as well as the moving spike block and a FPS mode. There are also LOTD images on the main menu, which will be updated hopefully every few days. Other than that, there wasn’t much else to the update, just a couple cool new features.

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Adz just released a screenshot of some new character items. A knight suit and a cat mask.

Keep updated at Atmosphiric for all your Atmosphir news!

Dave just posted a thread containing a screenshot of a new block that should hopefully come to us tomorrow–as he said it should be out before the weekend. I look forward to this, because this sure looks very awesome, but I’m not expecting it tomorrow. I’ve learned not to trust Dave with dates anymore, after how delayed Project Stratosphir was. So, look for this in your design toolbox within the next few days!

Just going update you all on a few things… Well, Stratosphir is out, and I’ve had tons of fun matches with a bunch of awesome users, but don’t worry if you didn’t get it–it’s very buggy. Below are just a few random screenshots that may amuse you. I’ll be writing another article later this week that will be more lengthy and interesting. And also a heads up, the blog’s header and stuff won’t be in Stratosphir until I can get my actual character back, because right now you can’t even buy sets and I have 0 Atmos… Anyways, enjoy these:

I’m wearing an exclusive Beta shirt for the first 500 people in that screenshot. Pretty cool shirt if I do say so myself.