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 usual, the Atmosphir community received an update to the game–excuse me, not an update, but a couple updates. This time Minor Studios released Atmosphir Private BETA v0.8, shortly followed by 0.8.1, 0.8.2, to the point where we have 0.8.4 at the moment. With these updates can a new crystal lamp prop: the predecessor to the firefly lamp. Dave told us in one of his recent posts that it was originally supposed to replace the firefly lamp, but they decided to keep both within the game. Also with the new prop came the ability to scale interactive props, such as beach balls, doors, moving platforms, etc. Not only were there game additions, but there were also forum updates that improved mainly moderating features more than anything else. Normal users may not see some of the changes, but they have sure helped out on the Moderator side of things!

The biggest treat was for new users: A entire new ‘red-carpet’ experience for new players to get them acclimated and accustomed to Atmosphir. I have only seen videos of the feature, but I’m sure it’s much better than what it used to be like.

Yesterday (May 3, 2010) Dave accidentally released a new update to the site, fixing some bugs, creating new bugs, and cleaning up level pages. If you guys get a chance, go check out a level page or two on the website–they look slick and clean now!

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In other news: the Castle10 design challenge has been extended to May 9th. I do not believe Dave specified this at all on the forums, but he did tweet about the extension. Make sure to follow him on Twitter!

Aside from that, nothing much has happened in the way of Atmosphir lately, besides Editorial Staff applications. I’ve read all the applications sent in and am still contemplating my choices. Great reviews everyone, you really made it hard to choose!

I’m sorry guys that I haven’t written an article lately. I will hopefully update more frequently starting in a few days. There hasn’t really been much that has happened, just a small update to the marketplace in preparation for the Atmos users are waiting to receive. So, keep updated; I’ll be sure to write another new post quite soon!

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!

As the 2009 year comes to a close and the launch of Stratosphir fast approaches, we take a look back at the very eventful year that we are about to leave to the history books. 2009 was a year filled with adventure, especially in the development and growth of Atmosphir.

January 5th - The first ever moderator applications for the forums are posted, with the deadline set to be January 10th. Before this, the only moderators on the forums were Minor Studios staff. In addition to moderator appications, the announcement of “Atmosphir Pro Designers” popped up on both the forums and the News page.

January 8th - The first Jumpstart of the new year was up, containing the Mountain09 design challenge results and the announcement of Update 7. Update 7 was an update to really help Atmosphir’s performance–adding a more info section and comments section to each level description in the play browser. It also improved some textures and fixed a lot of bugs. Released on the 13th of January, it was the last Update to ever contain our long-lost friend Cameron.

January 23rd - Dave and Martin show up in a virtual Jumpstart reminding you all that the current design challenge, Boss09, will be over soon. Dave announces the addition of Atmosphir Teams on the forums and shows us a small video of character animations coming with Update 8.

January 30th - The whole new Atmosphir.com website is up, as well as the Boss09 design challenge results. Along with the Boss09 results came the announcement of the first ever Team design challenge, with the somewhat obvious name of Team09. Martin also shows us how Character Customization is coming along over in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

February 10th - Dave stars in the first ever Platforms Live podcast, chatting about Pro Designers, Levels of the Day, and showing us a dev build of the Color Pack and Character Customization. He answers our questions for about an hour.

LOTD: Kingdoms 1-1: The Beginning by redidas

February 14th - Yet another Jumpstart is up announcing that the long-awaited Update 8 is set to launch on February 24th. Dave wishes us a happy Valentine’s Day and shows us some of the “Why I Love Atmosphir” videos that have been popping up on YouTube.

LOTD: Seashore Stronghold – The Crabs Last Stand 1/2 by frodo

February 24th - The anticipated Update 8 arrives, bringing the end of Cameron and the start of customizable characters. Update 8 contains not only new characters, but the addition of the Color Theme Pack and solid color backgrounds to design mode, weapon combat, the bomb cannon, and a new “AtmoStore” section of the website. It includes those features as well as level locking, game creation (which has since been removed), online and offline designing, longer level descriptions, and a few bug fixes. Update 8 is the biggest update to date in Atmosphir history, with so many features it’s hard to explain them all; you can read the official announcement and forum post here.

LOTD: Tutorial Island by Chillinguy

March 2nd - Additional Moderator Applications are up for users to fill out on the forums. The deadline was set to be Friday, March 13th.

LOTD: Sticko’s Giant Fish by bigdrip681

March 6th - A new episode of Jumpstart is up, as well as the release of Update 9. There wasn’t much to Update 9, mostly bug fixes, but a few new character customization items were added to the marketplace, and play browser pages we implemented too. Dave ends the Jumpstart with a hilarious Random Atmosphir Moment, courtesy of kaiserg.

LOTD: The Black Shadowlands by frodo

March 13th - The deadline for moderator applications arrives, and Dave tells us all that Update 10 should be coming out late Monday, March 16th, with new features such as an Auto-Update feature, bug fixes, and new character customization items. He pops up yet again in a new Jumpstart with the Tutorial09 design challenge results and reminds us of the current challenge, BlockArt09. To end the video, he shows us a short Atmosphir skit by the name of “Leap & Dr. Firebomb.”

LOTD: Coloured Rooms of Confusion by Gadoidao

March 27th - Martin and Maximo join Dave in San Francisco and talk to us about GDC09 and the Muka Tribe. They tell us to look for a new update soon with the new enemies and end the video with some hilarious bloopers.

LOTD: The Cloud Castle by Bboys99

April 4th - Update 11/Beta 1.6 is up. The auto-update didn’t work for eveyone, but if you were anxious to get your hands on the Muka Tribe, an entire new game download was available at the beta site. Not only did the new update include the Muka Tribe, but it also came along with a few new game modes, namely Survival Mode, Defeat Enemies Mode, and Defeat Bosses Mode. A Jumpstart also appeared that day, with Dave announcing the BlockArt09 results and telling all of us about the next dual design challenge, Combat09 and Videogame09.

LOTD: 6 Ball by Vindiablo

April 17th - Update 12 went live, containing 6 new Muka Blocks for design mode–things like Muka Boxes and tents–as well as bomb respawn time, new character animations, powerup properties, and a ton of bug fixes. More bugs were fixed with Update 13 on April 20th, too.

LOTD: Perilous Pathways: World One by frodo

April 28th - Chris Sprinkle (bigdrip681) is interviewed by Dave at Dave’s office in San Francisco. They discuss Chris’s love for designing and his many impressive Atmosphir creations. Probably one of the most memorable moments in the interview was when they thought of the [fake] Atmosphir slogan, “It’s like LEGOs, for real, but fake!”

LOTD: Pole Position! [Videogame09] by Alexger

April 30th - Minor Studios releases a shader test video, showing our old friend Cameron with a whole new shading effect added to him and to Atmosphir. The torches burn and give off light, as the other blocks look like they’re covered in plastic wrap. Many people missed it, but there was an entirely new skybox in the background as well.

LOTD: 50 Mile Warehouse by Atmosphere

May 4th - Our games prompt us to update as the clothing-filled Update 14 arrives. Player’s Club members were in for a treat when they received their new character customization items. For all the normal users and Club members alike, there were a few small new features, and some bug fixes, of course.

LOTD: The Chronosseum by Amethyst

May 5th - Update 15 16 came out, mostly some bug fixes, but it gave designers a few new Muka Blocks to work with.

LOTD: (Videogame09) Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess – Arbiter’s Ground by supercrazy

May 8th - A new Jumpstart was up, with Dave announcing the winners of Combat09 and Videogame09 and informing everyone that the next design challenge would be Jump09. He told us about Atmosphir’s future, stating that Minor Studios would be taking most of the month of May, and early June, to focus on a lot of player-focussed initiatives. We were intrigued by the screenshots and videos of leaderboards and player profiles. In addition, Dave gave us a sneak peek at water, waterfalls, and piranhas.

LOTD: Along the Seas by Levion

May 22nd - After a lot of avatar and signature workshops began to pop up in the Off-Topic section, we said hello to the Creative Spotlight section of the forums (now known as the Creative section).

LOTD: Basin Island 1 by maximumdragon

June 5th - The long-awaited Update 17 made it’s arrival with a whole new play experience. Leaderboards, user miniprofiles (with medals and win/loss records), an entirely new Freeplay interface, a friends system, star and difficulty rankings for levels, new character customization items, and water props all came with the update.

LOTD: Roots Mountain by Nvision

June 10th - The Competition section of the forums was made to honor the leaderboards that had been implemented with Update 17.

LOTD: The Aerial Sand Chasms (Jump09) by Mephiston

June 12th - You know how the deal goes–design challenge results, then the next design challenge announcement, and maybe a few other things thrown in the Jumpstart too–but on the 12th day of June, Atmosphir wasn’t so ordinary anymore. As usual, Dave gave us the Jump09 design challenge results, after a lot of debate about votes… As well as the Team design challenge, Platform2009, results. He told us about the next challenge, Expert09, and then moved on to some important announcement; announcements that would change the history of Atmosphir forever. Dave tells us that about the fact that Minor Studios has been using their own, custom engine for the past two years. He says it’s been great, but he compares it to painting a picture, but making the canvas, the brushes, and the paint. Minor Studios will be translating Atmosphir, he says, to a third-party engine. He told us that we would have to wait for quite a while without any updates–something we’re not used to. But eventually, when they are done with the translation, updates will be coming out at a much more rapid pace, as Minor Studios won’t need to focus on anything but new features; the technology would be better and the overall performance of Atmosphir would be ridiculously improved.

LOTD: Upon The Twighlight Hills (Jump09) by BlazingPlatinum

June 15th - More Moderator Applications were up in the Atmosphir section of the forums, and the community was in ‘Moderator Application Mode’ as always.

LOTD: The Great Plummet Mystery Course [Jump09] by Traceguy

June 19th - The final update that any of us have seen, Update 18–a small patch–came out, with really only one new feature, the river grass platform. In addition to the update, the community competition to find one of Atmosphir’s best designers began; it went by the name the ‘Atlympics.’ There were to be rounds, each consisting of designers facing up against eachother until the last two designers faced off in the final round. The first two week long round had started.

LOTD: Sonic Jumpland (Jump09) by trumanbenedict

July 8th - The Expert09 results show up in a new Jumpstart, also with the announcement of the new design challenge, Mini09. Dave reveals the codename for Update 19, a name that will be stuck in every Atmosphir player’s mind for years to come–Project Stratosphir. Martin also talks to us and shows us some of the first footage of Stratosphir.

LOTD: Perilous Pathways: World Five [Expert09] by frodo

July 17th - After a lot of requests, Dave makes the first ever ‘Atmosphir Journal’ video, taped in his own kitchen! He talks about what he wants to see added to the Atmosphir experience and what he’s been working on recently, including things like new art assets and multiplayer.

LOTD: Daydream Dilemma by frodo

July 23rd - Similar to the ‘Atmosphir Journal,’ Dave makes another video with the name ‘Mailbox,’ in which he answered a lot of community questions. Yet again, the video contains additional Stratosphir footage.

LOTD: Salvation by Shming

July 31st - The second Mailbox comes out, answering even more of our questions. He ends the video with the classic paper-throw.

LOTD: TheValorChamber by TeamValor

August 5th - Martin has about a 25 minute Q&A session in the first episode of the Atmosphir DevCast. Not only does he answer questions, but he gives us sneak peeks at the progression of Project Stratosphir.

LOTD: Evolution of Speed – Zone One [mini09] by frodo

August 12th - As always, Dave announces the current design challenge results—this time he announced the Mini09 results. He wishes us good luck with our Space09 entries, shows us some more Stratosphir video footage and ends the show with a very funny ‘Catmosphir’ video.

LOTD: Ando Prime [mini09 edition] by munchy365

August 14th - A new thread caught our eye in the Atmosphir section, it’s title labeled “Atmosphir Level Editorial Staff Application.” Clicking the thread title, a new page opened to reveal an announcement about and “Atmosphir Level Editorial Staff.” Dave wanted the best players and writers he could get–six of them–to take his place in distributing Levels of the Day and writing reviews. The deadline is set for August 21st. Each application asked for our own review of a level, as well as little more additional information. We wished eachother good luck, and hoped for the best.

LOTD: Vertigo by drfuzzyness

August 21st - The third Mailbox is up on the News page and home page of the Atmosphir website; Dave answers our questions once again, and shows us more Stratosphir footage. In addition, the deadline for Editorial Staff applications arrives, as everyone hurries up to get their applications in.

LOTD: Alone by boberto

August 26th - DevCast, episode 2 is released, containing Martin with the dev build of Stratosphir, showing us new features such as scaling objects, shading, and 3D copy and paste. He also answers our questions from Twitter.

LOTD: Temple of the Forgotten by eyeofsauron

September 2nd - We all laughed as we watched Dave, in the new Jumpstart, try to pronounce “AHHWARGHAHEGAH” during the announcement of the Space09 design challenge results. Also, Dave explained Big09 and Small09, the next dual design challenge, and answered questions in the fourth Mailbox video segment. He showed us Stratosphir yet again: mulitplayer and spawning points. The classic paper throw was the climax of the video, but this time, Dave actually hit the frame!

LOTD: Escape From The Moon [space09] by robcozzens

September 17th - A ‘Quick Look’ video shows us Stratosphir’s gravity, Capture the Flag, water, moving platform, scaling, ledgehanging, and rotation features.

LOTD: Journey To The Star Realm [space09] by Wowfunhappy

September 20th - The Editorial Staff team decided that they should honor the classic levels uploaded back in Cameron’s time. They started off a week of “Atmosphir Classics.”

LOTD: The Mines Of Moria by frodo

October 13th - Live from Buenos Aires, Dave in Martin star in another Jumpstart, answering our questions and showing us even more Stratosphir footage. They talk for nearly an hour, making it the longest Jumpstart in history.

LOTD: Atwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by RedStorm

October 15th - Dave showed off the brilliant new Pause Menu coming with Stratosphir in yet another Quick Look video. We saw that with Stratosphir, when the game is paused, you’ll be able to move the camera around your character and change you clothes, etc.

LOTD: Coconut Kingdom [Big09] by BlazingPlatinum

November 1st - Arcade09, the last ever design challenge before the release of Update 19–Project Stratosphir–was announced. The goal was to create the best arcade-themed level you could, while still staying relatively simple.

LOTD: The Ruins Of Cydonia by Saunby

November 6th - Again, Dave shows us some more of Stratosphir, specifically a level he created. Many of the blocks are rotated and resized, something different coming with the new engine.

LOTD: The Autumnal Equinox Temple by FireArrow

November 24th - Another level Dave created with Stratosphir is shown in a Quick Look. He demonstrates how to make a waterfall by rotating water blocks, and tells us about the new animations and blocks. He blows crows into the sky with the new bomb-aiming feature. Also, once again, the Atmosphir community is searching for additional moderators to add to the team, the deadline for applications was set for December 1st.

LOTD: The Garden of Sin by Saunby

December 15th - Nearing the end of the year, Minor studios releases a video showing ten new features coming with Stratosphir that the community might want to know about. A few aren’t new, as they had been shown in previous videos, but some were unknown to almost every user. We are intrigued by the new additions to the game.

LOTD: Sentinel by frodo

December 27th - To review the year, the Editorial Staff writes articles for the greatest LOTDs of 2009. To kick off the week, Titans Grave[Big09] by Groud receives the first honorary position as one of the greatest Levels of the Day ever designed and uploaded.

December 31st I, boberto, finish writing the recap of the year. I’m hoping you all enjoy the article, sorry for the length.

LOTD: Virtuality: Aerial Azure by Memphiston

Happy New Year everyone! Stratosphir should be out in 12 days, so keep your eyes open for anything new. And as I head off to go to bed on January 1st, good night to all, once again, have a happy and joyous New Year!

Happy Holidays to all you guys out there from Atmosphiric and Minor Studios! I know this is a little late, but I hope it get’s the point across. As the holiday season began, Dave posted a few more eye-appealing Stratosphir screenshots in the Atmosphir section of the forums. You can read his thread here. And now, enjoy the screenshots he posted with a little bit more description…

You can see above the new stance of the character and behind him, the amazing Shading effects that will be coming with the new engine. The only other new feature you can spot is a cage rotated and placed into the ground so that the bars are facing up–the cage is to the bottom right of the character.

The main focus, I believe, of this screenshot is to show the new jump animation (which I must say is pretty awesome) and the fog effects on the enormous castle in the background. Behind the fog, though, you can see a new skybox too. It also showcases the very improved textures that will be coming along with Stratosphir.

You can see some more of the shaders and the new item effects.

Even more of the shading effects, the new jump animation, and also the new info sticker block. The info sticker is a circular, very thin white and blue block with an “i” in its center. When you get close enough to it, a custom dialogue box appears. The only other new thing you can see is a giant, resized palm tree behind the character.

First of all, you can see the epic, yes, I’m using the word epic new combat pose in mid-air. Behind the character, you can see a rotated rock laying on the ground, and I bridge tilted and resized. You can also see what looks like the resized corner of a Muka block, and a rotated, and again, resized Little Treehouse.

Standing on an enormously resized Skull Door, which is rotated so that it’s laying down. The textures are new and improved, which look amazing if I do say so myself! I think my favorite part of the screenshot, though, is the new space skybox in the background.

Yet another new skybox, and also the new aiming system for the bomb cannon. You can see throughout the rest of the picture many random blocks and an abundance of bombs.

You can see the new and improved rulebook, with many additional features. In the first “Rulebook” window, you can see that there are options to set the rules for the the whole level (Global) or set rules for multiplayer. There is also a thumbnail view of the music and skyboxes. In the second window, entitled “Ambient Item Properties,” you can edit the skybox to be a blank color, and edit the fog too. Fog is going to be very improved with Stratosphir, because you will be able to edit its color and density, but in addition, you will be able to change where the fog appears in the level–in other words, picking the area in which the fog will be present. There is not much else in the screenshot, just the design sidebar which contains a few new bombable blocks.

I’m sorry that that was such a long article, but I hope it gave a good description of each and every screenshot. Happy Holidays and best wishes in the new year!

The forums are back up and running like they always have again, but now there is a BBC (Bulletin Board Code) toolbar above you when you are posting. It’s much faster typing code now, but I have noticed a lot of you guys abusing this privilege. I would appreciate, on behalf of Atmosphiric, that some of you please stop spamming code in your posts.

Anyways, enjoy the forums as normal now, and stay updated to see all the latest Atmosphir news.