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Tribal Wars

8.0

OCT 2011

ribal Wars 8.0 is just around the corner, and we are again excited about what we can offer you and the rest of the community in this major release. As already announced here in the InnoGames news a few months ago, what we primarily focused on in TribalWars 8.0 was the optimization features. Good examples of this would be all the additional information available on the Farm Assistant page or the new time graphs for the War Stats feature. Extensive new report lters have also been added. We havent only optimized features of course, but also processes. Dukes and barons will be able to plan their tribes offensives by selecting villages on the map with simple click and drag mechanisms the plan will then be available to all members of the tribe. The ultimate process optimization would of course have to be our end-game feature though the Secrets of Power. The Secrets of Power end-game scenario revolves around certain items of supposed power the scrolls containing the knowledge of the printing press, anatomy and decimal mathematics. It was this knowledge and more that eventually brought the dark middle ages to an end and ushered in a new era of intelligence and prosperity this is much how it will go in Tribal Wars. Tribes will have the opportunity to be the harbingers of that new age by capturing, transporting and holding all secrets for a set amount of time. More extensive explanations and the full changelog will be revealed soon. Robert

T
Edition: October 2011

Lagoonia: The Sounds of the South Seas

InnoGames released the ofcial soundtrack of its newest browser game this past week. Players in the German Closed Beta now can not only watch, but listen to their characters irting, talking and building, all while soothing ambiance sounds such as palm trees, the chirping of exotic birds and surging waves at the coast lure players into the tropical paradise. The various background music and sound effects can be set individually to users tastes, and adapt to the locations on the island, from the pacifying beaches, to the dark depths of the jungle. A sample soundtrack is available to download HERE for free. Although the game is now only playable in a German Closed Beta, it will be available in an English open beta shortly, along with several other languages. Alexa

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Edition: October 2011

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The West: Achievement Awards

Well, theres no lion, but there are plenty of other animals you can now collect in The West! By the time you read this we will hopefully have completed our rollout of Version 1.33 across all markets, releasing stacks of new achievement rewards into the wild. Perhaps the most interesting of these funny animals are the famous Golden Ass from the German fairy tale Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel und Knppel aus dem Sack and the elusive camel, offering overachievers the rare opportunity to ride a mount that also provides skill and attribute bonuses. (Apparently the camel took swimming lessons) I did say achievement rewards, however; these animals are not the only new reward available for the hundreds of existing achievements! Just like level 99, mister and misses are so old-school when there are over twenty (?) new titles up for grabs! Perhaps you are a compulsive hoarder? Find ve hundred items and the town doctor may label you disposophobic. Aspiring sheriffs can also help out John Fitzburn and earn themselves a deputy badge. Of course those handier with a weapon arent forgotten, but few will ever earn the right to place the legendary gunslinger beside their name. Theres heaps more titles to collect, so whether you travel, craft, build, shoot or work there is a title for you. Boring sods do not despair though, if you cant manage even a smile for the new animals or titles there are still a variety of other rewards available. Experience points, money, items as well as skill and attribute points are all available for those seeking tangible rewards for their hard work. If fort battles arent your thing achievements serve as another means to obtain several chests, and be sure to keep a bank at arms reach when youre close to an achievement that rewards cold, hard and virtual cash! Aside from achievement rewards, many new features in Version 1.33 have become talk of the town. The new friends and referral system have already began helping to further advertise The West and construct social networks within the game that encourage players to stick around longer. The new duelling sysspa tem has also sparked much interest as well as several new c crafting recipes and a couple enc of questlines, I encourage all of you to brush the dust off your ac accounts and check these out for yourself! Until next time, I Im Cave John err, your beloved crocodile wr wrestler. Luke
Edition: October 2011

Portal: The Avatar

This month, developing and implementing the user prole on the InnoGames portal was a priority for the team. Several updates have been created to put the focus on this feature. A new userheader clearly shows the users avatar, which can be chosen between 15 graphic options from each game. For those uninterested in chosing their own, a default image is provided. The menu bar for the avatar was also redesigned to t cool future features. Up next: the userheader will continue to be developed with organization in mind. This section will soon display the users friend invites and friends online, new messages and in-game achievements. Alexa

Edition: October 2011

Special Content: WestWars

Howdy, ladies and gentlemen! Theres a lot going on in WestWars the ery Mexican adventure has come to a conclusion which proved to be a truly grand nale! Have you already become a true hero of Mexico by taking your revenge? All in all, the Mexico stage was an exciting mlange of both familiar and more exotic elements that took the player on a fast-paced journey through the south. But theres no time to rest: it is that time of the year again, and the popular Halloween Stage will be back! Ghostbusters meets Wild West everybody will have a chance to complete the collection if you are still missing a piece, and new players can check out this unique event. Hunt ghosts in the Wild West to celebrate Halloween from Oct. 31st on!

Halloween

Furthermore, we polished some things: you have surely already noticed the overhauled job images they now feature an antique-look that makes them look like turn-of-the-century photographs. Check it out and compare! Nils

Grepolis
From the 26. of October until the 2. Of November, Grepolis players will encounter a few scaaaaary surprises. For some mystical (and probably supernatural) reason, the Aegean is suddenly full of giant swimming Ae pumpkins. Quickly collecting them will pu activate a helpful production bonus, and ac th there are also some awards to win. Even th the ancient Greek gods decided to dress up for Halloween this year: In order to see Ze Zeus, Hera and friends as scary vampires and wicked witches, players should log in an immediately. im
Edition: October 2011

Fabio

BHO: Discover Cambria

Last month I highlighted the new instances found in our latest patch that got released on Wednesday 26.10.2011. This month I would like to highlight several other changes included in the update, and why we made them. The four factions in the game, Private Military Companies, have forged a temporarily truce for players to group up and ght together. After observing players and their feedback we felt it was too hard to group for players as you could only group up with players from the same faction. Because the same missions are done by all factions, disallowing them to group up together separated the player base by four. By allowing the PMCs to party up it does create some complication in the open map PvP, and it makes the PMCs less unique. We acknowledge this issue and will be changing more in this area, but feel a lot better that more players are able to play together now! We have an in-game shop named Emporium where you can buy several conveniences to make your life on Clear Sky planet a bit more well, convenient! The items can be bought through spending cash in the shop. However we wanted to give players a chance to obtain them with in-game currency as well, so we opened the Bounty Shop. Here you can spend your in-game rewards (Bounty Points) on premium items such as special potions or a paint kit for your CTU. Death in games is a tough penalty, and that is no different in BHO. However we felt that inicting an XP loss after a hard battle lost was too much. It is a very negative experience that we wanted to get rid of. We already removed it for lower levels, but now completely removed it from the game. In BHO there are several events for players to participate in. This is a great way to entertain yourself when you are waiting for your team to assemble or to kill some time when you dont feel like hunting down aliens. By popular demand we opened the events such as the minigames and the CTU Trainingcamp on extra times during the day so more players can enjoy them, or more often. And last but not least every Sunday evening a big Tyrannosaur will wreak havoc on the shores of the Wastelands. Be sure to stock up good and get some friends to take on this monster! For a complete overview of all changes in Bounty Hounds Online click here.

Edition: October 2011

Game Jam 2011

InnoGames rst developer Game Jam was a popular success. The event, which took place at the InnoGames headquarters in Harburg, ran for a staggering 48 hours this past weekend. Developers were tasked with creating an entire original game within the time allotted, and in the end, a winner was chosen for the best game. Three attendees of the Jam recorded their experiences to share with you here.

The experiences of Sebastian, we pretty much nished our game right in time. (Of course the game could have been Software Developer
better, but we are satised with the result.) I attended the rst InnoGames Game Jam. It was an amazing, funny and exhausting experience. It was also the rst Game Jam that I have ever attended. Here are some things Ive learned from it (for the next time) and some things Ive recently realized: 1. Get enough sleep! The longer I was awake the fewer tasks I accomplished. 2. I was impressed that the others and I were able to solve things, although we were completely spent. (Ok, things came up pretty slow after a while ). 3. Know your tools! It was my rst Game Jam and I went into it with a thing will go well attitude. I wasnt prepared very well content-wise. I chose JavaScript as my programming language, a language that impresses me but I havent mastered it yet. Maybe I should have chosen another language. 4. Have a good partner! For me, I didnt want a project to take on alone. I had an excellent partner in Thorben. We have known each other for about ten years now and 5. Dont give a shit about code quality! Really! Get things done! In the daily business I care about code quality, structure, reusability and so on the list can be endless. I cared about quality in the Game Jam tooat least in the beginning. But quickly I (happily) became aware that I was trying to make things nice and beautiful instead of getting things done. The progress was slow. From then on I didnt care about code quality much anymore. continued...

Edition: October 2011

continued... 6. Use some version control system! Use Git. Use Subversion. Use whatever suites you (have a look at wiki). You might think that you dont need such a tool for a small project. I did. And I was very happy I didseveral times. Last time, right before the end, Thorben and I created a branch called combos to implement a new feature which, of course we didnt complete within the remaining 45 minutes then. 7. People are interested in what you do and they gladly share their things, too. That was really nice to notice. In the daily business thats not always the case because of very different reasons, I guess. Thats pretty much it. Thanks a lot again to all attendees for coming and making it such a cool event. And thanks to InnoGames for providing space, food and beverages. Before sunrise I nished my rst milestone. Seeing how my game came to life felt great; how the work started to pay off and the idea was growing slowly. But I was very tired, so I went to bed. I thought I would sleep until next day, but I was wrong. I dont know why, but I woke up only having slept 4 hours. Looking back, I am pretty sure the game jam god slapped me in the face with his big hands, telling me to go nish the game. So I did, never sleeping again until the very end of the game jam. There was a moment at night, when I looked up from the desktop, seeing sleepy faces of my game jam brothers and sisters (you get to know people very well when sharing a room for so many hours ;- ) , empty pizza (thanks innogames for sponsoring these!) boxes and energy drinks all around us and I asked myself: is this how a start-up feels? Working together with people you like on something you love, working hard into very late in the night, with children and women waiting for you at home. I dont know cause I never worked for one, but what I do know is how good it felt and I am very happy to work at a place where moments like this are stored in my memory, so I can tell my children and grandchildren about themok maybe not my grandchildren Continued...

The experiences of Software Developer

Michael,

Oh dear, what have I done? how is it possible that I thought 48h of programming was a good idea for a weekend? Well, you dont have to program all the time it is possible to program your game in 8 hours and sleep for the rest. Maybe you can imagine that it was quite the opposite So here is my story, how I started, how I felt wasted like never before, how I saw people drinking 4 liters of energy drinks, how the countdown crumbled to 00:00:00, how it ended and how awesome this all was. At the beginning there was a theme and then came the thought and at 4 p.c (past countdown) I created the very rst code. I was fresh, and had so many great ideas in my head. Clearly, I was going to program the best game ever! And truth be told, the only reason why that didnt worked out was the limited time (- ;

Edition: October 2011

continued... The morning before the end I felt very tired. I wrote over 1000 lines of code, but they felt like 1000.000 because I had rewritten them like 1000 times, I had a bug which I could not gure out, so I cut the feature (it felt like I was abandoning a child, but there is no time for such soft feelings at a game jam!) and moved on. I kept going and going, running against the countdown and my sleepiness, working on my game and so did the others. Everyone was tired, but no one gave up! We were like a band of brothers at war, helping each other, giving cheers and feedback (well thats not so common at war, I think). It came fast and no one could belief it was really there the end! Every one of us was happy and relieved. We came together one last time to present our games to each other. There was an adventure, a tower defense, a beat em up and others. Everyone was very unique, like the people who created them. We laughed a lot and were very happy to share this experience. As for me, it was a very unique adventure that I am glad I have made. I got to know my colleagues much better. I was inspired by the spirit everyone showed and lets not forget, I made a game in 48h, something you should try with your very own hands :)

in the ofces next door. Music could be turned on full volume and sang along loudly, with cursing and laughing. Thanks to the other great (and helpful!) participants, the idea of the marketing team producing a little adventure, gradually took shape. Now the text and graphics should be added somehow in the code! But time was against us all: After the rst 30 hours (which was preceded by a normal working day) even the most stubborn members of our team slept a few hours. Annoying, but needed! The hours melted away between our ngers as we frantically dug into the keys, until suddenly the countdown expired. But we wanted to add chapters 2 and 3?! No way, our organizer Michael Indyk was tough, but fair: no extra 10-20 hours for us! And the moral of the story? Next time we will be there and make everything even more beautiful, even better and faster! And for those who cannot program: ask your fellow programmers certainly one could use another creative head in his or her team, and doesnt want to y solo! Well see you at the next InnoGames Game Jam!

The experiences of Team Marketing

Can you even program? or What are you doing? This, or something similar was the reaction when three brave employees from the marketing department, Alex, Rebecca and Eileen, signed up for the Game Jam. At the time, nobody from the team could seriously program. Alexander Schaefer took it upon himself to learn the easiest programming language he could nd, Blitz Basic, before the ultimate battle. Not an easy challenge, but in any case, it was the perfect opportunity to learn something new and of course to have a lot of fun: without the noise-sensitive coworkers

Edition: October 2011

My InnoGames Story: Alex, Tribal Wars COMA

This is a story all about how, my life got ipped turned upside and Id like to take a minute just sit right there... If you just heard Will Smith singing in your head it probably means your about as old as me. Which is old, like really old. Ancient almost, compared to how young this company is in general. But I digress before I even started. Well start in 2007 when a not really young Alex joined a game called Tribal Wars and got obsessed and upset (not necessarily in that order) with the games forum. Yeah, I like forums so what. Thats not weird at all. Anyway, I joined the moderation team after about 2 or 3 months of playing and quickly made my way through the ranks in the support. Not being a stranger to discussing in general and with difcult people in particular (Im a philosopher by training), I ended up in the rules/ contra lvl2 team where I had an amazing time. I think I still lead the most global bans scoreboard at this point and there are at least a few dozen people, mostly lawyers or sons of lawyers who still hate my guts and curse the day that I was born. Everybody who has ever worked in CSR now has a smile on their face and nodded to him/herself. Smile again if thats the case. See, there you go. I stayed in the team and the position for about two years and then left to take on a position as Community Manager for an indie MMORPG which was a great experience since I was there from pretty much the very beginning of the project and got to develop the tools and the community from scratch. Around May this year the news made its way to me that Tribal Wars was looking for a new German Community Manager and I felt compelled to answer the call. Sure enough, with astounding speed I got set up for an interview with Nino and Robert. To this very day this remains one of the most profound professional impressions of my working life especially Ninos command of the English language im-

pressed me deepl (Shout out kids!) S e deeply. Sure enough, a few days later I took over the .de Community Management and thus the German Community. The relationship with those guys is a one of a kind experience. Seldom have I seen a Community both so hateful and dedicated to the game at the same time. They are a remarkable, sometimes annoying, cool, never boring and overall pretty nerdy bunch of people. Working for/with/under/against Nino and Robert is actually not as bad as people made it sound, though I have to admit that Nino is pretty bad at BF:BC2 and Robert, well, Robert is pretty. So hes got that going for him. During a skype session with Domi about something I already forgot, we got to talking about Grepolis and the fact that she was looking into nding a new CM for the game. So we brainstormed a bit about candidates and 2 weeks later I started my (second) job. Running both .de versions of TW and Grepolis is probably the most insightful experience I had so far in Community Management and despite my initial fears it actually proves incredibly useful, since specic ideas in one team can sometimes spark a change or addition in the other. Continued...

continued...

Gaming wise I think one can regard me as pretty old-school, or skewl, or however you kids write it these days. I got my rst PC when I was 8. Screens where still black/ white or rather green/black these days and graphical working environments like Windows were just a tool, not an operating system. For all you geeks out there it was a 286, 4MB Ram (inorite?!) and a massive 40MB harddrive. It was a power house. From that day on I was pretty much lost and I travelled long and willingly on the road of die-hard PC Gaming. I do prefer RPGs, FPSs and good MMOS (not many out there sadly) and I hate sports games with a vengeance (yeah, that also includes RL-Kicker, even though its the company sport). So working in the gaming industry wasnt a big step for me. Ofcially Im a philosopher and publishing science person by training (Well, almost nished) and I spend a lot of my time reading, both scientic and novels. Reading, talking,

having a nice cup of java and a good cigarette, all those things are an integral part of my life and I wouldnt want to miss them. When Im not in front of a screen which is a rather rare occurrence nowadays (I love you Android tablet!), I practice Tai-Chi or go out into nature and try to solve the riddles of the universe. And of course a lot of my time is devoted to my lovely lady, who sadly isnt a gamer yet. But I got her hooked on some cute casual games on the tablet. Ill get her there, you just wait and see. I feel I should end this with something good, a sentence that contains big and impressive words like profound and meaningful; and I should somehow get InnoGames in the sentence too. Well, that wasnt so hard in the end. ;) See you ingame guys.

Im a philosopher by training.

Social Media & Community Managment

Some days ago I was visiting the social media pages of Tribal Wars around the world and could check that some Comas are not so involved with this amazing tool, that can not only help to publish our games but also know the players, enjoy them and to involve more with the community. Some pages has days without one announcement, some weeks or months... but why? Is so easy, with 5 minutes per day you can create a wonderful relation with your players. You just have to put this in your mind and go for it! Thinking on it I resolved to do this article with 5 steps to help others comas to have sucess in their pages, like Br server that has two nice pages, in Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ TribalBrasil) with 6.182 likes and Twitter with 6.75 followers (http://twitter. com/tribalwarsbr), both with less than one year age =) So lets go.. #1 step - What pages are popular in your country?? Linkedin ? Facebook? Twitter ? Google + ? My Space? Tagged? Check this rst! Is not about what You like, but where the players are. So choose one or two websites and work on it! Remember that fanpages e community are easiest to handle, take care and generally they o er more applications to use than normal pro les. #2 step - Post !! But..What to post ? Announcement of promotions, competitions, bugs, new worlds, article on our journals, polls...Ok, we dont have so much great news everyday, so what to post in regular days? Just have fun with them ! For example, in my FB page: Here I asked what they would for the weekend? Relax or attack ? Simple question and many of them responded and liked it. Here I posted: who started the week attacking enemies, put your hands up! And they participated again, with nice comments! Is easy fellows! just try and you will have fun with them. #3 step - How often should I post? One per day is enough, and necessary! Dont do a spam attack in your players pages, neither let them think that you dont care about the page. #4 step - Involve them, give prizes! In Brazil we have nice applications to do lotteries in a transparent way on this pages! Do a little search and you will nd nice tools to help you! #5 step - Monitor them!! How a Coma you know that some players just want our heads, others really like to abuse with agressive words, so is necessary to be look out for it! Check the comments everyday, and block this kind of players! Is not nice for a page that represents Innogames contain dirty words. Daniele, Tribal Wars Brazil

A COMA Writes

Have something to write about?

Send your submission to dennis.heinert@innogames.de

Join us!
Producer, Internship Your responsibilities: - Observing, adjustment and maintenance of production plans or backlogs - Organization, accompaniment, follow-up of meetings and workshops - Support during planning processes and adjustments to processes - Drafting and adjusting risk plans - After initial training: Self-reliant management of small /partial projects We expect: - Student of business economics, economics, communication and media science, media design, informatics, or a degree in one of those areas - Extended knowledge and rst experience in project management Organizational talent, excellent analytiys kills, and a high degree of individual initiative - Wide-ranging knowledge of the games industry - Very good knowledge of German and English - Teamwork experience in own projects Desirable: - First own projects in the area of games Please send us your application using our online application form or via email, complete with cover letter, resume, references, and code examples (each attachment max. 2MB). Please include your earliest starting date and expected salary. Anna Sparke email: career@innogames.de See all of our available job postings on: innogames.de

New at InnoGames

Andre Gawron Software Developer Daniel Schaefer Producer Jorg Jahnke Senior Software Developer Ulrike Meyer Flash-Developer Hein Krenz Senior Payment Manager David Roterberg Graphic Artist Alexander Loggen PHP Developer, Payment Christopher Butzlo QA, Work Student Lena Sokol Intern, Software Developer Jacob Damkjaer QA Assistant Sylvia Seidel HR Assistant

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Edition: October 2011

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send the solution word via email to sarah.lueken@innogames.de. Have fun and good luck!