Leading online game developer and publisher Joymax is celebrating Easter with new and exciting events this April in their worldwide, sensational MMO Digimon Masters!  Whether you’re looking to gain a new digital friend, grab a new mercenary follower, or grab a sweet new ride, you can do it all!  Tamers can peruse the full details of this huge event at http://www.joymax.com and downloading the game today.

Riding mode has now been available for three months, and Easter marks the third update to the new system!  Tamers will need to collect 5 Mode Selector pieces to saddle up their new mounts, which include Blacksaintgalgomon and Victorygreymon; both of these Digimon have bipedal riding modes, so if you’re not keen about four legged friends, these are the mounts for you!  Selecting, raising, and digivolving Digimon who offer a riding mode continues to be a hot trend in the Digital World in 2014.

What’s Easter without a few hidden eggs!  From now until April 22^nd, hunt level-appropriate Digimon and there’s a chance they’ll drop a Miracle Sapphire!  These eggs drastically increase the amount of EXP that a player earns – and aren’t attached to a time limit.  Both the Tamer Miracle Sapphire and the Digimon Miracle Sapphire will grant the recipient a bonus 661, 500 EXP over time.  Grab these goodies before they disappear with the Easter Bunny.

This is in addition to the Easter Bunny coin log-in event, where players can earn prizes including a Level 4 Random Reinforced Mystery Mercenary Digi-egg!  Fans can find everything and anything about Digimon Masters Online on its official Facebook page, which has more than 388,000 likes from all over the world. Join the conversation now at https://www.facebook.com/digimonmasters

Hanakai Studio has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Prodigy, a unique tactical RPG game that combines high quality figurines with video games, bringing players into a universe rich in fantasy and action. Prodigy features squad-based figurine combat and takes advantage of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology and a USB game board to bring the game alive on screen. Powered by Unreal Engine 4 and set to debut on PC for a Q4 2015 release, Prodigy will feature both a single player campaign as well as a deep multiplayer experience.

“With this Kickstarter campaign, we’re looking to find dedicated gamers interested in our combination of physical figurines and digital gameplay,” said Jean Bey, CEO and Creative Director, Hanakai. “By joining us as backers we can organise a much broader alpha than we would be able to do alone. Our players will be directly involved in the development process, giving us valuable feedback in the alpha version and fine tuning Prodigy into the best possible game.” Interested backers can help Hanakai Studio reach its goal of $100,000 by pledging at the Kickstarter page.

The Prodigy Kickstarter campaign offers a large variety of unique, exclusive rewards for early supporters. For $400 dollars, Alpha Founders will receive an early access game board and their choice of figurine Company pack, allowing them to take an active role in the game’s development – and also receive the final game upon release. There are many additional rewards available and, depending on the pledge level, backers can receive different types of Company Starter packs which include the final game and digital-only content exclusive to Kickstarter backers. Also available are figurines, artbooks, collector statues and much more. An extensive trailer and full list of Prodigy pledge rewards can be found on the Kickstarter page.

To see Prodigy in action, check out the official Hanakai Studio Twitch channel for a schedule of live gameplay sessions.

Today KOG Games, publisher of the hit free-to-play action MMORPG, Elsword, revealed two new Job Paths, Pyro Knight and Saber Knight for the latest character in the Elsword line-up, Elesis.  An explosive new video showing off Elesis latest jobs can be found here.

Following the advice of Hoffman, the village elder, Elesis leaves her post as Captain of the Velder Knights. Free from her duties as Captain, Elesis can now focus all of her efforts on finding her brother Elsword, and purging Elrios of the demon infestation.

As the fiery Pyro Knight, players will experience both in-close and medium range melee attacks combined with a wicked ability to cast fire at range. Elesis will wield her epic Claymore and cast fiery death in a flagrant display of hybrid melee action. With the ability to burst into the fray with a number of AOE effects, The Pyro Knight Job offers players more than just a typical melee or fighter-type game experience.

If a more traditional, upfront and personal, searing melee brawl is the preferred style; players can choose option number two and play as the vicious Saber Knight. With a keenly focused attack agenda, the Saber Knight deals big damage in a big way! Though still the master of the fiery family blade art, the Saber Knight Job focuses on in-close, direct damage offset with both greater defense and HP.  As Saber Knight, Elesis takes the fight to the enemy.

Once level 15 is achieved, players can choose one of the two new Job Paths for Elesis. In order to become a Pyro knight or a Saber Knight, players can either complete the in-game game quest or visit the item mall and purchase either the Saber Knight’s Determination or Pyro Knight’s Determination‏ items for an immediate boost.

The choice is yours. Strike fear into your enemies with intense sword attacks and wildfire as the fearsome Pyro Knight, or eradicate your foes with the hard-hitting, precise and overwhelming aggression of the Saber Knight! Either way, swordplay expertise combined with calculated fire attacks becomes Elesis’ strengths. The mighty Red Haired Knight prepares herself to defend an entire kingdom.

Michel Thomazeau is the founder of Cubical Drift studios, the masterminds behind the video game project Planets³. With an engineering background, Michel first started working in the area of professional software and remained there for 9 years before quitting everything last year to dedicate himself 100% to Planets³.

Michel first started playing video games when he was 11 and soon discovered RPG/adventure games were his favorite – they remain so even today – Secret of Mana, Zelda, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy saga are some examples.

Cubical Drift was started in October 2013 by 3 co-founders, who made sure they were able to solve the main technical challenge in Planets³’s development before founding the studio: the large viewing distance.

Today, Cubical Drift is part of “Paca Est”, a company incubator giving the studio its support and providing financial help for some aspects of the project. In addition, the French town of Cannes is welcoming them into its brand new enterprise seedbed project: CréaCannes.

Planets³ …

Planets³ is a voxel-based (3D pixels) RPG game. Its storyline and Non Playable Characters (NPCs) will drive players through an adventure that will lead them from planets to planets. In the game’s storyline, Aliens that look like humans crashed on Earth some years ago. Players will then embark involuntarily on an adventure that will lead them to discover why the aliens crashed and to help them get out of troubled situations. Thanks to spacecraft they’ll build themselves, players will travel from planets to planets, each of them being different from one another by its landscapes, fauna and flora. Each planet is wide enough so that players get a feeling of gigantism while remaining small enough to encourage them to leave and discover other planets.

The Planets³ community asked Michel some questions and below are his answers:

How is Planets³ like  Minecraft?

Minecraft was the game that generalized voxels. If Minecraft had not existed, Michel and his team would probably never have had the idea of creating Planets³. It is therefore natural to compare Planets³ to Minecraft or event Cubeworld, since these games are based on voxels (Minecraft being the reference). Minecraft was one of the influences that inspired the studio, along with games like Skyrim, Zelda, Mass Effect but also sci-fi movies like Star Wars or even games like Lego.

However Planets³ is not a sandbox game. It is above all an RPG whose main appeal will be its storyline. The game will also have a “creation” mode that will allow players to play without following the storyline.

In terms of art direction, the blocks in Planets³ are smaller than Minecraft’s (25cm²) and different forms allow a real diversity in the world’s creation.

The world is consistent: landscapes depend on their locations on the planet and on their altitude.

In the storyline, there will be dungeons and quests. As the game will encourage players to build vehicles (including spacecraft), there will be a real land and space exploration to it.

The building aspect will be important and integrated in the story. Some quests will require building elements – homes or vehicles – for example, while respecting the “rules” of construction, i.e. placing parts in the right places (for example the wheels of a vehicle must be linked to the ground and to the vehicle itself).

What can you tell us about NPCs?

NPCs will be essential to the players’ progression. Some NPCs will be “found” while others will be rescued. It will be more convenient for players to gather all the NPCs in the same village (built by the player himself!). The numerous NPCs available in the game will help him/her by teaching new crafting methods amongst many other things.

Is multiplayer an important part of the game?

This is indeed one of the main appeals of the game. Cubical Drift will focus on the cooperative aspect in the first opus. Several players will be able to play the story mode simultaneously.

Why do a KickStarter?

We attempted the « classical » approach through private investors, but it didn’t work out (in May 2013) which lead Cubical Drift to turn towards crowdfunding through KickStarter especially because it is the number one platform in this domain.

KickStarter is not only a way to raise funds, it is also a good tool for measuring the market and creating a community around the game.

How did you come up with the $250, 000 goal?

Cubical Drift has estimated in great detail the necessary budget needed to create the game and concluded that this is the amount we need to make the game we are promising. This budget includes the development of the game, the salary of the team (9 members) and the development of specific tools to create the game (i.e. the software that models the planets / the software that manages the progressive vision).

Thanks for your interest in our game.  If you haven’t already, we invite you to support our cause before it ends on April 5^th! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1247991467/planets3