I'm finding it hard to believe that it is already March. January came and went, February blazed past, and now I am gearing up to put Knaves Online into a limited beta test... The only problem is that the game is only at an alpha state.

Normally this would worry me, but in this case I actually feel pretty good about it. I just nailed down some of the important server-side code for the game, and thanks to GamerSafe and PlayerIO the process of adding achievements and scalable multiplayer are all but done. I feel as if I have all the pieces, I just need to put them together.

But a completed game is only part of the picture. There are still two big hurdles to overcome...

When the rough sketches of the weapons for Knaves Online arrived in my inbox this morning I was excited. When I took the time to open them up and have a look, I was blown away.

Whether you love them or hate them, achievements in games are a common component that can add fun for your players and lead to repeat plays for developers. This tutorial covers the basics for creating achievements for your Flash game and implementing them using the GamerSafe API.

Monsters, monsters, monsters! It seems like all I have been talking about lately is monsters. Well, thankfully the artwork for the heroes in Knaves Online is now well on its way and I can introduce the first of four character classes, the Rogue!

Players can choose to be a Rogue from any of the four factions, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, or Spades. Each one will have access to slightly different equipment and will have an affinity for hands of the same suit. The rogue will have special abilities on the overland map that allow them to glean extra information about the strength of their enemies.