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Introduction
Adam Bohn, or better known as his self-insert Artix Krieger, is the owner of Artix Entertainment. The company used to be somewhat of a landmark in the days of Flash games.
As time went on, the company's skeletons in the closet can't help coming out, despite the CEO's self insert being a paladin.
Basically, the company has become an example of how not to manage a business whose glory days are long over.
The Lore Games (Adventure Quest, Dragon Fable, MechQuest)
The first three games where they still retained their passion. While they were abandoned eventually, they at least were given some kind of endings.
However, in 2015, the project lead of MechQuest quit due to burnout. (archive)
This led to a forum discussion about whether the company is failing. (archive of page 1)
Adventure Quest Worlds
An MMO version of Adventure Quest. It became a lightning hit in 2008 due to being the only major Flash MMO present at the time. This was also the turning point for the company's expectations as they expected every game after that would become as huge a hit, and would abandon it if not.
Herosmash
A game made in December 2010 that despite all claims to the contrary, Artix is deeply ashamed of. For one, the company blames players for not whaling hard enough. (archive)
Despite claiming that player support would be important in reviving the game, Artix and co utterly refuse to do anything about it, not even have the relatively cheap option of linking the game to the main page.
They had mixed messages until 2018. Though most of them were to pretend the game never had a fanbase at all.
Article about STEM Summer Camp 2015 (archive)
When pressed about whether they would include it on their launcher to port it off Flash, they had this to say.
Confirmation that the game would not be archived in any way. (archive)
Recently as of July 2020, the game blocks new character creation entirely, and some existing accounts appear to be unable to enter the game.
Oversoul
A card-battle MMORPG with hero-collection elements. Due to a severe bug in its sign up section (archive), it never received an audience. It was spared the bullying that the company used on HS only because the lead artist Nulgath / Miltonius was a good friend of Adam Bohn at the time.
Adventure Quest 3D
A 3D remake of Adventure Quest (the Lore Games version), though it is not as much as an upgrade as you'd expect. It is their first full foray into a non-Flash medium, having attempted mobile apps previously.
(source, archive)
Search for AQ3D criticism or the like on Twitter (archive) and you'll see the audience's expectations don't mesh with the devs'. It didn't help that the kickstarter raised said expectations.
Published Games
Artix Entertainment did not just create their own games. They attempted to publish some as well. Sadly, they also fell victim to the company's lack of endorsement.
Epicduel
Publication rights were acquired in 2009. (archive)
Gradually over time, players would become dissatisfied with how it turned into pay to win instead of PvP.
These days, the hashtag #EDCodes is the only way the company seems to want to interact with that particular game, with rare exceptions, Artix had this (archive) to say on behalf of the company. (archive)
Put The Record On
One of the first projects that Lunime of Gachalife (Formerly Xyo) tried to get off the ground. According to its sales pitch (archive) it was "A 2D Side-Scroller RPG Flash game where you are a DJ. Gather battle records to unleash powerful skills and save music from corruption!"
It was never published.
Going into how Lunime learned from example that abandoning projects rather than maintaining them for any reasonable length of time was appropriate is a tangent not fully suited for this post.
Eccentric rules
Besides the usual "no NSFW" and "common decency" that is standard for a general audience, Artix has some odd rules for his staff. Most notoriously the insistence on pseudonyms.
Second, though only implied, is that the company likes to leave old projects in the dust in favor of new ones. From the Lore Games for AQWorlds, then AQWorlds for AQ3D.
Third, they have made no bones about having volunteers contribute art assets (archive) to their games. That wouldn't seem so shady if not for the burnout previously stated in MechQuest.
Artix A-logs
Inevitably, there are people who rant and rave about Artix Games. One such is a former volunteer artist (archive) for AQWorlds.
Another recent A-log example. (Twitter) (archive) (Google Docs) (archive)
As given with A-logs, their criticisms tend to veer into nitpicking.
(archive)
(archive)
Props to Cheetahman for bringing up Ninjaty, a player notorious for snapping at people who are tired of rare collections.
Kickstarters
Currently, the company has completed 3 kickstarters: AQ3D, Moglins, and an NES game. As of writing, not all rewards have been released completely.
The AQ3D kickstarter (archive) was to earn funds in order to create and host the game.
Moglins (archive) was to produce a test run of stuffed toys based on a fictional species present in the Lore games.
The NES kickstarter (archive) is possibly the strangest, as it has been described as a personal project Artix wants to make.
Adam Bohn, or better known as his self-insert Artix Krieger, is the owner of Artix Entertainment. The company used to be somewhat of a landmark in the days of Flash games.
As time went on, the company's skeletons in the closet can't help coming out, despite the CEO's self insert being a paladin.
Basically, the company has become an example of how not to manage a business whose glory days are long over.
The Lore Games (Adventure Quest, Dragon Fable, MechQuest)
The first three games where they still retained their passion. While they were abandoned eventually, they at least were given some kind of endings.
However, in 2015, the project lead of MechQuest quit due to burnout. (archive)
This led to a forum discussion about whether the company is failing. (archive of page 1)
Adventure Quest Worlds
An MMO version of Adventure Quest. It became a lightning hit in 2008 due to being the only major Flash MMO present at the time. This was also the turning point for the company's expectations as they expected every game after that would become as huge a hit, and would abandon it if not.
Herosmash
A game made in December 2010 that despite all claims to the contrary, Artix is deeply ashamed of. For one, the company blames players for not whaling hard enough. (archive)
Despite claiming that player support would be important in reviving the game, Artix and co utterly refuse to do anything about it, not even have the relatively cheap option of linking the game to the main page.
They had mixed messages until 2018. Though most of them were to pretend the game never had a fanbase at all.
Article about STEM Summer Camp 2015 (archive)
When pressed about whether they would include it on their launcher to port it off Flash, they had this to say.
Confirmation that the game would not be archived in any way. (archive)
Recently as of July 2020, the game blocks new character creation entirely, and some existing accounts appear to be unable to enter the game.
Oversoul
A card-battle MMORPG with hero-collection elements. Due to a severe bug in its sign up section (archive), it never received an audience. It was spared the bullying that the company used on HS only because the lead artist Nulgath / Miltonius was a good friend of Adam Bohn at the time.
Adventure Quest 3D
A 3D remake of Adventure Quest (the Lore Games version), though it is not as much as an upgrade as you'd expect. It is their first full foray into a non-Flash medium, having attempted mobile apps previously.
(source, archive)
Search for AQ3D criticism or the like on Twitter (archive) and you'll see the audience's expectations don't mesh with the devs'. It didn't help that the kickstarter raised said expectations.
Published Games
Artix Entertainment did not just create their own games. They attempted to publish some as well. Sadly, they also fell victim to the company's lack of endorsement.
Epicduel
Publication rights were acquired in 2009. (archive)
Gradually over time, players would become dissatisfied with how it turned into pay to win instead of PvP.
These days, the hashtag #EDCodes is the only way the company seems to want to interact with that particular game, with rare exceptions, Artix had this (archive) to say on behalf of the company. (archive)
Put The Record On
One of the first projects that Lunime of Gachalife (Formerly Xyo) tried to get off the ground. According to its sales pitch (archive) it was "A 2D Side-Scroller RPG Flash game where you are a DJ. Gather battle records to unleash powerful skills and save music from corruption!"
It was never published.
Going into how Lunime learned from example that abandoning projects rather than maintaining them for any reasonable length of time was appropriate is a tangent not fully suited for this post.
Eccentric rules
Besides the usual "no NSFW" and "common decency" that is standard for a general audience, Artix has some odd rules for his staff. Most notoriously the insistence on pseudonyms.
Clipped from the PDF file attached to this thread. Highlighting for emphasis.
Second, though only implied, is that the company likes to leave old projects in the dust in favor of new ones. From the Lore Games for AQWorlds, then AQWorlds for AQ3D.
Third, they have made no bones about having volunteers contribute art assets (archive) to their games. That wouldn't seem so shady if not for the burnout previously stated in MechQuest.
Artix A-logs
Inevitably, there are people who rant and rave about Artix Games. One such is a former volunteer artist (archive) for AQWorlds.
Another recent A-log example. (Twitter) (archive) (Google Docs) (archive)
As given with A-logs, their criticisms tend to veer into nitpicking.
(archive)
(archive)
Props to Cheetahman for bringing up Ninjaty, a player notorious for snapping at people who are tired of rare collections.
Kickstarters
Currently, the company has completed 3 kickstarters: AQ3D, Moglins, and an NES game. As of writing, not all rewards have been released completely.
The AQ3D kickstarter (archive) was to earn funds in order to create and host the game.
Moglins (archive) was to produce a test run of stuffed toys based on a fictional species present in the Lore games.
The NES kickstarter (archive) is possibly the strangest, as it has been described as a personal project Artix wants to make.
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, this is quite a feature. 
