The Summer Games have been besieged by evil once more, but maybe this year you can play for the other team. Maybe it's fun being evil?

The following Crusaders will get a buff this weekend starting from today until 12 pm PDT on Monday August 28th.

• Veronica, the Android Archer - Precise Aim ability +200%
• Sasha, the Fierce Warrior - Bulwark ability +200%
• Bubba, the Swimming Orc - Synchronized Swimmming +200%
• Fire Phoenix - All DPS +200%
• Merci, the Mad Wizard - Deflect Evil ability +200%

Also, check out the limited-time Evil Jeweled Chests that contain equipment for the five Crusaders above!

(Please note: The chest will only contain gear for Veronica and Bubba if you've unlocked them. You can purchase the Golden Epic for Bubba, even if you don't have him, and it will show up on him once you earn him.)

Time for The Big Game! It's almost the end of a long, never-ending season of football. The Crusaders get a special weekend buff as they dig in for the final quarter.

The following Crusaders will get a buff this weekend starting from today until 12 pm PST on Monday February 6th.

• Sasha, the Fierce Warrior - Bulwark Ability +200%
• King Reginald IV - Royal Grail Ability +200%
• Nate Dragon - All Gold Find +200%
• Serpent King Draco - Base DPS +400%
• Drizzle - Running Play, Lateral, and Hail Mary Abilities +200%

Also, check out the limited-time Big Game Jeweled Chests that contain equipment for the five Crusaders above! (Please note: The chest will only contain gear for Drizzle and Draco if you've unlocked them.)

After a giant, surreal opening ceremony we are delighted to declare the Crusaders of the Lost Idols Summer Games open!

However, as usual with huge international events, nefarious ne'er-do-wells plot to disrupt the pageantry and sportsmanship. Despite his name, Dr. Evil escaped the surveillance programs put in place by the organizers. Now he has made off with the Summer Games Flashlight, the Duracell-powered symbol of sport (and convenient portable lighting when it gets dark).

The Crusaders have been hired to not only locate the aforementioned flashlight but also protect the event. That responsibility starts with the safe conduct of two new Crusaders.

New Crusader: Veronica, the Android Archer

Veronica, the Android Archer, certainly won't fail the doping tests, but something suggests she's going to have an unfair advantage in the archery competition. We can't quite put our finger on it. Whatever.

For the first objective, the heroes must escort her to area 100 as part of her training. Unfortunately for the Crusaders her Russian-purchased hardware is malfunctioning shooting sparks at the rest of the formation every 30-45 seconds reducing the global DPS by 50% for 15 seconds at a time.

At area 100 she'll return from the maintenance bay ready to aid the Crusaders. Her upgrades buff those around her with increasing damage based on the number of other robot Crusaders in your formation.

New Crusader: Bubba, the Swimming Orc

The second Crusader is Bubba, the Swimming Orc. With a name like that, it's no wonder Bubba didn't do so well at other disciplines like the equestrian trials and hockey.

Bubba is excellent at swimming. He's so good, in fact, he's earned himself a fervent following of fans who attack the Crusaders to get to him until they reach area 100.

Once recruited, Bubba uses his superior swimming ability at level 25 to buff the DPS of the Crusaders behind him by 25% for every adjacent Crusader. At level 100, Bubba will increase the Gold Find of every Crusader behind him not affected by his Synchronized Swimming ability by 10%.

New Objective: Press Junket

The remaining three objectives are Podium Finish, Press Junket, and Corrupt Officials. In Podium Finish three medals take up formation slots all the way to area 150. in Press Junket angry reporters demanding explanations for your lackluster performances attack the Crusaders. Block them all with 'no comment' and swift cuffs to the head. The final objective will see corrupt officials bribe random Crusaders to throw the race all the way to area 250 and reduce their DPS.

Dr. Evil's Summer Sabotage Challenge

In the spirit of competition the world over right now, we have a special announcement. Three of our good friends on YouTube are going to be competing against each other to finish Dr. Evil's Summer of Sabotage event with the winner earning a free jeweled chest for each and every one of their subscribers.

Hailing from the United States is MrBayEasy. An idle gamer of Olympian ability, MrBayEasy has been playing Crusaders from way back in October last year. From Germany, Bensch is another giant of the idle games pantheon with more than 130 Crusaders videos under his belt on his channel. Last, but by no means least, we have Brothgar also hailing from the United States. Brothgar's idle game pedigree is uncontested with many years of playing both Crusaders and other games on his channel.

1st Prize: Free Jeweled Chest for Every Subscriber

As mentioned, the winner will earn a free jeweled chest for every one of their subscribers!. The rules are simple, the contender who finishes all five objectives in the event in the shortest time will be named the champion. Due to time zones and other commitments, we'll be recording each of their start and finish times as opposed to the launch of the event.

You can follow their progress by checking out their respective YouTube channels. We'll be sharing their videos on Facebook and Twitter plus hosting their live streams on the official Crusaders of the Lost Idols Twitch account.

We're excited and honored to be hosting such illustrious company and wish each competitor good luck. We'll announce the winner in the coming days.

The Dr. Evil's Summer Sabotage event will run until August 22nd at Noon PDT.

Jim walked into his living room, cradling his warm cup of coffee. Sasha was sitting on the couch in her bathrobe, staring at her laptop as the morning sunlight lit the room.

“Gosh, I am tired. I really wish that I had gotten more sleep last night.” Jim mumbled sleepily.

After a moment, he looked at Sasha, “Hello? Are you listening to me? Wait a minute... are you playing that game again?!?"

"Of course! Crusaders of the Lost Idols is great." Sasha responded indignantly without looking up from her screen.

"Ugh! I hate that game. You don't do anything in that game. There is no destruction or competition.”

"But Jim, I have almost got all of the event achievements and look at my gear! I finally got this epic item that I have been wanting. Also, it is fun to tweak my formation until I get the most optimal progress in the game." Sasha sighed.

"Come on Sasha! You know that I don't collect achievements in games like Diablo 3 and WoW. Why would I enjoy them in this game?" Jim said scratching his red beard.

"Hold your horses there boys and girls.” says a man in a lab coat, as he steps into the room. “My name is Dr. Nick Yee. You may remember me from my series of instructional videos on gamer motivations. Did you know that people play video games for different reasons?" Nick adjusted his glasses, set down his clipboard and sat down to provide a more detailed explanation.

Quantic Foundry

Okay. Okay. None of this really happened. Obviously, Sasha and Jim are fictional characters from our games and even though Nick Yee does exist, he hasn't interrupted their argument with his words of wisdom. I don't think Nick wears glasses, and I have never seen him in a labcoat with a clipboard.

However, Nick Yee is a researcher who has produced some very impressive work on the motivations of those who play video games. I have followed his work for many years, and I highly suggest that you check it out. It is fascinating.

If you are reading this, you probably enjoy playing video games. And most of us like to believe that our friends who play video games must be playing them for the same reasons that we do. After all, they are our friends, and we all enjoy this common activity of playing games.

However, what Nick Yee's research explores is the different motivations for why people play video games. He has developed a test which is kind of like a personality test. However, instead of telling you whether or not you are introverted or extroverted, his test tells you what aspects of video games you like. This test, the Gamer Motivation Profile (https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/lab/10/crusaders), is free for anyone to take and can be very illuminating.

Eric's Gaming Style: Calm, Driven, Gregarious, Immersed, and Inquisitive

For example, when I took the test, I found out that I scored very high on the Achievement motivation. The motivation is composed of two subcategories: Completion and Power. If you enjoyed collecting Star Wars cards as a kid (as I did) or getting all of the achievements in WoW (another activity that I enjoy), then the odds are that Completion is an important motivation for you. The Power subcategory is about wanting to increase your power in a game. So this can be things like getting better gear to improve your damage (DPS) or increasing your character stats.

A typical RPG progression curve is something that I really enjoy. This would normally involve collecting better gear to get more powerful, leveling up with the accompanying increase in stats (more power!), and hopefully lots of achievements for me to collect as well. Games like Diablo 3 and WoW are great matches for my motivations.

The life of an RPG Gamer

Interestingly, idle games like Crusaders of the Lost Idols also provide experiences that match my motivations really well. Even though I would never have considered this genre of simple games to have much overlap with triple A games like Diablo 3 or WoW, it turns out that they do. Simple idle games and more complex RPGs both provide increasing power and stats combined with a collection of achievements and other items.

So having seen my Gamer Motivation results, I can understand why I find both genres of games to be so compelling.

What I find equally interesting is that it also explains the reaction of some of my friends when I tell them how much I enjoy idle games. Some of my friends also love idle games. However, some do not, and they find the genre’s appeal to be surprising. The Achievement motivation that is so strong up for me is not something that is strong for those that don’t like idle games. In hindsight, this makes perfect sense. These are the same friends who enjoyed playing WoW, but couldn't understand why I spent so much time collecting achievements in the game. We were both enjoying different aspects of WoW. I was enjoying the collection elements while they were enjoying the PvP elements of the game. Even though we were both playing the same game, we were doing it for different reasons.

So, I think if Sasha and Jim were to take Nick Yee's survey, they would discover that they play video games for different reasons. Sasha clearly enjoys power progression and collection, while Jim enjoys action and excitement elements.

If you are interested in learning about what makes you tick when it comes to games, then you should take the survey too. You can find it here.

Blog post by Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment.

We like to think of Crusaders as the gift that keeps on giving and today we give you another update. We've added two new objectives for the Mischief at Mugwarts campaign and two new objectives to the Ready Player Two campaign.

In Accio Monsters, the Crusaders accidentally cast an Accio charm, and now monsters move 10x faster than normal! You're going to have to create your most effective tank line to block the onslaught of monsters all the way to area 450.

Monsters are 10x faster in the Accio Monsters Objective

If you thought that was rough, it's going to get rougher than a sandpaper-covered loofah in The Final Battle objective. Deadly magic is flying everywhere, and death curses will randomly spawn and one-shot your front-most Crusaders until they wipe your formation. Good luck reaching area 500.

Death magic one-shots your Crusaders in the The Final Battle objective

Making games isn't as easy as you think. Sometimes bugs creep in. In Glitch Out, the Crusaders will experience a whole host of random glitches that will both help and hinder your progress to area 450. Some will temporarily boost your DPS by +400% while other gremlins in the code will deactivate all your formation abilities. It's going to be a digital roller coaster.

Glitches randomly affect Crusaders on this journey to area 450

The final new objective, Video Game of Thrones only allows you to pick Royal Crusaders for your formation to reach 450. That means you'll be limited to their Royal Highnesses Princess, Sal, Brogon, Thalia, Reginald, Siri and Leerion.

Only Royal Crusaders are available in the Video Game of Thrones objective

To celebrate the new objectives and the beginning of the summer we're going to give five lucky Crusaders white-hot buffs to complement their formation abilities and DPS until Monday June 6 at 12pm PDT.

• Sasha: +200% Bulwark Ability
• Natalie Dragon: +400% Base DPS
• Khouri: +200% Koffee Potion ability
• Merci: +100% Gold buff
• Queen Siri: +100% Queen's Decree ability

We can't wait to hear what you think of the new additions to the game!

Our new event, A Song of Thrones, sees Queen Siri's throne of pillows under fire from enemy factions. They'll stop at nothing and no one to depose Queen Siri, so the band must recruit new Crusaders to help defend the crown.

New Crusder: Leerion, the Royal Dwarf

New Crusader: Brogon, Prince of Dragons

New Crusader Leerion is the youngest of his siblings with a face only a mother could love on his large, knobbly head. However, what he lacks in physical features, he makes up by being a silver-tongued charmer and a capable treasurer.

Until recruited from the first objective, he'll put his charms to use distracting any female Crusaders in the formation and debuff their DPS by 50%. Once recruited he'll use his wily intellect to increase your gold find.

The second new Crusader is Brogon, a scaly dragon that is totally yoked, brah. When he's not in the dragon gym, he's downing brewskis with his bromies. So much swag can't be contained. When the Crusaders first meet Brogon in the second objective, he's a total anti-bro. He periodically breathes fire, disrupting adjacent Crusaders by reducing their DPS by 50%.

Once you've completed the second objective, it's all bropacetic from then on, and he'll heal non-adjacent Crusaders before he brings the brocalypse by slowing the furthest enemy with his Molten Shoes ability.

The remaining three objectives include Minifinger's Debts, where the Crusaders must escort the Master of Gold to are 150. Every 1-5 minutes he randomly spends all your coins paying off the kingdom's debts requiring you to intercept the cash for upgrades or lose out.

The Flaming Lady objective is another escort mission. The night is long and full of terrors, so it's important to bring along suitable lighting. The Flaming Lady and three braziers (that's *braziers*) take up four slots. She peeks into the flames periodically, buffing and debuffing Crusaders as the flames prophesize.

The final new event objective is The White Runners. These immortal wintery monsters can't be killed. Instead, they stack-up until you're overwhelmed and wipe you out. You'll continue to kill other monsters, but it'll require your best tanking strategies to win the day.

The event will run until Tuesday May 31st at Noon PDT.

*bzzzt* What was that? *puff* Was that a puff of smoke emanating from the back of your PC? And what happened to Crusaders of the Lost Idols?!

It looks like your video card has experienced a malfunction and to get back to its DirectX 12 former glory, you'll need to battle your way through the history of gaming.

This brand new campaign is an epic journey through seven zones from the earliest ASCII-based games, and the golden years of 8-bit and 16-bit gaming all the way up to 4K, VR-infused modern era.

To complement the new campaign Jason, Sarah, Gryphon, Artaxes, and Pam get a limited time buff to enhance their powers and it's applied automatically!



As well as the automatic buff, you can purchase a unique Chest! Inside this special chest you'll find 2 pieces of gear, 1 of which is guaranteed to be Rare or better, for only those 5 Crusaders! Will you get a piece you're missing? Plus, you get 2 Trinkets and a Time Warp.

The special buff and sale will run until Monday, April 25th at Noon PDT!

Check out all the new objectives in the campaign below:

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, April 18, 2016 – Codename Entertainment announced today that its award-winning clicker/idle game will be released on iOS and Android globally this summer and will be published by Kongregate, the leading publisher of mobile and web games and wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corporation.

New Design for Mobile



Crusaders of the Lost Idols is a fantasy strategy game that launched on Kongregate.com last year. Currently, it is one of the most played games on the site out more than 107,000 titles. It is the only clicker/idle game with a formation strategy feature which has inspired individual players to log thousands of hours playing time.

Gamers who are attending PAX East 2016 in Boston, MA, between April 22 to 24 will have the exclusive chance to play the pre-release mobile version at Kongregate's booth.

"We're very excited to be launching on mobile. The game has gone from strength to strength and now we can reach more fans on mobile devices," said Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment. "We've enjoyed a long, successful partnership with Kongregate, and they were the natural choice for publishing our first ever mobile game."

Same Great Formation Strategy!



"We are excited to partner with Codename Entertainment on their hit title Crusaders of the Lost Idols.” said Emily Greer, CEO and co-founder of Kongregate. “We’ve seen great success helping developers to optimize and perfect their games on Kongregate.com before tackling mobile together, and we think this game further validates that strategy."

KEY FEATURES:

• Unique Formation Strategy: The only clicker/idle game to feature a formation system. Unique character abilities, buffs, and gear challenge the player to find the best formation every campaign.
• A Host of Unusual Characters: Colourful characters, some based in the broader world of video games and geek culture with more added every month.
• Hundreds of Areas to Play: Deep playability and challenge split over five campaigns and 46 objectives with more campaigns and objectives released regularly.
• More than 280 types of Gear, Buffs, and Upgrades: A cornucopia of deep content awaits the player. Unique upgrades by character coupled with special gear and buffs demands players master their strengths and weaknesses to succeed.
• Daily Quests: Every day players are challenged with mini objectives that will reward them with precious red rubies once completed.
• Events: Regular limited-time events featuring special objectives and exclusive new content.

Available worldwide this summer, Crusaders of the Lost Idols will be available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Google Play for Android devices.

For more information on Crusaders of the Lost Idols go to www.codenameentertainment.com

ABOUT CRUSADERS OF THE LOST IDOLS Crusaders of the Lost Idols is the award-winning and top-rated idle/clicker game that has been played over 14 million times on across all platforms since its launch in July of last year. It is the only idle/clicker game to include a formation feature where players learn to master the strategy of organizing their party of characters into the most powerful, monster-destroying formation possible.

The position of each Crusader next to his or her companions has a significant effect on their attack strength. Combined with Crusaders enhanced by abilities, buffs, and upgrades, this unique feature adds an unrivaled complexity never before seen in the idle genre.

ABOUT CODENAME ENTERTAINMENT: Codename Entertainment was founded in 2008 in Victoria, B.C. by David Whittaker and Justin Stocks. They started making games for Facebook and evolved into making games for platforms like Kongregate.com, ArmorGames, and Steam. In 2015, the company launched Crusaders of the Lost Idols. It was awarded the Idle Game of the Year on Armor Games, is one of the most played games on Kongregate.com out of more than 107,000. Players have racked up over 14 million unique plays across all platforms, and more than 1.2 million hours played per month on Steam.

Codename Entertainment and Crusaders of the Lost Idols are trademarks of Codename Entertainment Inc. All other products named herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

ABOUT KONGREGATE Kongregate is a leading mobile game publisher and web gaming portal. Kongregate's mobile publishing focuses on free to play mid- and hard-core titles. Working closely with mobile game developers Kongregate provides consulting, analytics, marketing, launch support, and game features such as cross promotion, guilds, and chat. Kongregate’s mobile games have been downloaded tens of millions of times and have hundreds of millions of gameplays. Kongregate's web portal features over 100,000 free games played by tens of millions of gamers per month. Kongregate is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corporation and is based in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2006 by brother-and-sister team Jim and Emily Greer.

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, January 15, 2016 – Codename Entertainment announced today that Crusaders of the Lost Idols has been named Best Sim/Idle game for the ArmorGames.com Games of the Year 2015.

The ArmorGames Game of the Year Awards recognizes the very best and brightest in digital entertainment both on browser and mobile from within its portfolio vast library of published games.

“To not only be nominated for an award, but to be chosen to win, is a distinction that goes beyond words. Crusaders of the Lost Idols has been, and continues to be, a passion project for all of us at Codename Entertainment. Thank you to the fans who play Crusaders and thank you to AmorGames for this recognition. We’re both honored and humbled.” said Codename Entertainment CEO Eric Jordan.

Crusaders of the Lost Idols is a top rated Idle/Clicker game that has been played over 10 million times and is available on ArmorGames.com and other platforms. Fans worldwide have come to appreciate the unique formation that are unique to Crusaders in the genre. Players must utilize strategy and learn to master the art of organizing their band into the most powerful formation possible.

Find Crusaders of the Lost Idols on ArmorGames: http://armorgames.com/crusaders-of-the-lost-idols-game/17824

ABOUT CODENAME ENTERTAINMENT: Codename Entertainment was founded in 2008 in Victoria, B.C. by David Whittaker and Justin Stocks. They started making games for Facebook and evolved into making games for platforms like Kongregate.com, ArmorGames, and Steam. In 2015, the company launched Crusaders of the Lost Idols. It was awarded the Idle Game of the Year on Armor Games, is the top rated Idle Game on Kongregate.com, has over 10 million unique plays, and more than 1.1 million hours played per month on Steam.

Codename Entertainment and Crusaders of the Lost Idols are trademarks of Codename Entertainment Inc. All other products named herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Victoria, British Columbia, 4 August 2015 - Today, veteran games studio Codename Entertainment announced the global launch of Crusaders of the Lost Idols, the next evolution of idle gaming. The game debuted at number 1 in the Idle Games charts on Kongregate.com - the largest dedicated web gaming site in the world.

Crusaders of the Lost Idols puts players in charge of a band of fighters set in the fantasy world of Bush Whacker 2. Their mission is to form a mighty group of adventurers to take on waves of enemies as they rid the world of evil-doers, bad guys, terrible T-Rex, irritable escargot and Panda Claw. Yes, that’s right, a giant panda with lobster claws.

In a unique twist to the new Idle Games category, Crusaders is the only game to include a unique formation feature. Players must now learn to master the art of organising their band into the most powerful formation possible.

The position of each fighter in relation to his or her companions will have a significant effect their attack strength. Combined with their equipped buffs and upgrades, this unique feature adds deep complexity to the idle genre. Another key feature of the game is the chance to earn the chests filled with rewards. As your heroes clear each level, they'll be matched-up against a boss character. If your Crusaders win, they'll be rewarded with gold, buffs and equipment to level-up their abilities.

Only those players who develop the best combination of formation, characters, buffs and upgrades will survive.

“We’re delighted to enable gamers around the world to play our latest game,” said Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment. “Our beta player feedback was very positive with some players saying they were losing sleep because they were so hooked. We’re looking forward to more players trying Crusaders and also losing sleep because they can’t stop playing.”

Currently the top-rated Idle Game on Kongregate.com, the game is available now:

Crusaders of the Lost Idols on Kongregate:
http://bit.ly/CrusadersOfTheLostIdols

Crusaders of the Lost Idols on Facebook: https://apps.facebook.com/lostidols/