It’s been a year now – a year of fighting to defend Haven, a year of the Clockworks whirring and clanking and humming below the surface of Cradle … a year of Spiral Knights!

It’s been my pleasure to have seen this game and work with it — even if from a slight distance — since its earliest stages. We first saw it here at SEGA over two years ago, with only some of the “core” ideas in place, but it had that distinct feel that only certain games have. It was exciting and was bursting with color and creativity — I feel just fine gushing about what is officially a SEGA game since it was the fine folks at Three Rings who had put their blood, sweat, and mist energy into the game. I was just a lucky guy who got to look at the game and help out a bit, as it grew and changed and turned into the marvelous adventure it is today.

First up, we have a special Anniversary Celebration — with cake. And we know how everyone on the internet loves their cake. Once you check out that info, if your’e a Spiral Knights fan and you’re feeling nostalgic, feel free to keep reading at the end for some highlights of Spiral Knights inaugural year.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SPIRAL KNIGHTS!

We are pleased to announce a special event for the first anniversary of Spiral Knights. Join in on the fun now through April 10th, 2012!

It’s a Caketastrophe!
Visit the Haven Town Square to meet the Skylark’s Head Chef, Biscotti. She will inform you of a ‘situation’ at hand that involves hordes of monstrous cakes known as ‘Creep Cakes.’ Helping her solve this ‘situation’ will reward you with cake helms!

Features include:

• A new Prestige Mission, ‘Total Caketastrophe’ is available during the event
• Biscotti, Maskwell and Bulky can be found in the Haven Town Square
• Creep Cake nests can be found randomly within the Clockworks
• Participating in these events will reward you with Cake Slice tokens
• Maskwell now trades Cake Helms in exchange for Cake Slices
• Bulky now sells confetti and Cake Slice tokens

*Please note, the Frosted Helm and Foiled Frosted Helm will expire, however the Prismatic Frosted Helm lasts forever!*

Get the Anniversary Prize Pack!
To celebrate the first anniversary of Spiral Knights, the Haven Treasury is giving away a FREE Anniversary Prize Pack with the purchase of any $9.95 energy purchase! The prize pack contains a random assortment of goodies that includes:

• Handfuls of confetti (always included)

4% Chance:

• Cool Birthday Candle
• Divine Birthday Candle
• Regal Birthday Candle
• Military Birthday Candle
• Heavy Birthday Candle
• Fancy Birthday Candle
• Dusky Birthday Candle
• Toasty Birthday Candle
• Cool Party Hat
• Divine Party Hat
• Regal Party Hat
• Military Party Hat
• Heavy Party Hat
• Fancy Party Hat
• Dusky Party Hat
• Toasty Party Hat
• Cool Party Blowout
• Divine Party Blowout
• Regal Party Blowout
• Military Party Blowout
• Heavy Party Blowout
• Fancy Party Blowout
• Dusky Party Blowout
• Toasty Party Blowout

2% Chance:

• Volcanic Party Hat
• Divine Party Hat
• Prismatic Party Hat
• Volcanic Party Blowout
• Divine Party Blowout
• Prismatic Party Blowout
• Volcanic Birthday Candle
• Divine Birthday Candle
• Prismatic Birthday Candle

1% Chance:

• Shadow Party Blowout
• Shadow Party Hat
• Shadow Birthday Candle
• Sprinkle Aura (yes, your knight will be covered in delicious sprinkles!)

Prize Pack Details
Offer available through April 10, 2012. All prize pack items are delivered UNBOUND.

As a special bonus, each purchase has a chance of receiving DOUBLE PRIZES!

For additional changes, please see the official patch notes!

Spiral Retrospective

…And now, some personal favorite highlights from the past year.

‘Twas Brillig, in the Gloaming Woods: One of the early boss-level updates, and still a favorite. The Gloaming Wildwoods are a moody, challenging journey through the depths of a dark wood. Wiffle through that tulgey wood, my beamish Knights, Vorpal sword in hand!

The Sound of (Spiral) Music: I’ve been a fan of music in games since the days of 8-bit soundtracks and Michael Z. Land, and Spiral Knights soundtrack is currently one of my favorites. So this covers pretty much all of the past year, but I thought it was pretty cool the soundtrack was made available for purchase in pretty much every medium you could wish.

A Thousand and One Knights and then a Whole Lot More: Last July Spiral Knights surpassed one million registered users.

Meet Your Friends in Fierce & Unequal Combat (And Blow Them Up): I’m not anywhere near the fan of player versus player that I used to be, but this was a tremendously fun addition — and it was very cool to see PvP added to Spiral Knights. A clever tribute to Bomberman (okay, it pretty much is Bomberman, but who’s going to argue? Bomberman is awesome).

Five Star Loot: Spiral Knights Takes Home a GDC Online Award!: It’s always nice to see people’s hard work rewarded — or in this case, awarded. Last Fall, Spiral Knights was nominated for a number of GDC Online awards, and took home the hardware for Best Online Game Design!

This Level Will Self Destruct:  Yes, Spiral Knights has always been about killing monsters, taking their stuff, and et cetera. But those who have paid attention to the hints and lore of the game have always known there was more to Cradle than met the eye, and the introduction of the Missions system represented not just a whole new way to play the game, but a huge step into the shadowy lore of a mystery that, one year in, is still unraveling, deep within the Clockworks!