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Neopets San Diego Comic Con 2018 and TNT Community Updates!

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#1 DogeWow

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Posted 26 July 2018 - 04:20 AM

Please notify me if these event and updates has been talked about here in Codex before.

Here is what's been happening with Neopets lately.
Come and discuss what you guys think about these event and recent updates!



NEOPETS COMIC CON EVENT:


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Event Purpose

 

Everyone that Perry talked to iterated that the goal for having an outreach event like this is to begin connecting more with the Neopets community. Every staff member Perry had the opportunity to chat with emphasized that it is a big priority for Jumpstart to interact more and develop the community—which is great news in our opinion, and something a lot of Neopians will enjoy!

Jumpstart also wasn't expecting the response they received to the event. They mentioned multiple times that they would like to do this again, and be sure to have a larger venue to accommodate more Neopians who may wish to join, including possibly having an outdoor venue for even more space. (From what we've seen for this party, though, everyone who showed up was able to get in, both ticketed and standby Neopians!)

Attendees

The Neopets players at the event were a diverse crowd; men and women of various ages and appearance, and everyone was psyched to be there.

A wide range of Jumpstart staff was on hand to meet with users, including Scrappy, Jade, Hip-Hop Queen, and Dark Lord (the CEO of Jumpstart).

In addition, there were programmers, artists, marketers and developers mingling and chatting with attendees.

Announcements

During the party, Dark Lord spent some time making a few big announcements to the crowd:

  1. Neopets Legends & Letters is the new mobile app that they were debuting at Comic Con. There's no firm release date yet, but they're aiming for Q4 (October - December) of this year.
  2. A new mobile friendly website is coming for Neopets, projected to be released after Legends & Letters.
  3. Another new app is currently in development (no official title yet) that was described as a "Neopian world building" game.

 

Neopets Legends & Letters

 

The star of the after party was Neopets Legends & Letters, the new mobile app that Jumpstart has been developing for Neopets. This is a completely new mobile app that has been developed from the ground up, specifically building from Neopets lore using Neopets characters. (Compared to Ghoul Catchers, which was a re-skinned version of an older game Jumpstart produced.)

The game has been described by TNT as "Scrabble meets Neopets battling." In other words, it'll be a word puzzle game. There will be power-ups to help you get through levels, and there will also be various stories to accompany the gameplay, but those are still in development.
 

The mobile game is stand-alone; it will link to your Neopets account but won't use your particular Neopets. (It wasn't feasible to make the wide variety of existing pet types work with the game art—of which there are thousands.)

The game currently does not have a set release date, but Jumpstart is aiming to get it done by Q4 2018 (aka some time between October and December). During his announcements, Dark Lord acknowledged that JumpStart has had some bumps with Neopets releases, and said that there would be "no releasing a product until it's ready."

There was also an animated promo video on loop at the event. Here's a recorded video of that promo video:

comic_con_2018_legends_title_screen.jpg

http://www.jellyneo....promo_video.mp4

 

 

Mobile Friendly Website

 

Details are sparse on this one, but Jumpstart is planning on releasing a mobile-friendly version of Neopets.com. Again, this doesn't have a hard set release date yet, but they're planning on releasing it after Legends & Letters gets released.

The old (currently existing) website isn't going away, and they are hoping to update as many of the existing Flash games as possible, focusing on the most popular ones first. Dark Lord acknowledged that not all games could or would be easily converted to a mobile form, however.

Annual events like Daily Dare and Altador Cup will also continue. As many as possible will be included in the mobile version.

It sounds like this website will run in tandem with the existing Neopets.com website, so we'll need to wait and see what actually happens. (Converting a website to be mobile friendly is hard, especially one that's nearly two decades old.)

Neopets World Builder Game

Again, not too many details on this announced game either. However, Perry described the game as Sim City-like in that you'll be building various worlds themed on existing Neopian worlds. (We've also seen it described by other attendees as similar in concept to Disney's Magic Kingdoms mobile app.)

There was no stated release date for this app, but it's currently in active development with its own team of developers and producers. (In other words, different TNT staff members than those working on the Neopets.com website and those working on Legends & Letters!)

There are currently about 5 or 6 of the more popular Neopian worlds set in production to be in the game.

Development Teams

All together, they now have four separate development teams working on Neopets content. One to fix and maintain the existing website; one to work on the new mobile-friendly version of the website; one working on Legends & Letters; and a fourth (based in Vancouver, Canada) working on the Neopets world builder game.
 

Swag

 

Party attendees also received their very own real-life Mystery Capsule, which included:

  • A Neopets-branded lunch bag
  • A pack of gummy bears (Perry says: Sadly, not Gummy Hissis)
  • A plastic Neopets-branded cup
  • A Faerie Kacheek notepad or Neopets pen
  • A Blue Vandagyre plushie (the first of its kind!)
  • And, a VIP welcome letter


    comic_con_2018_swag00.jpg

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And here's a close up of the VIP letter:


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The Future of Neopets


 

Based on conversations Perry had with Hip-Hop Queen and Dark Lord, Jumpstart really wants to push Neopets to new heights. The acquisition of Jumpstart by NetDragon last year has been good for Neopets, as they have been very supportive of developing the Neopets brand. (From Jellyneo's perspective, this also seems to line up with around the time we noticed an increased push in new content and more Neocash items.)

Hip-Hop Queen said that her vision is for the Jumpstart marketing team to build off of interactions with the Neopets fanbase; good marketing should be dynamically informed by the players' feedback and interaction. And as we mentioned above, based on the reaction to this Comic-Con event, they would really like to have more events in the future in bigger venues.

They also want to fix up loose ends and work on their quality control. Hip-Hop Queen envisions developing an online community where the focus moves away from fixing tickets, and she hopes that we players are seeing their efforts to get the negative issues like tickets cleared up more quickly so the focus can be more on positive interactions.

To wrap it up, Hip-Hop Queen summed up her goal as "trying to make mass changes with the community to push things for the better." This theme of developing the community was echoed by every Jumpstart employee that Perry spoke with, and was clearly their collective goal for the event.



 

The Booth

This year, Jumpstart was set up at Booth #5566 in the convention hall. Unlike the party, this are was only accessible to those who had a Comic-Con badge, which are very difficult to obtain. (They sell out in record times each year.)

Like the party, the booth was set up to advertise the new Legends & Letters app and allow Neopets fans to mingle and chat with the Neopets staff. The booth also shared space with School of Dragons, one of Jumpstart's other games. (Based on the How to Train Your Dragon movie franchise.)

This year, blink_darkphoenix was able to get onto the convention floor and snap a few photos for us!

Here's what blink_darkphoenix had to say about this year's booth:

And here are some photos of the booth set up:

comic_con_2018_booth_01_th.jpgThe overall booth was similar to 2014's event, showcasing the same papercraft and providing a photobooth, but with a bit more emphasis on Neopets as well as School of Dragons. Video promos of Legends & Letters, a general video of Neopets itself, and some School of Dragons were shown. Jade, Hip-Hop Queen, and Jumpstart's creative director (currently an unnamed TNT'er) were all in the booth.

The photobooth was basically the prominent feature for the booth along with the virtual codes. There were five selections (three School of Dragons and two Neopets) with the two being Mystery Island and Haunted Woods/Neovia themed.

They gave out virtual prize codes for both School of Dragons and Neopets. They put out three to four at a time at the front while putting the rest in the back due to an incident from previous days. They also scanned the badges so only one per attendee. They also gave out Vandagyre and SoD Plushies to us as a small token for taking the time. However, the plushies weren't given out to everyone. If asked or just had a passion to chat with them, they were willing to give them out.

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UPDATES FROM THE STAFF AND DURING THE COMIC CON EVENT THIS YEAR:


+Key Quest

Dark Lord [Jumpstart CEO] has announced [at Comic Con] that [Key Quest] will be returning as a mobile game.

+Battledome Sid:
I don't think he should ever appear in the Battledome as a regular challenger. The way he used to appear is fun, and I have asked the programmers to keep him working the same way when he's back.

+Illusen/Jhudora Quests
One user brought up how r99 item collections have devalued in recent years due to Charity Corner events, and suggested freshening up the Illusen/Jhudora quest prizes to entice users to "use" r99s:
Adding new prizes to Jhudora/Illusen quests is a great idea, and I can have the team start work on that really soon.


+Trading in r99's for r101 stamps:
Trading r99 items for r101 stamps is more complicated, and we'll have to really think it through before we implement anything of that sort.
I assure you that we will be extremely careful with how we release the rare stamps.


+Guilds
Fixing guild logos is on the list of bugs that we've created for the programmers to wade through when they have some spare time.

+Avatars
We most certainly do want to introduce an avatar for Vandagyres.
We've already started work on adding new avatars to the site, and we're always on the lookout for interesting places to add them. Avatars for games are very much on my priority list, and I've noted both of those games (and the neodeck) down so we can consider adding avatars to them.


+Account Security
As for account security, I cannot say what the plans are, but I can let the right people know that this is a concern.

+Puzzle Adventure Codes
I am not aware of this issue or what's being done about it, so no ETA. If the person in touch with you has told you that it's coming, it should be coming.

+Paint Brush
Valentine and Shenkuu Paint brushes are both great ideas - I've thought about releasing them as Paint Brushes too - I will ask the art team to keep them in mind for the next time we want to release a new paint brush.

+Return of Other Site Features
Almost Abandoned Attic - yes, we want to bring it back.
Spring Gift Basket RE - I want to get the Tooth Faerie RE fixed too, so I'll ask the programmer to take a look at this when they're fixing that.


+Premium
Regarding Premium (and the upcoming still TBD sale):
The team is currently preoccupied with a couple of cool features they're trying to add to Premium accounts before the annual Premium sale. (Also, for those who brought up Premium bugs in the last session - they should be resolved soon after the sale, if not done by then.)



Prize Pools
Regarding updating the creative contest (Art Gallery, Caption Contest, etc.) prize pool:
I'll have a word with the person in charge of the prizes, and see what we can come up with.

Regarding updating prize pools in general with items that were previously expensive/had worth:
These days, when we update prize pools with a specific list, we try to make sure all existing items chosen are selling for 1000 NP or less. If there are dailies that choose from any r90 item available, I will change that.


"In Progress" Page
Regarding TNT maintaining an in progress page for issues they're working on:
sounds great, but I'm not sure that's the best idea. Many times there are issues that a programmer begins looking into, but because of some reason or the other (turns out to be too complicated/another high priority issue comes up/it takes too long and is put off until a later time..) it is kept aside.
So a list like that may not really reflect what is happening in office. Either way, I'll talk to the others and see if they think differently.


Battledome
Regarding the return of Defenders of Neopia:
DoN - not until the BD is fixed


Regarding the return of old plot challengers:
Right now, our top priorities are those items that came out at the top from the survey. We haven't thought about the BD beyond those items for now. Among them, we have updating the BD prize pool, FYI.

Account Purges
Regarding whether there will be another one:
Account purge - Scrappy should have some info about this. I've checked with her, and I'll give you an update when I get one.

Regarding making sure that people who have been locked out of their accounts are able to get back in before a purge:
That's a good point. I'll ask Scrappy to give fair warning and perhaps dedicate resources to addressing these issues before we do a purge.


Stamps
Regarding the release of new stamps/album items:
Yes, we will be adding stamps to albums taht aren't complete.



And the King Skarl Charm:
King Skarl does have new prizes he wants to give those who make him laugh (the charm being one of them) but he's waiting for a special celebration in his land later this month.


Almost Abandoned Attic
Regarding its return, and what kind of items it will restock:
We'll take a look at the backend when we're bringing it back and see if it needs any changes. I don't foresee any changes happening to the type of items it restocks - only in the way it works.



TNT Office/Team Locations
Regarding where TNT is located:
The Art team, the QA team, much of the programming team, half the content team and one of the producers work out of Bangalore. The Community/social media team, our senior programmer binary_supagoo, and our other producer, Scrappy - work from the California office. NC Mall releases, site competitions, the news and social media updates happen there. That's for Neopets.com.

Neopets: Legends and Letters has its own team that is divided between the two offices, but we share art resources. The Neopets MMO [JN Note: probably meaning the "Neopets World Builder" app announced at Comic-Con, not a traditional MMO] is being developed by another team altogether, working in Vancouver.


Note: For more information on the second Neopets app in production, see our Comic-Con writeup.

Games
Regarding the updating of existing games from Flash:
We have already begun the process of getting the games remade in html5, starting with the most popular ones. I don't know if we will get all 200 done the same way - I guess it depends on how it goes with the first few we're doing now.


Old Pet Colours
Regarding updating older pet paint brush options:
I'll ask the artists to keep this in mind for future PBs, but redoing old PBs is not something we want to get into.


Premium
Regarding 6th slot pet transfers and Premium trading cards:

    I have made a note of these issues, and I will bring them up with the team.


Regarding the annual Premium sale:

    The Premium Sale will be later this month. I don't think we have a specific date in mind as of now.



Return of Broken/Retired Site Features
Regarding the return of Invasion of Meridell (don't get your hopes up):

    Considering the fact that it needs some bug fixes before it can make a comeback, I cannot answer this until it is evaluated by a programmer. However, I can have someone take a look at it.


Regarding the return of other features:

    Bilge Dice - yes, this should make a comeback soon.
    Lenny Conundrum and Site Spotlight - nice idea, but we've already got our hands full with the competitions we're currently running, so we won't be taking up any others until we think we're ready for them.


Regarding the return of Key Quest (don't get your hopes up!!!!):

    We have not given up hope on this. We don't have a solution ready, but we're looking at various options. We cannot bring back the old one, but we can try to recreate it, and that's what we're looking at.

    To clarify, I did not say "KeyQuest is coming back". I said it MAY come back.


Hey TNT... mobile game?

Regarding World Challenges:

    I have brought this up before with the programmers, I'll throw some weight behind it now. :) Can't say whether it can be fixed until they figure out why it's broken.



Retired Stamps
Regarding the re-release of retired stamps:

    Re-release of stamps - We've collected all your suggestions, but we haven't actually had a meeting to discuss them. We'll get to that once things have settled down in office.



Site Events
Regarding being able to use leftover points from the Charity Corner 2018 perk shop:

    Yes, the design is ready and a programmer has started work on it.


Regarding captchas returning to the Altador Cup and on what games:

    Can't say now.


Regarding the next plot and when it'll arrive:

    I'm not going to repeat the mistake we did with TWR... When we're ready with one, you'll know about it


Regarding the Journey to the Lost Isle, remember how it was supposed to continue?

    It had never even crossed my mind to continue The Journey to the Lost Isle, but now that you mention it, I'll take a look at it.



Max Number of Accounts
There has been some debate recently about the number of accounts you can have:

    The maximum number of accounts a user is allowed to hold is 5. There should be an official statement about this in the editorial this week.



"Unpaid Volunteers"
Frequently users ask TNT to enlist community members as "unpaid volunteers" to work for the site (this probably has too many legal questions to ever be a good idea), and hardtotame addresses that:

    The talent and commitment of our userbase has not escaped our notice. We have discussed ways in which we could open the site to user-created content, but it's not in the form that you describe, and I don't see it happening any time soon.


User-submitted images for the Caption Contest would probably be a good place to start, especially considering this has been done before!

Bug Reports
Regarding how they're received and worked:

    In general, we get daily bug reports, but some days we're so swamped with other work that we don't have time to look into them, and then they're lost under newer bugs that come in. Bigger issues are reported regularly and so we see them, but smaller ones may be lost, and bringing them to my attention when I'm here can help. Sometimes it's a matter of prioritizing, and there too I can help.


    again, about bugs and reporting them - We have recently started working with http://www.neopets.com/~Ereza for wearable-related issues and http://www.neopets.com/~Keiynan for item-related issues. You can contact them to get your bug added to the list, and we'll work through the list to fix issues as and when possible.


Regarding the empty Healing Springs shop:

    A programmer is looking into the Healing Springs right now. I don't expect it to take more than 24 hours to fix, but as always, I can't be sure.



Battledome
Regarding when the first Battledome fixes will arrive:

    We're looking at small fixes we can do quickly. The first one MAY be Punchbag Sid or one of the glitches... can't say for sure yet.



Account Purges
Regarding when the next one will run:

    I don't know. I'll try and find out what's happening there.



Boring Books/Yucky Food
Regarding the "features" that prevent your pet from reading books or eating food:

    I'll see what can be done about the boring books, but just so you know, this is lower down on the priority list for now.

 

 

 

SOURCE: JN
 


Edited by DogeWow, 26 July 2018 - 05:03 AM.


#2 Neoquest

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Posted 26 July 2018 - 09:31 AM

Their entire programming team except for one guy is outsourced. Rough stuff.

#3 Doodles

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Posted 26 July 2018 - 04:06 PM

Wow, they really like that Negg Beast, don't they?

 

All in all, this seems really promising. It seems like they've been working on a lot for the past few months. This coupled with the improved communication from HTT, I really feel hopeful about what's to come in the near future.

 

I do feel sorry for the BD, though. It looks like it'll be broken for another 5 years minimum.



#4 Bones

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Posted 26 July 2018 - 11:09 PM

Its great to see TNT doing events again lets hope they carry it on.




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