December Livestream

On December 12th, 2024, Neopets had a livestream hosted by TNT Luna. TNT_UnKnown and TNT Goldfish in Bowl joined the livestream to discuss some things behind the scenes. TNT Dom held a Q&A based on community submitted questions. You can view a recording of this livestream on YouTube.

Livestream Timecodes

For your convenience, here's the important parts in the recorded live stream and their respective time codes

• Introduction [5:50]
• Interview with TNT_UnKnown [6:45]
• Giveaway #1 [25:50]
• Interview with TNT Goldfish in Bowl [27:40]
• Giveaway #2 [41:00]
• AMA With TNT Dom [42:40]
  • 1. Can the new Birthday Confetti Cannon be put in the Hidden Tower? [44:10]
  • 2. Are there plans to release more of the converted 25th Anniversary species?  [44:40]
  • 3. Will there be any opportunity for those who did not get the celebration wheel avatar to obtain it in the future? [45:50]
  • 4. Can you add commas to places around the site like the auction house? [47:40]
  • 5. Can Premium Goodie Bags be made a regular premium perk? [48:45]
  • 6. Are there any plans to allow for people to gift premium subs to other users? [49:50]
  • 7. Can the stat boost that is sometimes awarded in Ice Caves also please be changed to go to the ACTIVE pet? [52:20]
  • 8. Can Korbat’s Lab and Volcano Run II be fixed? [53:10]
  • 9. Will you increase the Neopoint award given by battledome challengers at some point? [54:00]
  • 10. Defenders of Neopia when [55:15]
  • 11. Are there any updates on the battledome item drop rates/fixes for the drop tables regarding extremely rare drops?  [56:00]
  • 12. Can there please be “VERY Nostalgic” or “Vintage” Pet Styles based on old pet artwork? [56:50]
  • 13. When are you going to publish Gacha Drop Rates? [58:20]
  • 14. Will a capsule that re-releases retired capsules ever be released? [1:00:10]
  • 15. The preferences page does not load/shows up blank. Can this be fixed?  [1:01:20]
  • 16. Will Userlookup Spotlight ever get prizes? [1:03:10]
  • 17. Does TNT have any plans to update the Neoboards and add more modern features, at any time? [1:04:00]
  • 18. Dead Chia emoticon when? [1:07:30]
  • 19. Will unreleased/unactivated items in the past 2 decades ever be released? [1:09:00]
• TNT Dom Addresses issue with merch delays and issues [1:09:20]

Interview with TNT UnKnown

• From Michigan, but has lived in 7 other states and has visited a total of 38 states
• Full Sail University alumni
• QA Lead for Neopets for 3 years (and for Fluffy Dog Studios)
• First task was on the Halloween event of 2022. They rearranged how images worked for the Halloween event so he had to make sure they were showing up properly.
• The name UnKnown comes from QA being an invisible role - if he does his job correctly, you won’t even know he exists.
• One of the most challenging bugs he encountered was a split between the idle pet selections (once pet slots were launched) or birthday cupcakes
  • When users lose their premium account, they lose the extra pets from the premium perk. When they log in, they are able to select which pets are idle until they purchase more pet slots or re-up their premium. There was an issue with this, but UnKnown can’t remember what the resolution was…
  • Birthday cupcakes - People were able to feed the same type of cupcake to the same pet more than once per year. The cupcakes are intended to be limited to one type per pet per year. The cupcakes are now synced with the accounts they are received on, which fixed the issue.
• The process for fixing something at Neopets looks like:
  • The team receives a message of the issue from either internal team or the customer service team.
  • The QA team tries to reproduce the bug. If they are able to reproduce it, they write up the steps to reproduce it and describe the intended action.
  • The bug is sent to the dev team to be added to a sprint (release cycle).
  • The dev team fixes it.
  • The fix is tested.
  • The fix is deployed.
• Prioritization is done based on how many users are being affected and in what ways. If it affects a large amount of users in a simple way, or if it impacts users where they are losing NP or items, the issue is seen as high priority. Lower priority issues would be things like visual issues or issues that only arise with certain specific parameters.
• Development is done in modules so things are self-contained features that communicate via APIs. It is a 25-year-old product, though, so things can be messy.
• Petpet Lab Ray Map turn in was particularly messy. There were issues where users could redeem the map pieces but not lose them, so they would be able to turn around and sell them. The fix for the redemption issue ended up bringing down the Petpet Lab Ray, and it took multiple iterations for the whole process to be restored.
• Two years ago, he pitched a new minigame for the Altador Cup modeled after the fish catching minigame in Jak and Daxter, but this was not implemented because the team didn’t have tools to add a new game or a team dedicated to making games.
• Favorite feature he has worked on in the last few years is a toss-up between pet slots and NeoPass.
  • Pet slots were a big hit with the users, so it was satisfying to be a part of that!
  • NeoPass is a big and ongoing process, and it will go a long way into growing the Neopets ecosystem.
• If he was an Unown (Pokemon), he would be D:
  
   

Giveaway #1

• Giveaway 1: Comment best pea-related pun.
• Winner for both giveaway questions asked on stream will receive a Seasonal Attack Pea
• Winner: "Peas Peas Me by the Rukeetles"
   

Interview with TNT Goldfish in Bowl

• TNT Goldfish in Bowl (she/they) is a Content Designer for Neopets
• Main focus is working on NC portion on site, but has worked on NP items and plot items.
• Also helps as the editor for The Neopian Times
• Works closely with TNT Miss Rainbow and TNT Adler (the latter works mainly on NP side)
• They brainstorm together and use each other as another set of eyes to make sure no one is blind to anything after looking at it for so long
• Favorite items designed:
  • Giant Huggable Warf Fairground Prize
  • Playful Faellies on a Moss Log Foreground
  • Neon City Streets Background
  • Cherry Blossom Skin
  • Plentiful Mushroom Woodlands Background
  • Kawaii Pastel Desk Foreground
  • Black Meowclops and Cauldron Foreground
  • Dead Chia Gift Box Capsule
• Keeps a Pinterest board for item concepts
• Had a different idea for the birthday mystery capsule this year, but they ended up going a different way. It is now being repurposed as a Valentines Mystery Gram.
• Have heard users request more masculine-themed items, and the team is trying to incorporate more masculine items on the stuff.
  • Items that are feminine tend to be more popular, which is why a lot of items tend to be feminine.
  • They still want to increase the number of masculine items on the site.
• 
  Sketch artist provided (2 versions, one on a 2-legged pet and one on a 4-legged pet), then the final version.
• Love hearing ideas players have. She is not the best at checking NeoMail, but checks the NeoBoards often to see what players are posting.
  • Also, as an editor, they read the editorial questions for the Neopian Times, so if any suggestions are submitted through there, they can be seen.
  • NP and NC teams communicate with each other and pass ideas across teams if something would work better as NP or NC items.
    
     

Giveaway #2

• Giveaway 2: What Neopets item do you wish had a seasonal version?
• The Seasonal Attack Pea was also rewarded for this giveaway.
• Winner: "Seasonal Chive of Death"
   

Q&A with TNT Dom

Follow up from the previous live stream:

• Some disabled random events have been enabled, such as Tooth Faerie avatar and Sabre-X battledome challenger.

Updates on blind box plushies:

• There have been some delays getting these to stores.
• Essentially, Hot Topic determines how much stock gets distributed to which stores.
• Unfortunately, this is out of Neopets’ hands at this point, but they are hoping this will be resolved within the next few days so players can have these for the holiday season.

1. Can the new Birthday Confetti Cannon be put in the Hidden Tower

• It has already been added, along with the stamp

2. Are there plans to release more of the converted 25th Anniversary species? (Only 5 were released at launch)

• Yes, this is in progress. More will be added.
• Additionally, more licensees are being pushed to promote 25th Anniversary products.
• They want to tie in some of the new species with some of the launches of Anniversary products.

3. Will there be any opportunity for those who did not get the celebration wheel avatar to obtain it in the future?

• Yes, but not sure when or what it will look like.

4. Can you add commas to places around the site like the auction house?

• They are working on an update to address this currently.

5. Can Premium Goodie Bags be made a regular premium perk?

• It’s an initiative the team has been tracking. Initially, it was intended to just be a 3-month perk to celebrate the anniversary.
• This will not be implemented for January, but they are looking at potentially refreshing the prize pool and bringing it back for February.

6. Are there any plans to allow for people to gift premium subs to other users?

• The payment system and APIs has been a big overhaul the team has been working on over the last year.
• They are looking into what they can do now that the backend is a little more stable.
• This is something they have looked into, but there are still technical issues preventing this.
• However, it is still something the team is interested in doing eventually - just don’t expect it in the near future.

7. Can the stat boost that is sometimes awarded in Ice Caves also please be changed to go to the ACTIVE pet?

• This is on the to-do list and is moving towards the top.
• The team believes this should be a low effort fix.

8. Korbat’s Lab and Volcano Run II have been broken since Ruffle. Can these please be fixed?

• The Neopets Team has been working closely with the Ruffle team.
• Neopets sponsors Ruffle’s development.
• They are currently testing an update that they are hoping will fix more of the games that are currently open.

9. Will you increase the Neopoint award given by battledome challengers at some point?

• This is something that the team is looking into as they continue to rebalance the Battledome, as well as increasing Codestone drops.

10.  Defenders of Neopia when

• The team is aware of the issue but it is not top of the priority list.
• Defenders of Neopia would need to be completely overhauled to start working again, so it isn’t something they will start working on soon.

11.  Are there any updates on the battledome item drop rates/fixes for the drop tables regarding extremely rare drops?

• This is part of the rebalancing work mentioned in Q9 - they are reviewing it and looking to see what can be improved.

12. Can there please be “VERY Nostalgic” or “Vintage” Pet Styles based on old pet artwork?

• They are looking into ways to add more styles to the Styling Studio in the future.
• The team is still debating on which styles will be brought back. If something is a popular enough request, it is likely that it will come back

13. When are you going to publish Gacha Drop Rates

• The team is looking to overhaul the UX/UI of the NC Mall.
• They are planning on disclosing drop rates from gacha elements (mystery capsules, etc) when this is done.
• This is planned to be done in Q1 of 2025.

14. Will a capsule that re-releases retired capsules ever be released?

• The team likes this idea and are planning on trying this out in 2025.

15. The preferences page does not load/shows up blank. Can this be fixed?

• This was fixed, thank you for the tickets and reports of the issue!

16. Will Userlookup Spotlight ever get prizes?

• The Userlookup Spotlight has low participation, so it’s hard to prioritize this.
• It’s under consideration but will not be changed in the short term.

17. Does TNT have any plans to update the Neoboards and add more modern features, at any time?

• The code for the Neoboards is very complicated and there is not much that can be done aside from doing a complete overhaul of the system.
• This would be a very large project for the current team.
• This is something they do want to do, but there’s not a specific timeline just because it is such a massive undertaking.

18. Dead Chia emoticon when?

• Pretty soon

19. Will unreleased/unactivated items in the past 2 decades ever be released

• Yes - one of these items is a prize from the AMA code!

Live Giveaway Code

As a reminder, you may only use this on your main account as its only one redemption per player. It will expire December 14th at 5PM NST. You can redeem this at the Grundo Warehouse using the code STARLIGHT