October Livestream
On October 9th, 2024, Neopets had a livestream hosted by TNT Luna. Senior Editor, Erinn Pascal, and Author, Rebecca Mix, discussed The Omelette Faerie book. TNT Fae gave updates on upcoming NC Pet Styles. TNT Fallie provided updates on Faerie Fragments. TNT Dom held a Q&A based on community submitted questions through Strawpoll. This livestream was announced a week beforehand, on August 27th. 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 [6:18]
- Interview with Erinn Pascal & Rebecca Mix [8:00]
- Interview with TNT Fae [31:10]
- Interview with TNT Fallie [44:20]
- Q&A with TNT Dom [56:20]
- 1. Dr. Landelbrot’s Voidworks was announced to be updated. What is its current status? [58:48]
- 2. With how often Rainbow Fountain dips are being granted, is this a permanent change? [59:30]
- 3. Can you address the shadowbans in the 2024 Altador Cup and what caused them? [1:00:10]
- 4. Please fix the trading post glitch [1:01:45]
- 5. Will there be a new pet species or colors introduced soon? [1:02:10]
- 6. Will more daily freebies like Trudy’s Surprise be added in the future? [1:03:20]
- 7. When can we expect a Battledome update or new features to be introduced? [1:04:10]
- 8. The site is slow and often lags. Are there any improvements planned for site performance? [1:05:20]
- 9. Will there be more customization options for pets, like new clothing and accessories? [1:09:10]
- 10. Can you explain the recent price changes for NC Mall items and paintbrushes? [1:10:30]
Interview with Erinn Pascal & Rebecca Mix
- Erinn Pascal (she/her/hers), Senior Editor for The Omelette Faerie
- NYT Bestselling author as well as author of The Omelette Faerie
- Grew up on Neopets, has played for over 20 years
- Neopets inspired her to be a writer - she used to spend time on the Role Playing boards RPing Warrior Cats as a kid
- TNT Luna and TNT Fae also spent time in Warrior Cats boards
- Rebecca Mix (she/her), Author of The Omelette Faerie
- Was more of a Harry Potter/Marauders chat RP
- Her go-to was to sign in as Petunia
- Found Neopets because of her older sister, and they used to share an account in 2000
- Was able to convince her parents to let her make her own account in 2001
- Liked RPing, Pound Surfing
- Works as a licensor at Andrews McMeel, loves cookbooks and comic books
- Rebecca gives Omelette Horoscopes
- TNT Luna is an Apple and Brie Omelette
- If you buy a copy of The Omelette Faerie from her local indie store, Sidetrack Book Store in Royal Oak, MI, Rebecca will give you your Omelette Horoscope
- Erinn would like a Vegan Omelette, but has seen requests on the boards for crab rangoons and thinks a Crab Rangoon item might be good
- This is Erinn’s first Neopets Live, but she was on an episode of Nosy Neopians before
- Has worked on Neopets publishing for over 3 years - including the Neopets Official Cookbook
- The Omelette Faerie is releasing on 10/22 (2 weeks from today)
- Give a quick summary of what the premise of The Omelette Faerie is about
- Takes some Neopians you are familiar with (such as Sabre X) and puts them into a story
- One day, Sabre X discovers the Giant Omelette is gone. A Fire Faerie calling herself the Omelette Faerie shows up and the two go on an adventure to find the omelette.
- What other characters will Neopets fans recognize?
- Another beloved Faerie makes an appearance
- The Omelette Faerie has a girlfriend
- Kyruggi is there
- Background characters that are unnamed - Heather Burns and Luis Fernando deSilva did a great job of the background
- Erinn reached out to Rebecca in 2021 about creating a Neopets story, so this has been in the works for a long time
- What is the age range for The Omelette Faerie?
- The story is appropriate for kids, but it is listed as YA 13+.
- They wrote the story knowing the age range of the average user of the site.
- There is a very dramatic scene where a character is dangling off a cliff Lion King-style
- Were there any moments or anecdotes that stood out to you?
- Rebecca: There is a very dramatic scene where a character is dangling off a cliff Lion King-style. She wasn’t expecting this scene to stay in the final cut because it would be difficult to do the art for, but it did make it and it looks great.
- Erinn: You used to be able to create Tonus (a limited-edition pet) when the Giant Omelette was gone, so they added a herd of Tonu to the background as an easter egg.
- TNT Aesop, TNT Clammyhand, TNT Fae assisted with the lore and editing of the story
- Originally, they pitched a story where two Faeries are the main characters, but that was too similar to what was planned for the website plot (The Void Within)
- A second graphic novel is in the works, which is centered on another daily - The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity. He wakes up one day and everyone in Neopia has been turned into a toy. He then has a journey of his own with two toy Neopets as they try to figure out what happened.
- There is an early release of The Omelette Faerie at Retro Game Con in Syracuse, NY. You can also get it wherever books are sold on 10/22. It is also available internationally - if shipping is too high, Erinn recommends going to your local bookseller and request that they order it to them.
Interview with TNT Fae
- TNT Fae (they/she), Sick Blob / Artist & Art Producer
- Has been an artist and an art producer for almost 3 years. They have been playing Neopets for over 20 years and has been working for TNT for a little over 3 years.
- TNT Fae’s name is inspired by the Faellie petpet, and she has been a force behind the push for more Faellie-related items onsite for the last few years. TNT Fallie is a different person.
- Favorite things worked on at Neopets?
- Finally being able to put out the Styling Studio! As a user, they have been waiting for that since before they started working at TNT.
- Created the Talpidat petpet, Bython petpet, and Valentines Paint Brush
- Designer of Juni, the Void Faellie petpet in The Void Within
- NC Pet Colour Releases, and recent bugs related to the Prismatic colours
- Fae is the one in charge of putting together the releases.
- They have been wanting to release prismatics for some time.
- They have seen the feedback and criticism and they will work to make sure future releases are more in line with what users are looking for.
- The most popular pet styles:
- Unreleased UCs, such as UC Grey Draik and UC Faerie Eyrie
- Faerie Skeith and Grey Mynci were a surprise hit, as those pet species are not typically popular
- They are working on something for Halloween.
- A lot of the old Halloween art is pets in basic poses, and they want to make more unique poses for special edition pets.
- TNT Meow is working on these, who used to work on Neopets art before the JumpStart acquisition.
- A preview of the upcoming Halloween NC Styles:
- They may also be doing similar treatment for Christmas Pet Styles later this year.
- NC-Style Crosspaints, such as Baby+Faerie or Baby+Tyrannian?
- The graphic novel has a baby Sabre X, which inspired some requests for crosspaints like this.
- Fae is absolutely interested in working on these at some point in the future
Interview with TNT Fallie
- TNT Fallie (she/her) - Social Media Meepit
- Showing off an Usuki shirt, and TNT Luna has a giant 25th birthday Shoyru plushie that keeps peeking into the stream.
- Additionally, TNT Fallie’s partner was convinced to wear a Yes Boy Ice-Cream shirt:
- TNT Fallie shared another picture of her and Neopets Nation and Community Ambassador, Missy, wearing a new shirt (featured on social media.)
- Faerie Fragments trailer shown
- What is the narrative premise of Faerie Fragments?
- Similar storyline to Faerie’s Hope.
- The game stars Luxinia and takes place after the Faerie’s Ruin plot.
- She is on a piece of Faerieland that is still floating, and works to try to rebuild Faerieland from there.
- She has some Neopet friends that assist her on her journey.
- The Faerie Fragments match 3 pieces have been updated to feature baby Neopets
- You can unlock costumes for the characters and make choices on how to rebuild Faerieland
- There will be optional NeoPass integration in Faerie Fragments.
- There will be exclusive Neopets.com wearables (such as a Luxinia outfit) for people who link to NeoPass, as well as additional rewards for playing the game.
- There will be exclusive Neopets.com wearables (such as a Luxinia outfit) for people who link to NeoPass, as well as additional rewards for playing the game.
- Faerie Fragments will be getting regular updates.
- There will be around 800 levels on release, and more will be added with events.
- More puzzles, more storylines, more customization options added on a regular basis.
- Neopians can expect themed events every month, so even after the official launch, there will be things to look forward to on a consistent basis.
- The game is available for preregistration today. If you preregister, you will get a starter pack/advantage when downloading the game. Depending on the number of users that preregister, the rewards will be greater.
- If TNT Fallie could create a new type of Faerie, it would either be a Technology Faerie or Underworld Faerie (like a grim reaper).
Q&A with TNT Dom
Some things from TNT Dom:
- Did not eat omelettes at home as a kid, and
- Thought that it was normal to add a bunch of random ingredients to omelettes because of the wide variety of omelette on Neopets.
- Today, his favorite omelette is a chorizo omelette.
- TNT Dom asked TNT Luna to show off the Blue Shoyru plushie she had throughout the livestream. It is a variation of the anniversary plushie Neopets had at a recent convention:
1. Dr. Landelbrot’s Voidworks was announced to be updated. What is its current status? [58:48]
- It is live now. Instead of getting plot points, you get an item. It resets every 24 hours (not at the turn of the day)
2. With how often Rainbow Fountain dips are being granted, is this a permanent change? [59:30]
- This will be back to normal after the Faerie Festival. There was an increased amount of Fountain Faerie quests during the Faerie Festival.
3. Can you address the shadowbans in the 2024 Altador Cup and what caused them? [1:00:10]
- There was a measure applied to around 100 users midway through the cup.
- The users that it was applied to were users identified as breaking the rules of the site.
- They were allowed to continue to earn rewards from the games, but their scores would not impact their team.
- This was done because of concerns of fairness.
4. Please fix the trading post glitch. [1:01:45]
- The fix has been identified.
- It is not live yet, but they are working on final testing.
- It should be fixed soon.
5. Will there be a new pet species or colors introduced soon? [1:02:10]
- They have been discussing this internally.
- The last pet released was in 2014, which was 10 years ago, so they are interested in releasing a new pet.
- However, it sounds like nothing has been solidified.
- They are interested in hearing ideas for new colors and species.
6. Will more daily freebies like Trudy’s Surprise be added in the future? [1:03:20]
- Trudy’s Surprise prize pools have been regularly updated and will continue to be
- They have introduced daily quests to add more freebies to the system
- The 25th birthday will come with a lot of prizes
- They are working on bugfixes currently.
- Adding new features to the Battledome would be a larger project, and may be something they can prioritize for later next year.
- They are collecting requests from community ambassadors and internally.
8. The site is slow and often lags. Are there any improvements planned for site performance? [1:05:20]
- They have been doing a lot in the backend to improve site performance.
- The average load time is 2.6 seconds today, which has improved a lot from last year.
- There are pages were the load times are much higher, such as the inventory page, which is what they are currently working on.
- They have to work on the pages individually and optimize them one by one.
- Auto-scaling and auto-balancing of servers - today, it is being done manually, but they have plans to introduce auto-scaling and auto-balancing.
- They have been migrating payment service from outsourced 3rd party to in house, improving security and load times.
- Additionally, the purge is still being worked on. The work that has been done so far is in the background (so nothing related to users or pets).
- Yes, the art team is working hard and stretching the creative limits, especially with new releases like the chicken nugget Grarrl outfit.
- Items are also being slowly rezoned where appropriate to improve experience when customizing pets.
- They are also still working on converting items to HTML5 that are not currently compatible.
- One of the strategy for Neopets going forward is to embrace creativity and improve the art output.
- They are hiring more artists in the US and Canada for NC Mall and NP items, and believe this is improving the art quality.
- Pricing has not changed for NC items in years. The reason behind the tiered pricing proposed for the NC Mall is because they want the price to reflect the level of effort behind the items created.
- They are still actively hiring more artists, so reach out on LinkedIn to get in touch with the hiring team.
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 October 11th at 5PM NST. You can redeem this at the Grundo Warehouse using the codeSPOOKYSCARY 
Halloween Petpet Paint Brush
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