Hey, kids! It’s Neopets story time! I mentioned we’re starting off these NeoTales with general info on how a Plot came together Back in My DayTM. Plots had already begun evolving by the time I started working at Neopets and they continued to change over my 12 years there (Y4/2002 – Y16/2014). So, seeing as how we spent over a decade learning lessons through live-fire…
Ramblings
AMA: Neopets Staff Count
This was asked in a comment on my Neopets On-the-Go write-up. I actually hear it quite a bit so I thought I’d give it its own post for other folks who are interested. And I also edited it slightly from the response over there to help a bit with clarity, shhh. Interesting question! People’s definition of “prime Neopets” differs, so I’m just going to try…
AMA: “Neopets On-The-Go”
Got a great question over on my AMA about the Neopets app we were working on before I left. I’m finally answering it! Look at me go.
NeoTales
I find lots of interesting stuff in my old Neopets archives—design documents, old code, presentations, concept art, the occasional shirtless Dr. Sloth drawing from Shoomlah—and when I posted some tidbits on Twitter a while ago, I got requests to write more about my experiences working at the home of the only thing on the Internet you don’t have. (+100 internet points if you remember this, true Neopets fans.)…
TBT: Obelisk War Faction Descriptions
I know it’s not actually Thursday but since I just found these and I’m laughing at my own dumb jokes, I thought I’d share them here. Maybe you’ll laugh, too, or at least find them interesting. I originally wrote these quick descriptions because wanted to give everyone on the team an early feel of what each faction represented — who they were, what they wanted,…
Comic: The Struggle is Real
Like Fyora OMG!
I was cleaning out my old Neopets backup drive (which is a thousand-year project, I’m discovering) and I found an old set of Faerie Quest marketing images hanging out next to KikoOfDoom.jpg. (Don’t ask.) While the subject matter is kind of boring, I think this set of images is a pretty good example of both why people used to call our creative process a bit…
That Time I Got Hired At Neopets
I’m quite frequently asked about how I got my job at Neopets, so here’s the whole agonising story as I remember it because I need content for this blog. I should probably note that the process for hiring tech people got much more rigorous as time went on. While I’d like to think I’d still have gotten the job years later, I’m actually fairly certain that Mr. Insane…
My Very Own Planet Express Ship
Years ago, Harrison Krix over at Volpin Props posted that he wanted someone to commission a Futurama Holophonor from him. I missed the boat on that and will regret it to my dying day. (He has photos of the finished piece up in his portfolio if you want to lament along with me.) Fortunately, when he later posted a bunch of spaceships he’d like to make, including Ol’…
So I have a blog… now what?
Erm, yeah. I’ve been working on my “website” off and on since I started working at Neopets in 2002. At the time, I’d closed down my existing blog because I didn’t have much time to update it with the new job and all. (It was actually doing pretty well! 400 or so uniques a month isn’t bad for not having anything interesting to write about.) Several…