Vix

@Kesstryl

Did you have a chance to check it out? What did you think?

We hope to release crossbreeding and breed registration this week! Finger's crossed!

Keeping a team motivated is VERY important. In my opinion, as the game owner/administrator, you are the person who sets the tone of the whole team or various teams. If you are not motivated and excited, it is highly unlikely that your staff will be.

With Celestial Equine, I have experienced many ups and downs from the roller-coaster that goes along with development. From budget issues to unexpected development setbacks, we have experienced it all. Being positive and solution orientated has helped myself and CE's team overcome challenges and stay on-track for our grand opening!

Here's a few tips that have helped keep my teams motivated/active:

• Delegating game duties + creating teams
  • Introducing moderators, writers, artists, and other account levels has not only helped with activity, but as also helped free up additional hours I can spend working on other areas! By offering in-game perks I was able to save time, money, and allow helpful members a chance to pitch-in during development.
  • An admin's biggest mistake is refusing to "loosen the reins" so to speak and try to do everything on their own. This will not work forever. Unless your game is your full-time job, it will be very difficult to manage social media/marketing, manage the community (questions, enforcing rules, etc), develop new ideas, manage various teams (developers, artists, etc), etc. It is better to identify areas you shine as an admin and delegate the rest! You'd be surprised by the talent you may find within your community. I am blown away by the talent I have found within my community!
• Regular contact with developers, moderators, and other team members
  • I have daily contact with my team members, especially my developers! This helps everyone stay on the same page and trucking forward
• Regular news updates
  • Being in development means we experience bugs/other issues from time to time. I try to post a news update everyday and send an actual email newsletter for a larger update (for example, breeding).
  • This also cuts down on questions if you keep everyone in the loop and provide updates explaining new releases/new features
• Contests!
  • Everyone loves an opportunity to win something. Contests are a great way to connect with your community and gain some organically reached new members. A referral contest is easy on a new game's budget and really pumps up your member-base!
• Incentives
  • I mentioned in-game perks previously, but I do want to stress how important it is to provide some sort of incentive for people's hard work and dedication! This doesn't have to be something HUGE, but even acknowledgment in a newsletter goes a long way. People who know they are appreciated want to stick around!

Today's update is an exciting one! After months and months of waiting, breeding is finally here!

Players may now test out our basic breeding feature, which requires both horses to be of the same breed. In addition to being the same breed, the following parameters must be met:

• Over the age of 3; under the age of 18
• Over 50% health
• Mares cannot have been bred in the last 7 days
• Stallions cannot have been bred in the last 3 days

Once we get basic breeding tested + fixed any stray bugs, we will then move onto crossbreeding and breed registration! To help move this process along, I encourage everyone to test breeding on their own. If you encounter a bug, please post it in the Bug & Errors area in the forums as either a new thread or in addition to a thread with similar issues.

Here is an example of a Gavrielle foal!

Next, we are still working on the bugs that were mentioned in the last news post. We plan to tackle these bugs and the breeding bugs at the same time.

Stay tuned for further updates in the near future!

View full news

We are excited to announce the release of the Meyril breed, which was an original breed from the first version of Celestial Equine. The Meyril is available in many natural variations, including various markings! I highly suggest checking out the Meyril in the Mythical World as soon as possible ;)

Remember, each breed is available in 10 different body types! Upgraded members have the ability to select any of our ten body types in the premium creation area. Check out this preview of the Meyril!

Next up, we are in the process of fixing the following errors:

• Unlocking worlds with world coins
• Accessing upgraded Beauty Contests
• Accessing "Manage Account"
• Item stocking error
• Unequipping item error

We have managed to fix the following errors:

• Unable to unlock worlds with Player Points
• Players with an id over 1,000 unable to view horses or barns
• Beauty Contest wording fix

We hope to have these issues resolved tomorrow. If you do encounter additional errors, please report them in the forum area! We closely monitor reported bugs, and try to tackle them as quickly as possible.

View full news

@Digital

That is so helpful! Thank you! I tried using Google, but it is hard to tell what sites are legit

Hello TGL community!

I recently ran into some troubles importing my member user list from the first version of Marvel Horse (now Celestial Equine) into MailChimp. This list contains over 11,000 emails, all of which had registered as a member on Marvel Horse back when it was open. Unfortunately, there are quite a few "fake" email addresses on the list, so MailChimp was NOT happy about it. I was actually promoted to send a re-confirmation email for the newsletter list.

Have any of you used a list cleaning service? I am not confident that a re-confirmation campaign is very beneficial. What have you all used to re-capture old members? I do feel like this is a legitimate list to use being that they have agreed to emails when registering on Marvel Horse.

Thanks in advance for the input!

@Kesstryl

Thank you! I somehow missed this reply  

We have exciting news!

Our coveted Beauty Contests have finally made their comeback! You may now access this fun game within each world. Unsure of what a beauty contest is? Keep on reading!

What are Beauty Contests?

The Beauty Contest is a fun "Pick your favorite" game located in each world. Players can enter their horses into a contest and/or have fun voting on various pairings! This is a fun opportunity to take advantage of wearables and show off your favorite creations!

We also have some fun prizes for participants and winners. Each vote earns the voter 10 coins! Contests are judged each Sunday at 12am and yield the following prizes:

 Prizes

View full news

We have big updates on this great Monday!

First - we have fixed the following bugs:

• Bug on barn page
• Cleaned account management page
• Out of place text on competition page
• Competition layout issues
• Ping layering over recent replies
• Online users from barn page
• Can only add user one time on friend's list

In addition to bug fixes, we also made the following revisions:

• Enlarged user avatars on forums and news comments
• Created notification for new new's posts
• Now show 8 new items rather than 4
• Added spell check *YAY*
• Added "back to post hub" from edit post area
• Modifying account level tags

Next up, we added a new feature for upgraded users:

USER SIGNATURES

For upgraded users, you may now upload a custom signature! Signatures are visible in the forums and news comment area. For optimum appearance, use the specified dimensions from the account management page!

Lastly, we have added two new wearables!

The Witchy Hat can be found in the Shadow World, and also has a matching cape. The matching cape has been released, but we need to modify a few layering issues. Stay tuned for additional updates regarding the Witchy Robe!

The Anubis outfit can be found in The Ruins! Remember, wearables may not be compatible with every breed. For example, The Anubis outfit likely will not layer correctly with the Gruele.

Like what you see? Let us know! Check back tomorrow for additional updates.

- CE Admin

View full news

Hello everyone!

We have a large update for today! First of all, we have made the following bug fixes + design improvements since our last update:

• Ability to search for horses by age and level
• Equipping items now increase horse stats
  • remember, you can choose to hide the wearable if the item looks funky on your horse! We will be releasing an area for layer management in the near future
• Improved news comment design
  • The area now matches forum comments! Woohoo!
• Improved forum topic view
  • The re-design is officially complete!
• Fixed user tagging
  • This feature has been pesky, but I believe it is working properly again
• Fixed user shop purchases
• Item rework
  • Items now show remaining uses
  • Used up items are automatically deleted
  • Wearables have unlimited uses!
• Fixed world coin purchase error
  • Issues with purchasing world coins from the Cash Shop have been resolved
• Fixed error with unlocking worlds with world coins
• Fixed viewing inventory issue
• Fixed error regarding searching for competitions
• Added staff page + moderator application to footer area
• Fixed date error in header
• Fixed barn navigation error + added barn link under "My Tools"
• World store restocking 30 minutes after last item is purchased
• Items without any quantity hidden in World Store
  • Who wants to see items without quantity? I know I dont'!

.............................................

I hope you guys appreciate those bug fixes, especially the barn fix! We will be working through the remaining bugs (big thanks to Jericho for thumbing through our current errors and sending me a master list!) this week before moving onto breeding. Please be sure to post a comment here if any of the listed fixed bugs still show up for you! Otherwise, we may overlook it/assume it is working properly.

Next, I do have a new staff opportunity I hope to have filled by a current community member. I have a need for a community manager + second hand! Interested? Here is a short description of this position:

This person should be willing to manage our social media accounts (Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and wiki page), post mini-news on a regular basis, assist in keeping up with the community. This person would essentially be the head-moderator and help me with other misc tasks. Celestial Equine is nearly completed, so I want to make sure we keep our momentum up through the grand-opening! I am having a hard time managing it all, unfortunately.

This position is currently a game currency paid position, but I intend on adding RL payment once the grand-opening occurs (Jan 1). If interested, please fill out the moderator application listed in the staff section but title your application "Community Manager". Please include any previous social media management experience as well! This will be the main area I look at since this position does have a head social media emphasis. Also, feel free to send in referrals as well.

.......................................

Lastly, id like to recap some of our mini-news posts incase you have missed them! Remember, mini-news pots are posted more often than full news posts now Be sure to check the forums for these updates!

WEARABLES + ITEMS

As previously  mentioned, wearables are here! As of now, we only have tack related items released. However, we will be releasing some fun robes and other seasonal wearables within the next few days! We will be releasing some of these items as Cash Shop "specials", too. Here is a teaser including some of our upcoming tack releases!

I don't know about you, but I for sure need a pink glitter/marble saddle in my life!

Also - we have been polo CRAZY around here. Here's our recently released polos! If you're a polo hoarder like myself (so, so guilty), I suggest you stalk our world stores!

I will be releasing some additional polos later on today

SETTING BODY TYPES

As stated in our mini-news post, we had an error with horses not having an associated body type saved in the database. We having added a little body-type area to your horse's profile, so we would appreciate it if you all set the appropriate body type! We have a body type reference guide here if you are unsure of your horse's body type or would like to confirm it We will be closing the body type selection on Monday, so please get it done before then! Body types are important for wearables and breeding.

Well, that about wraps up this news post! Please check back later for additional mini-news updates regarding bug fixes. Also - please be sure to test newly released features so we can be sure to address those bugs before our grand opening!

Thank you,

CE Staff

View full news

UPDATES
We have quite a few updates for you all today! First off, I am sure most of you have noticed the changes in the forum area. We are hoping to have the individual topic view changes completed by next week! In addition to revising the forums, we have also introduced a "mini-news" section! This new section will provide even more updates for those of you eager for new feature releases. Be sure to hop on over to the forums to check out the changes!

Next up, we have a ton of bug updates! We have fixed the following game errors:

• Search page is now loading properly
• World store restocking
• Horse notes
• Club president shows Player-name rather than Username
• Fixed referral registration error
• Fixed user tagging + pings

We also added a inbox space tracker to the private messaging area. Basic accounts can have 100 messages in their inbox, and upgraded (all levels) can have 200. This tracker will let you know when you are close to maxing out your space limit!

Introducing; the pasture
You all have spoken, and we have heard! As of today, all players can officially visit The Pasture! This feature allows users to "turn out" unwanted horses, and adopt available horses! You can access this feature from the "Explore" tab in the navigation bar. You may search by breed, points, and more. Hop on over to Celestial Equine to check out this new, exciting feature! Please note - we are in the process of finishing up minor design changes. However, The Pasture is fully operational!

Check back later for additional updates!
 

 
That's all the news for today, folks! Be sure to check out these updates and give us your feedback
- CE STAFF

View full news

Feel free to close this thread, @Digital! I found plenty of help

@Pepper-Head Awh, thank you!

I am currently searching for developers interested in working on a feature by feature basis for Celestial Equine! This game is built on Pet Game Framework by Design1Online. I would prefer working with developers who have messed with PGF before, or would be interested in learning something new. I do have a current full-time developer, so this position would be for someone interested in working on a single feature at a time.

Here is a short list of the type of tasks I need completed:

• Battle system
• Misc games
• Additional forum development
• Top scores area
• Current feature expansion

If your'e interested, please shoot me a message! I prefer applicants with references + a good amount of past experiences. HTML/CSS knowledge is a plus!

I highly recommend @SandraSketches or @Pepper-Head for this project!

On 10/23/2017 at 9:27 AM, hurricaneviolet said:

Personally I'm not a fan of true death (I sound like I'm talking about True Blood right now, haha) on pet sites where the pets disappear forever. On HP, animals retire at a certain age so they can't be bred anymore or show anymore, but players can keep them "alive", or they can retire them which means they they can't be sold/images changes/anything, but you can still see a page with their basic info.

Some players keep their retired animals forever and some actually retire them, just depends on the person.

HAHAHA, I instantly thought of TruBlood when I read "true death".

I am with you regarding "retiring". Personally, I believe retiring is best for the equine-related games. Retiring serves as a "hall of fame" and is better for tracking lineage. However, I can see how "death" would be better suited for other pet games!

I am owner of Celestial Equine, which is currently in open beta! CE is expected to fully launch January 1. Celestial Equine is a remake of Marvel Horse, which launched in early 2010. After 3 years I decided to close due to bugs and revamped! I also own Lemorsea, which will go into development around the first of the year (so long as CE stays on track).

I would be happy to do an interview as well!

Filled! Sorry - I never updated this thread.

YESSS, THANK YOU. This version is so much more inclusive!

On 10/12/2017 at 7:13 AM, Hasi said:

For current developers,

• How long was it before you started building a team?
• Did you start alone or with multiple developers?
• What skills did you hold as an individual?
• Did you find it difficult to build a team in the beginning?
• What convinced others to join you in the beginning stages (passion, personal development, income)?
• Any tips for early stage developers (with regards to team building or running a team)?

Thank you~

In my opinion, building a team is vital when entering development. As a game owners, it is really easy to fall into a habit of thinking only from your perspective, which can lead to features that are under-developed. In my experience, bouncing ideas off of team members has helped flesh out unique features for CE!

How long was it before you started building a team?

I am not a developer or an artist, so I built my team up pretty quickly. I would say I started this process right away.

Did you start alone or with multiple developers?

In the early staged of development I only had one developer. I think this helps keep things tidy! I also purchased a framework, so that also pushed development along a bit faster.

What skills do you hold as an individual?

I handle all marketing/advertising, manage multiple teams, handle all concept creation, and create some designs.

Did you find it difficult building a team in the beginning?

Of course! It is really difficult trusting another person fully capable of running off with your hard work. However, it gets easier as time goes on. If you start off only adding on essential people (developers, artists, etc), you will have an easier time keeping your circle small and secretive (if that is your goal).

What convinced others to join you in the beginning stages (passion, personal development, income)?

My paid help likely joined in due to the income, but id like to think I have a few staff members that feel excited about this project! Having a passion for the project was important to me when I was selecting team members.

Any tips for early stage developers (with regards to team building or running a team)?

Oh boy - I do have quite a few suggestions! Here are my golden rules:

• Always pick the applicant who has real interest in your project
• Referrals are gold! No not blindly hire without consulting respected peers.
• Test runs are okay. Be transparent with your communication and let staff know what your process is.
• Have a clear breakdown of what your needs are before posting a hiring! This helps you stay organized and will give you a better idea of how many people you are needing to get the job(s) completed.

At the end of the day, you also need to like your staff members. Whether this is your developer, your designer, or game moderators; you need to like them! Don't hire people solely because they have good reviews or other people have had good experiences. I have ran into this with moderators, and its tough! Now I am much more selective and have a better idea of what my needs are, so this selection process is much easier.

Happy Sunday!

We have been hard at work getting additional genetic options added to enabled breeds, and finishing up the last few breeds you all are waiting on.

Over the weekend, we added quite a few additional genetic options to the Forfax! This breed can be found in the Angelic World. What base is your favorite?

Next, we have enabled two more breeds in the Angelic world! First, we have the Niromi! This breed features a unique curved horn and exotic stripes. It's default base is the Heavy Pony, but the Niromi is available in the 9 other bases as well.

Lastly, we have enabled the Quetzal! This will be the last breed of the weekend, and is certainly a favorite. This breed has a fantastic silky, glowing mane/tail along with a glowing halo! The default base for this breed is the Quarter Horse, but it looks amazing as a Pony as well.

Itching to play with the different bases and genetic options? Upgraded members have access to the premium creation area! We recently fixed our last bug with automatic upgrades, so hop on over to the credit store to try it out. Upgrades are starting at $5 for one month of premium fun!

As we mentioned above, this weekend was dedicated to fixing errors we were experiecing with our upgrade system. As of today, upgrades are operating just like our gem purchases, which are instantly posted to a player's account after purchasing.

This week will be dedicated to fixing numerous bugs around CE. Here is a short list of those issues:

1. If a player enters horses in a competition that runs in two days, the unrun classes show 0 before the competition runs.
2. Tagging notification error
3. Default avatar not showing up in the chat rooms
4. Friend request bug: http://www.celestialequine.com/viewpost?id=838
5. Horse notes (design error)
6. Club president should show Playername, not Username (currently showing username)
7. World store restock
8. Barn error: http://www.celestialequine.com/viewpost?id=791

Once these bugs are resovled, we will resume our work on item functions and breeding!

REFERRAL CONTEST LEADERS

You guys are blowing this referral contest out of the water! In addition to 1 gem per referral, the following members are currently in the top five:

Interested in participating in the referral contest? Check out the referral page here!

The Prizes

1st place

• Design 1 new breed
• Design 1 new wearable
• 6 month platinum upgrade
• 50,000 coins

2nd place

• Design 1 new wearable
• 6 month gold upgrade
• 25,000 coins

3rd place

• 6 month silver upgrade
• 25,000 coins

Check out Celestial Equine tomorrow for additional development updates!

Happy Monday!

We have quite a few new members this week! For those of you having a hard time getting started, the help section is full of information regarding worlds and creating your first horses. If you still have questions, feel free to post a question in the help section! We are working on getting started videos, which should be posted towards the end of this week. Please keep in mind CE is still in-development with a grand opening date of January 1st! If you have a suggestion for the walk-through videos, feel free to post in in this news post

Our referral contest is off to a great start. For those of you who missed the announcement, we have a referral contest running until October 31st. Here is a recap of the prizes:

1st place

• Design 1 new breed
• Design 1 new wearable
• 6 month platinum upgrade
• 50,000 coins

2nd place

• Design 1 new wearable
• 6 month gold upgrade
• 25,000 coins

3rd place

• 6 month silver upgrade
• 25,000 coins

Grab your special referral link from the referral page (located under "My Tools") and share your link today! There is also a premade graphic

Next, we have enabled two new breeds!

Caliph & Lorzal

We have enabled horse sales, horse auctions, updating horse profiles, tagging users in the forums, and completed competition related bug fixes. Hop on over and create an account if you haven't already!

www.celestialequine.com

View full news

@SingSong @Imperial

Wow, this topic really hit home! These are issues I struggle with on a a daily basis when thinking about the kind of relationship I should have with players on CE. However, I find it increasingly difficult to maintain certain boundaries while a game in in-development. It is very easy to blur the line between Admin and members when you are actively seeking out member feedback. Do you guys believe there should be different "rules" for member/staff boundaries during development? How have you combated this issue?

I have decided it is time to hire a head writer for Celestial Equine in preparation for our grand opening January 1. We have various areas needing place holder text replaced along with proofing. I am hoping to find a writer who is not only talented, but someone who is genuinely interested in Celestial Equine. Here is a brief breakdown on writer tasks:

• Item descriptions (shorter descriptions)
• Breed descriptions (long descriptions)
• Feature walk-through/explanation (various)
• Proof-reading
• Approval of writer applications

If you are interested in applying, please email the following form to [email protected]:

Name:

About yourself:

Writing Experience:

Links to portfolio:

Availability:

Rates/pricing:

Happy Sunday and first day of October!

As you may have noticed, we have gotten into the spooky spirit around here. If you are not seeing an updated banner, try clearing your cookies! Today marks the first day of our first world feature, which is the Shadow World! Over the course of this month, expect additional spooky breeds and complementary items. We will spotlight a new world each month, which will include new breeds, genetic options, and more.

We have managed to complete our bug fixes with the cash shop and will finish up recurring upgrades/set duration upgrades on Monday. Thank you all for being so patient while we worked out this error. Gem purchases are working perfectly!

Firstly, I would like to address our competitions feature! We have managed to pin-point the issue within our judging cron that was causing issues with points/coins distribution.

In addition to the judging fix, we have also implemented the following:

• Horse levels
• Fixed the unrun/completed issues
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd placings

Here is information on leveling, which will be added to our help guide:

Trainer [level 1] 0-10,000 points, Basic [level 2] 10,001 - 20,000 Intermediate [level 3] 20,001-40,000, Advanced [level 4] 40,001-80,000, Expert [level 5] 80,001-100,000

As soon as we confirm the competition is judging correctly, we will make a few changes to how our competitions work.

Next, we have also worked on the following:

• Deleting private messages
• Tagging users in forums
• Coins for news comments/forum replies
• Navigation edits
• Social Media fixes
• Search for specific items
• Help design changes
• Misc design changes

We clearly had a very productive Friday!

Our tagging feature only works for users without any spaces in their name. We are working on an auto population feature (similar to Facebook), which should be completed next week. To tag a user, simply type the "@" symbol, and then the complete playername. For example, @mae!

Next, you also now receive 100 coins for news post comments and 50 coins for forum comments. We would love for the community to start interacting a bit more

We have also made some slight changes to the Navigation bar. We will continue to make tweaks over the next few weeks as we perfect this feature.

We also will fix the error with leveling up and competition entry. However, the judging cron is working properly, so I highly suggest continuing to show eligible horses.

We have enabled the Garbis, the Kyre, the Haunt and the Reylor! The Garbis, Kyre, and Haunt can be found in the Shadow world, and the Reylor can be found in the Dragon world. Due to the similar themes, we will enable breeds in the Dragon and Volcano world also with the Shadow world! Love these breeds? Let us know in the comments and earn some coins!

Lastly, here is our to-do list for the coming week:

• Fix leveling bugs
• Complete user upgrades
• Enable horse sales
• Enable updating horse profiles (name changes, set brand, update cover photo, etc)
• Begin item functions

Check back tomorrow for additional updates,

- CE Staff