kami

If these games want to be relevant, I think going mobile might be more of a necessity than it used to be, or at the very least, there will need to be some more drastic changes. The nostalgia factor can hold some people over who've played before, but if people want to reach out to younger audiences who are only used to tablets and phones, either being super mobile friendly or having an app would be a requirement. Clearly slow moving games are successful, so the drag of pet sites versus more active games doesn't have to be a negative. Games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley are extremely popular and financially viable. (That isn't to say your site has to be slow moving, just that they tend to be.) But with ever increasing competition with so many new styles of games being created, I think pet sites have a lot to consider if they want to stay relevant and grow.

I think you hit the nail on the head for the main issue. They're boring. I'm not sure how well people understand the importance of having a dedicated social media manager versus an RSS reader. Things I would love to see if I was into a pet game on their socials: sneak peeks/previews, jokes or in-game references, mentions of the community, showcasing special features/pets/items, Q&A sessions, etc. Keeping the news updates is fine, but have some more variety in between. I think looking at bigger media corporations will help give ideas over 'best practices'. Advice I've heard, though it was aimed at YTbers, can also apply here, is you want to make two kinds of content: searchable and for your audience. You want people to be able to find you, and you want to be able to build/entertain your specific community once they're there.

Oh WOW your work has improved a lot! Gorgeous, best of luck finding work

@Angel Well, no one hires right off the bat from randomly finding someone online. Social media is just an opportunity to be discovered, then things can go from there. I don't need to ask, I've seen several posts on Twitter of people mentioning it. Though that in particular was back when the whole "how fanart got me hired" thing was trending. Feel free to Google search to read some stories, there are a lot of really cute ones Also sorry for the delayed reply, this forum didn't email me about your response D:

I honestly don't know one professional artist (and I mean Western comic artists, mangakas, video game artists, etc) that /don't/ have an Instagram. I've searched up random professionals online and often the first link that comes up is their Instagram. I'm also always hearing stories about how artists have gotten jobs from Twitter, FB, Instagram, etc. Social media is a huge deal in our world nowadays, and companies realize that. Not only are they using it to look at their potential applicants to see if you're a safe hire, they're finding new employees through it. And why not? It's so easy now. You can have thousands of potential artists for hire at your fingertips. Deviantart, eh, that's another story HAHA. But I've seen some pros on there too, but not nearly as many. I'm curious to see how this Vero thing will turn out. I think it's okay so far, but with so many social medias to juggle already, it's difficult to give it the time to really get a feeling for it. I mean, why not have another competitor? That's what helps the other companies grow. YouTube Gaming only came about because of Twitch. So who knows, maybe Vero will send some ripples too?

It's given to you automatically in your mailbox, @Corleone

They've started their Christmas event today! Go get your free santa hat

It has quite a few differences. Granted, I'm only familiar with the older games, not New Leaf. You run your own campsite. You do favors/requests by collecting items. You have no control over what gear you use (fishing pole, net, shovel) since they're based on location. (In certain spots, you can fish, so it automatically gives you a fishing pole.) There's crafting with furniture for your camper (your 'house') and your campsite. Certain animals require certain furniture. You still have loans, but they're more optional and not forced upon you. (You can upgrade at your leisure.) There's some other features, but that's the gist. I'm liking it so far! I'm a little sad some old characters I loved aren't there, and I'm super bumed about no museum (I loved the owl! But I get that it doesn't make sense for this game xD), but it's cute! Loads of new characters I've never seen, and the graphics give me some nostalgia ;) My ID: 2281 8120 524

@WinterBlues WOW you've improved a LOT since I last saw your art Awesome job!

Bump! Halloween is coming up if anyone wants these themed items

Unless you have some sort of game in beta, odds are you won't have a successful Kickstarter. I've seen many attempted crowdfundings by various pet/sim games and most all of them failed in one way or another. Same with other games or other non-game related projects. People are more distrusting now that Kickstarter has built up a reputation of funded projects never being completed. People are wary with how they spend their money and need to be absolutely certain beyond shadow of a doubt that the campaign will not only be a success, but that the founder will complete the project in a timely manner. It also doesn't help if your site/brand doesn't have a following, or at least if it does, it's very small. If no one knows or cares about your project, no one is going to back it. Flight Rising was so successful since they spent months to years building up hype for it. Neon already had a large following from her art alone, so she easily drove traffic to help fund FR. I'm not saying you need a massive following, but try to be realistic. If it's just a couple people who want to help and can fund your game, and you need perhaps 5-15k to fund, it's just not going to happen. I don't mean to rain on your parade, it's just that this topic has been brought up so many times back on VPL, loads of people don't realize just how much time and effort goes into the campaign in and of itself. You can't just open a Kickstarter (or Patreon) and expect money falling in. If you don't have the money to fund anything for your game, I don't see any success for crowdfunding. You'd need graphics, previews, a video (as campaigns are more successful with videos), prizes (and to be able to successfully fund those prizes), etc. I think your time (and money) would be better spent working on your education. There are thousands upon thousands of free tutorials online that can teach you how to code. Coursera is a good start. YouTube has a lot to offer. W3Schools covers a lot of the basics. Codecademy goes a bit more advanced while keeping it approachable for beginners. This would not only be beneficial for you in general, but if you ever can afford a programmer, you'll have a better understanding of what they're doing, possibly be able to assist, and even judge if they're worth their pay. These types of games are a long term investment. There is no "quick win" for any step of the process. Sorry to be a downer.

This is another old guide of mine that I've spruced up a bit. -- Moderators are an important aspect to any company, that includes pet site games! They're the face of your business, the ones dealing directly with your userbase and customers. They're the ones keeping everything safe and organized for your players. They uphold the rules and regulations of the game, dish out any necessary punishments, and help keep you sane. They keep the site's community strong and held together, leaving you with focusing on building the site to be even bigger and better. Unfortunately, most pet site games from my experience tend to hire, well, not the greatest of people for the job. It can often lead to drama, misunderstandings, accidents, and other negativity. That can shed a bad light on, not only your game, but your role as the leader/business owner. So, what can we do about it? We can stop the mess before it happens. But how? Oh, it's so easy, yet so many owners take it for granted. Test them. Test every single person who wants to be a moderator. But, most of you do that already, right? Wrong. I've never seen a site pose more than a few basic and extremely generalized questions about "what would you do if a user did this?" or "how would you handle that?". Such generic questions with such a WIDE (very wide, if you ask me) range of answers and possibilities, how can you possibly judge the person on how they would be as a moderator? "So, what? We add more questions? That's what you're saying?" Not entirely. Adding more questions that are equally as general and basic does not help the problem. Give them SPECIFIC situations and details. Give them a multitude of scenarios and options. Make them THINK! while they are typing their answer. (Emphasis on "think" as some of these tests are so simplistic that all you really have to say as a response is "I'd ask them to stop and give them a warning blah blah generic basic answer blah.") This means NO multiple choice answers. Don't even give them any hints. "So detailed questions with specific scenarios, got it. If that's it, you're wasting my time." Ah, this is where you are wrong. See, you should not stop at just moderation questions, but go beyond that to the personal side. What are their ethics? What would they do in real life situations of some real life scenario? How do they feel about something? What is their opinion on something? If you want people to work for you, shouldn't you know a thing or two about who they are and what they believe/how they think? These people will be in control of a vast amount of your site. Don't you want to see if they can be trusted to do their job right? "Okay okay, specific questions, ask them about their ethics, this seems like a bit much, right?" 100% wrong. This is not enough! They should also have read the entirety of your privacy policy, terms of service, rules, help pages, and/or anything else relevant to their jobs. But more than just read it, UNDERSTAND it! I cannot stress this enough. Sure someone could easily enforce a rule, but if they don't understand it, how can they do it right? If you ask them any question about any rule (or otherwise), they should take no time at all to answer it and be detailed about it. Moderators (and staff in general) who do not understand their own site's rules should NOT be a moderator (or staff in general). "Well they're gonna be mods, of course they know the rules and stuff. That was stupid to include." This is the part I hate the most. Because someone is a mod/staff, users and other staff assume that they know (and understand) the rules. (And often blindly follow.) In some cases, this may be true, but in the majority of cases I've seen, this is completely false. Never assume something about your staff members. If you don't know, then ASK them. -- Now for my next point - friendship. This is the main killer of sites. The owner/other staff members is best friends with all their staffies. And of course, as friends, they could NEVER do any wrong, right? Well, sadly no. Friends can be real butts sometimes. Not only that, but they have the capacity to be wrong and also make mistakes. So what happens if your friend isn't up for the job? Well, you either keep them on your staff and cross your fingers that they improve, or you do something about it. Let's start with option one - firing. It's not scary and you should not be afraid of it. In fact, this is one of the main powers that separates the owner from the rest of the staff. You can toss people left and right like no tomorrow. I know you may care about your friendship and that firing them is sure to upset them, they're just going to have to deal. Do remember, that friends can still be friends even if they are not all together on the same staff team. Ya'll can be perfectly happy with a staff/user relationship. It's for the betterment of your site and can possibly open your friends eyes to what they were doing. (This could also save the friendship too, as there would be less of a strain between you.) Option two - meeting. This one is probably recommended to do before option one, but I felt like listing it second. (Just because I can.) It is entirely fair for a staff member (yes, any staff member, ya'll are a team) to call for a group meeting for any reason. That reason could possibly be the behavior of any (this can include you, as the owner) staff member. In that meeting, I highly suggest honesty for things to get done faster. Of course doing it in a gentle manner could help keep peoples moods in check. Once ya'll assess the problem, it's time you move onto the "thinking of a solution" step. Let all the staff members (including the one causing the issues) come up with possible ideas. And keep all of them, even if you do not end up using them. After you pick whatever one you see fit, execute it. If, over time, it ends up not working, try another one of the ideas. Keep at it until things just seem like they won't work out. (In that case, I refer you to "option one".) -- So, for my next point - hiring moderators offsite. Lots of you do this, no? Well, it's not exactly a bad thing, but I do have to make a suggestion. Before you even think about testing them for the job, make them play the site. I say at least a week to a month, but obviously the longer the better. Even if they read and understand the rules, if they don't understand the site and it's community, it's just as pointless to hire them. Be wary of hiring moderators before you actually need them. If you're site is still in development, they have nothing to moderate. The only thing I can think of to use them while in development would be for them working with developing the rules, TOS, etc. (Though you would ideally have a lawyer help you with those.) If you want people to join and help give ideas, then ask for that. I'm not saying that moderators can't help with ideas, but if you're hiring them to moderate then that should be their only job. Moderating is hard work and they don't need extra jobs or distractions from that. "Okay, so I've tested them. The results seem fine. I'm gonna hire them." STOP! Before you do anything, just stop. First of all, send their application to every other staff member, moderator or not. This person will be joining the family. If not everyone can agree on letting them in, then you're going to have issues later on. If a staff member has personal issues with the applicant, then that's a major problem. The staff need to work as a team or else the whole site falls apart. If everyone but that one staff member (or a few) have issues with the applicant, then ask all of them about their feelings on working with each other. If it's not possible, then it's not possible, and you're going to have to make some sacrifices one way or another. Secondly, if you have any questions about their answers or just further questions to test them on, it is completely in your right to do so, and if they really want the job, they'll answer. Don't stop testing/asking questions until the entire staff team is completely satisfied. No matter how minor the question is - ask it! It could make all the difference later on. I hope you're starting to get it. Now, you should know why this is all important, but if not, I shall say it in a few simple words: a site is only as good as it's weakest staff member. (Yes, I turned a few words around from an old famous quote.) I don't care if your site is full of godly rainbow artwork with crazy original features that just blow your brains apart and writing that just makes you cry your eyes out because it's so beautiful. If your staff aren't up to par, it's soiled and people are going to leave. View full guide

I keep finding old stuff, haha. An old item tutorial I made for a croissant I also posted another thread that focused on coloring if you'd like to see a different style of shading. View full guide

Two step by step walkthrough examples of how I cel shaded items. The art is a little dated, but the method I use is still similar and this should still be helpful regardless. The important thing is to keep in mind light source and to have it be consistent throughout the item, it's varying forms, etc. View full guide

Super old, but still might be helpful to someone?? View full guide