Behind the Pixels

Recently, habbo.com has been going through a series of updates changing the way walking and stacking works. While these changes went unnoticed for a vast majority of a users (except, perhaps, for the “glued chairs” bug), there are people who feel really affected by these changes. This post is some insight to what is happening, as well as a way to say “sorry guys for your troubles”.

First, I’ll introduce myself – my Habbo nickname is dmitrym, I’m Habbo developer and I work at Sulake since 2008. Chances are, last week I broke some of your mazes.

Why?

Habbo has to evolve to stay cool. And just adding the content is not enough, we need to improve core features to be more intuitive for the new generation of Habbos. What was cool in 2000 and 2006, is lame by standards of 2013. So we are working on an improvements to core room functionality of Habbo. This should both make Habbo more accessible to the newer generation, and give more experienced player more powerful tools for creating rooms that were not possible before. Sorry, I’m not allowed to give you more details (“… yet”, hopefully).

Yes, but why breaking X?

Habbo code is old. Heck, compared to other MMO games, it is ancient. Some parts of it (especially related to rooms) are older than many of the current players. :-) It is layers of legacy stuff, complex, obfuscated, all glued with patches and supported by crutches. Add to that more than 4000 different furniture types. Whatever unbelievable combination of furni properties you make up – chances are, there is two or three types with this combination, all released back in 2007.

So when we tried to implement something that was not possible before, we had to clean the mess first. And doing this, we accidentally fixed many of old bugs, which for older player became a de-facto standard. Skipping over void. Dropping down or jumping up 6 levels. Stacking things into each other. God knows what else. Of course, we introduced some bugs, but those are nice modern bugs that we at least know how to track down and fix. :-)

Known issues

• Diagonal walking – after recent code changes, Habbos could not walk over non-walkable furni when moving diagonally between two adjacent tiles. While technically such movements constitute a bug, we’ve listened to you and will make it possible again. Walking diagonally between two non-walkable furnis is still not allowed, as is not allowed to walk over the void (even when moving diagonally between two adjacent tiles).
• Going on high furni was broken. Fixed.
• Dropping down from high furni – previously, it was possible to drop down or climb up furni of arbitrary heights under certain circumstances. New code allows only height changes of no more than 1.25 units in any direction, so falling down is no longer possible. We’ll add explicit support for dropping down up to 4 units.
• “Ditch” stacking – thanks for the feedback from you, we’ve realized that this feature (still a “bug”, technically) was essential for building highly sophisticated rooms. We’ll temporary put back old buggy code, while looking for a cleaner solution for more flexible stacking.
• Client shows that you can stack furni in any place. This may be really confusing. We are working to fix it.
• The fixes mentioned above are going to be deployed tomorrow.

I found not listed walking/stacking bug!

Please, post here detailed description of what is wrong and a link to room (as in http://habbo.com/room/xxx, not room “Lions den”) that demonstrates the bug. If the bug needs a few players to reproduce, please describe how many players and where those should be standing. Mind you – by bug here is I mean obviously wrong behavior, not “it worked differently before”!

I want X back!!!

If you really think X was important – please comment down here why you think Habbo will be a better place if we bring X back. Not just “it was cool and I had rooms using it”, but what cool games/features does X provide. I cannot promise that every cool feature will be brought back. The code is different now, and emulating old bugs is a curse for any developer.

Little bonus

Again, the new code was put in place to make extending core room functionality for new (yet undisclosed) feature. But here are some nice side effects:

• Now you can put welcome mat in the doorway :-)
• You can stack things up to level 40 (compared to old 10, guess why this change)
• And if I’ll have some time to spare in the coming weeks, Habbos may gain an ability to walk under stacked furnis, provided there is enough vertical separation. At least now this looks technically feasible.

What would you say your favourite thing was about Habbo? For me, the main thing is the people. Be it users, Staff… whoever. The thing is that in the Hotels I could meet more friends than I could ever imagine in real life. Is that because my social environment is bad shape beyond my laptop screen? Not really, it is simply a question of math: whenever I enter Habbo there are plenty of users from here and there, or even farther. And hey, my ability to be in several places at the same time is somewhat limited.

What are we all doing here? I guess we are not looking for the answers to the big secrets of mankind: we just want to have fun, to talk and listen, to be amazed by how different you see life or to satisfy our egos from time to time, why not? It is really easy to do in Habbo and so difficult in some other places. Several years of Habbo adventures have made our sites and Community one of the strongest and wisest on the Internet. Habbo Staff are trained on moderation and safety, and constantly share their knowledge of online safety with the authorities, users and other companies all over the world. Honestly, is there any Habbo not educated in the right use of Internet? I don’t think so, please, use this power that you have!

To me, safety is the basis of fun on the Internet, rather than a limit. It inspires every movement, new feature or activity that Habbo launched over the years. Let me check by memory: the data of the users is managed by professionals, and not shared with 3^rd parties; the guarantee of getting the Credits that you are paying with almost any kind of safe method; consistently reliable technical functioning Hotels, with a fast response to any unexpected problem, and  the list continues.

And the best of this is the people again, you and us. Habbo is always listening to users’ suggestions and recommendations – even if those making suggestions don’t always realize, and then spend tons of hours developing something suitable to what Habbos are missing. From behind the curtains, Habbo prepared with dedication things like Lovelocks, Relationship Status, Duckets, Wired, tons of Badges and Furni, Crackable Eggs, Rentable items for free, Loyalty points… Habbo is able to bring you to Venice or to put you on a Steampunk Zeppelin. You won a golden medal in the Habbo-lympix and your first Yacht was made of pixels. We know that during Habboween you laughed nervously. Where else could you be a genuine leader of opinion, manage a Fansite and even tell a VIP visitor that you love them without trembling (well, you trembled a bit)?

The original feeling only happened in Habbo. Thanks for making it real and keeping it real!

P.S. We have recently received some inquiries regarding retro sites, as some people have noticed that many of them do not work at the moment. As promised earlier, http://www.sulake.com/blog/entries/brief-faq-on-habbo-retros/,  Sulake has taken legal actions against the individuals developing emulator softwares and due to this many retro sites are unable to operate.

Its been a while since our last blog post, but there is a good reason. We’ve been hard at work tackling a slew of User Voice requests and adding new features to enhance your Habbo experience. Here’s a list to summarize the changes we’ve done this year and some hints of things to come.

Duckets

Your new (Free) virtual currency that can be earned simply by logging in and being active in Habbo. Now everyone can customize rooms and own pets, even if you have no credits. Duckets will also be used within campaigns to reward active players ensure that certain items remain rare.

Searchable & Expandable Inventory

You now have a search field in your inventory as well as filtering options (about time…)

Removed: Stream

Our  data shows this feature was used by a very small fraction of the community. We felt it was best to remove for now to make the hotel load faster while we rethink the concept. We apologize for the inconvenience if you liked this feature, but we think you’ll be happier in the longrun (hint: tired of notifications all over the place cluttering your right column? … hmm where should they go?)

New :Kick + :Kickall commands and Wired Kick Effect

These features give better means to self-moderate your rooms and also create lots of opportunities for new/improved wired game building.

New :MuteBots command

In a room with too many bots and want to clear the noise? :mutebots!

Love Lock Furni

A new type of  social furni that works in similar fashion to our trophies.  You and a friend can lock your avatar image and the date to be displayed on double-click. Although this came out specifically for Valentines we see potential to expand this functionality into new themes that are more friend or group oriented.

Relationship Status

A new way to categorize friends and display the relationship on your Habbo profile. Just one small step to bring Habbo friendships closer together.

Earn Credits & Prizes by Watching Videos

You can now earn prizes and credit furni by watching sponsored videos without leaving the hotel.

New Year’s Resolution Trophies & New Achievement Levels

These Achievement furni allow you to select an achievement to complete by a specified date which unlocks a new furni state proudly displaying your accomplishment. Along with this update we increased the level of many achievements and even added a few new ones for our Baby Pets.

We hope you are enjoying these new features as well as the daily events run by hotel managers and frequent furni updates.

UPDATE: We have now updated the feature to automatically unlock your account when accessing from a trusted computer. We hope this prevents anyone from being accidentally locked from your own account.

We’ve just added a new way to keep your account safe and secure.

The account safety lock will automatically disable some features in the hotel if your account is accessed from an unknown computer. To unlock your account after safety lock, you’ll just have to answer a few additional security questions.

Features locked by this feature:

1. Adding or removing credentials
2. Changing password
3. Changing email
4. Linking and adding accounts to identity
5. Trading
6. Using marketplace
7. Purchasing from catalog
8. Dropping furniture to group room
9. Deleting rooms

Visit your account identity settings to choose questions and enable this feature.

The whole Habbo Team thanks Paul for his inspiring leadership during his tenure proudly wearing the habbo badge and we will wish him all the best for the future.

Together with Paul we have kept on listening to our users, the Habbo community – you are our stars. We keep learning from your feedback and during the coming year we will provide more of the classic Habbo features you love as well as continue developing new extensions to enhance the habbo experience, such as the recently launched Game Center and mobile application.

It will be an exciting year 2013 for the entire Community!

The Habbo Team

After 15 months of leading the Habbo community it is time for me to hand my Staff badge to new leadership. My time as Paulwalla has been amazing, working with a group of industry veterans to support one of the most vibrant and energetic communities on the internet. We have had our ups and our downs together, and through it all Habbos have stood strong in being proud of their community and making it about friendship and fun.  I’ve learned much and truly enjoyed engaging with the community. Whether our work to improve the community was popular, or controversial throughout we have heard clearly that Habbos understand their community and know what they want. The interaction has been important. The voice of the community is the strength of the community. Proof of this was clear in the summer. The community weathered a tremendous storm together, and Habbos stood strong. The way you reacted with one strong voice was inspiring.   You will be left in good hands. Our new Community Team will lead Staff in the Hotel to serve you. Engagement will increase, and the spirit of Old Habbo will rise again.

All the best,

Paul LaFontaine

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Our new Pocket Habbo mobile app is launching around the world on December 19th. You’ll be able to download the 100% free Pocket Habbo app from the Apple Store on an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad (compatibility mode).

Pocket Habbo can be linked to your Habbo Account from any hotel and allows you to talk with your Habbo friends from your mobile. You can also receive offline messages on your mobile and in Habbo!

As a holiday bonus, starting Thursday you’ll be able to redeem a daily gift for 12 days just for checking in on Pocket Habbo! Easy access to Habbo and daily rewards, what could be better? Make sure to download early to get all the gifts!

We hope you enjoy this new way to stay connected.