Site Updates

My biggest goal for HP this year is to improve the site page-by-page. It's not going to be super exciting, but I think it will improve the overall user experience and help HP stay competitive with similar sites in the years to come. It also will address several of the suggestions and concerns brought up in our fall survey. Basically these are things we need to do, but just aren't fun. Some of these changes include:

New Art

I would like to commission new art for HP's background, as well as look at adding more art around the site. I'm not going to make it childish or make it so that pages are hard to load because of so many images, but I would like to break up the text a little and make the site more visually appealing where it's appropriate to do so.

Better Mod Functions

This won't affect players as much as it'll affect mods, but I think there are lots of ways we can make modding HP more efficient which will result in faster responses from mods and prizes from contests being awarded sooner.

General Re-Organization

This will include going page-by-page on the site and making notes of what we can improve, how we can change the descriptions of things to make them more clear, updating links, and trying to make the site's general navigation simpler.

I especially want to focus on making it easier to find things, because I have a lot of people suggest things to me that already exist on the site (and often have existed for a long time), or not be sure how existing features work, so that tells me that there's a lot of room for improvement in that area for me to work on.

These changes may also include updating the general layout of pages and how things are organized on pages. I will especially be looking at player home pages and animal pages, but you'll probably see at least minor changes everywhere. As these things get done, I will make news posts about them, and for more major changes, I may post polls for players to help decide how things should look.

New Email System

One of the first things we plan to do this year is implement a new email system, which will make it easier for us to send welcome emails, lost password emails, and send and sign people up for other emails like the newsletter or "we haven't seen you in awhile" emails.

I will give everyone more information about this once we start on it, as always.

We're accepting mod applications

That's right! HP is officially open for mod applications. With a growing number of players, we are looking at potentially adding another mod to the team, so if you're interested (and meet the requirements) please fill out an application. Deadline to apply is Thursday, February 14th at 11:59 pm HP time.

Requirements

Click here to fill out an application!

Price and Economy Changes

HP's game economy has changed over the years (and it's been improving which is AWESOME!), and it's time once again for us to reevaluate the best ways to handle inflation while still making the game accessible to new players.

This might include changing the amount of weekly income players get, the savings interest that's paid out, taxes and fees around the game, as well as prices in the store and cash shop, and entrance fees to contests. USD prices will be evaluated as well.

This is something that won't be a bunch of sudden price changes all over the site, it'll come as part of the general reorganization, and as we keep an eye on HP's improving economy!

New Player Experience

Last year we planned to add an interactive tutorial for new players, but those plans were put on hold so we are going to revisit them again in the new year. I would also like to update all of the help pages.

This is something that I would love to get input from players on - since I've never been a new player on HP, it's hard for me to really know what information new players need. SO if you're new to HP or even if you've been here for awhile, please tell me (here or you can message me anytime) what information or resources would make your experience as a new player on HP better!

Miscellaneous

Now that we've got the main points out there, it's time for some small things!

In conclusion, I want to thank everyone who made it this far! I really appreciate everyone who reads the news posts, and all of the players who continue to play and support HP after a decade of being the internet.

I hope that we can have another great year together, and I want to say again how much I appreciate everyone on HP, and the community that we have created together. I had a pretty difficult year in 2018, especially toward the end, and it was so nice to know that there was a supportive and friendly community here on HP for me to escape into. And after a bit of a slow start to the year because of everything that happened last year, I am ready to get to work on improving HP this year, and I hope that we can all make that happen together.

Also, as a fun little thing for people who read this post, I am doing a HP keychain raffle! To enter, please message me and tell me what your favorite horse movie is. I will pick a random winner and message them on Thursday, Feb 14th. Please note that receiving the keychain will require you to give me your real address, so it's only open to those 18 years of age or older. You can read more about how we keep your personal information safe here.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions about what I've talked about here, you can reply to the forum topic announcement, or if you prefer, you can always message me on account #1.

Thank you again for reading and have a great weekend!

-Sam