Hi there, I'm very new to HP. I joined less than a week ago, but the more I've browsed the site, I really enjoy it!! That said, here's a list of random ideas I've had. I tried to err on the side of what would be plausible and mostly text-based contents, without being too crazy, so hopefully some of these might be worthwhile?

- Daily login prize, with larger prizes for logging in for a week, two weeks, or one month straight, etc. Incentivizes logging in every day, and doesn't need to be anything fancy.

- In general, an inventory. There don't need to be a ton of items in this game, but I think items could go hand-in-hand with certain simple activities. I would also love GIFT items - these would be a little icon/graphic, almost like an achievement, that can be sent to other players. They don't DO anything, but are a nice way to send someone something nice. Basically, greeting cards. Specially designed ones could be produced for events, or even fan-made ones. Players could collect these if they wanted to. Think a little cake you can send to say happy birthday; a trophy to congratulate an achievement; a bouquet to say thank you... Also, one to say your layout/profile is cool would also be really fun I think.

- A way to "like" individual animals. Likes could potentially have their own leaderboard. Gaining likes could be a new player goal for some. Most importantly, it's a positive way for other players to say "hey, this layout/graphic is so cool!" or "wow, this animal is really accomplished/awarded!" 

- Automatic showcases on the homepage or somewhere. Show me random animals, top rated animals this month, random players, most active, online now, whatever. I think it should be easier to click onto other animals and players. Encourage people to just websurf. I've really enjoyed reading profiles and seeing people's amazing layouts/graphics!

- Ability to click "next" or "previous" on animal pages to automatically see other animals in that stable/kennel/etc. Again, just to encourage more websurfing. I like browsing, but it can be annoying going back and forth on pages.

- Set chat colors in settings, and make the color a toggle that sticks in the chatroom. AKA, I go to settings, insert the colors i like as options, then when I go to chatroom, it's now a dropbox of my options. When I choose one, it stays indefinitely (across sessions/logins) until I change it. I say this because color management seems a little tedious and it clears itself a lot in my experience.

- Sudden events! A lot of gamesites have a version of this: randomly, sometimes pages will load with some special event or surprise. It would be cool if there was a rare chance for you to stumble upon a small amount of money or for an animal to randomly get a small training boost from something silly (aka... "You give Horse a really tasty apple and he/she trains really well today!" 25pts) These sudden events are easy, text-based things that incentivize players to browse around more. Mini contests or suggestion forums could come up with funnier event texts/blurbs, and those could be implemented. Maybe winners of the mascot event or players of the month etc could be allowed to come up with one, or have their animal referenced in one directly. (aka... "Specific-Winner's-Animal comes up to you as if saying hello before running off where it came!") I dunno, this just seems simplistic and a really neat feature you could utilize to honor/humor players in a lot of ways. An event that will reference a completely random animal to try and get the player to try visiting it, just as a way to show you other people's stuff?

- I noticed the birthday club, but I would love if birthdays could be set in settings and the site would show you each player who has a birthday too so you could click directly on them, etc etc... Also means players could get prizes on their birthday, like have the site send them a little something?

- Collections and maybe floaties? Sort of alongside my inventory and gifts suggestions, I think a neat seasonal event could be collections. A collection is a set of however many items: say a Fall Collection has an acorn, fallen leaf, pumpkin, haybale, etc. These items have a chance to randomly appear on pages in some way, potentially as a floaty. Another thing I've seen in other games, a floaty is literally a little icon/graphic that floats around your screen until you click it to receive it. Not sure what it's like to code, and maybe items can be found in another way that remains text-based. Collections could change every year, such that having a previous collection could show how long a player has been around and having them is like an achievement in & of itself! Maybe completed sets could be shown on profiles. And of course, once completed, they'd have a reward. 

- Scavenger hunts: this is a riff on the above idea, but you could potentially make collections like riddles. You post hints on the homesite to each collection item, and players have to find that specific page in order to find the item on it. Because there aren't THAT many pages, scavenger hunts may be more like a once a year thing, I dunno haha

- Very small amounts of money and maybe a RARE chance of training points to random animal, when posting/chatting? Perhaps up to a limit, such at 10 times a day? Forum posts would literally be incentivized, but not in a way that would necessarily break the game. 

- I think animals having a unique silhouette per breed would be really cool, but I imagine that's a LOT to ask HP to make on its own. Instead, maybe animals can at least have auto-generated appearance texts, such as the size and color? It seems theyre normally empty, and I think it'd be nice if at least some ideas were generated there. This could lend itself to people making graphics, because people could use HP's idea as an idea of what the graphic will portray. I just think animals could come with a bit more individuality. 

- What if animals had some level of training stats? Randomly generated, an animal could have a low or high trainability. Low trainability translates to typically less points earned from shows. High trainability means they get more. This adds another level to breeding and lines, because now you also need to try for a pet with decent trainability.

- This is a little crazy I'll admit, but what if animals had a text-based RPG minigame? I mean, say you choose your favorite animal and can go on a ride/walk for the day. There are random options and lots of possible endings, and different prizes. Something short & sweet, but enticing enough to do each day just to see what you could get! ALSO, a way to give the player a way to play with their favorite animals!

- Playing with an animal could slowly fill a heart/happiness meter. Say it takes a two weeks or so to fill an animal's meter: not TOO long, but long enough to show that a full meter is special because the player has played daily for that long. This meter gives the animal's link/name a little badge or heart beside it, and the links are pink text or something? Basically, it's a cosmetic you can earn for your animal to show they're really loved. This would be nice for people who have animals that are memorials to irl pets, people proud of an achievement animal, etc!

- Forum customization? What about avatar frames you get as a prize, and theyre little decorative frames around the player's custom avatar on the forums? Or special badges: mini badges that show up underneath the avatar/name (left-side) on the player's forum posts? They can choose 3 or etc from their settings, based on which they want to show off! These could even be really simple, solid-color badges with plain text on it saying, "winner of x contest 2024" etc, just a cool achievement for people to collect and be proud of in a way.

I mayyy come back later to give more ideas, but I feel like I've seriously gone on... I'd love to know other's thoughts for sure too, that is, if anyone can make it through this post in the first place anyway LOLLL

Daily login prize, with larger prizes for logging in for a week, two weeks, or one month straight, etc. Incentivizes logging in every day, and doesn't need to be anything fancy.

i like this idea

Other ideas I'm already having:

- Expanding upon the idea of likes & leaving animals likes... you could earn likes as a small prize for doing things around the site, and then deposit them on animal pages as you wish. so theyre just a disposable currency based on activity, used to positively engage with animal pages. great way for community to support each other & their achievements I think but just an idea, like everything else lol

- Lotteries, lottery tickets, etc. These could be an alternative way to drain money, which I suspect is something longtime players can seriously accumulate. Small activities like this are fun to do, could have achievements or small bonuses attached, and are an interesting way for people to spend money. A system automated lottery every day or week could be interesting. What if it used an actual jackpot, based on what players have paid in? 

- Show two forum activity logs on the site: one for all forums, and then one dedicated to forum games activity. Reason being that forum games tend to rely on lots of posts and spamming in a way, and it's easy to overwrite the whole recent activity list just playing some games. That's not a bad thing, but I'd love if non-games forums could still stay in the recent activity for me to see! Separating games into its own chart would be nice I think, so I can see both!

- Some bonus for retiring? If a player raises an animal and gets a lot of points, why not some bonus to retiring them? I'm not sure what the bonus could be, but I think retirement stage could be elaborated on. There's little reason not to just keep all your animals, but what if officially retiring/letting go of animals gave you a bonus, and it was even better if the animal had a lot of points? Even a set of achievements for retiring pets with X amount of points would be a nice start and give people yet another goal to work towards!

- Why not quests? Could operate daily or weekly. Play tetromino, view the gallery, send someone a gift, post in the forum, feed an animal, etc etc etc... 

- Ability to set a default graphic, especially per-breed. Potentially per lifestage (aka ability to set a default graphic for unicorn foals, adults, and retirement age separately even?) But just the ability per breed would be nice. I notice people like to make their own graphics for their lines, so being able to have all animals on your account use that graphic by default instead of the silhouette placeholder would be convenient. Of course, custom graphics can still be set per-animal that override the default just like normal too :)

I really LOVE these ideas!! 

the defualt graphic speaks to me! That and the forum activity one ha. i don't theink the bonus one would be too bad, as it would be a bigger insentive to get to that point, alot of people keep the retired pairs because we are able to breed them again using the cash shop, however theres some pairs we may never use...

During Easter time they have a site wide Egg Hunt throughout the whole site. Its so fun :) i think theres a pumpkin hunt in fall

“Life is short but also like terribly and insufferably long at the same time.” - Jenna Marbles

We do lotteries sometimes too! :) Welcome to the game!

Some great ideas. The 'next animal' I would love to see made possible - the back and forth to home page when training is the worst bit!

@Binx -- Thank you! I don't know where it all came to me. Honestly I just keep "seeing" features as I use the site like visions LOL

@Day Dream -- Totally. Once I found out you can use the cash shop to breed retired animals, I realized why people hold onto them. I think giving people a stronger reason to actually retire animals might be interesting. And could encourage people to let go of high point animals and sort of free-up the rankings, potentially??? Natural game-play loop? I dunno!

@vexation -- I had no idea about the egg hunt or pumpkin hunts! I look forward to experiencing it myself. I might look into that and how they work haha. That sounds really cool!!!

@Foxi -- Oh really! I didn't know lotteries had been held. I still think it could be cool if it were coded in the site and ran themselves on some regular/consistent basis too, but I would love to participate in one regardless if it's automatic or manual. Thanks for telling me, I'll keep an eye out for the next one hehe. And thanks for the welcome, I'm happy to be here so far :)

@MagicFlame -- I know, right!? It would also be super helpful for training. You can already click "Back to Horse/Dog" on the Enter Shows screen. If I could go back to the animal, then hit next, go back to enter shows... Just the slightest convenience, it'd be super noticed/appreciated for sure. You make a good point with that!

Thanks so much to everyone who has commented! I know I've said so much. If any admin has any interest in any of these or can comment on how possible it would be to code etc, I'd love to know! I'd especially love to know if something is impossible, so I know what sort of things are unlikely to be implemented ever. I hope any of my ideas could be on the table though, and possibly move forward... Would be cool, hehe.