So I'm just going to throw this out there and try to explain it the best I can :P I'm honestly just curious to hear people's thoughts.

On Furry Paws, and other sim sites, character designs and sales are huge. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, characters are designed by people and then typically given personalities, bios, ect. They can be anything you want, any species, any colors, endless possibilities. On FP most people have canine characters but I've seen other species and even made-up creatures. 

I've recently taken more of an interest because it's fun to get the tags and collect the "coolest" characters. Like, I bought a character from another player, her name is Mixed Berries xD and you can see all her junk here.  I just love everything about her haha but yea so that's just one example. I know Navi and some others have done horse character art, some of it I'm sure it used for rping but I've never been into rping. I'm not a writer but this side of things is still fun to me.

The art sales are a big deal on FP because they allow approved player to sell for USD, just recently one person ordered over $100 worth of recolors (same base tag, just recolored with each character's design) and that was just one person's order. Even without the USD sale it would be really neat to see this turn in to something on HP. I don't know if anyone on HP is versed in the art style that associated with this stuff or not though. I'm not :c

I'm still new to the whole thing but feel free to ask me questions. Here's some of my other characters in the mean time :D

her full page

 

his full page

 

her full page

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These are amazing trig! I've never been into the whole character scene because I just wouldn't utilize them but you're so talented! I hope this takes off for you! :)

I wish there was a way to integrate more of a "character" element into the game here. Most people have themed lines and naming is a huge part of the fun of training pixel ponies!

I love your characters! They're so cute! ^^

 I've seen these on FP and equiverse I think?  Honestly I love them.  It's really neat to see your character in a bunch of different art styles and I've always looked for them on people's pages.  I'm not into rping but I've always loved the art. 

First off, these are the most adorable little characters ever! ^^

Secondly, I have seen many of these types of artworks on many sims games as well as DeviantArt and, like Catt, I too love the styles and art designs of characters. The creativity of some are truly breathtaking and pleasurable to sift through for hours. I used to be very heavily into roleplaying, but I no longer am, though I still enjoy the artistic designing/writing aspect.

In honesty, I would rather the character integration as either for a layout or different styles for forum avatars/sigs than actual drawn horse pixels like what Horseland currently has now. That's never something I've been into and probably never will be; I like the creative free-reign of a blank horse or dog to make it your own design/trademark. But this is just my two-cents on the matter, there may not be much agreeance with my statement.

Those are really cool, Trig!

As something to work into HP, I can't think of a way (although, always open to suggestions about anything) that we could "officially" work them into the gameplay without changing things around. BUT I think a lot of people would be interested in them as a potential market for their animals if individual players started selling them!

That's part of what I like about HP and similar games, is that you can kind of just go your own direction with your animals in theme and art, etc. Something like this would fit right in with what we currently have for the players who want to participate in it.

We have a lot of players who are into RP'ing, and also into art. Something like this may actually give our graphics market a big boost too which would be amazing for everyone!

As far as USD sale potential, there's a lot of liability involved for the site which isn't something I'm into. We could potentially add a HPB option to the auctions, though. But we have for awhile now allowed people to link to their DA accounts where they do comissions. As long as none of the advertising for them or actual selling of them for USD takes place on HP, then it's allowed. We just don't want to have people selling anything for USD on HP, or advertising for it, just in case something goes wrong (especially since we allow minors onto HP). Obviously, buying anything from anyone online is an at-your-own-risk type of situation, though, to be clear. But we all know that!

So, in short, I'm into it! Plus I like them, I'd buy them if I trained any animals, haha.

I'd be totally for Sam's idea and paying HB's for one of thes or buying a custom sale in aiction, be it a layout, commission or forum order! 

I think they'd be awesome for Mascots since the creation of characters and stories is a requirement! I'd definitely buy one if I enter the Mascot contest next year :)

And it's not necessarily something that has anything to do with gameplay even, most sites it's a side thing for players to mess with. As far as adjustments to HP itself, they would be minimal. Maybe adding a section next to the online players name for the avies to show up, simply as another place to showcase the art. Add another forum specifically meant for this type of art so there's not the time limit that auctions have. This would also allow sellers to choice the form of payment they want, be it HPD, HPB, or a combination, and as a buyer it is a easier format to use.

I am only familiar with how FP  handles the USD sales and they have a couple things in place but it basically boils down to buy at your own risk. I just see it as a huge incentive for artist to be around HP,  but I do understand your concerns as a game owner. Like you said, commissioning artist on dA is always an option.

I'm totally going to drag my characters and my character site over here and anyone wants to join me feel free haha. I've got to get back from my lunch break but I'll follow up some more tonight after work. 

My painting style isn't quite like the examples above because cell-shading escapes me, honestly. I've been wanting to brush up (pun completely intended, ha) on my painting skills though, and I've been kind of bored with the current art market so I'd be down for this!! I'll whip out the tablet later if I have time and see what I can come up with ;).

 And just to throw it out there, you don't have to be awesome at drawing to have characters. I used free lines to make "Adele" and dA has a ton that you can use. Does anyone else on HP have any characters?

I used to play harpg on deviantart. It was like an RP, but everything was drawn instead of written and you'd draw competition images to show your horse, etc. 

I used to sell the character designs on dA. http://monochromexnight.deviantart.com/gallery/30285228/Designs

You can look around through there for some of my others. 

Link Tree

I really liked the idea of having the avatars in the online list, so Chao and I worked on that last night! http://horsephenomena.com/online.php

I saw that!