January 23, 2025
The January 2025 AMA took place at 5pm NST on Thursday, January 23, 2025.
The AMA was first announced on January 6, about seventeen days in advance.
This AMA was dubbed "New Year Edition" and featured Neopets CEO Dom Law as usual. It also included discussion with TNT Dingo, a Neopets.com dev team member making their AMA debut. TNT Stone also visited to discuss the upcoming Neopies. TNT Luna returned as host for the eighth consecutive month.
Questions could be submitted in advance on TNT Luna's Neoboard topic in Site Events. You could submit your own question, as well as copy as many questions submitted by others as you wished.
How to Watch
The AMA was simulcasted on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter/X, Twitch, and Instagram. It remains available for viewing on the first three of these platforms:
Rare Item Code
TNT announced in advance that there will be "an EXCLUSIVE universal item code redeemable at Grundo's warehouse." The code was revealed as BAHBOROVAN near the end of the livestream, redeemable at Grundo Warehouse until January 25th at 5pm NST.
January 2025 Live AMA Code Item
Recap
Questions for TNT Dingo
Luna started by bringing out TNT Dingo, a Neopets dev team member.
Tell us about yourself and what you do for Neopets?
- Pink Lupe from Alabama.
- Has four dogs, three cats, and a tarantula.
- Specializes in front end programming for Neopets, but does a little back end work too.
- Works on "the meatball and sauce of the spaghetti code."
- Four years at TNT but has been playing since they were nine.
Why "Dingo"?
- Never liked using their real name on the internet. Always used a fake name even on sites like Facebook.
- One of the fake names they used was Dingo J. Cockpit. It was just a random name!
- Enjoys protecting their anonymity!
What was one of the first things you worked on?
- Discovered Neopets in fourth grade, and fell in love with the comics section of the Neopian Times.
- Learned a lot of programming skills through playing on Neopets.
- Hired in March 2021, and first tasks were around converting dailies to the new site layout.
- Doesn't remember the first one, but one they remember best is the Kitchen Quest page. Felt it looked underwhelming and "spruced it up a bit" using some images found in the art archive.
Kitchen Quest Guide »
Who do you work most closely with? What is a day in the life like?
- Works most closely with other programmers and QA, like last month's AMA guest TNT Unknown!
- Occasionally gets to work with artists too.
- Average day involves checking tasks, catching up on messages, and planning what to work on that day. "Then zone out, write code until it's dark outside."
How did you get into programming in the first place?
- In addition to Neopets, was also active on MySpace, where people were making their own layouts. Dingo assumed that everyone was building that skill!
- Although a talented artist, was not inspired to do it as a profession.
- Originally planned to study to be an aerospace engineer! They have an interest in outer space.
- After helping a friend write a MATLAB program and really enjoying it, they changed majors to software engineering!
- Wants to spread some encouragement that the skills you build working on your pet page are useful. Front end skills like CSS are less common than you think!
Is there anything you'd love to collab with the Neopets art team on?
- Would love to help with Pet Styles!
- Worked on the backend to support multiple versions of the same pet.
Pet Styles Guide »
What was something you were part of implementing that you are super proud of?
- "I'm proud of everything I create."
- The biggest satisfaction comes from fixing small things that bother them personally!
- Gave an example of adding a Book-All checkbox at the Neolodge.
- Dingo mentions that there are lots of other enhancement plans for the Neolodge when it gets converted to the new layout.
- "Every page is getting converted eventually."
Neolodge Guide »
What was the most challenging fix or issue you've encountered? How did you resolve it?
- "Very weird, random data inconsistencies that we have to fix manually."
- "Stuff that's a problem at the lowest level" that would ideally involve a full code overhaul, but due to time have to work with an existing system. Gives an example of launching Pet Styles on the existing customisation platform.
Is there a feature you pitched early on that never got created?
- Always has hope that every idea they've pitched will eventually happen.
- Would love to see a Neocash item trading post.
- Their pitch concept would still use gift boxes, but would be more secure than the honor system that NC trading currently involves.
Neocash Trading Guide »
Anything else to share?
- Loves working for Neopets!
- Always tries to bring their perspective as a long time player.
- A lot of TNT's problems come down to resources: time and people. That is why things sometimes take so long, it's not for lack of caring!
- Reads all messages they've received on Discord or Neomail, even if they can't always respond. Loves getting supportive messages, they help
Questions for TNT Stone
Luna then brought out Senior Narrative Designer TNT Stone.
Tell us about yourself?
- Worked with Neopets for a little over 3 years.
- Originally brought in as a writer for what is now Faerie Fragments before moving to narrative work on the main site.
- Works on The Void Within plot and events.
What have you been working on lately?
- Narratives for the plot.
- Annual events like the Neopies.
- Other things they're not allowed to speak about yet!
What is the lore behind the Neopies?
- Couldn't find much in-house lore about the Neopies.
- Ellsworth "seems like a cool dude."
What's new for the Neopies this year?
- It's not a narrative-heavy event, but has a lot of potential.
- Have come up with more categories to vote on this year so voting will cover the full month of February.
- Added a new Premium perk for participating.
- Lots of opportunities for new and returning prizes.
Neopies 2025 Updates »
How do you decide the categories and nominees?
- There's a nomination committee.
How did you feel about the winners of last year's Best Advent Comic category?
- Stone was the writer for the winning comic.
- TNT Weirdough did the artwork.
The winning nominee was for days 9 & 10. The comic pictured (left) was day 10; you can view day 9 below. The comic pictured (right) was another nominee.
When it comes to narrative features on the site, what is the typical timeline?
- Try to ideate and pitch ideas "months in advance" of a specific event.
- Narrative team is much smaller than earlier narrative teams that set the standard for some narrative events.
- Likes to take a "narrative-first approach" with game development, so appreciates being as early as possible.
- Title is "Narrative Designer" not just "Narrative"! Does a lot more than write dialogue; also considers mechanics and features that the narrative will pair with.
Are there any exciting possibilities for narrative innovations on Neopets?
- For The Void Within, TNT are creating new puzzles and games that play into the story. They are also reworking "the way we release stuff for player improvement."
- This is the first time a lot of TNT are working on a plot.
- A lot of the innovation that is happening for the plot could be transferred to annual events in the future.
If you could have any item on the site created in your honor, what would it be?
- Can't be their hair, because it looks just like Nyx's hair!
- Used to use a Rock Petpet as their Altador Cup staff image, so would like to see wearable versions of the Rock!
Anything else?
- Stone thanked players for their support.
Questions for TNT Dom
Luna then brought out Neopets CEO TNT Dom.
Can we get an update on the anti-botting initiative you promised in past AMAs? Bots are still everywhere, including shops, auctions, trades, and Wishing Well. It has gotten so bad and causes massive inflation everywhere.
- "One of our top priorities." Have been talking about it since taking over.
- Have been gathering a lot of feedback from the community.
- Focusing on a long-term effort; there are no "silver bullet" fixes.
- This entails a lot of large, fundamental architecture changes. Dom gives an example of upgrading their CDN recently.
- There are three parts: (1) firewall, (2) making mass account creation difficult, and (3) adjust gameplay logic to make it hard for botters to succeed.
- For firewalls, there is a challenge in balancing settings that prevent botters without affecting normal users. There has been a lot of testing and fine-tuning to hone this, and have settled on some that are already in effect and have been used to catch some botters.
- Did not want to share details on how they would make mass account creation harder, because they don't want botters to "get ahead" of TNT.
- Gameplay changes will be "a team effort" to consider how botters can be thwarted as part of new feature development.
Is TNT considering the ability to link closets across all accounts attached to a NeoPass?
- "Linking the accounts is the best we can do right now."
- Linking closets would require "a huge technical upgrade."
Is there a timeline for converting and fixing wearable items that do not show up when applied to pets?
- "Aware of the issue" and fixing it in a "slowly but surely way."
- "It's quite time-consuming." All of this art was created years ago by a much larger team.
- Artists are only able to fix items as time permits, on a case-by-case basis.
- Submitting error reports is helpful for this.
- Art team has been expanding lately, which may help with this.
Why are some pets excluded from certain NC Pet Style releases?
- Luna mentions the Pirate Blumaroo as an example. It has a pre-customisation Pirate pose, but was not included in the recent Nostalgic Pirate release.
- Dom says it's the same issue as the previous question: time!
- Only "higher quality" work that is "ready" gets released; other styles can still be released in the future.
- "Just because it's not released in this batch doesn't mean it's not coming."
- Luna shares a preview of upcoming Pet Styles: Valentine Plushies!
Thank you for adding the Auction commas and other small fixes. Would it be possible to have this extended to other places such as user shops, the Bank, and the Trading Post?
- "We'll keep this in mind."
- Try to squeeze in quality-of-life fixes in between larger initiatives.
More about the Auction House comma update »
Could TNT consider allowing domains like impress.openneo.net and items.jellyneo.net on Pet Pages? They're allowed on the boards but not Pet Pages. It would make these sites much more accessible to everybody, especially mobile players.
- "It's on our to-do list. It's kind of in the middle."
- Maybe this year.
Are there any plans to add new quests to the Quest Log so there's more variety? It gets tiring to do the same quests every day. We'd also love to see the Events tab be used, maybe with harder, more special quests that would award rarer prizes.
- Have started work on a "Quest Log 2.0"
- Want to add more quest types and events.
- Open to ideas for this! Let TNT know!
Quest Log Guide »
You told us in previous AMAs that Invisible pets were going to participate in the customisation spotlight. When will this happen?
- "By April."
- This was originally promised by Dom in the June 2024 AMA.
A revamp of the Customisation Contest is badly needed. Where is this on the priority list? There is no transparency in how the contest actually works.
- "This is the most popular contest on the site." Allegedly gets over 30k entries each week!
- Will have more information on some planned updates.
- TNT try to select pets with a wide variety of wearables.
- TNT try to seek a wide variety of species, too.
- TNT try to avoid picking the same winners over and over.
- TNT are working on a "centralized FAQ" for all of the contests.
Creative Contests Guide »
We need more Neopoint sinks. Could you please add a capsule similar to the Retired Hidden Tower Treasure capsule, but for Smuggler's Cove items?
- Dom really likes this idea.
- TNT is evaluating as a whole how to add more Neopoint sinks throughout the site "within this year."
Smuggler's Cove Guide »
All Smuggler's Cove Items »
Is it possible to allow Fountain Faerie dips to stack?
- "Actually quite a lot of work" to have it work this way.
- Currently no plans to do so.
Fountain Faerie Quests Guide »
Please consider making the Space Faerie Battledome challenger a Premium perk. Right now, the rare item code redemption is not functioning properly and many users are unable to battle the Space Faerie for her avatar.
- Dom insists that rare item code redemption is not broken. He talks about codes that don't qualify, such as AMA codes, old Burger King codes, or codes not redeemed at Grundo Warehouse.
- "There might other errors as well" (there are) but TNT believes "we have looked into this and the function is working properly" (it's not).
- Jellyneo note: The page will often display an error message after codes are entered, and the Space Faerie challenger is not awarded when this happens.
- Do want to add and update other Premium perks. Luna mentions that Premium Goodie Bags are coming back with a refreshed prize pool in February!
Grundo Warehouse Guide »
Space Faerie Challenger Info »
Would TNT ever consider expanding the high scores list for competitions like the Book Award and Gourmet Food Club? And could the Avatar High Scores avatar be expanded to the top 100 instead of the top 50.
- "We haven't gotten to it yet but it's not being ignored."
Book Award Guide »
Gourmet Club Guide »
Avatar Collecting Guide »
Avatar Collector
Be ranked in the Top 50 for avatar collectors at the time that trophies are given out daily. (The exact trophy time can vary over time, but is at least once daily.)
This is usually easiest on the first day of the month before the top collectors reset their avatar count. You can reset your avatar count by gaining a new avatar; it is easiest to do this by losing and then regaining the Emo Usuki avatar.
Released: October 29, 2003
Will TNT please bring back the Random Contest?
- "Not something we can work on in the near future."
- "It's a lot of manual work for the team to upkeep."
- Dom says it's something he personally wants and would be open to a one-time revival!
Random Contest Guide »
The Ambassadors could not be more helpful, but it tends to feel like we don't get updated officially other than through Ambassadors or the AMA. Is there any way to make more official announcements or have better transparency on updates?
- Dom says he agrees and they are "bringing back the News tab on the site," by which he seems to mean having the existing New Features page include more than just recurring contests, new items, and the like.
- Wants to repeat announcements on social media.
Since the codestone drop rate was increased in the Battledome, it looks like the rate of Nerkmids has drastically dropped. Can you please adjust the drop rate to make Nerkmids go back to how they were?
- Dom says he thinks the team rebalanced drop rates and is observing the results.
- Luna shares that strength/defence thresholds were increased today alongside a buff to Nerkmid drop rates.
Stat Boost Increase News »
Codestone Drop Rate Increase News »
When can we expect more of the site to be converted?
- TNT works on it as they are able.
- It will be released "page by page, case by case" rather than a large wave.
Can we get better communication regarding merchandising? I understand TNT isn't in charge of distributing these products, however, the Neopets name is attached to these products and TNT ultimately choose who to work with.
- Dom says this is "pretty tricky" and the problems were made "more evident" by the holiday season.
- TNT's merchandise focus is on design & quality approval, and are less involved in supply chain.
- TNT has increased their own communication with licensees recently as a result.
- Some delays are due to the holiday season, and sometimes the delays is Neopets is a relatively small brand for some of their licensees and they don't get requisite attention.
- TNT is re-evaluating all of their partners, and may choose to work with different ones if supply chain quality is "not up to par."
- Dom is glad that blind box plushies are finally widely available at Hot Topic.
- Dom hopes that 25th Anniversary Jumbo plushies will be available very soon, and says that customers in APAC region may already have them or have them soon.
- Dom acknowledges it is frustrating for international players who may not have access to merch. He says it is up to their licensees whether they are willing to take on the cost, and he wants to diversify their licensees in this regard.
At the end, Luna shares they want to improve the live events, and shared a link to a survey to gather feedback.
Fill Out the Survey »
This page was written by Kenny and last updated on January 24, 2025.
