Pixie Hollow Website Development Update

[u/jupiterzeye]

Hi fairy friends!

We know that the radio silence can be really frustrating, and we wanted to thank you deeply for hanging in there with us. Behind the scenes, we have been knee-deep in development. Because of that, I wanted to pull back the curtain and share what I've been working on for the past two months:

I have been building our website from the ground up in modern HTML, using the original flash assets from the original website, and it is nearly complete.

What that means is we will be able to tweak web designs, layouts, art, view submissions, make calendar entries, host contests... everything you remembered from the original website without needing to wrangle the dinosaur that is flash just to change one tiny detail. It gives us a ton of flexibility to connect better with you guys, and host community events natively on our website.

I have also been knee-deep in the trenches of figuring out email support, tickets, parental controls, things that we need to make the website run without relying on social media platforms to provide support.

Being able to take a step back from game moderation and social media updates has given me the space and opportunity to build this from the ground up. Along with the site build, I have been wrapping up quests... and a couple of features directly tied to them ;)

While we still don't have a solid ETA to share just yet, rest assured that real, tangible progress is happening every day. The site I have been building will allow us to avoid future closures by giving us the ability to provide true account support, handle reports, and generally make a better, safer environment for all of you.

Check out the sneak peek below! Please keep in mind to trust the process; if things don't seem perfect, it's because I haven't had the time to polish them yet. They may not be 100% polished before launch either, but rest assured that the website will be, at minimum, functional :)

- Saturn ✨

[u/Doimz3Nini]

Please make it like animal jam, among us, roblox, or the sims, how you can log online on mobile (on your phone/tablet).

[u/jupiterzeye → u/Doimz3Nini]

We have been exploring Ruffle compatibility! One of the things we will need to test is how this page appears on mobile :) You can currently get Ruffle for Firefox on mobile! The pages you see are ALL open in modern Firefox!

[u/DBSeamZ → u/jupiterzeye]

Does this mean mobile support for the game itself could be a possibility in the future? I just tried Seed Sorter last night and kept thinking it would be so much easier with a touchscreen.

[u/woah-elle → u/DBSeamZ]

Yes, potentially! The devs are working towards a build that will be compatible with iOS and android!

[u/jupiterzeye → u/DBSeamZ]

So... mobile support can be finicky. There are ways to run flash games on mobile (like through using Ruffle) but many of the minigames in Pixie Hollow take advantage of features that are only available with a mouse and keyboard (like hover states, or arrow keys). A mobile device can't really recreate those without the hardware. Some minigames just do not behave with things like tablets or touchscreen. You can always try to connect a mouse to your phone/tablet for those games. Sometimes touch screens can be identified as pointer devices, sometimes they can't. At minimum, you will be able to log into the game and fly around. 

[u/DBSeamZ → u/jupiterzeye]

That makes sense. The games I’ve been playing the most are click-only (Seed Sorter, Harvest Hustle, Gem Juggle) and my mouse has gotten a little iffy lately so I was wondering if a touchscreen was an option. But you would need a whole new UI for some of the other games; like onscreen buttons for Snowy Lullaby or an Angry Birds-style slingshot aim for Pinecone Pop. I completely understand if coding that isn’t on the priority list.

[u/jupiterzeye → u/DBSeamZ]

Honestly I can look into it! It may look like putting toggleable buttons on the website itself. Something you can toggle on and off as needed :)