Friday, February 11, 2011

Interview with moonbean

Here at Ultimate Howrse we work hard to bring you all the best hints and tips as well as the latest news on your favourite game. So we're delighted that one of the games' most delightful players and creator of three of the most loved Golden Apple coats on Howrse, took time out to speak to us. moonbean has been playing on Howrse for over three and a half years and in that time she has produced a trio of memorable GA coats. We wanted to find out about the two adorable 'Humphrey' coats and the wonderful 'Tim-Tom' coat, so who better to ask than the person who made them?

Ultimate Howrse (UH): Where did the idea for these fabulous coats come from?

moonbean (MB): Not sure about the word 'fabulous' (lol) but Humphrey came about when I decided to try and make a Black Pearl (BP) coat and, being totally useless at drawing, I kept it simple and blobby looking. The idea for Tim-Tom just popped into my head and I used the basic Humphrey design with some tweaking here and there.

UH: All your coats are now retired. How many Humphrey, Winged Humphrey and Tim-Tom coats are there in the game.

MB: There are 31 Humphrey's, 3 Here's Humphrey's (the winged version) and 200 Tim-Tom's out there.

UH: Does that make the Winged Humphrey the rarest coat in the game?

MB: No, there are other coats with just 1 or 2 uses

UH: How do you create the coats? Are they hand drawn or produced on a computer?

MB: I use Paint Shop Pro but if you Google 'Gimp' you can download a similar program for free.

UH: Which is your favourite?

MB: Humphrey

UH: And have you had many coats rejected for use? How many have you submitted?

MB: When the last BP came out I submitted 8 coats and 7 were rejected with only Tim-Tom making it through. The rejected coats included Humphrey's girlfriend Gertrude; I've posted the rejected coats in my forum.

UH: The big question - are you planning more GA coats?

MB: I've lots of other ideas for coats but they are just ideas at the moment as its the drawing that I have trouble with lol

UH: Do you get 'paid' for each use of a GA coat?

MB: You are given 1 pass every time 5 players use your coat with a limit of 40 passes per coat.

UH: Any advice for players who want to try and create/submit their own coats?

MB: Yes, go for it! Its fun to do and you will learn new skills along the way; if I can create a coat anyone can.

UH: Your page is truly hilarious and wonderful - were the 'photo boards' something you created yourself or do you just know some clever people?

MB: Thanks. I created them myself using Paint Shop Pro; I'm been planning to do a Humphrey & Gertrude board but don't seem to have the time.

UH: Finally, are you surprised at how popular your coats have been?

MB: Yes!

UH: Thank you moonbean

And there you have it. A great insight into he world of Humphrey, Tim-Tom and the creation of GA coats. So a huge thank you to moonbean for talking to us. We really recommend you visit moonbean's page on Howrse so you can see the wonderful photo boards. And we hope you'll feel inspired to create your own GA masterpiece the next time the Black Pearl is open.

Have fun!

Patsy

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Pegasus Account - latest

Well we've had plenty of comments and questions from players about the new Pegasus Account. So we thought it would be a good idea to answer some common questions and bring you up to date with what we know. However, you, our lovely readers, are the real experts on Howrse, so feel free to send us your own thoughts and experiences with the Pegasus Account. You can either leave a comment under any posting or you can email us at: ultimatehowrse@me.com OK so let's get started.

Q) How do you get the Pegasus Account?
A) There are two ways to get it at the moment. Firstly by catching a UFO (like the one in the picture) which gives you a short period of FREE membership and secondly by going to your My Passes page and signing up for a subscription, which is a PAID membership. You pay by using passes - 3 passes for 1 month, 15 for 6 months and 30 passes for a 1 year membership.

Q) I have clicked on several 'Pegasus UFO's' - do the free memberships add together to give me a longer, free membership?
A) Yes they do. I've clicked and quite a few UFO's and now have a free Pegasus Account until early March - so that's about three weeks so far!

Q) How do I move the new content boxes around my profile page.
A) You have to play around with this a bit. When you add new content boxes (like Rankings and Friends) to your page it often leaves a lot of blank space. You can actually move your boxes around by using the 'grab' icon which is on the top of each box, beside the delete (X) button. It takes a bit of getting used to because the boxes don't always move. When a box can move, the page will show you a dotted outline where you can move your box to.

Q) How do you pick your favourite horses?
A) Above the image of your horse, on each horses page, you have your 'Rename', 'Sell my horse' and 'Change the breeding farm' buttons. With the Pegasus Account you have an extra button - 'Add to my list of favourite horses'. If you click this button your horse will be added to the 'Favourite Horses' box on your profile page. Remember you will need to add this box using the Add Content feature at the top of your profile page.

Q) What will happen to all my newly created breeding farms if my Pegasus Account expires?
A) With the Pegasus Account you can create up to 50 breeding farms. Without one, the limit is just 6. So if you put a load of horses into, say 25 breeding farms, when your Pegasus Account expires, all the horses that were put into these new breeding farms will simply be put back into the old 'My horses without a breeding farm' section.

OK, I think that's about it for now. But please keep your questions and comments coming. And don't forget to tell your friends about Ultimate Howrse. The more of you who visit, the more we can help each other out!

Patsy