Nov/090
Virtualpetlist interviews Tezeti, owner of Cenopets.com
Please introduce yourself
Hello Tezeti, please introduce yourself as the owner of Cenopets.
I’m tezeti, the owner of a virtual petsite/adventure game called Cenopets. I’m glad to have had this opportunity to be interviewed and hope that I can share some information about my site with the forum community. Any questions from users are welcome as well .
1: What is Cenopets?
Cenopets is a virtual petsite in open beta testing which aspires to provide users with a strong focus on both pets and adventure. Upon opening, we hope to offer over 25 adoptable creatures, which will be able to travel throughout nine different planets containing hundreds of explorable locations.
2: Why is it in beta testing?
We’re in beta testing because the site is extremely incomplete at this point. While I would not suggest it for anyone who simply wishes to play a virtual pet game, it does offer some entertaining features and (more importantly) provides a glimpse of what is to come.
3: What makes cenopets unique?
There are a few ways we try to be different from other sites in the genre. The first is that pets are thrust into the center of the gameplay by owning all in-game items and currency. In addition, our exploration system is slated to be the one of the most extensive and far-reaching in the genre, surpassing even Neopets in the quantity of explorable places. Pets will also have distinct personalities and moods on Cenopets and will be able to reject activities/items/owners accordingly.
Finally, we were the first petsite to announce plans for features such as farming, cooking food, gardening, multiple business types, mining, first-person roleplaying, ancestry charts, guest passwords, user-shop haggling, shop aisles, hierarchal world navigation, and a user-side employee system. While many of these facets of the site have not been developed yet, they are all still planned for eventual release.
4: How do you feel cenopets?
It’s excellent being able to develop an online game, fully experiment with different coding methods, and try to reimagine core petsite values according to my ideas. I’m also very happy that the site I own has been able to provide some enjoyment for our users.
5: What is slowing down development?
While school has been the major factor in slowing down development, a lack of staff members and funds has also presented a fair amount of difficulties. I’ve often been in situations where the project seems rather unmanageable and, as a result, have become rather lost as to what I should work on next.
Since I’m not employed, I’ve mostly funded Cenopets-related expenses either with money I’ve received as holiday gifts or money earned from performing various real-life tasks. Obviously, neither has been able to provide a sustainable or sufficient way to regularly make the art purchases which are necessary for the development of my website.
6. How much traffic does cenopets receive?
While we don’t receive much traffic at all, this is precisely the way I would like to keep Cenopets for the foreseeable future. The game is by no means ready for most users and, while I’m very satisfied with our progress thus far, Cenopets offers very little in terms of continually-compelling activities.
7: How many users does Cenopets have?
At the moment, we have slightly above 5,200 registered users.
8: What do you do as the owner of cenopets?
As the owner, I’ve been responsible for all website decisions, ideas, programming, graphic design, writing, and managing commissions. In addition, I have also taken a moderator role in the forums, created all of the base conceptual drawings for the pets/worlds, drew all pet/item recolors & alternate poses, and have paid for all site-related improvements.
9. Who works for cenopets?
At the moment, I seem to be the only active staff member (other than the artists we occasionally commission).
10. How do you feel about VPL and the virtual pets community?
I fully support all petsites and discussion communities which display their passion towards pet games and show dedication towards their members.