Sanrio is adding more pets and a pet breeding service to Hello Kitty Online upon release! I’m very excited to check out the breeding service to make all kinds of different hybrids. Very cool! Check it out! =^.^=

As promised, the few screenshots I took from the Hello Kitty Online open beta!





My spider pet, Itsy Bitsy.





My favourite Sanrio character, Mimmy, was the first NPC I got to meet. =)





My boar pet, Piggy.





Pinkuruchan, who I am not very familiar with, but I think she is very cute and pretty. =^_^=





My pet armadillo, Antony, and I.





Picture of my character from my character sheet towards the end of the beta. Crazy clothing, hm? =P





Character sheet from early game play.





One of the first quests - collecting shamrocks. It took me a while to figure out that I had to collect them from the bunches showing in the picture and not the bunch that only looked like 1 lone shamrock. >.>





GM-Abby. <3 (Read her blog here.)





GM Miyaw and I. (Read Miyaw’s blog here.)





Hello Kitty and Mimmy’s mum is named Mary, just like my mum! =^_^=





A rat. I eventually got one of these as a pet, but I don’t remember what I named it. I think I named him Squeek.





A starfish. I also had one of these as a pet and I think I named it Sunshine.





My favourite fauna design in the game, a bush.


I would still really like to draw my character and her pets, so look for that some time later on!

I had a lot of fun taking part in the open beta. I am sad it’s over and I cannot wait until it’s time to play again! Stay tuned for my experience during the beta, some screenshots, and perhaps even a drawing of my character and her pets! =^_^=


Here is the post about the end of the event from the Hello Kitty Online Game MMORPG blog.

Happy Hearts is now over!

Posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm.


As of February 22, 2009 at 23:00 Eastern Standard Time, the doors of Hello Kitty Online are now closed to make way for further improvements. Founders and other Sanriotown members will no longer be able to log-in until our next launch. Thank you for participating and celebrating your Valentine’s with us!

We appreciate your comments and suggestions, and rest assured that we will take them all into consideration as we strive to make Hello Kitty Online even better! Please stay tuned for announcements regarding our events on the official events blog. Once again, thank you and see you next time!

Yay! I’m so happy! It’s been announced on the official SanrioTown blog that HKO will be open for another 5 more days. The open beta will end 23:00 EST on Sunday, February 22, 2009.

Here’s the official post:

Hello Kitty Online will remain open 5 more days! Mystery Charity Event!

Good news for fans of Hello Kitty Online: the current beta preview of HKO has been extended for 5 days! Hello Kitty Online will be open until 23:00 (EST) on Sunday February 22, 2009. If you haven’t played yet, there’s still time!That means 5 more days in which to finish quests and explore the cute virtual world of Hello Kitty! What’s more, we have partnered with a charity to launch a special mystery event that will surely make Happy Hearts a memorable experience.

Happy Hearts, Helping Hearts
We’ve put together a special mystery event that will require teamwork, perseverance and, most of all, kind and generous hearts. After all, February is the month of love, and what is love without giving? If you enjoyed our Founders’ Beta charity event “Food for Friends“, then you are sure to like this one! Check our official events blog in the next day or two and all will be revealed!

If you and your friends have not yet tried Hello Kitty Online, then this is your chance! All you need to do is:

1) Download the game and install it
2) Register for an account on SanrioTown — it’s absolutely free!
3) Start HKO and log in using your SanrioTown username and password
4) Have fun!

This extension of Hello Kitty Online is our way of saying thank you for all the enthusiasm expressed by our players. We’re grateful for your feedback and will keep collecting important information that will allow us to keep improving the game. We will close the game at 23:00 (EST) on Sunday February 22, 2009 in order to work on various improvements ahead of Open Beta.

Be sure to check our official news blog and events blog for further announcements, and feel free to contact us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com for any questions. See you all in Sanrio Land!

The Hello Kitty Online open beta stress test started on Saturday and ends tomorrow at 10 pm EST. Today I’m getting a bunch of time to play it and I’m really enjoying it! I will share my screenshots with you tomorrow, after the open beta ends, and I have a drawing I’d really like to do of my character and her pets! =^_^=

The official Hello Kitty Online blog posted a farming guide on the basics of caring for your farm. Check it out here!

Exciting news from the Hello Kitty Online Game MMORPG blog!

Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 9:08 pm, Hello Kitty Online Game MMORPG

The official Hello Kitty Online Download Center is now up and running, so Founders and other Sanriotown members can now start downloading! Simply follow the instructions on the page, and you will be one step closer to our Valentine’s event “Happy Hearts“!

Remember, if you are a Founder and have the Christmas Reunion version of HKO (version 0.7.16.0 or higher), then you may simply run your auto-updater and let it do the downloading for you. However, using the auto-updater may take longer, so we recommend that you download the manual patch instead.

If you are a new to Hello Kitty Online or have deleted your
Christmas Reunion version, you may download the latest full installer,
which will have all the new enhancements for you to enjoy. On the other
hand, if you have an older version of HKO (older than version 0.7.16.0) then please uninstall your current version first and download the game again from our Download Center.

HKO will open its doors to Founders on February 12, 2009 at 22:00 EST, and the rest of Sanriotown can join the fun on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2009 at 20:00 EST.

Note:
Sanriotown users in Europe will not be eligible to participate in Hello
Kitty Online at this time. However, HKO will soon be available to fans
in Europe as well, free of charge. We are sorry for this inconvenience
and we thank you for your patience. All HKO Founders from all countries
are automatically eligible to play HKO and join the Happy Hearts event.

Happy Hearts is just around the corner, so hurry and don’t miss out!
If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to email us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com. See you soon!

NEW UPDATE: The post has since returned…read it here.

UPDATE on this post: For some reason, the post I read has now disappeared from the Kitty News Blog. I was trying to show it to someone and it seems to have been since deleted.

Here is the post that has been possibly deleted from Kitty News Blog.

Hong Kong – February 3, 2009: Sanrio Digital today announced that Hello Kitty Online
will open to the public from February 14 to February 17, 2009, allowing
new players to participate in the Valentine’s Day “Happy Hearts” event.
To play, simply sign up to www.sanriotown.com and start downloading the game client from www.helllokittyonline.com.

All players will be able to log in to the game starting from February
14, 2009 20:00 (8pm) Eastern Standard Time.The “Happy Hearts” event for
Founders of Hello Kitty Online will run from February 12 to February
17, 2009. New players will be accepted from February 14 until the end
of the event. Happy Hearts will feature exclusive new content and
several enhancements to the game:

Special Valentine’s-themed quests

Valentine’s Day under threat! Cupid is missing and so are the
romance and friendship of the season. It is up to players of HKO to
save Valentine’s Day and prevent the collapse of the greeting card
industry. Exclusive items will be awarded to the first players to
complete the quest chain.

Improved user interface

User interface enhancements include a higher supported
resolution, movable windows, re-sizable chat box, and an improvement to
the local area map.

Revamped farming system

The new HKO farming system introduces 8 new and unique farm
types while allowing players to participate in cooperative farming. Day
cycles and related effects on your plants have been implemented. Plant
growth times have been adjusted.

Keyword chat filter

The new chat filter blocks offensive language from private and
public chat to ensure a safer and more enjoyable gaming experience for
players.

HKO Founders will be able to log in the game on February 12, 2009 at
exactly 22:00 EST.� All Sanriotown members will be able to log in from
February 14, 2009 at exactly 20:00 (8pm) Eastern Standard Time.� The
event will end on February 17, 2009 at 23:59 EST after which Hello
Kitty Online will be taken down for further work. To play, users must
sign up for a free account at www.sanriotown.com and download the HKO game client from www.hellokittyonline.com.

About Hello Kitty Online

Hello Kitty Online, developed by Sanrio Digital, is the
official Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) of
Hello Kitty and friends, and the first MMORPG to integrate social
networking web services into the game experience. In addition to
standard features such as customizable avatars, guilds, skill systems,
and player economy, Hello Kitty Online offers a social networking
platform including blogs, video sharing, and email services. For more
information please visit www.hellokittyonline.com

About Sanrio Digital

Sanrio Digital is a joint venture between Typhoon Games (HK)
Ltd. and Sanrio Co. Ltd. Sanrio Digital is responsible for the
expansion of Sanrio intellectual property assets into various digital
and online media, leveraging an extensive library of original material
that includes world-famous brands such as Hello Kitty, Badtz Maru, My
Melody, and others. For more information please visit www.sanriodigital.com

Yesterday there was a new post on the official HKO Blog announcing some new features being added to the game!

The first new feature is a 1024×768 resolution that allows you to have significantly larger field of view than the old 800×600 resolution so that you may see more of the surrounding area and allow you to see what’s going on in the virtual world while you’re viewing your character info or quest log. For those that would prefer to keep the old resolution of 800×600, it will still be available. Check out the difference between the two resolutions below and be sure to also check out this video!

800X600 screenshot

1024X768 screenshot

The second new feature is the ability to move windows so you can reposition windows anywhere on the screen. This feature will solve the problem of overlapping windows too!

Last, but not least, a keyword filter has been added in an attempt to prevent unacceptable behavior in the game. This filter should instantly block offensive words from appearing in public and private chat and will be updated regularly.

In their closing statement, Sanrio stated that they will keep us posted on the other new things they are working on as they move toward the open beta and “a greatly improved Hello Kitty Online“. Very exciting!

There is an important blog post over at the official Hello Kitty Online blog regarding Hello Kitty Online Loyalty Points and Kitty Points.


Loyalty Points could be considered a form of fake money for Hello Kitty Online, as they allow you to purchase items from the HKO Item Mall. For those of you who obtained HKO Loyalty Points during the Founders’ Christmas Reunion, your points are going to be erased at the start of the HKO open beta but the items you purchased using the points might be spared. The official blog will have further announcements on what will happen to your items, so be sure to check it regularly.


For those of you that have been paying attention to your Sanrio Town account, you porbably noticed that you have been earning Kitty Points (you can find out how much you have by looking under your message summery after you log in, as shown in the picture below).





There was very little information about the Kitty Points up until now and I am verypleased to report that the Kitty Points are to be converted into Loyalty Points at the start of HKO open beta!

“In Open Beta, these Kitty Points will be converted into HKO Loyalty Points. That means, the higher your Kitty Points, the more Loyalty Points you will receive. This will be an active conversion system, so continued use of Sanriotown will earn you more points for the Item Mall!

At the moment, signing up, logging in, sending email through your account will earn you Kitty Points, but we have plans to extend this system to the use of other services in Sanriotown.” (official HKO blog)

I think that’s pretty exciting! I thought that I was going to be one of the uncool people without all the neat stuff from the shop, but it turns out that I will be given a chance to earn those items too. =^_^=

I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday and that those of you who celebrate Christmas received everything you wanted. Bye for now!