We’ve uploaded some tutorial videos to walk our players through all the systems of the game. You can find all of those videos on the Hello Kitty Online official tutorial page. There you wil see our very own Sanrio characters teaching you some basics about the game, we even have a very lively introduction by Hello Kitty herself!

Whether you’re one of our Closed Beta testers or still waiting for the open version, we’re sure you’ll enjoy these guides. You can also find those videos in our very own Dream Studio. We hope that they help you as you go around in Sanrio Land. Enjoy!

Hello Kitty Online is quickly increasing in popularity in the MMO scene, and we want to give even more gamers an opportunity to enter the game at this early stage. We are happy to announce that Sanrio Digital has tied-up with the popular game community MMOSite as HKO enters Closed Beta 2! So now, you can download the Closed Beta client through a mirror provided by MMOSite, and you can access that by heading on to the HKO Official Site download page.

We will continue to keep you posted through the official blog and through the official site, so check back often!

Even in this early stage of the Hello Kitty Online contest, we are receiving a number of creative, inspired videos from our members. So now we want to feature some of those great entries that are already becoming popular on Dream Studio!

First on our list is this video from HKO closed beta tester Juju. You can view the video page by clicking this link.

Next is something from icyrascal, our veteran Dream Studio director. He created his own video, which you can view by clicking this link.

You can see more of those videos by heading on to Dream Studio. Remember, you still have until June 30 2008 to make your videos, so don’t miss out! It could be your video we feature next.

Hi everyone! We are pleased to announce that as of 12 May 2008 at 16:30, the server issues have been resolved, and the server has been running smoothly since. All our players should be able to log-in to the game with no problems, so we hope to see you all in Sanrio Land.

If any of you, our Closed Beta testers, continue to experience problems logging-in to the game, please contact us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com with the details of your problem. Happy playing!

Greetings to all our Closed Beta testers! We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties with the server, so some of you may not be able to log-in to the game. We appreciate those who have sent in reports in this regard, and please know that we are working hard to address this problem. Rest assured that it will be resolved soon.

We will keep you posted on the progress of this issue. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused. For any other problems, you may contact us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

Thank you to all our Closed Beta Testers for making Hello Kitty Online popular among game sites and within the blogosphere. In order to serve all of you better, we will be having a major system upgrade and migration on May 11, 2008 00:00 - 03:00 Hong Kong Time. Please note that you may experience gameplay delay or even may not able to run the game during this maintenance window.

Thank you again for your support! If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

Great news for all our Closed Beta testers! Due to public demand, we are extending the Closed Beta period until the 25th of May 2008, that means you will have over two weeks more to complete your quests, talk to your in-game friends, work on your farms and build your houses!

Expect a larger number of players during the rest of the Closed Beta period, and also watch out for the upcoming major in-game event! We will keep you posted regarding that through the official HKO Event blog.

Thank you all for your comments, reports and suggestions. We hope to hear more from you, so if you have any more concerns, please feel free to email us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

Happy playing!

Hi folks! We’re smack in the first week of May, and we’ve got a brand-new contest for all you aspiring directors out there. Hello Kitty Online’s full public launch is fast approaching, and in light of this, we want YOU to show us just how much you’re looking forward to the game by coming up with your very own Hello Kitty Online trailer!

The Hello Kitty Online Trailer Contest will test the limits of your creativity. Create a trailer worthy of Hello Kitty Online using any material of your own choosing, along with media files we will be providing, and submit it to Dream Studio for judging.

How you go about in the creation of your entry is up to you; just make sure that the trailer shows just how great you think Hello Kitty Online is, and make sure that you follow all the rules of the contest.

1. You have to agree to the terms and conditions of the contest
2. Download the Hello Kitty Online Trailer Media Pack
3. Unpack it using a program like WinZip, WinRar, ZipGenius, etc.
4. Use Dream Studio or your own program (such as Windows Movie Maker) to put the various elements together
5. Add your own material - videos, photos, music, animations or text that you might want to use in your video
6. Your video/s MUST include the elements provided in the media pack
7. upload the video to SanrioTown’s Dream Studio, making sure that you include the tag “HKOContest” (without the quotes)

The grand prize winner will receive a Hello Kitty Tote Bag that can only be found in Japan, along with a limited edition Hello Kitty USB memory stick with 1GB memory.

The runners-up will also receive a limited edition Hello Kitty USB memory stick each. The first runner-up will get a Euro Hello Kitty pouch, while the second runner-up will win a Hello Kitty Eye Relaxing Patch.

A total of 15 contestants will also receive a Hello Kitty USB memory stick each as consolation prizes.

You can find the official SanrioTown announcement here, while the HKO trailer media pack can be downloaded from this link. The contest runs from May 1 to June 30, 2008, which is more than enough time for everybody to come up with something that’s sure to make us at SanrioTown proud. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to visit the official forum thread.

We’d just like to remind everybody that all entries should contain no offensive material, nor should explicit / violent content be used. Each entry should contain all of the elements found in the HKO trailer media pack, and should contain the tag “HKOContest,” otherwise these will be disqualified.

All video entries are considered as property of SanrioTown.

Good luck to everybody who plans on joining!

Technorati Tags: Hello Kitty Online, Hello Kitty, SanrioTown, Dream Studio, HKOContest, Hello Kitty Online Trailer Contest, HKO, MMORPG

If you are experiencing any difficulties with the client’s auto updater, we have provided you with direct-download links on the official site. These files should fix the auto updater problems reported to us by some of our Closed Beta testers. Just follow this link to the official site’s download section.

Enjoy the game!

Dear Closed Beta Testers. Some testers have raised concerns regarding the type of Hello Kitty Online package they received. A small number of you have received special Closed Beta packages that looked different and contained more items than the standard package. We would like to clear up this issue and apologize for any misunderstanding.

Those who have received the special package are our first Closed Beta testers, who were selected before we launched the Dream Studio contest to participate in the Hello Kitty Online Closed Beta. It quickly became obvious that there was a lot of enthusiasm for HKO, and we decided to increase our quota of beta testers. That is why we held the Dream Studio video contest, to give more fans an option to participate.

Although we could have simply delivered HKO via download like other MMORPGs, we decided that we wanted you to own something special, and thus we created a package that includes a game case, game disk, user manual, and video tutorial. This standard package, which almost all testers received, may be viewed here. We feel that this is an attractive bundle for a game still in closed beta testing.

In addition to the standard package, 80 pre-selected testers were sent special collectible boxed versions of the game. These 80 testers are the original beta testers, selected ahead of time based on their relationships to Sanrio and other criteria.

Unfortunately we only had a limited quantity of HKO boxed editions, as they are quite costly and time consuming to assemble. If interest is sufficient, we will consider producing more boxed editions for those interested in purchasing them, and/or as competition prizes. Please let us know what you think!

Once again, we are very grateful to our beta testers and apologize for any misunderstanding.

Regards,
GM Abby