Fer.al Coming in March? + Discovery About AJ Updates

Hey Jammers! Yesterday was the AJ update, so I'm back here to update you all on the update X)

Truth be told, there isn't much on AJ to update you on! As it seems Wildworks is dedicating most of its effort into getting Fer.al off the ground, the trend of uneventful updates continues. However, I have new information about that trend in this post. Read on to find out...

Speaking of Fer.al, they seem to have updated their homepage to look more awesome:

You can't tell from this image, but the background is animated with tiny floating orbs, like above the Mira statue. It's really calming to look at, you should go check it out :3

Another piece of Fer.al news that might make you even more excited: it may finally be available for everyone to play as soon as this March!!!

I had just gone to the Feral Wiki to see if I could learn anything there, and I guess I did! Even if Fer.al doesn't actually release this coming month, it's great that we now have a general sense of when it's coming. 

That section of text on the Feral Wiki sourced the transcript (I think) of the original conference where Fer.al was unveiled as a concept, and this is where my next discovery comes from, because I didn't have access that full article until now.

For those who forgot (or don't know) that conference was a kind of Q and A panel for game developers, so Wildworks' CEO Clark Stacey was interviewed on the inner workings of Animal Jam. 

The following passage reveals an important part of those inner workings that I think a lot of people missed:

(As always, click the passage to read the whole thing)

To summarize, when Wildworks first started working on Fer.al, they shifted some of the update responsibilities to outside studios. Meaning, a lot of the new items and animals we've had since then were designed by people other than Wildworks.

That could definitely explain the strange look of a lot of the new stuff that came out these past few years–

*shudder*

–along with the reluctance of AJ to make anything drastically new happen (like new adventures, new animals not based on pre-existing ones, or events like the solar eclipse or when Club Geoz was destroyed in late 2017).

I'm hoping that once Fer.al is off the ground, it won't be a game that requires updates as constant/regular as AJ or AJPW, so Wildworks would be able to shift a little more of its core team back to work on Animal Jam. 

That doesn't mean I'm not excited for Fer.al, though! I'm super excited. It'll give me some new, different things to post about, and a whole new virtual world to explore (though Jamaa will always be my second home). I'm not really a gamer beyond Animal Jam, so this will be even more new for me!

A sidenote: that little Fer.al character above is more than just an image I used to divide up the text, it's an example of the contributions of the core Wildworks team– I'm pretty sure all of the Fer.al characters were designed by Taylor Maw, who has been the head artist of AJ since the beginning (although their style has changed considerably since then!)

*the above link is a link to their art Instagram

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I can't believe what I thought would be a short update post turned into that! I haven't even begun talking about the update yet xD

The most notable part of the update (or arguably, the only notable part) is the Leap Year Party's grand re-appearance after four years!

I really love the Leap Year Party. Mostly because there are frogs everywhere :') beautiful little amphibians <3

I especially love the art style of the AJ pet frogs. One day I should learn how to draw them, and then maybe make a tutorial for this blog. What would you think of that? AJ drawing tutorials? Not that I'm the best at drawing in the AJ-style; it would be a learning experience for me, too xD

The Leap Year Party, as with the last two times, takes place in one of my favorite dens: the treehouse. Of course, it's decorated and altered like it was in the 2016 Leap Year– and teeming with froggy friends 

YEEHAW

The first stop most people are taking is the den shop. Last year's frog items are here again (which is annoying some people), as well as new bunny items (another animal who leaps!)

I gotta say, I'm not really a big fan of any of these items (though the rabbit burrow is nice). This also reminded me of how terrifying the frog chair on the second page is. Yeesh... doesn't do frogs any justice. Or bunnies, for that matter. :\

Moving onto the second shopfront...

Again, pretty meh items. But again, this is also explained by the core Wildworks team expending most of their work trying to get Fer.al off the ground. We won't have meh items and updates forever, so I'm not complaining.

EDIT: Almost forgot this, but the Item Claw is right by the clothing shop:

I think that this is the only place you can find the Item Claw anymore, seeing as the Trading Party stopped showing up a couple years ago (which I'm still annoyed about)

However, there is one other good thing about the Leap Year Party. The thing aside from the frogs that I have yearned for for 4 whole years...

The Slide.

It's not a Leap Year Party without at least one run on the slide :)

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I hoped you enjoyed this post! I think it's been my longest in a while. I guess I just got into the zone :P

See you in Jamaa, and have as awesome a day as you can!