[Silverin]

I am glad everyone seems to like the things that popped out XD All of us tried our best.

Looked at some suggestions and issues folks had. So I tried looking at things that were not used as often along with select things. I believe someone asked about scribblen a while back and then I know some were interested in a natural looking torken. Even has the old face spikes based on the original art.

Expect some more of this for Easter. In fact I already started on some Easter stuff.

[Freezair]

I LOVE the natural look for the Torken, and I wish there were more like it! In particular, I'd love to see a Torken with a natural face, but fiery horns... but this is pretty cool, too! No pun intended.

I'm actually feeling a little silly for not buying more of these boxes. I only got a couple and I'm realizing I should have got more, especially the penguin-phoenix ones! And the Ash Garudor. D: I love how full of different species this Christmas was, and the Fire/Ice theme was really lovely!

[Jaykobell]

I find all the Christmas pets to be beautiful, though at first glance, the results kind of left me disappointed. Not because the art is subpar; but only because I feel like the fire theme was pushed too much, and in what I feel was in identical ways. If the theme was fire and ice, I feel like there are more ways to show fire/hot than the ways that were used for this year's pets.

My point is that these pets basically all look the same:


They basically all have the exact same fire theme, and use the exact same colors, just about. They're not ugly or unlikeable; just very similar. Even their names have little that separate them; Ash, Fried, Burnt, Flare.

The Draught Trumpetter is a good example to show what I mean by using the fire theme differently. It's not black or grey with fiery colors; it's muddy, and representing a very dead set of colors; as in what happens, usually, when a draught happens.

The melted Insonia is amazing and most likely my favorite from this year. Both sides look absolutely amazing.

I also feel like the 'ice' part of the theme wasn't really... exposed as much? These are the ones I can see as icy:



Which is four compared to:




... a total of seven, which is almost double. I'm counting the Aura and Squeaker as two different pets, because that's what they are; they're also sporting very slightly different colors.

Maybe it would've been cute to have one or the other be an ice bird? So one grows into a phoenix, and the other into an arctic bird. It could've been a cute theme, and a cute parallel to the Melted Insonia, since the Aura and Squeaker go together; so one half is ice, one is fire.

Fire could've been shown, say... in a volcano? Rocks? Steam? Draught was a very creative way to represent it (assuming it's... meant to be part of the fire side of the theme?).

I also... I don't know, something bothers me about the head of the Scancia Sygriff. Idk if it's because it's bald and it looks funny to me... I feel like maybe the head looks small? Hm. Or that it had a long neck. I'm not sure what it is. That one might just be me.

Really love the Alien Quiksylph, even if I don't know if I would find a use for it, myself; it just looks really great. I especially love the tail and how "confusing" the markings are; confusing in a good way. I can't think of a better word.

I also really do love the Torken too. Like Freezair said, I'd love to see it without the fur, and with the full face. That'd be a really cute alternate lineart to the Torken.

Again, I want to make it clear: NONE OF THEM ARE UGLY. I'm just saying, I feel like the pets were very, very similar this year. Admittedly, they do all seem to have add-ons, but yeah.

There's only a few I'd trade away, so it's not because I dislike them. But, if you were looking for constructive criticism, that's what I thought when I first saw the boxes open this year.

[Kyrit]

The theme this year was admittedly very rushed. About a third of the way in to November we didn't have a single pet lined up for Christmas, and I hit the panic button, which is where a lot of the more basic pets came from (Snowball, Bleeder, Shimin, Trumpetter). Some of which were rushed so much I'm not really happy with them. I still need to fix the glow on the Shimin's fire, and I'd wanted to work on the Trumpetter's texture more, but eh. Ran out of time.

I'd also realized a little too late that yeah, we were a bit more heavy on the fire side of the theme after giftboxes were made. Though we were including the Quiksylph in the 'cold' section of the theme, because space is cold, and we weren't really counting the penguins separate since they came out of the same box. So if those are taken in to count, it's relatively balanced. Though yeah. Most of the hot ones are... pretty much the same theme. I'd wanted to make a gila monster based Lecchi for the hot side, but never got the time to.

Yep yep. Don't worry about the Kasuga. We reached enough pets, and the theme already seems a little more heavily leaning toward the hot pets (we've got like, 4 cold pets compared to a good few hot pets) so keeping the Kasuga just puts it even more out of balance. So we're all good~

There was also almost a Kasuga as well, but... yeah. We had enough fire. XD So definitely something we did notice, but the feedback on that is definitely appreciated! I think the main problem is just we rushed the theme and didn't have time to plan out our hot vs cold pets very well, but I am happy with how most of them turned out. We're hoping to have better planning next time for sure.

On that note though! What sort of themes would you guys like to see in the future? Obviously we'll try to include pets that aren't part of the theme (Albino Snowball for example), but themes certainly help us when figuring out what we want to do with seasonal pets. Silv already got lined up a pretty good one for Easter already, but we can always start planning for Halloween and next Christmas, that way we don't end up rushing the theme again. We'd be able to start making pets for those events during the summer when more of us have time to work on pets.

[Jaykobell]

I didn't want to say "rushed"... because I was afraid it's sound I was quick to judge. But that... is admittedly the word that had come to my mind. xD;

But yeah, like I said, none of the pets are ugly; just alike. The Shimin is kind of eh to me, but I think that's also because it's older art.

I'm... personally awful at themes. Lol. Maybe... nature vs. metropolitan? ... not sure how to pull it off, but. xD

Maybe space could be a cool one, although it'd be hard to really make markings and textures for. Technology? Spices... flowers... plants... xD

idk, themes aren't my forte at all, lol.

[Kyrit]

Nah, you're all cool to call it rushed. C= Like I said, it pretty much was. XD So no hard feelings if anyone feels like it was rushed. And all suggestions help~ I do actually like the "nature vs. metropolitan" since it could easily be city animals (pets, trash diggers, ect) vs more natural wildlife. And of course even a pet literally made to blend in with city life, trying to camouflage itself as part of a building of something.

[Jaykobell]

Yeah, that was my thought for it. It also reminded me of the 'highway' rental Lucain. xD I think urban/urbanization is what I was looking for, lol.

Maybe something all around foods?? Fruits, vegetables, sweets, meats...

I'm sure if we Google something like 'opposites' or things like that, there's lots of stuff it could spit up for themes.

[Azura Rayume]

Ooh, themes! I can do themes.

Something that I've found fascinating for several months (like... 8-ish) is solarpunk. Like steam- and cyberpunk, it's sort of an alternate human timeline thing but mostly renewable energy and stuff. A lot of the themes flow with light and stained glass and ornate flowers and wire; it's bright an colorful and flowy and sticks plants on everything. I love it.

If you wanted to do opposing things, solarpunk vs steampunk would be great. There's a couple of pets floating around that are already pretty steampunk (only the Rusted Velix comes to mind right now, but I know there's at least one more), but an artist that wants to push the intricacy of the gearwork and lace and leather can really make some steampunk shine. If steam seems a little overdone to people, though there's also dieselpunk to bring it up to the 40s and add that extra oomph of something awesome. Plus diesel usually has the weight and grime to offset the light and bright of solarpunk.

Also along this same vein: nature vs tech; nature vs city; hippie vs punk/rock; peace vs war
Pets that might fit: 'Wockee, Velix, Maus, Torken, Saigovald, Imuet, Barghest, Gruss, Snowball, Mekkayena, Meji, Tali, 'Cheeka, Matches, Ptarmie, Corbine, Iiylumiel, Nonaga, Banatoyle, Shinzo line, Scordrak line, Lunafly

[Freezair]

Ooooh man, I'd love to seem some groovalicious 60's-esque pets. Far out. Fab.

[Silverin]

I almost split the two penguins and made the male ice and female fire for the sake of making them extremely different from the originals which the female is blue/greens and the male is red/yellow.

That being said yeah it was very rushed. All of us have been rather busy. I almost made a cactus themed pet for the hot side but ended up making that fried maus and burnt scribblen. If mostly because burnt paper doodle that is vengeful and sad and every story about computers catching fire. I tried other colors for the maus but none portrayed it better than the orange.

Either way I am glad folks seem pleased with what came out. ((Side note I went through a ton of designs for different themes... and I still have some really awesome designs laying around from. Some I would like to get out there.))