Heya' Fellys!
The Island has been around for almost 12 years now, and over those 12 years, The Island has received LOTS of MAJOR updates! But before TI even began, it was known as the "Crab Party", and didn't have much to it. Here is the evolution of The Island over the years!
Major Update 1: Transition From Crab Party > The Island
The Island's first MAJOR update was it becoming what it is today, an island! In December 2010, there were only a few Crab themed rooms you could visit, such as one for the Green Crab, Brown Crab, etc...
In January 2011, paint buckets could be found around these Crab rooms, and if you found all of them, you'd be taken to the Purple Crab Room, where in February 2011, they lead us to an island! The first thing we built was Pet Store to allow these Crabs to be adopted, and thus, on February 28th, 2011, The Island as we know it today was born, and many rooms started opening such as the Town Center, Arcade, Crab Lounge, Restaurant, and more!
Major Update 2: BMP > PNG
In November 2012, The Island started using wider image formats for rooms permanently, and a bunch of the rooms using BMP format were given completely new designs to match the new PNG format. This made it so that decorating rooms would be easier! For example, here is the Dance Club in the BMP/JPG format...
And when it was updated, this is how it looked!
Major Update 3: Colored Outlines
On December 31st, 2014, the first ever permanent drawing of The Island using colored outlines was used after being tested a little bit throughout 2013. Colored outlines are an artstyle where you don't use black outlines, but instead, you use a darker version of the color that the outline surrounds. For example, here's the Town Center before the outline change:
And here it is after:
Notice the outlines around the arrow sign not being black, and on the controller sign- Those two are the easiest to spot! Eventually, all rooms started using this artstyle.
Major Update 4: Music & Ambience!
Around July of 2015 is when music and ambience started being heard around The Island, giving the game more sound and making the world feel more alive. Over the next few months, every single room was given ambience or music!
Major Update 5: Chat CSS!
Although no longer seen after April 2019, The Island's chat rooms got custom CSS on March 1st, 2016, including a custom cursor icon, a banner where the chat name is, and a border around the chat itself, making the site around TI look much better!
Major Update 6: Animated Rooms!
In July 2018, several rooms including the Dance Club, Music Hall, etc, all got animations! Not much more to say about this one...
Major Update 7: Wix Edition
One of The Island's biggest updates was the transition from xat to Wix- Before December 2018, you had to memorize the name of each room & chat link, but when TI switched over to Wix, every single room could be accessed directly from the website itself! It was a huge and much needed update! However, to this day (Until January 3rd, 2023 that is), the xat chatbox is still used!
Major Update 8: New Era!
The Island's "new era" began February 12th, 2020, and is another one of The Island's BIGGEST updates- But it wasn't just one day, it was a bunch of huge updates throughout 2020 - 2022, before officially having the event's last major update on January 4th, 2022. The introduction of badges, the Felly Phone, a new look for Fellys, a clothing catalog, new Crab color designs, and of course, the HUGE renovation project where at once, MANY outdoor rooms got a new look!
Major Update 9: Sounds!
As mentioned above, on January 4th, 2022, The Island received sounds! After nearly 11 years of being a mostly quiet game, sound effects now play when you hover over a button, open up an interface, and more.
Major Update 10: EVERYTHING Improved!
The upcoming update which is currently in beta, has been in the works for MONTHS and is set to release January 3rd, 2023! In this update, EVERYTHING will be greatly improved. Room navigating, chatting, watching videos, listening to music, learning about the history of TI- New things include quests, a revamped Beach, a surfing area, other new rooms... PLENTY of new sounds & variety for interfaces, interactable objects, and MUCH MUCH more!
That'll do it, this was a huge blog post, and it's been really cool to look back at all these huge updates The Island has had over the years to get to where it is about to be! Have a great rest of the year & a great new year, Fellys!- Be sure to check out the New Year's Day celebration starting January 1st at midnight, and pick up the 2023 glasses at the Town Center, and of course, count down the new year at the Skatepark!
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