Interview with the Creative Director

What was your favorite addition to the site in 2010?

While the addition of Kinzville and MAZIN’ Hamsters were definitely the biggest additions to Webkinz World this year, my favorite addition was redoing the Webkinz Stadium. The original Stadium didn’t live up to expectations and was missing key features like showing all of the pets in the competitions wearing their actual outfits. We fixed this, simplified signing up, added the Quick Events and finally got the running races out. I’m also really happy about the change to the Daily Kinzcare. It was a tiny change but it’s completely breathed new life into this classic feature.

What is the most exciting thing you’ll be adding in 2011?

2011 won’t be about adding, it’ll be about making what we have better than ever! During our Webkinz Day Twitter Party (which was crazy fun) I said that we’d be working on adding new features to the room – including the ability to move and remove doors. Well, that feature will be coming in 2011, along with a bunch of new room features that you won’t expect.

Does this mean you won’t see anything new? Of course not. We’ve got a whole year’s worth of games, furniture themes, recipes, events and more planned for Webkinz. And we’re going to be changing things up this year. We’re already working a new event for Valentine’s Day that we’ve never done before.

Why did you add the map?

Way back in 2005, Webkinz World had just six options: Adoption Centre, the Clinic, Arcade, W-Shop, Quizzy’s and the Room. That’s it. It was very easy to navigate and understand. Since then we’ve added tons of sections and that poor old Things to Do menu was getting really crowded and confusing, particularly for new members. The new map really cleans this up and also gives us opportunities to do more with Kinzville in the future.

Will you be adding anything new to the map in 2011?

The Key to Kinzville challenges were just the start of a larger plan that will happen in 2011. Wait and see!

I hear my Webkinz account will no longer expire – awesome! Why did you make this change?

It was just the right thing to do. We spent a lot of time and effort listening to our fans this year, and account expiry was something our fans simply didn’t want. So we got rid of it. Now once you’ve signed up you either have Full or Deluxe Membership or you don’t. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on some features, but you’ll still be able to log in, play with your pets, play games… have a great time! And that is what Webkinz is all about.

Anything else you want to tell us?

I think we surprised a lot of people this year with decisions like making the Kinzville Academy free, adding the map, and getting rid of Account Expiry. We’re going to continue to shake things up in 2011. It will be all about making Webkinz World more fun. Simple example? Winterfest will be 9 days this year. That’s two weekends of snowflake catching instead of one!