Hi everyone! I often get asked, “What ever happened to Mazin’ Hamsters?” and “Will you ever bring back Mazin’ Hamsters?”
I will try to answer these and some of your other questions about Mazin’ Hamsters below.
For those that don’t remember it, Mazin’ Hamsters was a fully 3D section in Webkinz World introduced in 2010, which was unlocked when you registered a Feature Code that came with a plush hamster.
Mazin’ Hamsters was unique from the rest of Webkinz World because it was running completely different animation software. While Webkinz World runs on 2D Flash, Mazin’ Hamsters ran on an early version of 3D Unity.
Inside ‘Mazin Hamsters, there were lots of mazes that your hamsters could race around or explore. Completing each maze awarded a trophy!
If you wanted more mazes, you could make your own using the maze building tool. You could even share your mazes with the community and have other players run through them.
Later we added a Hamster Hamlet section with different worlds for your hamsters to explore, along with daily activities like the popular Moolah Mountain!
Unfortunately, the uniqueness of ‘Mazin Hamsters was also its biggest problem. Much like the upcoming discontinuation of Flash by web browsers, the original version of Unity 3D was discontinued as a web plug-in. So, in September of 2015, because we could no longer run the game on the web, ‘Mazin Hamsters was closed.
However, Unity as a game engine has continued to thrive and grow. A new WebGL platform was developed to run Unity on the web, but unfortunately it was not backwards-compatible for those using earlier versions like ‘Mazin Hamsters. The Development and Art teams at Ganz that built ‘Mazin Hamsters would eventually take their collective experience and create a whole new massive online game: Amazing World.
Will ‘Mazin Hamsters ever return? While there aren’t currently any plans to bring it back, with Unity now one of the premier gaming technologies, you never know what the future might bring. Unity continues to be a technology that Ganz uses to develop new projects.
What was YOUR favorite part about ‘Mazin Hamsters? And what would you like me to report on next? Let me know in the comments below.
I loved the unique prizes available through Mazin’ Hamsters.
I loved the race against the clock with the key craze. But really, I liked all of the Hamlet, and of course Moolah Mountain. I’m still hoping it finds it’s way into new programming some day. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
I wanted to love Mazin Hamsters with all my heart. It really was a game concept I’d waited my entire life for. But then the reality was — for me –that the virtual hamsters were way more super creepy than cute (and are in Webkinz World, too) and the game itself made me disorientated, dizzy and sick to my stomach to try to play. I have this issue to a somewhat lesser degree with the parks in Webkinz World, too.) And that was when it would even play on my computer at all — during the entire run of the game I never stopped having trouble with just simply getting it to load/work/play at all, too, no matter what computer I used or how new it might be. I do love the prizes, and I would dearly love to see more of those offered through promotions and wheels (just, well, not the webkinz mobile wheels, that does me no good at all.) It was all terribly disappointing, because as I said, I wanted to love it so much.
Gramma lost 2 of the beds that look like piles of hay . She was unable to log in and use her points it hurt.
I honestly miss Amazing World. I met amazing friends there, and that game was like a second home to me. I don’t even know why it closed down, but watching the last video on here made me quite sad remembering how all that was lost.
How about a report on DiceKinz? I loved that game!
OMG – yes! I had forgotten about that game. DiceKinz was fun!
I loved exploring with the hamster! The houses, the tunnels, the prizes, catching the butterflies and bringing them back, going down Moolah Mountain, collecting Moolah and getting stuff from the Mazin Mall. Just before they closed I had quite a bit of moolah saved for furniture. I had been off Webkinz for a while, so I had not idea that Mazin Hamsters was stopping, so I never got to spend the Moolah I accumulated.
Every member of our family had a different favorite part of ‘Mazin Hamsters, but we all loved it and still miss is terribly (mostly exploring the Hamlet and completing challenges in the mazes). We tried Amazing World, but didn’t find it near as fun as ‘Mazin Hamsters. We still have our hamster pets, and they are so adorable, but the real hamster ball they get rolled around the house in is no where near as cute as the ones they had online. They really miss those fancy balls to roll around in! We’re still hoping someday it will be worth for Ganz to rewrite it into new code!
Right? I don’t know what it was about it, but I couldn’t navigate Amazing world nearly as easily as I did Mazin Hamsters. I gave up after I kept ‘bonk, Bonk, bonking’ into everything, but never really getting any where.
I LOVED ‘Mazin Hamsters! I loved the mazes, the trophies, the Hamlet environments, Moolah Mountain, the unique prizes and shop-ALL of it! It was so unique, and lots of fun. I loved the trophies for the mazes, and we had almost collected all of them on our original Webkinz account. I sincerely hope that one day ‘Mazin Hamsters could return!
The lagoon, featured in one of you clips, was my favorite. The colors were spectacular, ethereal and calming. Please bring the Hamsters back.
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