Habbo Design Blog: Tombs of Egypt

Hello hello HELLO!

Ready your camels because we’re off to see the pyramids of Habbiza this Habboween 🎃

We've been keeping everything very hush hush but now, we're ready to reveal ALL ahead of Habboween.

But first, let’s check in with the Habbo artists to find out more about the ins and outs of the spooky month ahead! Here's your BTS of the campaign through the words of Kukuyit, Sparkaro, Munkkiskunkki and frogbiscuit.

What inspired this trip to the Egyptian tombs for Habboween? Is there anything in particular that you drew inspiration from? (Movies, TV, books, etc.)

Kukuyit: We have a small line called 'Ancients' that's a mix of jungle and Egyptian themes. The idea was to extend the Egyptian part of it and bring more items to choose from in the game (also being 'The Mummy' movie fan (the Brendan Fraser one, not Tom Cruise one 👀 may have helped push the theme decision along hehe)

Sparkaro: There’s some Egyptian-themed furni in Habbo already and we thought it would be interesting to do a spookier version of it.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Tomb Raider were a couple of great sources with all of the Egyptian tomb imagery in those. I actually visited Egypt myself a while ago so I drew on my memory of things that I saw there to get inspiration for a more varied furni collection.

Sadly, I didn’t get to explore any pyramids or lost tombs, but I did get to ride on a camel and meet some friendly Egyptian cats!

Munkkiskunkki: For the most part, I looked at images of various items being exhibited in museums, as well as photos of hieroglyphics. With this theme, reality ended up being just as impressive as fiction! (AKA the furni line.)

frogbiscuit: Same as the others! I had seen movies but did my own research online to find inspiration for Ancient Egyptian items.

What did you find most challenging when preparing for this Habboween? Was it hard to come up with ideas or new items? Were there any challenges with pixelling?

Kukuyit: The biggest challenge was to get the colour palette right. We wanted to keep it spooky and dark looking, but also be semi-useable with the existing furni. Habbo is a bright and colourful game which made it hard to find that balance.

Sparkaro: It was quite a challenge to design some of the furni, such as the sarcophaguses and Raging God item, as the designs were quite ornate and I wanted them to be fairly accurate to Ancient Egyptian creations and mythology. That required some research.

Munkkiskunkki: I had to remind myself a bunch of times that the designs should be spooky! It was easy to get lost in drawing generally cool stuff with the Ancient Egyptian theme in mind with the Habboween part getting a bit lost.

During the pixelling process, it was a challenge to fit in and simplify all the fine details into the furni while still trying to keep the various glyphs and symbols accurate and recognisable.

frogbiscuit: I didn’t have much knowledge about Ancient Egypt when we started (other than what I’ve seen in ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Moon Knight’ haha) so this theme required a lot of help from search engines.

Also, the combination of Habboween and Egypt was a difficult one for me since I just wanted to draw endless mummy zombies! It was a bit challenging to come up with creepy items with this theme but pixelling all the mummified items was a lot of fun!

Is there anything you really wanted to make that didn’t get chosen for this campaign?

Kukuyit: There were two things I liked that didn't make it to the chosen items, the mummy with a shrunken body and the broken mummy wings. Who knows, maybe we can fit it in somewhere in the future! (We need support from our Habbos for that though!)

Sparkaro: There was an interesting concept for a stone block which would allow the Habbo to actually ‘walk inside’ the furni and become a glyph. A special ‘blend layer’ would overlay the Habbo to create this interesting visual effect (similar to the existing ‘x-ray divider’ which creates a green x-ray look using blend modes).

We weren’t able to include it this time but this is something I’d like to experiment with and hopefully include more of in future campaigns! I would love to have some more furni with unique layering effects!

Munkkiskunkki: I made a design of a large stone slab/wall that Habbos could enter to "become" hieroglyphs themselves. While it would have been cool to figure that out technically, I don't know if people would have enjoyed it that much.

(This is the same item Sparkaro described! Isn't it cool?)

There was also an idea to create a little scarab beetle with an orb Habbos could possibly kick around... poor little bug must be breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't made, haha.

frogbiscuit: I think the below long snake idea was very cool. The ability to make it as long as you like would have been something different to introduce to the Habbos, especially to see how long they could make it!

I hope we can revisit this item someday.

What furni or clothing do you think Habbos will really love this Habboween?

Kukuyit: I think the Cursed Cat Doll will be exciting and fun for the players, who doesn't want to be a cat in 2023??

"There are two wolves inside you, one loves cats, the other wants to become a cat" – If you know this memorable meme, thumbs up 👍

Sparkaro: The mummy camel is my favourite! The design is amazing and it has great character. It really adds something.

Munkkiskunkki: I'm really happy with how the whole line turned out, but I adore the ambience of the Midnight Dunes wallpaper! There is also a fun surprise waiting for those who interact with the Cursed Cat Doll.

frogbiscuit: The little snake that curls around Habbo’s neck is super adorable. I've also heard that Habbos love wearing cute bags so the little Anubis Backpack might be something to get excited about!

For those of you interested in the Cursed Cat Doll, take a look:

Finally, we asked our artists to draw their Habbo avatars in an appropriately themed Habboween costume and this is what they drew!

Kukuyit

Munkkiskunkki

frogbiscuit

We are buzzing for what lies ahead in our Egyptian adventure!

Thank you to the artists who took time out of their busy schedules to sit down and chat with us about Habboween 2023.

Let the spooks, begin 👻