Animal Jam: The Beta Times

Hey buddies, it's Stang!

A long time ago I put up a poll asking if you guys wanted a beta page. The winning choice was "yes" and so I set out to create one. Amid a busy schedule, laziness, and other work, I only managed to cover the creators and the lands.

However, now I've decided to turn it into a special post. Here it is!

Animal Jam: The Beta Times

The Creation

Animal Jam's full name is National Geographic Animal Jam (it was created by National Geographic). It was launched in 2010 by Smart Bomb Interactive, who was in partnership with National Geographic.

Smart Bomb Interactive and National Geographic. 

The beta times were during 2009, when they chose beta players to test it. In May 2010, only then did they release it publicly.

Fast Fact: Animal Jam was designed for five to nine year olds, but many players are older.

Credit to: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bgSKSxiqGmk/maxresdefault.jpg 

This is what the old login in looks like. The logging in area has changed greatly; from this to the little sidebar, then the new pop-up.

The Den

During Beta days, everyone got the biggest den ever known to Animal Jam.
The Beta den.

(There was only one den.)

It included a huge bridge, a two-story building, and a patio. You can actually see and walk around it at the Beta parties.

Credit to Animal Jam Flash. 

This is part of the house. The ladder brings you upstairs.

Credit to Animal Jam Flash. 

Tan, plain stairs led from the first floor down to a spacious patio.

Credit to Animal Jam Active.

The Lands

The first "starter" lands were Jamaa Township, the Lost Temple of Zios, Serapei Forest and Crystal Sands (which looked very different then).

Here's some pictures which are all from the official Animal Jam wiki.

Jamma Township and the Temple of Zios. 

The Serapei Forest and Crystal Sands. Crystal Sands was originally a plain, flat beach rather than the pirate-themed water park we see now. 

The Items

Items from the Beta days are referred to as "betas". The items that have not come back to stores are usually extremely rare and worth a lot. However, their value has gone down due to the adventures, where you can win them.

Some items from the beta times include the pirate sword, mask (commonly called a tiki), top hat (commonly called a founder), arctic hood, beard,  and the tan carpet.

Some items from that time have rumors or stories about them.

It was rumored that a special item, called Skully, was sold in stores and then removed from everywhere, including player's accounts. It is the cheapest item that was sold in stores and technically the rarest, since none exist anymore.

Another item is Cami's Frog. One Animal Jam worker's daughter who really liked her stuffed animal frog and played Animal Jam as a beta player. Sadly, she got cancer so her parent made Cami's Frog on Animal Jam. (In case you were wondering, she recovered! :D)

Other Stuff

The top bar didn't have that many options as there is now; there's no parties, or adventures. However, they removed two buttons! One was the currency counter: it displayed your gems, diamonds and tickets. Back then, during beta times, there were only gems. The second was the timer, something that parents or really well behaved kids could use to make sure they didn't play too long. (I believe AJHQ removed it because they wanted people to play more.)

There was no summer carnival or daily spin. 

All the items were very 2-D. 

The color palette looked very different. You has less colors and the clothing pop-up did not show your money. There were also less patterns.

Picture credit to the oifficla Animal Jam wiki. 

Many areas have been renovated (like a new photo booth in Club Gecko), and the art has changed.

There were no underwater lands or features.

There were no pets.

The only stores were Jam Mart Furniture and Jam Mart Clothing.

Credit to Animal Jam Goldfish. 

There were no members or non-members; everyone was the same. In fact, there wasn't member or non-member anything; no items, dens, etc. Everyone had a gold name tag.

There were only wolves, bunnies and rabbits.

Animal Jam shamans (or alphas, as they are called now), would walk around and talk to you.

What It Was Like

I was a beta tester. Unfortunately, it was really boring then because you couldn't even trade so I quit. Later I got even more bored so I decided to retry it and I loved it.

Anyway, life in AJ Beta was really calm. There wasn't too much to do at the time (there were far fewer games, lands and people), people were generally kind, and you couldn't trade.

However, it all went uphill from there! :)

Anyway, thanks for reading! Share to support, comment any feedback or suggestions, and jam on! Bye!

~Stang

P. S. Please check out my latest Scratch project here!

3 Tips for Decorating Your Den

AHHHH I didn't post for such a long time 0-0 Sorry everyone, I'm busy and also not feeling very well D:
By the way I'm basically the only author here so if you don't know yet, it's Stang : )
Anyway, let's get to the post:

This is a special post about....

◦°˚\(*❛‿❛)/˚°◦ How to Decorate Your Den ◦°˚\(❛‿❛*)/˚°◦

Today I'm going to show you a few different styles or patterns and the steps to get a den like it.

1. Minimalist Style

This style consist of lot of space with sparsely placed furniture items. It works best in a a bright, large den. Member dens are the most fitting, but you can still try to attempt it in a non-member's den.

Note: Put colors that match the walls and floor, otherwise it would look really bad, since a whole room is basically relying on a few pieces of furniture.

2. Multiples of the Same Thing

This isn't a style but a way to decorate part of your den. (If you decorate your whole den like this it's acceptable but kind of weird. However, it looks really nice if you're making a store.)

Tip: Make sure everything is lined up and evenly spaced!

Here's another example: (see the hamsters and plushies)

3. Sections

Try to think of your den as multiple sections. 

As you can see in the picture below (it's a little messy :P), near the front entrance, there's the main room section, with chairs facing opposite of a fireplace and other random stuff lining the wall. You can tell this is a section because it has a rug as the central item in the middle. 

The next section is the fluffy area with the white rug and 3 stuffed animals. And above that is yet another sections with two chairs and a table. 

A Little Tip: 
Don't clutter your den! If you really want to, try to make it look organized. Leave space between objects; for example, don't put 5 cups on a table by a wall with a window and hanging ceiling stuff (like a snowflake).

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions or feedback, please comment the below. Share to support and jam on, bye!

~Stang

Leaving the blog

Hey guys.. It's kat.

So most of you have wondered why I didn't make posts. Well, here are my reasons.

-I have been very busy doing my homework and summer work.

-I have quit Animal Jam.

The reasons explaining why I have quit are because I am simply feel too old to play a game like this. Some of my friends told me to quit as well, because this was just a designed online chat room for kids.

Personally I love animal jam, but I can't play it anymore because it doesn't give me the spark that satisfies me. I have drawn closer to Mine Craft.. 

So I have to leave this blog now, since I won't be up to date with animal jam things.. ;(

I really hope that this blog lives on, and may someday become the most famous animal jam blog! :3

So farewell, my fellow jammers. If you ever want to see me online again, I'm EnderCatOfDoom on a few mcpe servers, so don't be afraid to say "Hi kat!"

Farewell.

-Kat

Great Glitches

Hey buddies, this is Stang!

Sorry I kept everyone waiting for such a long time; I don't play Animal Jam as often as I did before, so I don't come across as many glitches. However, these are all "high-quality glitches". (That's means they're speeeeciaaal ^-^!)

Quick note about the blog: Some of you readers may have been wondering where Kat has gone. She's is unfortunately too busy to post and uh may be making a post to talk about that stuff... Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post!

Here's a crazy glitch, with disappearing animals and a random snow leopard.

Sent in by Iceclaw28730

For everyone who doesn't know, I LOVE finding glitches because it's like discovering something new. 

Anyway, if you're reading this in another language, the comment basically says how when FoxGurl's sister was playing best dressed, she entered into the mini game as a deer but was changed to a wolf in best dressed. The really strange factor was that only the animal changed, but the fur colors and clothing stayed the same. 

Another Stang fact: I love playing Four Gem :)

For some reason, when I play Four Gem, my opponent's and my name often change to numbers and the animal picture goes blank. 

I can't tell if this is a glitch, but I've had over 200 jam-a-grams for at least a year already) and I don't delete any because it takes forever), but the jam-a-gram count has always stayed the same. AJ never auto-deleted any messages for me either. 

The only reason I can think of why this would happen is if they used an extremely simple program like Scratch where they had to draw every costume, so it would be terribly boring to draw separate costume up to, let's say, 100000. 

None of my buddies show...

I really want to know how these glitches come to be; why snow leopards are standing on water, characters mysteriously switch, and all those crazy things that happens in glitches.

Anyway, thank you for reading! I really appreciate you guys reading my posts. If you'd like to introduce your friends/family/followers/others to this blog, please share this post (or blog). Play wild and jam on, bye!

~Stang

Hi, I'm Back!

Hey buddies, it's me, Stang. I'm back from vacation! I hope everyone managed to stay updated with Animal Jam while I was gone. :)

This isn't AJ related, but recently my Scratch project, Fireworks, got featured, so I'm spending more time on Scratch. However, I'll still try to bring everyone quality special posts. In addition, Scratch requires you to say what country you're from. I put Antarctica to stay anonymous, since it's obvious I don't.

Anyway, wow, a lot happened while I was gone! I'm going to show you guys the most recent updates. If I miss any, which I probably will haha, please let me know in the comments or by email if you want to attach pictures!

First, here's the Jamaa Journal!

There's a new den called the Bounce House. It costs 5 diamonds only!

The Jamaaliday Party appeared from the 24th-26th of July. 

 The Battle for the Beacon is a limited time adventure and will go away in a few more weeks. (What are the prizes? I've never played it before.)

There's new items at the Summer Carnival, like a Mira Balloon and other thing balloon which I believe is also called Mira but doesn't bear much resemblance to the bird Mira. 

Hyenas are currently away from Jamaa.

You can buy a cute pet ferret now, with a membership card!

While trolling around with Crispymint and another buddy, we accidentally went into a Portuguese den! (Which is a newly added language, I believe.)

Anyway, that's all I have for today. More updates will be coming soon, so keep reading Animal Jam Buddies! Share to support and jam on, bye!

~Stang

New Code and Code Processing

Hi buddies, this is Stang!

Note: I'm going on vacation soon so you won't see me for a while. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one last post before I leave! :)

Not only is there a new code, but there's also some more news related to codes.

Before I tell you it, I have to put up some "security" symbols so people can't read it from Google+ posts. (They include the beginning of a post.)

....................................................................................................
....................................................................................................

The code gives you 1000 gems. 

The new code is NGKjammin, which awards you 1000 gems. NGK stands for National Geographic Kids, and jammin is the short form of jamming.

I found it in the National Geographic Kid's 2016 almanac. (They have one code in every book, and one book comes out every year.)

And now for the extras:

In addition, there's a new "code processing" um process :P

When I first read "Tell us where to apply your membership" I thought it was a membership code (*o*) but it's actually not. 

That's it for today! Thanks for reading. Share to support and jam on, bye!

~Stang

Freedom Party Guide

Hey buddies, this is Stang!

Here's a mini guide to the Freedom Party!

This is a stitched picture of the entire map (it's relatively small). I kind of wish the map was bigger, so we could have space, but at the same time, I feel like it makes us more social :)

On the right side, you can buy hats. They're all animal hats, except for the Freedom Hood with Feather hat. (Item not pictured: Freedom Chicken Hat)

On the left side are new freedom party furniture items! They look very circus -like. 

To celebrate Freedom Day, I made a fireworks animation! (It's actually a stimulation.
Click here to see it :)

That's it for today! Share to support, comment, and jam on! Bye!

~Stang

Llamas! Plus a Secret Update

Hey buddies, this is Stang!

Llamas are here! You can buy one now in the Diamond Shop for 10 diamonds, as usual.

Here are the llama actions:

Dance - llamas side step left and right, bringing up the legs on one side up when switching sides.

Sleep (see the llama in the bottom right sections). 

Hop! The llama hops just average; not too high, not too low.

Play! The llamas prance around their name tag, giving an occasional kick. 

Sit! :)

Click read more to find out about the rest of the update!

Battle for The Beacon Gameplay!

Hey guys! Debugged here, and today I'm here to introduce you to a gameplay video of the latest adventure (and so far my favorite) of the Battle for the Beacon!!

It invovles strategies for the new gaming. Sorry about the audio!
Alright, I hope you enjoy!
-Buggy

Piglets, Beacon Battles, and More!

Hi buddies, this is Stang!

Amid these update posts, I'm working on a glitches post. If you have any glitches, please let me know and send it to my email animalstang@gmail.com.

Here is another update!

Now you can buy pet piglets in the Diamonds Shop. I wonder if there's going to be an avatar that comes with it, like a wild boar. (All AJ avatars are wild animals.)

They cost three diamonds. In addition, I don't know if I've shown this before, but there's also a gecko pet.

There's a new adventure for all players called Battles for the Beacon. Kat will post a video about it later :)

If you're an eagle or an owl, you can attend the new Cloud Party (unfortunately, members-only). 

Click read more to find out about the rest of the update and other cool news.