How I Pitched My Design To Neopets And You Can Too

Navigation

Intro - The submission process

Design Foreword - What makes a viable design?

Ease of technical implementation - Ease of artistical implementation - Ease of world implementation

Keeping in line with existing wearables

What makes a good pitch? - Other tips for acceptance

Recap/TLDR

Link to this page!

Intro/History

Safety Chia as a concept was born on December 9, 2024. As we all know, Chias are known for having a bunch of silly fruit/veggie versions. I was doodling a bunch of wacky offbeat Chia concepts to share with friends, like a pizza Chia, egg Chia, neocola Chia, etc. I then doodled a traffic cone Chia.

The design stuck with me. Even as someone who wasn't a fan of Chias, I was like, oh! I love him! I love this little cone. He's so happy and full of love for safety. I wish I had one of these as a real pet. I was enchanted by its silly, simplistic nature. And I thought to myself, "the only way I could possibly achieve this goal is to design it plausibly and submit it to TNT for Chia Day".

So in the subsequent week, I drew up some concepts and thought through the logistics. I came to call him Safety Chia.

I made two versions: a special Chia-exclusive color like the fruit chias, and a wearable version. I designed a petpage to showcase the idea, and when the February Pet Day suggestions thread was posted later that month, I shared it and encouraged friends and fans of the design to share it, too. You can check out that original pitch here.

In early January, I was contacted by TNT Adler. They asked my consent to use the design and said that while they'd love to make a new color, that wasn't on their radar at the time, and would like to use the wearable version instead. They also asked that I keep the news to myself until release day.

Then finally, on Chia Day 2025, Safety Chia was released into the wild for everyone to enjoy! TNT Adler sent me the items I'd designed as well as some other lovely goodies, like a Darigan Paint Brush.

The submission process

Since the official drop of my design, I've received some questions on how the process of submitting a design to Neopets works, and I'd like to explain how I did it (and you can too!).

Basically, there is no submission form. About 2 months in advance of a given Pet Day, a thread on the Neoboards will be created in the Site Events section by an official TNT staffer that encompasses all the holidays for that month. So the February 2025 thread was made in December 2024, the March 2025 thread in January 2025, and so forth. There is no scheduled day where it shows up so you'll just have to check Site Events daily.

These threads are open to all for suggestions. This is where you'll post your pitch. A good way to present your idea is to put it on a petpage then link to that petpage. Links to offsite pages are not allowed, but links to onsite pages, such as petpages, are. The way you make a clickable link to a petpage is to remove https and www. from the link, so http://neopets.com/~Piyko will convert into a proper link on the Neoboards.

You should also mention what day your pitch is actually for (like "Chia Day"), and the name of your pitch (like "Safety Chia").

Here is an example: "Please check out my Safety Chia concept for Chia Day! You can find it here: http://neopets.com/~Piyko". That's all you need!

Design Foreword

This was my first time submitting a design to Neopets, and I was lucky enough to have my pitch accepted the first try. I am honored and humbled that it was chosen. But there are others who have been pitching great designs for years, and other great designs that I'm disappointed weren't chosen for the same day, like the adorable Fuzzly Pear chia by (I believe) Neopets user _werewolf_6.

That said, I don't have zero experience. I have submitted designs to various things including pet sites in the past, some of which were accepted, some of which weren't. I am also an artist by trade and have some design experience in general. That isn't to discourage amateur artists from making concepts, just to give you an idea of where I'm starting from. Anyone can trace over existing Neopets art to show off their concept ideas! :)

All this is to say there is definitely some luck involved, and so my advice should not be taken as a guaranteed successful pitch, but rather the things I kept in mind while I did it borne of my own instincts and experience.

But my philosophy with all design contests is that you should make something for fun and design experience first and foremost, not because you hope it will for sure get accepted. If you're going to be absolutely devastated if it doesn't get in, understand that I have seen SO many great fan designs over the years get rejected for various games! You should prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

If you do get rejected, it doesn't mean your art is bad or your design was bad. It has a lot to do with ease of implementation (I'll get into that) and personal taste of the developers.

The following points are some of the things I think can help a lot as general advice, and were the principles I personally kept in mind when designing Safety Chia. I see some of these principles missing from pitches that I believe would be stronger with them in mind.

What makes a viable design?

Please note that I said "viable" design, not "good". A viable design largely comes down to ease of implementation. There are loads of great design ideas that will not get added simply because they are too complicated to implement at this time.

There was a controversy for a video game that I like a couple years back. A very simple design got accepted over some super elaborate fancy designs. While the fancier designs look superior to the average viewer, the reality is that the simple design is a MILLION times easier to implement on the tech side of things and will stick out to developers for that reason.

For a Neopets example, let's consider pastel robot casings for robot pets. Could be a super cute idea. But there are 55 different robot pets. You'd have to recolor 55 different pets. HUGE burden on the art department. And then what are the mechanics of distribution? There's a total of 206 pieces of robot casings because most of them are segmented into multiple parts. Are you gonna drop 206 new items into Cog's Togs? You have to think about these mechanics when making a design: not just how complicated they are artistically, but also from the programming and lore side of things.

I am too beautiful to live.

This is why when making my Safety Chia, I thought about the logistics of existing Fruit Chias. I made fruit chia wings and a Chia Pop. And I realized lore-wise, it would be introducing a lot of complicated new questions to have Chias be able to shapeshift into a non-organic form rather than something like a banana or avocado. So I created an alternate wearable version to sidestep these questions, and unsurprisingly, this is the version TNT chose.

If there is one concept I would like you to take away from this page, it is "ease of implementation".

Small scope/ease of technical implementation

Scope, in design, refers to how big an idea is and how hard it is to make. As mentioned with the robot casings example, keeping your idea small and simple (a few wearables for a single species) will make it far easier to implement.

Remember that there are 55 different Neopets on the website. A simple concept like "autumn scarf" is not just a single autumn scarf drawn and finished - it's 55 of them of all shapes and sizes and even different angles! What works for a Nimmo won't work for a Jubjub, a Chomby, etc. This is why you're more likely to see species day clothing rather than clothes that fit every pet in the game, except for Neocash. So of course, it's easier to pitch for a single species.

Also, try to keep your idea as a "one-and-done" implementation - they make it, they implement it, that's it - rather than "an idea that requires additional work over time". Example: a new neopet, a new color, a new petpet color, a new item type, a new mechanic. Adding a new neopet means adding thousands of wearables for that neopet. Adding a new color means one more color they have to worry about and have people asking "why are we adding a new color when (color) has barely gotten anything lately?".

You should keep in mind that the current TNT is a small team with a lot of work on their hands. The website is also one that has been around for a LONG time with a lot of spaghetti code. The most appealing concepts are ones that can be implemented quickly and easily without adding more problems in the future.

Clear design/ease of artistic implementation

I honestly doubt my design would've been accepted if I'd just posted the initial Safety Chia doodle.

That's because the easiest ideas to implement are ones that are illustrated very close to Neopets official art. A sketch in a different pose/angle is not going to give the artists as much information on how to implement your concept as if you trace over the official Neopets artwork to show how it would look as an actual wearable. While it can be helpful to show the concept from different angles if it's complex, the most important point is to illustrate how it would look ingame.

And unfortunately for the non-artists out there, I think a concept that is words-only is probably less likely to be accepted than an actual illustration, especially if there is confusion in the way you word it. Consider trying to trace over the official art while using a reference photo, or ask an artist friend to help!

(There are some exceptions, like "different bird beaks for Lennies" was recently implemented, likely based on a thread suggestion. If you do have a words-only suggestion, try to make sure your idea is simple and easy to visualize, like that one.)

Basically, think of it like this: the less work the art team has to do to conceptualize and translate your design to the Neopets style, the more appealing your design is. You should do as much of the legwork as is possible. I did this by trying to imitate the Neopets style as closely as I could, including tracing over the Chia hair and face.

Remember also the level of detail in your design and the style of your concept art should be similar to existing Neopets art. If you are the kind of person who likes to render 5000 individual chainmail loops in perfect metallic sheen, that's super impressive, but might look a little weird on a Neopet. (And the staff artists are going to set you on fire if you make them try to figure out how to render 5000 chainmail loops in Neopets style.)

Lore-compliant/ease of world implementation

Neopets lore plays fast and loose and there have been some WEIRD wearables, but you DO need to think a little bit about how appropriate your design is to the lore. I touched on this with Safety Chia before, talking about how having a chia pop that turns you into a plastic safety cone would raise a lot of questions about existing Chia anatomy, and TNT declined my proposal of a chia pop-based design, opting for a wearable.

Contentious subjects like male faeries or Jelly World might similarly be rejected. They've also talked a bit about avoiding 1:1 comparisons to modern tech in the past, but they seem to have gone back on this with items like laptops and gamer chairs. Still, you might have more luck with a funky made-up fantasy MP3 player that plays into 90's nostalgia vibes than a more sleek, modern phone.

I recommend looking at existing wearables on a website like Jellyneo to get an idea of what they consider acceptable.

Real-world references exist, but they tend to be somewhat niche (like The Dark Crystal) and/or nostalgia-based (Kiki's Delivery Service, Doodle Bears). You will probably need them to be a little bit "legally distinct": a Star Trek uniform shirt with a star on the chest is okay, a Star Trek uniform shirt with the actual Starfleet insignia is not. Think of an unlicensed Halloween costume.

While some darker themes are allowed (like this official outfit based on Freddy Krueger, lol) you should probably avoid things like blood and guts. Skulls seem fine, and various green alien goos in place of blood. Remember that children use this website.

Keeping it in line with existing wearables

I observed that items for pet days tend to come in sets. On occasion, individual items are released, but they're often in a sort of theme, like Chia Day releasing 3 wearables for the head. This can range from 2 items up to 5!

So rather than focus on a single item, it's good to consider making a wearable set, variations (like multiple colors for the same item), or if your concept is a single item like Safety Chia, give it a small accessory that could go with other outfits. In your pitch you should be sure to note what is or isn't a separate item. I included the optional safety chia stop sign because of noticing this trend of item sets, and also proposed a swappable base, which didn't end up getting used.

Again, look at prior pet day wearables on Jellyneo to get an idea of what their sets tend to look like.

Another suggestion is to get used to how the "zones" of Neopets equippables work. For example, jackets will overlap tops, which will overlap pants, which will overlap shoes. If you wanted a pet to have big honking clown shoes, you'd need to have the shoe extend past the edge of your pants then have a large toe, rather than making the whole shoe huge, unless you want to have layering issues. If your shirt has a collar that you want to overlap a jacket, you'd need to make the collar attached to the jacket instead.

Also keep in mind that contacts and eyewear tend to occupy the same zone. If you had a design with both contacts and glasses, they would likely need to be collapsed into the same item. The same goes for wigs and hats.

What makes a good pitch?

Again, take a grain of salt, because I've only submitted one design, but I think a good pitch immediately presents all the information you need in a single image. It should have: the name of your design, how your design looks, notes on how the parts separate, a link to your proposal, and your username, as well as any other information you may find relevant. For example, if the design's inspiration is not immediately evident to those who are unfamiliar with the subject matter, you might say something like "Retro MP3 player" or "Star Trek-inspired fan design".

Here's my pitch again for reference.

(My one mistake with this pitch is it doesn't have the stop sign held item. I included that further down in my pitch page because I made it after finishing this pitch image.)

You should have this image at the top or near the top of a petpage, so you can link it easily to other Neopets users. Making sure it's at the top will make sure anyone who clicks the link sees it immediately, rather than having to scroll down past lots of text.

You should also try to make sure the image fits on the page so they can see the whole image on their monitor without scrolling. You can use a tag like height="60%" or width="60%" in your image HTML tag to accomplish this.

You can see my archived pitch in full here. I had a "short version" and a "long version": the quick pitch image seen above, and then a longer history on the Safety Chia design for those interested, with more details on how the mechanics of the design would work in practice.

Other tips for acceptance

Popularity is not a guarantee, but I doubt it hurts. I was grateful to have a lot of people voicing their support for Safety Chia in the thread. You can accomplish this by sharing your pitch page to your friends, on fansites, and in your guild. You can put it in your Neoboards signature!

Making your pitch page look nice and professional is a good idea. It should be easy to read, with text that is not too small and has good contrast with the background, for accessibility reasons. There are many premade petpage layouts on the internet you can borrow for free!

Somewhere on your pitch page, you should include instructions on how to campaign for the design's acceptance. I posted a link to the February Pet Day thread and instructed people to politely voice their support if they were interested in the design happening.

You can also make a link button that links to your pet page. Putting this in places like your shop description or userlookup is a good way to get noticed. You can also make the link button usable for others to share!

Finally, think about if your design is going to appeal to others. Your design should be something you love that you're passionate about first and foremost, but it should also be striking, interesting, and something others might want to use.

You might try to present an argument as for why your design matters, why you love it, and why you think it should be part of the site. When you love something and speak passionately about it, that love will shine.

Recap

Let's go over what we learned.

To submit:
Design something at least 3 months in advance.
Place your pitch on a petpage.
Keep your pitch simple and easy to understand.
Wait for the Pet Day thread on the Site Events section of Neoboards to be posted 2 months in advance.
Post a link to your pitch.
Encourage friends and others to post in support.

When designing:
Keep it easy to implement mechanically. (Nothing that requires programming new mechanics, new paint brushes, etc.)
Keep it easy to implement artistically. (No all-species wearables.)
Keep it lore-compliant.
Multiple items in a theme are encouraged.
If possible, draw over the existing Neopets base to show how your wearable would look.
If it's a reference, saw off anything that could infringe copyright.
Remember this is a website that children use.

When advertising:
Do share with friends.
Do share with fansites.
Try to share with places you are already active on! Nobody likes someone who drops into a space just to advertise then leaves!
Do share with your guild.
Do put a link in your Neoboards signature, shop, userlookup, etc.
Speak passionately about what you love.

Anyway that's my piece thanks for reading!! I can't guarantee success and this is my first and only successful pitch so it could all be luck, but this is how I did it.

Safety Chia loves you! Do your best!

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