On July 22, 1999, we were lucky enough to conduct an interview with Rachel Olhava from PFM. We received answers to many questions and clarification to some of the rumors floating around. We thank Rachel for taking time out of her busy schedule for the interview. And now on to the interview...

Well, that's a little hard to say exactly. I originally temped for 3 months as a tester on Catz I (uh, whatever year that was *grin*). They kept calling me back to test for them on other stuff, but I had to say no until Petz II came along. Petz II testing started right when I decided to quit my Test Manager position at a 3rd party test company. I temped as a tester on Petz II until it was released and was then offered a permanent position as PF.Magic's Tech Support and Customer Service Manager. That was cool until the next year when we were bought by Mindscape/TLC and they took over all our TS and CS and dissolved my position. It was either lose my job completely or try to get on the web team, so I joined the PFM web team as the Production Assistant/Community contact person. I learned a lot from the Producer, Margaret Wallace, and found that I really enjoyed web work. Then they moved PF.Magic from its offices in SF to the Mindscape offices in Novato - and I was one of the many who were laid off in November. But thanks to Margaret, I was rehired as a contractor around March or so this year. (Margaret unfortunately left us to work at another company about 3 months ago.)

Good question! Sometimes my job description is far from set in stone. *chuckle* My titles technically are: Webspider/Web Community Coordinator/Web Test Manager, for Petz.com. I update the site with downloads and newz. I am supposed to fix broken stuff, do all the upkeep of the site and report anything I can't fix myself to the web programmer - we haven't done a lot of that lately since we kept thinking the improved site was supposed to go up any day! I oversee the WebPalz that answer the hundreds of emails we get, monitor certain areas of the site, and approve pictures and linkz - I troubleshoot for them too. I am in charge of the testing of any new features to add to Petz.com or sites to replace Petz.com. I yell at the engineers and MIS people when they hold up site launch *grin* - I don't actually yell, but you know what I mean. I handle the Early Adopters programs right before product release. I am basically the only link between the Petz community and the product teams. I keep my eye on as much as possible in the Petz Community (even the scandals *grin*), and put together reports for the product teams. This helps them know if they are going in the right direction with what new features, products they have decided to make. I push for what the community is asking for - even though I don't have any definite say in what they put in the products, I can influence them if the community is clamoring for it. Even though it is "technically", not my job, I put together the content specs for the upcoming revision of Petz.com for the release of Petz 4. I have performed Producer duties and Web Content design among the rest of my web duties. Basically I am a really busy bee!! Right now, I am also trying to take over Oddballz.com and get that running properly - the Oddballz community has been sorely neglected! I will also most likely be in charge of the same duties for Babyz.net after product release in November.

That depends on what we need at the time. We just hired the new Web Producer, in fact I get to meet her tomorrow (Yay!). Mindscape has somewhere around 50 different websites, and people work on many projects at once. I am the only person that works solely on Petz.com. Petz.com is given more people as needed - for instance, because we need to get the new version done for release with Petz 4, we will be getting more resources soon. We contracted a 3rd party company for the improved Petz.com, which I am hoping will be up any time now.

Not really, except in the sense that I push for products and features that the Petz Community wants. I was more so when we were still PF.Magic.

I wish I did!!! It had better be no later than the end of this month. I have been very frustrated, the site is way overdue and I feel horrible that people have had to deal with all the problems on Petz.com for so long. The improved site is ready, we're just waiting for some technical server and remote access issues to be resolved within Mindscape.

Yes there will be! It is really cool too. I just hope that none of the features I want to implement get cut due to time constraints or anything. *fingers crossed* That can and has happened before. I am really excited about the new design we have in mind. And I have made sure that although a couple sections will pretty much be Petz 4 only, there will still be plenty to do for people with Petz I, Petz 2, and Petz 3.

Yes!! The Pigz were supposed to be released this month, but as can happen, there have been some problems getting the pig bug free, so it will hopefully be released in August. That is not a promise, but a "we think" it will be. All the changes from being bought by first Mindscape, then TLC and most recently Mattel, has changed our schedules/resources and has been a lot of adjustments for the product teams to deal with in just one year. We will get that Pig out to you though!

I honestly do not know at this point. It could go either way. Wish I had a more definite answer for you. :(

As I understand it, it was a Mindscape management decision. I don't really know more than that except that the Petz team made sure the voice rec got put into Petz 4. We still want to do the email, but that may not be possible until next year.

My favorite is Catz probably because I have had cats my whole life! I cannot imagine life without my 2 darlings to curl up with, even if one of them sheds white cat fur all over everything I own! I have a white male cat named Starlyte (after a horse on a ranch I used to work on) and a black female cat that came with the name Midnight - a kinda ying/yang thing going there. In Catz, my favorite breedz are Sophisto (the Siamese) and Scaredy (the orange). I love how Sophisto is sooooooo true to life cat-like and independant, and even a bit prissy. Scaredy brings out the nurturing side of me, the poor thing needs so much love and extra TLC. I guess they kinda represent 2 parts of my personality. Uh-oh!

I think it is amazing what Petz owners have done, I cannot believe the number of hacked breedz out there, not to mention the clothes, toyz and the PlayScenes!! Some of those Playscenes are awesome! But, as with anything, when you mess with a program file, it can mess up the program and I have seen emails from many people who have lost petz they dearly loved because a hacked file made the program unstable. It's too bad there is this side effect to hacked files, but the amount of creativity, thought and effort that goes into them is really awesome to see!

I definitely do, but I think it would be very unfair of me to name them as it could easily make others feel bad and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I have a running list of Petz sites that I keep adding to - my goal is to get a complete list of Petz sites, but I don't know if it is even possible - there are so many and new ones keep popping up all the time! Overall, there are so many great Petz sites and seeing what you have all done with them is just amazing! I frequently send URLs to the product teams to check out, so they can see what the Petz Community is doing out here on the web. You all rock!!

Spas and Pools
Have not been made, not sure they are even on the "to do" list. But email the WebPalz and we'll make sure the product teams hear about it!

Leashes and Collars
Not made, probably won't be either due to technical difficulties implementing them. But you never know.

Horsez
I hope so! I want Horsez as much as any of you. *grin* Some of us are totally pushing for it, and it has been considered for the last couple years - hopefully we can convince Mindscape that we need to do it. Keep those emails coming to WebPalz!

Golden Retrievers
I can't promise anything, but I would not be surprised if you see them sometime in 2000. Celes' campaign has been quite successful and the product teams have taken note of the number of people that want them and put them on the "breedz to do when we can" list. :)

Petz 4 demo
I imagine there will be a demo of some kind - I just don't happen to know exactly what kind of demo they are doing. Most people don't seem to realize that the Petz 3 demo is an online demo. If you go to the newz article "Download the Petz Player and Play with Petz on the Internet", there are links to live Petz. This combined with the About Petz section of the site was intended to be the Petz 3 demo. Due to the purchase of PFM, it was never quite integrated the way we had intended, but it is still there. You can actually play with all 10 petz online if you go to Jester or Scrappy and click the red "Back" link on those pages.

The "unreleased" Front Yard (Gate) playscene and Living Room playscene (pictures have appeared on several sites)
You know what, I don't know anything about any Playscenes like this except that they exist and are being passed out in the community. As far as I know, they aren't from us - but I could be wrong. If they are, they are probably totally buggy first versions from last year that were never completed, cause I haven't seen them anywhere on our "to do"/"to release" lists for this year.

The future...hmmmm..unfortunately, I can't say much except that there will not be a product called Petz 5, but there will be another Petz product. I wish I could tell you more, but at this point, the specs for it haven't even been done yet, just the general idea, so we don't even know for sure yet what it could turn out to be. :) We're still trying to finish Petz 4 and Babyz right now! I can say that we are leaning towards creating a completely new Petz engine in the next couple years, but what that will mean we can do with Petz must be left up to the imagination for now. *grin*

No problem, hope I didn't overdo it with the lengthy answers! I hope this information helps everyone!

You are more than welcome. :) Thank you Abby

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On July 28, 1999, we were lucky enough to conduct an interview with Andrew Stern from PFM. He filled us in on some of what goes into making Petz, talked about his thoughts on the Petz community, and let us in on a little about the future of Petz. We thank Andrew for taking time out of his busy schedule for the interview. And now on to the interview.

Sure! These look like good questions.

I've been designing and programming at PFMagic since 1992, when I was 22 years old. I'm one of the original employees. I'm 29 now.

My first product was called Max Magic, for CD-interactive, an interactive magician character that talked and was your partner in 14 magic tricks. Then I worked on some interactive movie experiments called Flix. Then in 1995 I joined the Dogz I team, and have been working on Petz ever since. Over the past year I've been making Babyz!

I have two major roles, that are interrelated. I work with the team to design the programs, which means writing a long document which describes what we are going to create. Then in C++ I program the behavior and artificial intelligence of the characters -- how do dogz and catz play, how does Jowlz act when he's grumpy, how does ChiChi go hyper, when does FiFi feel finicky, when does a Baby need to poop, things like that.

Over the past 4 years, I would say at least 25 people were involved in creating the Petz products. This ranges from people that draw art for the toyz and backgrounds, to people that make the animations for the Petz and Babyz; programmers that make the toyz, animation and sound work; managers that help set the schedules and make sure everything is running smoothly; and testers, who play with Petz and Babyz all day long to find bugs! Including beta-testers, who are very important.

Oh, I worked on all of them, so I love them all. Some of my favorite breeds are Jowlz, Homebody, Honker, Walret and the Snowman. And the new Babyz are really cool and cute.

At first we were all surprised and amazed that it was happening. You all are smart for figuring out how to do that. I think it's a good thing, because people get a chance to help create Petz, and then everyone benefits because there's tons of new breeds out there!

Yes, I do. I love all the sites, it is a big reward for all of us that worked hard to create Petz. It shows you all care about the Petz and are having fun building a community. Keep making them, don't stop!

The size of it, first of all, and the ingenuity of it; everyone one has been very creative in thinking of different things to do, from petz shows to adoption agencies to comics to hexed breeds. Anything that was possible to do, I think you've all done it! Also some of you are so *young*, and making complicated websites!

Of course. We are always keeping of track of what people are asking for, and often try to "give the people what they want". After Dogz and Catz I, people said "we want our petz to play together!" And we made Petz 2, where dogz and catz can live together -- mass hysteria. Then people said "we want our petz to go to different places!" and we made Petz 3 with a house, backyard, and different places to go. One of the big new features of Petz 4 is a Playscene Editor, where anyone can create their own scenes for Petz to play in.

Babyz is a giant baby-step forward in virtual life. There are the world's first full virtual humans (although they are just babies). They are very cute, and have a whole new house they live in. You can teach them to crawl and walk, and with a microphone, you can use voice recognition to talk to the Babyz and teach them to talk back! There's lots of clothes to play dress up too. Anyone who likes Petz will love Babyz.

Petz 4 will add lots of new stuff to Petz 3, such as new exotic places to travel with your Petz, voice recognition, and the playscene editor. As for the future beyond Petz 4, it's hard to say exactly what will be done so far in advance and I can't promise anything, but someday your Petz and Babyz may be able to play together! And you never know, eventually your Babyz just may be able to grow up to become kids and talk a lot more. Also, just so everyone is aware, the PF.Magic company is now a permanent part of the Mindscape and Mattel companies. So the label on the boxes will say Mindscape or Mattel, not PF.Magic. But it's still the same programs, better than ever.

My pleasure Abby! Back to work for me.

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In November 2002, we were lucky enough to conduct an interview with Ashley Bushore from Ubisoft and the Petz Team from Ubisoft/Mytho. We received answers to many questions about Petz 5, the community in general, and the future of the Petz brand. We thank Ashley and the rest of the Petz Team for taking time out of their busy schedules for the interview. And now on to the interview...

You're very welcome Abby! Thanks for organizing this and compiling all the questions. Mythos, Sarah and I like to answer the fans' questions. We get an average of 30 emails a day and many of the fans have similar questions. It's great that they can find the majority of their answers here, on petz.com and within the Petz Community.

We're very excited indeed! The Petz Community means so much to us on the Petz Team and we're really looking forward to hearing their thoughts. Speaking on behalf of the Programmers, I can tell you diving into other people's code is very, very difficult to do. I'm extremely proud of what they were able to accomplish in such a short time!

Many people at Mythos, as well as Sarah and myself contributed to the answers.

There are 2 core people at Ubi and 17 core people at Mythos. Many other people have been involved as well, such as the people who make the CDs and box or who have provided advice. It is definitely a team effort to make a video game! If you count everyone who's helped in some way there are 23+ Ubi people around the world as well as those who have provided support with Mythos.

Wow, that's a really tough question for me to answer because of all the history and people involved with getting a project started. I'll try to keep a long story short, but to answer your question in one word, it was - timing!

So, many of you know that the Petz games were started by a development company called PF.Magic. They agreed to be purchased by Mindscape, who published Petz 3 and 4. I started working on Petz as the Production Assistant on v4. Around the time of v4 The Learning Company had purchased Mindscape. Shortly after that Mattel (yup the big toy company) bought TLC. That's when Petz dropped off the radar. Mattel wasn't really interested in the brand for whatever reason and before long they sold TLC. Getting back to your question, while I was working on Myst III during that time, Ubi Soft bought the 'Entertainment Division' of TLC and they were in fact interested in the Petz Brand! Yahoo! If any of the fans happened to have seen the press release, Ubi Soft listed Catz and Dogz among the top brands they had acquired in the purchase of my group. Before long we were looking for a new developer and I was thankful that I'm a packrat and kept so many things from the Petz brand!

Breedz Questions (answered by Mythos/Ubisoft)

Our decision on what new breedz to put in Petz 5 was based on many things. We wanted to have more unique breedz, but still add some common ones that had not been in previous Petz versions. Keeping that in mind, we did research on various breeds of dogs and cats and many online Petz fans' sites and message boards. So you, the fans, had a lot of input into the new breedz without even knowing it! The breedz had practically been decided before the game had even been announced.

Yes, the new breedz have new personalities and sounds.

All breedz are based off of two core models. There is one for Dogz and one for Catz. It did of course make sense for certain breedz to use previous models since the body types are so similar.

Yes, the new breedz come in various colors and body types. If you look carefully there are slight body proportion variations just like in real life. Some Petz have a little longer back or slightly shorter legs.

No, previous breedz have not been changed.

We are certainly planning to take that information into consideration for either future downloadz or a Petz 6. As of right now however, there are no definite plans to make a Petz 6 or create downloadz.

Community Questions (answered by Mythos/Ubisoft)

We think the fan sites are great! Very creative! They are one of the many factors that keep Petz alive.

Yes and no. While we are flattered that our fans enjoy the Petz games that much, there is also a downside. Since hexed breeds are not "officially" created, if something goes wrong with the game because of them, the user will not be under warranty and therefore cannot ask Ubi Soft to help fix their game.

WEBSITE QUESTIONS

Many of our fans are curious about these! :) Yes, we do have plans to make these available, but right now cannot offer an ETA.

We definitely have been considering to make these things available and know how important downloadz are to the community. Unfortunately there are many factors that go into getting the approval to proceed with these extras and things are still up in the air.

Littersz/Nursery Questions (answered by Mythos/Ubisoft)

Each petz in the litter will look different, having traits from both of the parents. Unique litterz and breedz are part of what makes Petz 5 so much fun!

Yes, you can have multiple pregnant mothers at the same time, but you can only visit the Nursery with one mother and her litter at a time.

The mother will carry her first born into the room and the rest of the litter will be already in the room resting on the carpet.

We wanted to make it very homey looking and have a warm feel to it.

She plays and takes care of all of her babies one at a time.

The number of offspring in a litter is random from 1-4.

No, only the mother and her litter can be in the Nursery - this allows the game to support more than one baby. Dad can play with them when they are old enough to be on their own and explore outside of the Nursery.

When we started to develop Petz 5 we spent a lot of time looking at all the Fan websites and reading emails and discussion boards. A common feature that fans wanted and liked about Petz was the kittenz and puppyz. We really wanted to give the fans more of what they loved about the previous Petz versions.

The light in the Nursery can not be turned on and off, however there is a new toy that will work like a light and you can turn it on and off in the Nursery and other rooms.

The time for the Petz to age is still the same, though each pet grows at a different rate. The games counts real days, not day and night cycles within the game.

Weather/Day-Night Cycle Questions (answered by by Mythos/Ubisoft)

Yes the seasons change from rainy days to sunny and snow. The weather is very random which gives more variety to the Petz' world.

In the option menu there are a few settings you can choose from. One lets you have normal time, where days are based on your computer clock. Compressed time speeds up day and night cycles, but this does not affect the aging of your Petz. There is also a setting for it to always be night time.

Petz always need love and affection, and depend on you for their warmth and well-being. They can get sick for many reasons, just like in real life, and look to you to help them to feel better.

Petz love playing in the rain and we did not want to make any too scared that they would run and hide.

In the snow scene you Petz are subject to the cold. You'll need to take care of them to make sure that they are dressed properly.

Availability Questions (answered by Mythos/Ubisoft)

Canada will also be November 19th, Europe and Australia will be early December.

The English version is expected to release in Singapore just before December pending import procedures. It is also expected to release in Brazil, Hong Kong, China and a few other countries! You can expect a lot of newbies to the community soon! We sure bet they'd love to know all your tips and tricks about Petz that you've learned over the years.

Petz 5 will be available at all major retailers that carry software and games. Toys R Us, Electronics Boutique, Amazon.com, and Ubi.com, etc.

No, each game is sold separately. However, you can purchase both games as a bundle at Ubi.com and receive $10 off at checkout (unknown how long this offer will last). For those that prefer to shop in a store, we're offering $10 off, via mail-in rebate, if you buy both games. See the homepage of www.petz.com for details on this!

Miscellaneous Questions (answered by Mythos/Ubisoft)

All the features of previous Petz versions will be available except adopting Pigz & Bunnyz and Voice Recognition. The Pigz and Bunnyz have moved into the Backyard.

They are now host characters for the Backyard scene.

Well, something like this would be very close to the same size as the new program anyways so there isn't a benefit to the user. It's not like it would ever be 5 MB or anything. We're sorry.

The Mini Games are how you collect toyz, treatz and other surprises for your Petz! They are only activated when you click on part of the environment to start them.

Not completely hidden, but now it can be minimized even more! In addition, it now acts like the Toy Closet so there's no need to make multiple trips to get the toyz you want into the different environments. Instead, once you collect an item and place it in the case you can pull out as many of that item as you want!

Yes, the Petz 5 Web Fun Pack has new clip art for the new breedz and toyz as well as new backgroundz and buttonz.

It's a surprise! But from the box cover we're sure you've seen at least one of our favorite new toyz.

We fixed a number of bugs from both versions to make Petz 5 more stable.

That's the Lost and Found board. When one of your Petz runs away you now have the chance to go to the Lost and Found board to readopt your pet. Remember if you keep mistreating you Petz they will not be found and you will not be able to readopt them.

Absolutely! The graphics of the case can be changed. We have provided a Skinz section where you can choose from the Skinz we have provided or create your own. Petz.com may also host your best ones for others to download for their very own.

Yes, all the old playscenes are still in the game. We just upgraded the graphics, and added a few mini games to some of them.

Well, there's only one resolution 1024x768. So the optimum resolution would be anything that size or larger =) If you were to try and run the game on a smaller resolution, you wouldn't be able to see the entire scene.

Yes, all the old toyz (except the Sunflower seeds that were accidentally left out of v4) are still in the game and there are new toyz and yummy treatz too!

It's installed with the game like before. If you want the Petz Player all by itself, you can download a new one from Petz.com soon. In the released version of Petz 5, we found a bug where the Petz Player doesn't let crossbreds work in the web pages. The new Petz Player coming soon fixes this. Though honestly, we haven't found any fan sites that put their Petz in their pages. If you know any, we'd love to see!

The Petz behaviors are the same as in previous versions. For example, some Petz will only fall in love one time (because there's no one like your first love!). Others only fall in love with that one other special petz over and over, while others find beauty in everyone. Even though there are some traits exclusive to certain breedz or even found very frequently within a breed, all Petz are unique.

The wall outlets are for the Nightlights. When you find one, plug it into a wall outlet and see it light up during the day and night!

The Future (answered by Mythos/Ubisoft)

We have learned a great deal from making Petz 5 and feel that after all the research and development we would love to make a Petz 6. We are brainstorming on our end to come up with all news ideas. You can help too! We love to read your thoughts on your websites like we did for researching v5. Please don't stop showing the world what you love and want more of!

As part of our research we are looking for new ways to make the Petz game more fun and a new engine could be part of that plan. If there are features or aspects of other games you like, discuss it on the message boards, on your webpages and share it with your friends. Don't worry, we'll see it! (You can email too, but we already know you don't need any encouragement from us to do that =D )

Everything is open right now and we are watching the fan sites to see the reaction to Petz 5. We're also looking to read your thoughts on new ideas.

Currently, there are no plans to continue with either of these franchises.

From Ashley to the Petz Community

So today is the big day! Can you believe it? The Petz Team and I, really hope you enjoy playing Petz 5. You wanted Litterz - you got it! You wanted weather - you got it! You wanted nighttime - you got it! You wanted to be able to get your Runaways back - you got it! You wanted new breedz - you got it! You wanted new Playscenes, toyz and clothes - you got it! You wanted Petz 5 to be different from Petz 4 - you got it! True though, we don't have leashes and collars, but it's not because we don't want to. It's a limitation of the technology.

Now I'd like to hear from you. I know you all have great imaginations and play lots of other games too, and that YOU know what makes the Petz game, Petz. What is it you like about other games that you wish Petz could do? What more do you wish you could do with other games and with Petz? Go ahead and let us know, and please forgive us if we don't always write back. But do know we read each and every email. Even those that just say 'Thanks!'.

Best wishes and thank YOU,
Ashley

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