At a party at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, Neopets announced that it is developing a mobile game called Legends and Letters. The company also announced that a mobile site and app are on the way, which will allow users to play dozens of the excellent mini-games available on the browser site.

The new game is noteworthy for being one of the company’s first ventures into mobile territory, especially by a website that’s been around since 1999. CEO David Lord described Legends and Letters as a combination of “Neopets lore, a puzzle game mechanic, and battles.” It follows the format of puzzle fighting games like Puzzle & Dragons, pitting the user’s Neopets against enemies. The game is separate from your browser account, though, so, unfortunately, you can’t play with your own Neopets. It’s unclear whether Neopoints (the browser game’s in-game currency that drives the Neopets world economy) will transfer. However, you can customize the mobile game pets with clothes and accessories, available through in-app purchases. A story runs throughout the game told in a comic book style to keep users playing through the levels.

I WONDER HOW MY KACHEEK IS DOING

The company is aiming to launch the game in October this year for iOS and Android. (Lord also said it was coming to “Microsoft and Amazon,” so take from that what you will.) The Neopets mobile app is something that’s been rumored since 2014, and fans have been left feeling betrayed by the numerous acquisitions by Viacom and JumpStart (which currently owns Neopets) that left the site in disarray.

Related The history of Neopets

Despite all this, I’m still hoping for the best. Neopets is a site that’s single-handedly responsible for teaching me about everything from pet ownership to learning to code basic HTML to customizing my guild. As surreal as it was to see Neopets throwing a Comic-Con party in 2018, its presence (as all the loyal fans who’ve stuck around for the past 17 years that showed up) also felt like a confirmation of better changes to come in the future.