ArmasK op Habbo.fi of ksamra op Habbo.com, Habbonamen van Ilkka Kallasmaa, is een ontwerper die langdurig werkzaam is voor Sulake, de ontwikkelaar van Habbo. Hij werkte voor Sulake van mei 2000 tot mei 2012, keerde terug in 2014 voor een tweede periode tot juni 2016, en is sinds april 2022 opnieuw bij het bedrijf actief als Senior 2D Artist.
In 2006 heeft Habbo een fysiek boek gepubliceerd genaamd Habbo Käsikirja (Habbo Handboek). Hierin staan allerlei feiten en afbeeldingen uit de vroegere dagen van Habbo. Ook bevat het boek interviews van Sulake medewerkers, waaronder ArmasK.
1. What do you do at Sulake?
At the moment I am in charge of Habbo’s graphical team and also the person in charge of the concept of Habbo. Often I have to check other stuff out too, because I have been a part of Sulake from the very start.
2. What moment in Habbo’s history has best stuck in your mind?
There have been many memorable moments. The opening of Kultakala has been the most impressive I guess. On the other hand, I still get the same feeling when we publish a new version of the Hotel and when the users can finally see what we have been planning and doing for a long time.
3. What is the most enjoyable piece of work you have done?
It’s funny, how a small rubber duck, which I designed as a fun addition to the bathroom-set, has began to live a life of its own. We originally drew animation frames with the duck having its mouth open. The idea was to add a “quack” sound and the higher the duck would be placed, the higher the “quack” sound would have been when clicked – kind of like a duck organ! Luckily it stayed as an idea only...
4. Which work of yours would you like to introduce to habbo’s?
I went through my archive and found a couple of versions of graphics I’ve made. Too bad I haven’t documented my work better. I would have had plenty of other stuff too, where you could see the development from sketch into final version. But here are some details from different phases. (Book shows Mochamaster, rubber duck, duck in Lido, Frank and Piers characters.)
5. What is your biggest dream considering Habbo?
I try not to dream about work.
6. Reveal something about the designing of Habbo.
Hmmm. I programmed the first creating of avatars. It had a genius system, where you could tell the sex of the avatar from its eyes. Another, a more hidden secret is that when Kultakala wasn’t published yet, I, and a colleague of mine, designed a secret sauna space as an ‘easter egg’. The drawings were relatively far already. It had to be forgotten when the chief executive officer at that time, nowadays artist and chief scientist, heard about it and didn’t quite like it :). We had a lot of unfinished work already and there really wasn’t time for any secret projects.
7. What has been the funniest bug in Habbo?
I wonder what has been the funniest... Well, nobody felt like laughing at the time, but when we first sold the posters, you could easily copy them by clicking and moving them. We were in a hurry to fix everything the next day, but the posters had been copied so much in just one night that they were worthless. We had to draw a completely new set of posters. There have been many other funny bugs and the going has been pretty ridiculous at often times.
8. Any greetings you would like to tell to habbo’s?
