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HabboCreate

HabboCreate was a community-driven project that I developed and maintained, funded entirely through user donations. During its peak, the platform grew to over 15,000 registered users and hundreds of daily active users, fostering a large and engaged community. Although the project is no longer active, it provided valuable experience in developing, scaling and maintaining a user-focused platform, as well as managing a growing online community.

HabboCreate was a fan community platform built for players of Habbo Hotel — a social online game. Running from 2016 to 2018, the site gave players a dedicated space to connect outside the game: share creations, follow a global feed, join events, and customise their profiles. I designed and built the entire platform as sole developer, combining social networking, content sharing, and community features into one pixel-perfect experience tailored to the Habbo audience.

Members could earn virtual currency through in-game events, site mini-games, or Patreon and PayPal donations, then spend it on cosmetics such as profile stickers, username effects, and themes. The site also included a live DJ radio system streamed site-wide, a forum and wiki, an online shop, user-generated content uploads with comments and likes, and a full admin panel for moderation, events, and game setup. Seasonal theming — Halloween, Christmas, and more — could transform the whole site at the push of a button.

Words from the founder

Joe Waterworth's Testimonial

Joe Waterworth's Testimonial

Joe founded HabboCreate and trusted me to turn his ideas into a fully realised platform. Here's what he had to say about working with me.

Features

  • Global social feed with comments and likes
  • MySpace-style profile customisation — draggable widgets, stickers, embedded content, and HTML sections
  • Virtual economy — earn currency through in-game events, site mini-games, and Patreon/PayPal donations
  • Online shop for cosmetics — stickers, username effects, themes, and other profile items
  • User-generated content uploads — room designs, pixel art, and videos with comments and likes
  • Live DJ radio streamed site-wide, with song requests
  • Forum and wiki
  • Seasonal theming — Halloween, Christmas, and other themes applied across the whole site on demand
  • Pixel-perfect, game-inspired visual design
  • SPA-like front-end navigation to keep the radio playing while users browse
  • Admin panel for moderation, event creation, and game setup

Technologies used

  • PHP
  • Laravel (4.2, later upgraded)
  • JavaScript
  • HTML & CSS
  • MySQL
  • PayPal & Patreon integrations