Avatars

Avatars are Nitrome related pictures that allow for the customization of a user's appearance on Nitrome.com. Most avatars are obtainable by finding pink wrapped gift boxes hidden within the site that correspond to a hint found on the user's avatar page.

History
With the announcing of Accounts, Nitrome planned on having an avatar based system. This system allows for the user of an account to use an image of a Nitrome character as their avatar, but does not allow them to use an image they created him/herself, likely because how this type of user generated content can be offensive, as was the case with Hot Air Balloon Maker custom balloons.

To get around this, pre-made avatars were created. The user of an account is given a set amount of avatars upon creating their account, and can get more by performing finding hidden presents around Nitrome's site, and in their games.

Pink presents with gold ribbons were hidden around Nitrome's site, and in their games. Players could obtain them by clicking on them or touching them with their game character. When a present was taken, a message saying "New avatar unlocked!" would appear at the top of the site's screen. The present would then appear in its spot on the user's avatar page. The user could then go to their avatar page and click on the present to open it, revealing the newly-unlocked avatar.

During the month of December 2013 and 2014, Nitrome had a special avatar event. This event lasted from the first of December to the twenty-fifth, Christmas. Every day, a new avatar challenge was shown on the special Christmas avatars page. If the player then unlocked the avatar and went to the avatar page, a chocolate engraved with a present would be shown over the avatar unlocked. Once clicked, an eating animation would be shown, uncovering the unlocked avatar by eating away at the chocolate.

During April 14th-20th 2014, Nitrome had a special avatar event where one avatar would be hidden within the site daily. If the player unlocked the eggvatar, went to their avatar page, an easter egg-shaped present would be shown over the avatar unlocked. Once clicked, a cracking animation would be shown, uncovering the unlocked avatar by cracking away at the egg.

From May 7th 2014 (Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage) and September 5th 2014 (8bit Doves), Nitrome had a "New Avatars" advertisement for each respective mobile game daily in the profile module within the site.

During October 27th - 31st 2014, Nitrome had a special Halloween avatar event where one avatar would be hidden within the site daily.

Free avatars
Following avatars are given when a user registers a Nitrome account.

Unlockable avatars
Some avatars are given after the player has completed a certain task. If the avatar is not unlocked, then a hint will show on the locked avatar for the player to figure it out.

Christmas 2013 avatars
Nitrome first hinted at the Christmas Avatar event on November 22nd, referring to it as a "We have a few other top secret things ... the first one should be revealed on the 1st of December!" It was later mentioned again on November 29th when Nitrome made a blog post about the upcoming event, and released a blurry picture of it. On December 30th, Nitrome released the Christmas Advent Calendar, along with a blog post about it.

The Christmas Avatar Calendar is a virtual Advent Calendar that allows players to hunt for a new avatar that is released each day. The calendar (like all advent calendars) went from the first of December to the 25th (Christmas), and on each of those days a new avatar and clue would be released. Each square on the avatar calendar had the number of the day on it. Once the day came, the square would change to an image of a lock, and hovering the mouse over the image would show the hint to finding the avatar. Once the avatar was found and obtained, the locked square changes to a chocolate with a present on it. Clicking on this chocolate will cause an animation to play of it being eaten away, revealing the avatar.

After the first week of the calendar took place, Nitrome created a blog post about how pleased they were the outcome of the event so far.

Christmas 2014 avatars
From December 1-25 2014, Nitrome will release an avatar every day.

Easter avatars
Similar to the Christmas 2013 event, from Monday April 14th to until Sunday April 20th, Nitrome was to release an avatar on each day. These avatars were either be hidden in a game or somewhere on the site. A total of 7 avatars was released.

Halloween avatars
Similar to the Christmas 2013 and Easter 2014 events, from Monday October 27 until Friday October 31st, Nitrome will release a new avatar on each day. These avatars will either be hidden in a game or somewhere on the site. A total of 5 avatars will be released.

Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage avatars
When the updates came there's a link in the game which allows the player to log into their Nitrome account, which will unlock the eight avatars. These avatars will only be able to be unlocked through this method, people without the game will not be able to unlock the avatars

8bit Doves avatars
When 8bit Doves was released a link on the game's menu allowed the player to log into their Nitrome account and unlock four 8bit Doves exclusive avatars. These avatars will only be able to be unlocked through this method, people without the game unable to unlock the avatars.

Unreleased avatars
These avatars have currently not been released and are completely unobtainable as usable avatars. The only proof the avatars exist is that they have been uploaded to Nitrome.com, and as such, are only viewable only when the avatar's image URL is gone to.

Unused avatars
Avatars in this section were uploaded to Nitrome.com with the intent of being used, but at a certain point, Nitrome decided not to use them.

Cuboy avatar
This avatar was uploaded on July 12th 2013 with the first batch of avatars, and was also present in an image advertising accounts. It was never made accessible as a usable avatar, however, as two other avatars uploaded at the same time and not used yet, it was assumed these avatars would eventually be used.

On December 1st 2013, Nitrome stated that this Cuboy avatar would never be used as it was decided that Cuboy would represent Nitrome.

Updates

 * July 12th 2013 - Avatars 1-40 were released.
 * September 11th 2013 - On September 6th 2013, Nitrome announced in their Nitrome update that they would soon be releasing new avatars to find and collect the coming week (September 9th-September 13th being the week they would be released). Avatars 41-48 were released on September 11th 2013.
 * October 16th 2013 - Avatars 49-57 are released to accompany the release of Test Subject Arena 2.
 * December 1st 2013 - Starting on December 1st up until December 25th (Christmas), Nitrome provided a new avatar challenge every day.
 * December 5th 2013 - Five avatars were released to accompany the release of Cheese Dreams: New Moon.
 * February 28th 2014 - Nitrome announced that eight avatars could be collected in Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage once the game was updated.
 * April 11th 2014 - Nitrome announced the upcoming "Easter egg hunt". Seven avatars were hidden within games or the site starting from April 14th up until April 20th.
 * April 14th - April 20th 2014 - The Easter 2014 avatar event started. From April 14th until April 20th, a new avatar was be released each day, this avatar hidden somewhere on the site or in a game.
 * April 30th 2014 - Nitrome released two avatars, which both are hidden in their newest Ditto skin.
 * May 7th 2014 - Nitrome released the Android version of Icebreaker A Viking Voyage and the update for the iOS version, both versions having 8 exclusive Icebreaker avatars available only for buyers of the game.
 * August 19th 2014 - Nitrome released two avatars, which both are hidden in the recently released Oodletrouble skin.
 * August 29th 2014 - Nitrome announced that 8bit Doves would be updated with avatars that could be obtained for those who buy the game.
 * September 5th 2014 - Nitrome released in 8bit Doves four exclusive 8bit Doves avatars available only for buyers of the game.
 * October 24th 2014 - Nitrome announced their plan for Halloween avatars.
 * October 27th - October 31st 2014 - The Halloween 2014 avatar event started. From October 27th until October 31st, a new avatar was be released each day, this avatar hidden somewhere on the site or in a game.
 * November 26th 2014 - Nitrome announced their plan for Christmas 2014 avatars.
 * December 1st 2014 - Starting on December 1st up until December 25th (Christmas), Nitrome provided a new avatar challenge every day.

Reverting back to no avatar
When changing an avatar, the user of the account clicks a URL to change their avatar to another one, this URL being http://www.nitrome.com/profile/avatar/index.php?a_id=, with after the "=" sign being a two digit number. If a one digit number is entered, the user will be able to see their comments.

Placing after this equal sign in the address any letters, symbols, the numbers one, three, eight, thirteen, or any number not already assigned to an avatar, then going to this URL twice, will cause the player's profile avatar to become completely white, their avatar when looking at their profile page to be the avatar that they get when they have just created their account, and all the comments they have made on the comment sections of game pages, these comment will disappear.

If the number will be assigned to an avatar in the future and the player has this avatar set, then the player will have the avatar automatically as current avatar without the player having to unlock it, although the player can still unlock it the right way though. Going back to a regular avatar will cause their comments to reappear.

This bug was fixed on April 16th 2014.

Not logged in glitch
Sometimes, when an avatar is obtained, it will give the player a message that they are not logged in (even though they are), and the present will not disappear. However, if the level or game is reset/refreshed, the gift will not be seen, and the player will have the avatar.

Christmas calendar (2014) glitch
Upon the release of the 2014 Christmas calendar, page 2 contained multiple locks with the hint being "need to be", some of them even including hints for other days on the calendar, though the avatars for these days could not be obtained until the day came.

Unreleased obtain methods
During the time of the Christmas advent calendar, some methods of obtaining an avatar were publicly made available before the respective avatar was made available.

Hot Air Jr
The cat and owl avatar was unlockable before it was released, to pre-unlock it, the player had to push Hot Air Jr into the gap in the ceiling at the end of level 11. Once this was done, a notification would pop up saying that the player has unlocked an avatar, despite the fact there is nothing there. When the avatar was released, it would already be in the player's inventory.

Bad Ice Cream 2
There is a glitch where the player could find, but not obtain, an avatar gift from level 13, even though the avatar had not yet been released (at the time).

Lockehorn
The avatar of day 15 was unlockable before it was released. It could be found from any multiplayer stage by moving ice blocks and making them to collide into walls. The present should drop down from the sky. If players collected the present, they do not need to do a task for day 15.

Submolok
Three places in Submolok were programmed to have an avatar, and accessing any one of these places would cause the "New avatar!" message to pop up even though the avatar had not yet been released. These places are the hub, and two other rooms. For the hub and one of the rooms, the present is indicated by a green dot on the map.

Steamlands
Levels 3, 6, and 9 all have an avatar block on them, however, only level 9 will grant an avatar if the block is taken to the end.