Before Habbo

Mobiles Disco Before Habbo Hotel existed, Finnish developers Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä created a small virtual world called Mobiles Disco as a promotional project for the Finnish band Mobiles. Visitors could create simple characters, enter an isometric virtual space, chat with other people and dance together. What started as a small experiment became an important early step toward the social world that would eventually become Habbo. The project introduced several ideas that would later feel familiar to Habbo players — isometric rooms, customizable characters and social interaction in a shared virtual space. It was the beginning of a much bigger idea.