Hi Gs,
One of the first posts that I ever made here on the PHB was titled “10 things you DIDN’T know about Poptropica!“, and from the looks of the title, you probably have gathered that this is the sequel. Hope you enjoy it. 😀
1. Lunar Colony: Flag of Poptropica
This was mentioned by deviantArt user “Child-Of-Hades“, so you can check out the original post here. In Lunar Colony you can see the first instance of Poptropica’s official flag, somewhat like one of the United States’ numerous flags from over the years — after counting the stars, you will find that there are 28 stars in total — and Lunar Colony was the 29th island! Well played, Creators. 😛
2. Meeting the CYOA Book’s Author
You can meet R. A. Montgomery, author & founder of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, in the CYOA hut on Main Street of Nabooti Island.
3. Customizing Secret
On Time Tangled Island in Timbuktu, you can customize the silhouettes from inside the buildings!
4. Wimpy Wonderland inspiration
The scene in Wimpy Wonderland island where you climb the Leisure Towers building is inspired by a Simpsons game called “Bart’s Nightmare”, in which he is “Bartzilla” and climbs a tower while people throw random items down on him from windows.
5. S.O.S. Common Room
While this may be known by some, it may surprise others — S.O.S. Island does in fact have a common room on the far left corner of the Main Street entitled “Daggoo’s Fish Market”.
6. Vlad the Viking
The old Creator, Vlad the Viking, had a Poptropican account with an unknown username. It is the only known account to have three prefixes (Vlad the Viking) instead of the regular two. Here’s a picture of him (on the right) from one of his old Creators’ Blog posts, when he ran a series called Snapshot Sagas:
7. Job Requirements: Poptropica flash developer
According to this Google Forum post by Poptropica Creator Jordan Leary (Dr. Hare) from 2010 (one of Poptropica’s most active years), you must meet the following requirements met in order to be a flash game developer at Poptropica —
- Submit a strong portfolio demonstrating solid game development experience.
- At least 3 years experience in AS2 or AS3 with expert level skills.
- The ability to work well both on a team and independently.
- Experience using object-oriented design methods.
- Good code organization and knowledge of ActionScript best practices.
AS is the acronym for ActionScript, the code that Poptropica used to run on (I don’t know for sure if it still does). Read the full job posting here, it’s pretty interesting!
8. The Origin of Poptropica
According to an interview with Jeff Kinney by Words on a Limb, he got the idea for Poptropica one day while mowing his lawn! Here’s his exact quote:
I was mowing my lawn one day when the idea for Poptropica sprang up. It’s changed a lot from its initial conception, but the basic idea is still there. We publish every story we come up with that feels like it has merit.
9. Strange Poptropica cityscape
This photo, released by Poptropica Creator Nate Tufts back in 2009, shows an apartment building with an insane-looking Poptropican in front and a leaf monster on the top. The image document is entitled “CityScape”. What could this have been made for? Monster Carnival? Or another unreleased island?
10. Ad Creator
Coralee Lazebnikova is a 2D animator, and if you read all of her profile, you’ll find that she’s previously done work for Poptropica and Family Education doing advertisement design. Like Nate Greenwall (senior graphic artist at Poptropica), she may have had a hand in designing ad games for Poptropica!
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That’s all the cool facts I have for you today! 😀 Tell me in the comments your thoughts on these – did you know them? If so, how many? The person who knew the most facts gets a cookie!
TAFN.
-HPuterpop
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 
One of my favorite posts from you, man! This was great! Were you making this while we were discussing on steam? c:
Nice HP! I knew facts: 1 and 5 and 6! ME WANT MY COOKIE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (p.s. yay! first comment!)
whoops not first comment. BUT I STILL WANT ME COOKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cool post HP! I’ve been waiting for this post to come out for months xD It’s been taunting me in drafts xD
I knew 5. Nothing but 5, #thatsallbye
Awesome post HP. c: I knew 1, 2, 5 and 6.
I feel like such a noob :c I knew none of them.
I knew 5 and 2. XD that’s not much.
HP, no offense, but I want to say this-I discovered the silhouttes thing a while ago, ask Silver Wolf if you don’t believe me…again, no offense…
Sure, I believe you. It’s fine. o-o There’s nothing wrong with me posting this, I didn’t see your post. :3
Nah it’s ok just saying. I didn’t make a post actually. Just commented.
I know facts no. 1, 2, 5 and 6. c: Fact no. 8 is pretty interesting.
Knew none of these =D
Same
cool about the #8 one, thats happened to me for other things. Like once I was drinking gatorade on my bed after soccer….aaah…good times.
Awesome post Hp! 😀
I discovered fact no. 3 (sorta xD ) while playing PoptropiCon. I wanted to customize the steampunk lady in the restroom line but then it gives me the option to customize the ninja in the porta-potty o-o
The leaf monster could be for PopCon, or a Doctor Who island.
Probably not PopCon, as I said it was back in 2009 when it was posted. ;p
Wow! I had no idea about the common room on SOS. I will have to check that out.
I was surprised too!
I have a theory about that peculiar building. Could it be for Steamworks Island? I have three points.
1. For the date, Steamworks was released in 2010 but the island could be in development back in 2009.
2. Plants ruled the island, maybe it’s one of the monsters back then.
3. Maybe after some ideas, the Creators changed their minds of making a steam-powered island than a plant-invaded city.
🙂
I was thinking that too, but from what I saw, Steamworks was much more run down. It could’ve been, but Steamworks buildings were quite… well dump-y. It could’ve been before they decided to make it like that, could’ve been that they were just thinking of a Plant-Run Island before they came up with Steamworks. From my previous comment, yeah it could’ve gone about a million different ways. Still looks cool though.
I knew about 1, 5, and 6 already… In number nine though, did you notice what the height reference Poptropican is? It’s a freaking mental patient in a straitjacket! That’s gotta be one of the creepiest Poptropicans I’ve ever seen… It’s gotta be Monster Carnival…
Are you sure that’s a height reference? It doesn’t look like a standard Poptropican. :p
The Poptropican Towers look cool. Could’ve been from Spy, considering the Green House maybe? Could’ve been Monster Carnival though. Lots of different ways it could’ve gone. Maybe trashed Twisted Thicket Bonus Quest idea? Been a while since I played that Island though, I don’t remember it too well so don’t judge me on that one d;
I knew about 4, well, for the most part. There are lots of things that had similar gameplay, but this was most likely the original. If anyone wants to play something like that, the free version (For Mobile) is on Wreck-It-Ralph (Fix It Felix Jr).
So, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and sorta 10. I’ve seen her work before, but I didn’t know about ALL of it, only a few small pieces. Nice finds HP c;
LOL! I knew none of these except for 5!
Speaking of Montgomery…he recently died on the 9th! I know,shocking!
RIP Raymond Almiran Montgomery