If you’ve been here a while, you may recall when Poptropica ran a contest called #MyPoptropicaCostume back in 2016–17, inviting Poptropicans to design their dream costume and promising to create the winning designs in the game. And now, in 2020, it’s back!
Really, it’s pretty much the same concept, as you might’ve guessed by the use of the exact same picture. Here are the general guidelines, though you’ll want to refer to the Creators’ Blog post for full rules:
Create with any method you like, whether it’s drawn digitally or made physically and then scanned or photographed.
Add details about your costume, and give it a name.
Create something that can be reproduced as a costume in-game, meaning avoid super-small details or too much color.
Be original — don’t imitate copyrighted media.
Up to three entries per person.
Include your Poptropican’s name in your entry, and send it along to [email protected] with your first name as well. Optional: Include your social media handle to shoutout if you’re selected as a winner.
You have from now till January 21 (Tuesday) at midnight Eastern time to enter, giving you almost two weeks to dream and deliver.
Winners of the 2017 Poptropica costume contest — Creepy Peanut and Speedy Toes — had their designs made in Poptropica Worlds.
And did we mention the prizes? One grand prize winner gets their design made as a costume in the Poptropica Store, plus an NPC on Home Island will be wearing it, and there’s a 6-month membership to be had! As for the runners up, of which there will be three: one month of membership and their designs featured on the official blog. For ten honorable mentions, just the latter.
They did make a few changes to the distribution of winners and prizes compared to last time, probably due to their track record of not exactly delivering on all their promises back in 2017.
Then, the top ten runners up were supposed to have their costumes made into the game as well, but that never materialized. I for one would still like to see Lucky Joker’s “Diwali Inspired” or Perfect Sky’s “Jazz Musician” created on Poptropica, but you can at least find their designs here.
“Diwali Inspired” by Lucky Joker
“Jazz Musician” by Perfect Sky
Anyway, it’s cool to see the Poptropica costume design contest return, and the promise of a stupendous fashion stunner coming soon to a game screen near us. What are you waiting for? That could very well be your design!
Hey, Poptropicans—welcome to 2020. As you may have heard, this year will bring about the end of Adobe Flash, the engine that much of Poptropica runs on. The implications are huge for this game, and we’ve already seen it affecting 30 of the oldest islands and many more features.
Here on the PHB, we’ve mentioned the Flash issue here and there, but now we’re taking the opportunity to make a whole post hashing out what’s happening, what it means, and where it’s all going. So let’s get started!
1. Where are the old islands?
In July 2019, Poptropica removed 30 islands from the map. They were all considered “old school islands”: Poptropica’s earliest islands, created and released from 2007–2013, which were built using ActionScript 2 (AS2), a programming language primarily used for the Adobe Flash Player platform.
The good news is, you can still play the old school islands using the Old Island Directory created by the glitcheridk. Although they’re currently inaccessible from the game itself, it’s possible that the old islands will return. Poptropica’s reason for taking them down, for the time being, was because they were “causing a lot of problems for players.”
We love those islands too, but need to update the technology. They were made in Action Script 2 and were causing a lot of problems for players. We're hoping to bring them back once the game is no longer in flash!
On the first day of the new year, Poptropica posted the following on Instagram: “2020 is going to great [sic] — a non-Flash version of the game, new islands, the return of some old islands, and so much more!!!” (Our emphasis added.) So, there’s hope yet that the old islands will return—but as the Instagram post indicates, it may not be all of them.
A fan-made Poptropica map with most of the islands, created by idk.
We’re not sure which ones are coming back and which ones might not make it, nor do we know why, but perhaps there’s only so much they can work with. Still, in addition to directly playing them via theOld Island Directory, you can also relive their memories with the PHB’s collection of Island Guides.
Adobe Flash Player was an instrumental engine for a lot of the early internet, particularly for games, video, and animations. Poptropica is among the many websites that used Flash, just like other popular game sites of the 2000s and 2010s, like Club Penguin and Neopets. For those of us who’ve grown up playing these games, losing Flash is not just saying goodbye to outdated technology, but watching whole worlds from our childhoods crumble away. RIP. 😢
And yet, Flash is going away simply because tech has evolved for the better—modern web browsers have adapted to HTML5, and the end of Flash also means better security and battery life. So, if Poptropica is to continue, they’ll need to keep up with the tech and move off of Flash… which is what they’ve been working on for the past few years, even though this has meant fewer islands and more cosmetic changes—and yes, even the seemingly odd creation of Poptropica Worlds, built with Unity and launched in 2017.
We're working on making sure that Poptropica stays around long past 2020! The amazing Poptropica creators are hard at work on new updates to the technology and the game for all our loyal fans! #PoptropicaForever
Newer islands, which have a larger screen and ambient music, were built with ActionScript 3 (AS3), which is more compatible with current desktop standards as well as the rise of mobile applications. We started calling these islands SUIs, which stands for Sound-Updated Islands.
In 2013, Poptropica launched a beta version of 24 Carrot as an SUI called BETA Carrotene, and after fixing up some bugs, they were ready to roll out Virus Hunter, the first official SUI. From then on, all islands were released as SUIs, and sometimes the Creators even went back and re-made a former island, like Time Tangled or Mythology, into an SUI. Unlike older islands, these newer SUIs are able to survive without Flash, which is why islands now come as SUIs.
4. Poptropica’s Progress
Poptropica Worlds was intended to be Poptropica’s solution to the post-Flash dilemma, but for some reason, things didn’t quite pan out. By 2019, it wasn’t being updated anymore and was even actively hidden from the homepage. Instead, many of Worlds’ standout features have since been integrated into the original Poptropica, like device syncing and player clubhouses.
Poptropica even wrote in their recap of 2019 that many of that year’s updates were “a really important part of the conversion process for getting the game off of Flash” suggesting that their post-Flash solution will focus not on Worlds, but on the original Poptropica. Some more of these updates over the past year include a new layout for friends and the store, SUI-ified common rooms, and plus, who could forget the adorable pets?
However, the shiny new things are eclipsed by the loss of many beloved classic features that may or may not be compatible with the future of technology—such as the old school islands.
We’ve also lost a lot of old costumes and items, mostly from the store, though some are gradually coming back through each new monthly rotation of store items. We’ve lost friend features like the ability to add by username, viewing medallions, and even the Multiverse (and tribe!) party rooms. Island photos were replaced by Photo Booth pics, but even the Photo Booth is currently down, with no word on when it may return.
Still, if Poptropica’s previous statements are worth their salt, perhaps there’s still hope yet for a brighter Poptropica post-Flash…
5. Poptropica’s Future
As Poptropica has stated here and there, they are working on porting the game over to newer technology, so that it can live on even after the plug is pulled on Flash. Poptropica Original is here to stay, continuing its legacy both in the web browser and now on mobile devices.
We’re likely to see at least some of the old islands return, based on Poptropica’s Instagram post mentioned above. And they’ve mentioned working on “new islands” as well, including, most recently, the announcement that Zomberry Island will be back—with a new level!
Also, though Poptropica hasn’t confirmed anything specific, perhaps we can still hold out some hope for the return of some of the beloved features we’ve lost, or at least see them morph into viable alternatives.
After all, even Realms disappeared for over a year before it finally returned in late 2018. Meanwhile, Multiverse may be gone, but now we have player clubhouses (introduced in late 2018) to meet up with friends. While they’ve still got some work to do to really make clubhouses as big of a hit as Multiverse was (namely, being able to easily find specific friends whose houses you want to pop into), it’s a promising start to a new era for Poptropica.
Whatever happens, we’ll be here to watch it all go down.
Hello once again everyone! Spotted Dragon here bringing you the December recap for Community Creations! December’s theme was Opposites and the featured work is not in any particular order. Be sure to check out all the featured artists!
The Love Between the Hero and the Villain by Meganf123456
Wow, lots going on in this scene! Effort was obviously put into each corner of this drawing, with all the surrounding objects drawing the viewer’s eye to the center. The concept certainly fits our theme of “opposites,” and continues to explore how opposites can come together. I love all the bright colors and effects! Find her DeviantArt here.
Fire and Ice by Quick Fang
A piece that’s spot on to our theme! Fire and ice are classic opposites, so they can easily be applied in this case. The Poptropican designs here are super cool- er, um, hot? Both, yeah, both. And the colors play well into the concept. I wonder what these two would be like if they were actual characters in an island? Find their blog here.
Sphinx by happyclonetrooper
Oooh, wow! I love this scene from Mythology Island, and it’s been captured wonderfully in this drawing. The concept of “life and death” is one of great significance and flexibility, making its way into our theme of “opposites” in a unique way. The colors in this scene are beautiful, particularly in the glowing flower, highlighting the beauty of life. In contrast, the pile of bones beneath the fierce beast is truly a deadly sight. The textures and lighting effects are fantastic as well! Find her DeviantArt here.
Angie and Demi by Gentle Dolphin
Cool, another classic set of opposites! I love Gentle Dolphin’s cute, clean style. Such smooth line art and coloring! And the well-known concept of angels and devils on either shoulder is applied perfectly here. The split composition and corresponding colors/emotions are very appropriate, and I think that we can all relate to the confusing conflict created when trying to make important decisions. Excellently made! Find her DeviantArt here.
Inverted Challenge by ANNE14TCO
Interesting application of our theme! “Opposite” colors can be interpreted many ways, such as complementary colors, saturation differences, etc. But color is often an important element of art to master, so the challenge of inverting color is super cool! The challenge makes for a unique submission, and one that plays with the emotion behind color in an interesting way. Reminds me of a certain scene in Poptropica with Zeus, huh? Nice work! Find her DeviantArt here.
Honorable Mentions
The Other Ones by themightywolftiger
Whatcha Doin by WitchyArtistGal
10yo Me Died by iLee-Font
Such a cool set of submissions this month! Keep up the creativity guys, well into the next decade! 🙂
January: How Do I Participate?
Community Creations is a cool series for anyone in the Poptropica community to join in on. To sum up what it’s about, it’s basically a chance to show off your artwork, creepy fan-fics, Pop clubhouses, costumes, and anything else that pops into your mind.
If we really like the piece you submit, we will feature it here on the PHB! As long as it relates to that month’s theme. So what is December’s theme? January’s theme is…
Time Travel!
Time travel is an interesting concept, and with the new year, or should I say new decade, rolling around, now is the perfect time to explore it as a theme! Unlike our previous theme of “historical,” time travel can apply to the future as well as the past. Different eras, in fact, can be found all throughout Poptropica! So how will you apply it to your creative creations?
The possibilities, like always, are endless! Perhaps construct the perfect costume for a time traveler! Or write a story of our your Poptropican got stuck in another timeline? Or draw some of your finest art inspired by Time Tangled Island! Maybe build what your Poptropican’s house will look like far in the future! Time for you to get started creating! 🙂
Comment below with a link to whatever you’ve created OR share it with me (SydVC aka Spotted Dragon) on DeviantArt, Twitter, or Discord.
Results: I will feature 5 of the submissions as well as 3 honorable mentions.
Limitations: Nothing NSFW, and make sure you relate to the theme.
Due Date: I will take any entries before the end of this month. Submit as many things as you’d like!
I will always be sure to let you know I have seen your creation. Bonus points if you make a compelling description for your piece! While quality counts, I’m mainly looking for something to simply catch my eye, so don’t be afraid to join in!
So what are you waiting for? Go make something awesome!
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