That’s right—the legend himself, Jeff Kinney, founder of Poptropica and author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books—has recently made another rare public acknowledgement of the game he helped build.
In a radio interview with WRHU from Hofstra University in New York, radio host and college student Jordan Elliott speaks with Jeff about his latest book, his animated films, and starting from the 6:38 mark, about the legacy of Poptropica (transcribed below, or watch below!).
After Jordan mentions Poptropica’s shutdown scare in December 2023 and the subsequent outpour of support from fans that resulted in the game’s recovery to Coolmath Games, Jeff Kinney shares his thoughts:
I love that game, Poptropica, and there’s something really sad about it, it’s that it of course was written in Flash. What happened is that Flash went away. So that put a lot of stress on the product, like we couldn’t convert all the stuff. It’s not often that something like that would happen, because if you made a movie way back a long time ago, you can still watch that movie today. If you wrote a book a long time ago.
You can still play today, it’s still active, and they did convert some islands, they’ve done a bunch of new stuff. But the stuff that I worked on is by and large not there anymore, and it lives on in the memories of people like yourself. It was a really cool game because we knew what a privilege it was to introduce kids to things for the first time, like Greek mythology. It was just crazy that we could get away with real education as entertainment, and I think it formed a lot of really good memories and a frame of reference for a lot of kids.
It’s great to hear from an OG Pop Creator’s perspective in 2024, with the game freshly migrated away from its original website but still living on with a fraction of its content. Thanks Jeff, for your insights! Although much has been lost, we’re grateful to have enjoyed it while it lasted. 🩵
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy:
- Q&A with Jonathan Pitcher, Art Director at Poptropica & Suit Up Games
- In Their Words: OG Creators on their vision for Poptropica — #ThanksKinney et. al.
- Pop Protip: Play the Old Islands with Flashpoint
Keep on poppin’ on! 💫
~🐠
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 
i had a dream where poptropica deleted more islands and made a skibidi toilet island (i dont even like skibidi toilet what)
Oh dang-
Imagine how chaotic that would be.