Author: Gentle Dolphin

Hello, everyone! My name is Gentle Dolphin, and I have been a long-time fan of Poptropica. I like drawing, baking, and being an overall dork. In real life, I'm pretty much the same except for the fact that my hair is brown instead of pink. You can befriend me on Poptropica if you'd like. My username is "magicalyre".
Clubhouse, Home Island, Store

Summer on Haxe and Avatar Studio hijacks

Gentle Dolphin

Hey, Poptropicans! Today, we’re going to talk about a store rearrangement, a Home Island makeover, and the Avatar Studio. Why am I getting a strange case of déjà vu? Anyway, let’s get started with this week’s store lineup!

This week, players can purchase trendy summer fashion and classic costumes. Although the Orange Julius is members-only, the other outfits are available to all players. These items are: Rainbow Storm, Rebel Beach, Spiff Boy, Soccer Player (boys and girls), Mythology Surfer (boys and girls), Pop Star, and Rock Star.

Over the past few weeks, the four items in the Powers section took turns being on sale one week at a time. First was the Bobblehead Power, then the Atom Power, and now players save big with the Binary Rain Power. Maybe the Flower Planting Power will be on sale next week? We’ll see.

Also, some of the sections rearranged the order of their cards, and the Ice Blaster Pistol disappearing from the Pranks section.

Remember Home Island getting a summer makeover on Flash? The Haxe version of Home Island followed suit and welcomed summer in its own unique way. Bushels of apples can be found in the trees and on the ground. If you need a cool refreshing treat, head over to the ice cream stand next to the Blast-Off Arcade to get a free soft serve cone. Sweet! 😋

Need a place to get away from the heat? Players can now access their clubhouses in the Haxe Javascript build of Poptropica! However, there isn’t (yet?) a physical building for it on Home Island like there is in Flash.

Instead, you’ll need to click the clubhouse icon in the menu to be transported to your virtual home away from home.

haxe clubhouse iconYou’re going to need some furniture to decorate your humble abode. Click the store button on the bottom left of the screen, and you’ll be transported to the clubhouse store. So far, 23 furniture items are available in the Haxe clubhouse store, with five being members-only.


Check out the decorator in action. Yup, just like in Flash!

Also like the Flash version, there’s a “switch room” lever you can pull to change the interiors. And in Haxe, in addition to the three interiors we know from the Flash version, there’s a fourth whimsical world: a mushroom forest!

Pretty magical, huh? It’s too bad it’s members only… just like in Flash, non-members only get the first clubhouse interior, which is the treehouse.

Another little cosmetic change in Haxe: the save screen where you create a Poptropica account has gotten a makeover! Now it features some kind of futuristic warrior in a robot suit and a girl waving from the sides.

Ah, the Avatar Studio. A simple application in which players can look up and share their avatars with others online. Former PHB author Purple Claw gave us a tip that something was amiss with the system. Players can still search for their avatars as normal. However, when you view the link to your avatar, you are suddenly greeted by this handsome fellow:

AvatarStudioVlad

Every Avatar Studio link now directs you to former Pop Creator Vlad the Viking’s avatar, regardless of the username you typed in. It’s a strange glitch, to be sure. Let’s hope this gets fixed soon.

That’s all for now. What do you think of this week’s store lineup? What items do you want to see return in the future? Thoughts on the other updates?

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

Home Island, LEGO Poptropica, Store

Batter up! Summer’s here with paper cheer

Gentle Dolphin

Hey, everyone, Gentle Dolphin here with a fresh batch of updates! Let’s take a look at what’s in store for Poptropica this week.

We have a new array of old costumes available to everyone! This week, we have: Baseball Fielder (boys and girls), Baseball Batter (boys and girls), Shady Pockets, Cool Green, Spring Fling, and Cheesy Slice.

Looks like the Bobblehead sale didn’t last long. The Bobblehead power went back to being a members-only item that costs 350 credits. On a lighter note, the Atom Power now costs an affordable 75 credits, so you can save money and show off your radiant looks (or is that just radiation?). 🤨

The Miscellaneous section still features the Cinnamon Fire PopGum and Balloons, but the Flash version of Poptropica added a printable Arabian Nights poster and the Avatar Studio. Interesting, they added the Avatar Studio though it won’t be functional after the Flash shutdown later this year. Are the Creators working on a way to port it to a new platform like Haxe Javascript? Only time will tell.

While the Haxe version of Home Island seems to be stuck in a perpetual autumn, the Flash version finally welcomed summer after a six-month long winter. The trees regrew their lush green leaves, barnacles made their homes on the rocks, and there seems to be a rise in seagull droppings. 🤢

On the platform where ads are typically present, you can see a billboard promoting the newest sponsor island— American Girl: Joss’s Island. Check out our post on Joss’s Island if you want a quick tour of this interesting little AD-venture.

HomeIsland_Summer2020_7

Looking at Home Island makes us long for the great outdoors. While we can’t leave home yet because of quarantine, the Creators have been giving us fun boredom busters to pass the time. They gave us coloring pages and word searches, and now they’re inviting us to get crafty with these Dr. Hare and Rabbot paper crafts!

These templates were originally released as rewards for the Dr. Hare’s Lair LEGO CUUSOO project, which was a pitch for a potential Poptropica LEGO set. Although the toy never came to be, we can still have fun and build with paper! All you have to do is print the templates then cut, fold, and paste as needed to build your own mini Dr. Hare and Rabbot!

That’s all for now, folks! What do you think of Home Island’s summer update? Will you take a crack at crafting a miniature mad scientist? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

24 Carrot Island, Haxe Javascript, PoptropiCon Island, Store, Survival Island, Timmy Failure Island

Get equipped with Quippy’s common room stores 👽

Gentle Dolphin

Hey Poptropicans, have we got a lot to look at this time!

In addition to the monthly rotation of store items, four new shops have popped up around Poptropica, each with their own themed items. Plus, the game’s showing signs of progress on the friends feature, and for the first time in a long time, we even get to see some official concept art. Let’s explore!

First, let’s take a tour of the new shops, which are all located in various common rooms on different islands. These common room stores feature themed items for those islands—some new, some we’ve seen before. However, these stores are only available in Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build, and are unlikely to be made for Flash, which will soon be obsolete.

These common room stores are available on four islands so far: 24 Carrot, PoptropiCon: Episode 1, Survival: Episode 1, and Timmy Failure.

Our first stop is the cinema on 24 Carrot Island. You will find Quippy hovering by the entrance. They’re offering Dr. Hare-themed goodies for sale: Hare Hotshot (which was the former BETA Carrotene bonus for members who helped beta-test the sound-updated 24 Carrot Island), Dr. Hare Plush Toy, Light & Shadow Hare*, and the Rabbit Ear Prank*. (* = members only)

While waiting in line to get into PoptropiCon (Episode 1), you can stop by the Facili-Tee store to buy cool costumes such as the Tinfoil Robot and the Supernova (basically recolored from a Tron ad). You can also show your love of Old School Islands by wearing the Lunar Colony Cosplay* and Game Show Cosplay*. Quippy is ready for the convention with their own adorable cardboard cosplay!

While traveling in our blimp, we get caught in a storm and become stranded in the snowy forest of Survival Island (Episode 1). Thankfully, we’re not alone. A wooden Quippy can be found at the frozen pond under the big tree to the right. They’ll offer feathery friends like the Blue Woodpecker follower and the Owl Head Rider, as well as a Ghillie Suit* and a Frozen Body power*.

Our final stop is Timmy Failure Island. The bad news is that Timmy Failure Island is only available to members. The worse news is that you need to have a membership on an account in Haxe Javascript, as Flash-made accounts are separate from ones made in the newer Haxe build.

If you have an active membership on a Haxe Javascript account, you can access the island and its common room. Though Quippy looks as if they came out of a garbage truck, the store items are anything but trash. We have a Total costume, a Señor Burrito follower, Timmy’s iconic red Scarf*, and a mighty “GREATNESS” banner*. (Strange to list some items as for non-members when the whole island and its store are for members only!)

You can do more than shop in common rooms, of course. The Creators are hard at work implementing the friends feature to the new Poptropica, and new Haxe players now have a fourth dialogue with Amelia when they first land on Home Island: to meet new friends!

In common rooms such as the Blast-off Arcade, you can befriend other players by selecting “Want to be friends?” from the chat menu. If they say yes, you’ll even get a pop-up message saying the friend was added successfully! (It might also say the user isn’t registered, if that’s the case.)

Despite this, the player profile and friends page aren’t ready just yet, so there’s no way to view your friends on Haxe at the moment. But the signs are there that this popular feature is being worked on!

Over on the Creators’ Blog, the Creators shared an inside look on how they created the adorable Quippy. Early concepts show the artists figuring out how to show players the common room stores — did they want a droid, a kiosk, or something else? Once they settled on a droid, they chose some of their favorite designs and explored them further…

All this hard work and creativity culminated into one of the most unique and adorable faces in Poptropica. A friendly droid equipped with a luminous smile and a keen fashion sense. The magnificent Quippy.

The Creators ended their post with a word of encouragement for budding artists and avid gamers:

If you love games and art, consider learning more about becoming a games artist! There are a lot of ways to get involved in the making of video games outside of coding, and game artists are a critical piece of the team. After all, what’s a game without the art!?

That wraps up this post! What do you think of Quippy and the presence of all these new stores? Thoughts on Poptropica’s Haxe build so far? Share in the comments, and if you haven’t yet, catch up to our other posts below!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

Social Media, Store

Weekly Wardrobe and Perplexing Politics

Gentle Dolphin

Hey, everyone! Today, we have two bits of Poptropica news: something fun and something strange. Let’s get started with the first.

Last week, we reported that the Poptropica store would be getting weekly updates throughout the month of April. So far, this promise seems to be holding up well, as the second batch has hit the store.

This week marks the return of nine familiar outfits: Mythology Surfer (boy and girl), Swan Ballerina, Good Bunny, Unicorn Girl*, Cheesy Slice*, Fairy Queen*, the Navy Raglan Outfit, and the Rib Wrap Outfit. (* = members-only)

Aside from the new selection of outfits, the rest of the store is largely the same. Many of last weeks’s pranks, followers, and powers remain. You can read more about them in last week’s store update post.

And now for something strange. So, Poptropica likes to keep fans updated through social media with platforms like the Creators’ Blog and Instagram. But there’s one platform they’ve neglected for some time: Twitter. I mean, their last post was almost a year ago, in July 2019!

Out of nowhere, this past week Poptropica finally put out a new tweet. Now what could it be about? The April store updates, or maybe even a new island sneak peek? Well, um…

…what we got was an endorsement for Joe Biden for President of the United States, retweeted from Barack Obama with Poptropica adding, “More of this, please!” The inadvertent tweet received about 30 likes, 7 retweets, and 20 replies of amusement before it was unceremoniously deleted two days after it first surfaced on April 14.

Naturally, this left many fans scratching their heads and wondering why Poptropica briefly became political. Did someone on the social media team accidentally retweet the video to the wrong account? (Probably.) Did a hacker want to stir up trouble, or is this some big publicity stunt to bring fans back to Twitter? (Less likely, but who knows? 😛 )

As always, we’d love to hear what you think. And if you haven’t done it already, today’s your last chance to fill out this year’s PHB Reader’s Survey!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

Bonus Items, Fan Art Features, Member Gifts, Membership, Social Media

Folklore figures: wear ’em, draw ’em, join ’em

Gentle Dolphin

Hey, Poptropicans! We hope you’ve recovered from the flash of shock we gave earlier this month and are ready to dive into what else April has in store.

The April member gifts promise a blast to the past with three costumes based on some famous historical figures: Cleopatra, Sire Lancelot, and Pocahontas.

Speaking of the last costume, it looks oddly familiar. The Pocahontas costume bears a striking resemblance to Sacagawea in Time Tangled Island.

TimeTangled_Sacagawea

And what’s more, she’s fully customizable, even for non-members! So even if you’re not a member this month, you can get at least one of the member gifts. 😉 Just head on over to 1805 A.D. (the Lewis and Clark expedition) on Time Tangled Island, and you’ve got your two-for-one Native American look.

sacagawea customizable

(Creators, next time maybe don’t imply that distinct iconic characters of shared ancestry, yet different time periods, are interchangeable by their appearance?)

On Instagram, Poptropica challenged artists to draw Ned Noodlehead in their style and to share the drawings with the hashtag #NedNoodlehead. Interesting that they chose Ned, the comic shop kid from Super Power Island—one of the old school islands that have disappeared from the map.

Within a day, creative fans got to work, and Poptropica featured some of the Ned Noodlehead art on their Instagram story. Check out these magnificent Noodlehead doodles! Think you could give it a try, too?

Recently, Poptropica has been promoting Timmy Failure Island on various channels—social media, the Creators’ Blog, and even the Home Island billboard. (Did you know that Timmy Failure has its own Disney+ movie now?)

But something odd has happened: Timmy Failure Island, which was formerly free for all, is now only available to members. Unlike with previously member-locked islands, this time non-members won’t even get to play a demo before hitting the paywall message. (Thanks for the tip, Perfect Fish.)

Strangely, the message refers to “early access” for Timmy Failure Island being for members only, even though the island came out in 2015. Did they just forget to change the wording, or are they working on revamping Timmy Failure for the Javascript (post-Flash) project and letting members beta test it first? Whatever the case, let’s hope it isn’t a failure.

Thoughts on this month’s member gifts and the fate of Timmy Failure Island? Want to share a Noodlehead doodle with us? Drop them in the comments!

Also, check out the other stuff we’ve got going on in the posts below! Join us for Community Creations (current theme: “stay at home”), take the 2020 PHB readers’ survey, and get some ideas for passing the time in quarantine with some good old Poptropica.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬