I'm Andrew Wiles, although on this account I'm known as HPuterpop. I've played Poptropica since 2007, the year it started. I play on the users puterpop and puterpoptropica.
I'm a graphic designer, editor on the Poptropica Help Blog, and executive manager on the Poptropica Wiki.
Check out my links to find out what I'm doing at the moment - I like to stay active in the community and always have a couple projects in the works. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and following me on Google+. I would greatly appreciate it.
I'd like to stress how easy it is to contact me, so if you do need to, [email protected] is the one to contact. Thanks for reading, I'll see you soon. :)
And thanks to Muzzki for my current profile pic!
I just want to make a quick post about the disappearance of Shark Boy, and this is pretty major — the Shark Tooth plush and plastic toys have been removed from stores and the toy page!
If that wasn’t enough, the Shark Boy costume that you get from buying the Shark Boy plastic toy now shows as “Shark Costume”, even though that the original was named “Shark Boy Costume”…
But there still are a few traces of Shark Boy left in the world of Poptropica:
What isn’t happening in the world of Poptropica? Prepare to have your mind blown with all the new things happening in the Poptropica universe! 😀
Runner-up #2 in the CYDI contest
The next runner-up of the Create Your Dream Island contest, without further ado, is…
Fashion Crisis Island!
Now, even though I’m not that big on fashion 😆 , I still am pretty impressed and pleased that this girl won. I’ve never heard of the idea being used, and the prospect of an island based on the costumizing feature is pretty smart —
When you’re on Fashion Crisis Island, you must recover a stolen line of clothes for a very famous designer right before an important show.
Is it just me, or is it strange that all the winners up until now have been girls? I’m excited to see a boy’s idea, but in the meantime, I’d like to congratulate Elsa W. of Illinois — or Bronze Fox — for the awesome idea and the impressive ranking. 😀 Here’s why the Creators liked the idea:
Costumizing is one of the most popular things to do on Poptropica, and yet we’ve never made an Island based entirely around using the Costumizer. Elsa’s idea presented a lot of opportunities to let players create new costumes. It was also set in the the 1940s, which we haven’t done before, and featured some famous fashion icons as characters.
More music men
Kyle Fox now has a Soundcloud, and he’s uploaded his few but wholesome tracks that he’s made for Poptropica. I want to give him a shout out for all the music work that slips by as Jeff Heim’s — I personally love the MFB theme. 😀
Another unknown composer for the theme and sound effects of the Forgotten Islands app has now been uncovered:Bob Baffy! The theme sounds great as do the sound effects, and I hope he might do more soundtracks for Poptropica in the future. 😉
Jeff Heim recently posted aDemo Reelfor his work on Poptropica, including a new Villain theme for the island Super Power. Sounds awesome!
Mythology SUI offers easier River Styx
As mentioned the recent PCB post, the upcoming Mythology Island SUI is going to have an easier River Styx scene (check it out here), and I immediately had to check and see what it was like. Well, they weren’t lying — all you do is jump over an alligator and you’re home free!
I wonder if they’ve made any of the other hard parts of the island easier — maybe the red eyed snake game and the Aphrodite test. Either way, I’m happy! 😛
Who is Catie?
There’s a question that remains a mystery, and that question is “Who is Catie?”. Written on a wall on Virus Hunter Island, we see “Catie was here” scribbled onto it. Designers often do this sort of thing in Poptropica – for example, in Mocktropica, written on the wall in the Poptropica Headquarters is “Nasan was here”. Nasan Hardcastle is a designer for Poptropica, and he wrote it there. So who is Catie? An unknown designer? There are multiple possible answers.
Catherine Prentice is a writer for Pearson, but it seems unlikely that she would be designing anything. There’s also Catherine Gilliland, a person who strangely liked a Poptropica tour on YouTube, and that was pretty much it. Who do you think Catie is? We may never know…
And did you notice the view count on the tour? Over 5 million hits!
Night Watch book may be coming soon
Here’s some forewarning — a written book for Night Watch Island may be coming soon. Why? First, I don’t think that they will be releasing books for all of the islands — just a select few that have a strong enough story and cast of characters to work with. For sure, Night Watch Island has a pretty good story to begin with, but I’m not just going out on a limb like that. You guys know I wouldn’t do that. ;p
Around mid-2012, around the time that Night Watch Island was being made, multiple preliminary sketches for the illustrations for the book pertaining to Cryptids Island were posted to the Daily Pop. Around the same time, a sketch looking very similar to the drawings for Cryptids Island was posted — showing the rare Cat Burglar costume being worn and the Poptropican posing in multiple positions. I have a hunch that the picture was actually some preliminary sketches for a new book pertaining to Night Watch, where a Cat Burglar contributes to the plot. What do you think?
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How many theories did I fit into this post? XD Quite a few… 😛
What isn’t happening in the world of Poptropica? Prepare to have your mind blown with all the new things happening in the Poptropica universe! 😀
Mission Atlantis = Aliens?
Here’s a thought – Poptropica really likes making aliens the central element of island stories (e.g. Nabooti Island, Lunar Colony, and Astro-Knights Island). What are the odds that the rumored city of Atlantis that you will be discovering in Mission Atlantis are ruins of alien life? Sounds pretty intriguing, but not only is it possible – it’s very likely — and we have proof.
I was playing through Lunar Colony recently (I work in mysterious ways 😛 ) and was nearing the end of the island in the alien base. Inside are alien markings that probably don’t amount to anything – but I thought that they looked familiar. Sure enough, a recent Daily Pop had some of those same markings!
But still, this could be a new alien island, or a follow up for Lunar Colony. Well, it could be, but under the markings are little fishies (insert nomnom here), and where there are fishies, there is ocean. And where there’s ocean… you get the idea. 😛
Upcoming Island Updates
First of all, Mission Atlantis Episode 2 will be named “Fortress of the Deep“, according to the files — and there will be many a pipe as it seems.
Second, the theme for Survival: Episode 3 is finally here! Still quite spooky, still quite awesome! 😀
Thirdly, remember that book that I talked about a while ago named Future Island? Well, it’s back on the Amazon store! There still is no cover, but we know that the writer of the book (Caroline Laidlaw) has also written many other books, most being for the “Penguin Kids” series. It’s scheduled for January 8, 2015 — might I say a long way out! Could this be a book for an upcoming island? Other island books have been written by multiple people, so it is possible. If so, that could mean that Future island is coming out this year! 😀
Here’s another thought — Future Island is actually the Dream Island Contest winner! I know, the winner’s island is called Arabian Nights Island, but perhaps they just put Future there because they hadn’t decided yet, and haven’t managed to change it yet. Besides, the Penguin Group are the ones who sponsored the contest…
Facts about the Hydromedusa
Fun fact: hydromedusae are just jellyfish. There are all types of hydromedusae, all translucent and dangerous — but, there is one thing that Poptropica falsifies about them in Mission Atlantis. In the island, a group of hydromedusan jellyfish shock your sub and make it loose it’s power.
However, jellyfish do not have a real electric shock ability, it only feels like a shock when you become in contact with them. Electric eels, on the other hand, do have an electric shock ability. Thanks to Poptrickia for pointing this out first!
The jellyfish on Mission Atlantis that does in fact “shock” (teehee) your sub is called a Hydromedusa (hydromedusae is the plural). (Compare the real-life image to the Poptropica version above!) Hydromedusae eat larvaes, plankton, and multiple soft bodied creatures. They belong to a class called hydrozoa, which includes types like the Aequorea victoria and Craspedacusta sowerbii. And even though they can’t electrify you, they can sure sting!
Plus, the name of the ship on Mission Atlantis is called “Medusa” – a scientific term for jellyfish. Check out the PHB’s Mission Atlantis Island page for more trivia! 🙂
More on Shark Guy
If you’ve read Slanted Fish’s latest post, then you know about the sudden maturing of Shark Boy — now known as Shark Guy. But I have some more things to mention about him. First of all, if you friend him, his name in the Friends list is just Poptropican.
Special names are not impossible in the Friends list (e.g Captain Crawfish), but Creators are the only ones to know how to make them. For example, Codien, a legendary PHB author, has a special name. However, if you friend him (theCodien), he shows up as Poptropican. So why wouldn’t Shark Guy have a special name in the Friends list? I mean come on — he is the first Creator alias!
Second of all, the picture above was taken from my secondary account. I had the original Shark Boy username friended — but, when I logged in, it showed the new Shark Guy! I had never friended the new username (SharkGuyCreator) before, so perhaps the Creators replaced the original with the new one in an attempt to fix a breach of security.
What I’m saying is, this whole thing may just be a cover up for a kid who got into the original Shark Boy account, or a glitch that gave him the username. The Creators have not been on top of things lately, and the Poptropican thing might just be an error. Either way, I miss Shark Boy, and Shark Guy will never be the same.
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Yes, I am back. Did you miss me? 😛 Be ready for Poptropican Portraits Round 9 soon! 😀
I’m going to disappear from the community for a while, as some big tests in school are coming up in a couple weeks. During those two weeks, I won’t be active on the blog, and won’t really have time for email either — so remember that when I don’t respond.
After about two weeks, I’m going to release the long-awaited Poptropican Portraits Round 9 (Poptropican Portraits are ancient relics 😛 )! Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know, so it doesn’t take you by surprise. 😉
First off, the first thing you’re going to notice is the wind sound effect. It is stinking annoying. Second, the island is horrible if you’re writing a guide, because if you’re idle too long, your Poptropican freezes to death. But those are just my little pet peeves, let’s get on with the good stuff! 😆
First, we are confronted with some new interface icons. There’s a thermometer and a flag on the bottom of the screen, and plus a fire symbol when you have enough materials to make a fire. The thermometer is to keep your temperature up, and the flag is to determine the wind direction and speed. The last time we had special icons like this was the cell phone on Night Watch Island.
The story, as of now, is pretty vague: build a fire. At the end of the island, there is a hint that someone else is on the island, but that doesn’t really make up for the lazy story that they made. Islands aren’t supposed to be like this.
I do have to say that after all the episodes have come out, this island is going to be colossal.
They tried something new here, and that is that they made it harder by deceiving you. There are multiple things that you could do, although there is only one real path to take. The Handbook suggests that you can cut some grass to burn, and you leave a wedge stuck inside a tree. Some suspicious rats sleep inside a tree, and the Wet Kindling is never used once in the island. Are these possibilities for future episodes? It seems unlikely, though possible.
Those are my thoughts on Episode 1 (Crash Landing) of Survival Island. What do you think about the island? Tell me in the comments. 😀
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