Author: HPuterpop

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!
24 Carrot Island

Why 24 Carrot Island?

HPuterpop

24carrotwhy

Hi Gs,

I was thinking the other day – what made 24 Carrot Island so special that it became the first SUI? While 24 Carrot BETA Carrotene was cool, it seemed a bit odd that instead of the very first island, the Creators chose such an oddball island as the first to grace with music and a larger screen. Early Poptropica Island was the first island, and it would seem appropriate to start with the first and work your way through updating islands. So why didn’t they do just that? I have a theory; A GAME THEO–

Continue reading “Why 24 Carrot Island?” →

Blast from the Past

Poptropica Journal – 8/30/10 – Jeff Kinney

HPuterpop

Hi Gs – this post was actually a letter written way back in 2010 to the founder of Poptropica, Jeff Kinney. I actually did send it to him, and it’s pretty funny how some of the Island ideas that I had actually were brought to life later, intentional or not. Read the previous Poptropica Journal here.

poptropicaJournal

Dear Jeff Kinney,

I am your biggest fan, bigger than Gram (founder of Poptropica Productions) who makes Poptropica movies! I love your books to! I am going to read your new book, The Ugly Truth. I am even making islands of my own, Survive Island and Phantom Carnival Island! I wasn’t going to let Monster Carnival Island go to waste! I was REALLY looking forward Monster Carnival Island, but one day Time Tangled came out and I didn’t even notice that it was gone. A year later I read about it on a blog, and how it disappeared off of the blimp. I had just read a book about a bizarre carnival that just appeared over night, and it turned out to be a movie! I thought about and I finally got the results: Phantom Carnival Island! Everything is more than it should be, like in the merry-go-round, the horses turn into dragons!

I am already writing the script for my Survive Island! I will send the scrap book for it soon! I write articles about your islands to! I wrote three articles about Steamworks Island! I have found that creating an island can get a little boring, but then something new comes out of your head, and it’s all fresh again!

doawk

I used to be writing a diary/journal for publishing, but I realized that it put to much stress on my life, so I quit. See what I did there? I visited your website, and wimped myself. I also listened to Joshes hit song, and believe me; I see what Gregory meant when he said “sometimes I don’t know about that kid” (talking about Rowley)! I really hope that we could meet someday, but for now, I’m stuck in 3rd grade with a bunch of morons! Just kidding (I really home school). Bye!

Sincerely,
Andrew L. Wiles, eight years old

P.S. I also draw to, and like to make posters.

Web Development

Introducing the Poptropica Help Network (wait, what?)

HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

Um.. well.. this happened. We decided after a long debate that we’re reverting the network and blog back to the PHN and PHB. The response from the community wasn’t the greatest, as we soon realized.

If you missed it, we changed the entire branding of the site to a catch all term – Poptropedia. New url, new logo, new everything. But things didn’t go as planned, so we decided to scratch it. There are pros and cons from both sides, but ultimately we wanted to go with something recognizable.

poptropicahelpnetworkoverBut now is as good of a time as ever to announce the new hub site for the Poptropica Help Network, featuring links to all of the Poptropica Help sites! This hub is generally just for new viewers or anyone who wants to learn more about the entirety of the community – eventually more will be added, but this is a start! (We may start self-hosting the site, but no promises! 😉 )

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know about the revert – tell me what you think! 🙂

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Pranks

April Fools 2015: Omegon’s Takeover!

HPuterpop

aprilfools

Hi Gs,

Well, as some of you may have guessed, Tobor Aureum was just a clever disguise for Omegon – and once again he came into the real world and trapped us all. BT came up with the idea, then I took care of graphics and in the end we all played a part in an awesome April Fools’ prank this year.

Tobor Aureum, if you haven’t figured it out already, means Robot Golden, which would be Omegon. Tobor is just Robot backwards, and Aureum is Latin for golden.

As the day progressed he made two posts, one with a picture of a nice, young Poptropican, the next with some of his good looking attributes gone, and finally Omegon revealed the next day. Through it all, however, there was a red glow in his eyes that I’m surprised some of you didn’t catch immediately. (Oh, and Tobor’s thank-you post also contained a hidden message that was revealed after the takeover!)

I also updated the header and background to give off a more graffiti-ed vibe. 😛

I put together 4 trapped PHB author graphics, which were fun to make. Featuring Samwow5, Spotted Dragon, Slippery Raptor, and Slanted Fish in Omegon’s infamous electro-cells!

The final product was so worth the work and I was really glad to see a good plan come to fruition. 😀

aprilfools1

Throughout the day, we had the PHB authors gradually change their profile pictures to henchbot avatars, and because we all live in different time zones, it gave off the effect of us being gradually converted (just as we will slowly convert back to our regular avatars).

henches

Fishy also wrote a post to update everyone about the prank that Poptropica pulled this year, the floppy-disc Text Adventure – all in Omegon’s commentary. It’s pretty enjoyable to read, so head over there and give it a look see. 😉

The best thing about this prank, however, was the comments. The majority the time it was either me, BT, or Fishy who was commenting as Omegon, and the other authors joined in by pretending Omegon had taken over their accounts. I have to say that the conversations (and sometimes arguments) were just gold. The post “The Reign of Omegon lives,” got about 400 comments which is colossal, and through these we learned a few things about Omegon:

  • Omegon likes creme-filled donuts
  • He assigns numbers to his hench-bots
  • His electro-cages have themes
  • His middle name is FEAR
  • He talks in really annoying ALL CAPS

We also learned that some of you would willingly give themselves up to Omegon and join in the fun of being a hench-bot! What loyal fans we have… 😛 The comments are really witty, so go have a read!

omegon commentsAnyway, thank you, everyone, for the fun yesterday. It was really exciting and many of you had fun trying to solve the mystery of the Blogging Intern. Until next year…

//Ok, back to my donut — hey, where did it go? What is this?  Raw fish?! Wait… no… CRAWFISH?!//

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Popspiracy Theories

What is going to save Poptropica?

HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

Well, I played PopCon 3. I liked the story, art, characters, etc. But what I didn’t like?

THE GAME DEVELOPMENT!!!

When I say game development, I mean the development of the skeleton of the game – the game mechanics, the programming. I have a sneaking suspicion that Jordan Leary, the lead game developer, either isn’t working at Poptropica anymore, or has been demoted. Either way, something is definitely wrong.

The art is great – like really great. I feel like the team of artists still are there with motivation to make quality content. Tons of amazing scenes and animations. The story is still charming as usual. But then you try to play the island and you have to log out and back in 5 times. It really takes the fun out of it, doesn’t it? I can’t appreciate art when I can’t even access it!

poptropicaNewHeader

I still do have a point, however, and if you’ve read this far then I’m sure you’d like to hear it. I know what is going to save Poptropica, and it very well might already be in the works. A couple weeks ago, there was a survey on Poptropica that asked the standard questions – how much do you play Poptropica? What other games do you play? etc. But, just like always, they also asked about new features and what we thought about them – this time being a desktop version of Poptropica.

For the people that don’t know, a desktop version of an online game would be a downloadable game that can usually run offline. If Poptropica would become a desktop game, it would probably not run on flash anymore, which would fix a whole handful of problems right there. It’s hard to make a convincing game in a browser with flash, so converting everything over to desktop would be awesome. But that’s what I’m getting at – converting the game would basically be re-creating the entire skeleton of it, and if done right, could save the sloppiness that the programming has become. Please, Jess M. Brallier, take some advice from the fans. Hire the right people when creating a desktop version.

And one more thing – if Poptropica becomes an actual desktop game, it may be considered by the gaming community more to be a real video game, which means a bigger community. Right now, they have a reason not to take it seriously.

TAFN.

-HPuterpop