Hello! I'm Slanted Fish, the editor-in-chief and creator of the Poptropica Help Blog (PHB). I'm a writer, Hong Kong native, and Christ follower. My Poptropica username is slantedfish 🐠 Don't forget to be awesome!
Hey Poptropicans, you need look no further for the news—and this time, it’s all about the looks. Let’s pop in.
First, new store items are here! Poptropica actually missed last week, which is the first time that’s happened since they made the store rotations weekly.
The non-costume categories haven’t changed since the last rotation, so only the store’s costumes are pictured above. This week’s items are:
Costumes: Lumberjerk (male and female), Boho Chic*, Furry Monster 4 (two different versions)*, Magician (male and female)*, Friendly Face Masks, Mud Pie, Rockstar, Mech Pilot*, Clown, Pig#, Bottle Cap#, Ringmaster*, Cool Boy Plush#, Shark Plush*, Milk Box#
Followers: Deer, Dryad, Dolphin*, Mini Astroknight*
As is the norm these days, about half of the store stock is for members only. Still, both non-members and members have the chance to snag some great deals with several items at 75 credits (marked with #): the Pig, Bottle Cap, and Milk Box costumes, plus the Cool Boy Plush and Coconut Drink.
Interesting detail: the handheld plushie of the Shark Tooth Island character previously known as Shark Boy before his erasure is not called “Shark Guy” as he later came to be known, but now, the item is simply “Shark Plush” despite not being a shark but rather a dude in a shark suit. 🦈
If you’re playing in Haxe, you may also notice that a couple of NPCs have gotten makeovers! The person in front of the store is now a golden-haired girl, and the lady by the New You building has gotten a glow-up.
That’s not all that’s new in looks. If you head over to the home page to create a new character with one of the default picks, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can further customize your character before diving into the game.
We’ve seen this orange customization screen before, back before “pick a character” became a thing. And new players can still access it by speaking to Amelia, the girl on the Home Island bridge. But it’s interesting to now have it show up right after picking a default character design, when it seemed the whole point of that was to skip the step of customization from the beginning.
However, when the “pick a character” update first rolled out, players had commented on how it took away from the fun of carefully crafting one’s character right from the get-go. For them, this reversion may be a welcome update. But having both a simplified selection screen and a customization screen seems odd—what about the new player who carefully selects a default character only to realize it could’ve been altered all along? Will this inclusion of both features be temporary?
Speaking of customization, there’s been a startling development: the beloved Costumizer tool—the green shirt button which allows you to “steal” clothing parts from other characters—has disappeared from most areas in Haxe. Will it return, or are the Creators sabotaging the fun in yet another way? We can only hope this is temporary, but it’s hard to tell…
No more Costumizer in Haxe!
Except in common rooms like the arcade…
…and on PoptropiCon Island, where it’s essential.
That’s all for this post. Be sure to check out our previous posts to catch up on other Poptropica news, and see you at the Poppies this weekend! 🏆
Hey Poptropicans—we’re taking another look into Poptropica’s post-Flash future. In case you missed it, we took a deep dive on the subject back in January, and again in February when Poptropica put out their own State of the Game address. And, of course, we’ve been following along with the latest developments in Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build.
The Haxe engine is the future of Poptropica. It looks a lot like the old Flash engine, but it’s kind of starting over from scratch.
Ever since the Haxe build launched earlier this year, there’s been at least one glaring issue: Poptropica accounts on Haxe are separate from the accounts used in the Flash version. So in this post, we’re asking the big question: What will happen to our Poptropica accounts post-Flash? Here’s what we know so far.
Why are Flash and Haxe accounts separate?
Adobe Flash and Haxe Javascript are separate technologies. Flash is the older engine that’s about to have its plug pulled, while Haxe is the newer platform where Poptropica is working on moving the game. So far, Poptropica hasn’t made a way to connect accounts from Haxe and Flash together, perhaps due to tech limitations. So each account can only play in either Flash or Haxe.
However, there does seem to be some continuity available between the two. When Poptropica made the classic islands available to members in June*, players logging in from their accounts in Haxe could (and still can) head over to Early Poptropica to play the old islands in Flash. (*Non-members: check out the Old Island Directory to play the classics.)
Players have to log in again through the old Flash login screen, but once they do, they may notice that their Haxe character’s outfit will transfer over (for the most part). So perhaps a connection is possible… at least for one’s #OOTD.
My character in Haxe. The hummingbird’s wings don’t flap like they used to in Flash.
My character on an old island in Flash, after hopping on the blimp in Haxe!
How do I know if I’m in Flash or Haxe?
If your account was made before early 2020 when Haxe launched, it would be a Flash account, meaning that when you log in, your account would be in the Flash version of Poptropica.
You can tell based on a couple things: (1) there are more islands on the map (stretching back to islands released in 2013, when they were first made with sound and a newer version of Flash), and (2) there’s a daily spin wheel for credits on Home Island. As a bonus, you may also have some items or (especially rare) clothing parts that haven’t appeared in Haxe yet (though many store items have been converted to Haxe by now).
Daily spin wheel in Flash
Daily login rewards in Haxe
If your account was made after Haxe launched in early 2020, chances are, you’re on a Haxe account. As with Flash, you can tell by (1) seeing how few islands there are on the map (as of this writing, Mythology Island is coming soon), and (2) instead of the daily spin wheel, you’ll see a pop-up for daily login rewards of incremental credits. But there is a possibility for a Haxe-made account to enter the Flash dimension…
Can you switch from a Flash account to Haxe, and vice versa?
You can turn a Haxe account into a Flash account by logging in to the Poptropica mobile app. However, you can’t reverse this, and so, on the flip side: if yours is a Flash account, it can’t switch over to Haxe. Unless…
There is a way around this, but the method isn’t from Poptropica: you can idk’s unofficial Old Island Directory’s Format Loader to switch between the two.
How do you create a Flash account? And a Haxe account?
As mentioned above, you can convert an account to Flash just by logging into the Poptropica app. After that, Flash accounts will stay in Flash no matter what platform you use to log in.
When you create a new account via desktop computer on Poptropica.com, it will be in Haxe. Right now, Haxe accounts can only be made on a computer.
Will I keep my username and player name from Flash?
There’s no guarantee we’ll get to keep our usernames or player names from Flash after it’s gone. However, if you try to create an account on Haxe with a username that’s already taken by a Flash account, you won’t be able to. So it seems the collection of unique usernames between both platforms is shared. This could mean that as Flash nears its end, Poptropica may automatically switch all accounts to Haxe, or they may simply purge all Flash accounts (and usernames). Just speculating, though.
As for player names, we’ve previously noted how, with Haxe, player names don’t seem to be an important feature. Unlike the many combinational name possibilities we had on Flash, with Haxe there is only the small selection from the default characters on the home page—at least for now. But right now, there’s no indication Flash player names will transfer.
Picking one’s player name was a standard feature in Flash.
Another detail worth noting is that with Haxe, you can’t save usernames with punctuation marks. It might not feel like a big deal, but some Flash players may recall this as a method to claim an account with an otherwise common name without having to resort to adding a string of numbers.
So, what will happen to our Poptropica accounts after Flash is gone?
The short answer is: we don’t know for sure yet. Maybe we’ll get to keep our usernames, and as mentioned, there is some indication that at least our current outfits can be connected from Flash to Haxe.
As for the other stuff from our Flash days—like lists of friends, island medallions, costume closets—there’s no guarantee they’ll carry over.
The old friends page in Flash, showing off player medallions, costume closets, album photos, other friends’ pages, and more.Its redesign isn’t quite the same.
Poptropica hasn’t commented about this issue yet. But they’re working hard to bring a lot of the items we know and love from Flash to Haxe. Even if they’re not able to get everything (there have been a TON of items and customization options in the past decade, spanning many islands and characters), there’ll be plenty to play with. And they own all their artwork, so with more time, even after Flash, they may keep bringing things back.
Classic store items from the Flash era, like the Hot Dog costume, have recently resurfaced in Haxe.
So if you have a Flash account with years of energy put into it, enjoy what you’ve built while it lasts, and maybe save some pictures for the memories.
And if you’re planning to keep playing after 2020, consider starting a Haxe account now to build up your collection of items, credits, and more — just be careful to avoid the app, which would switch it to a Flash account.
What comes next? Stay tuned and join us for the ride. May the Poptropica spirit stay alive in the years to come. ✨
Hey Poptropicans, it’s that time of the year… THE POPPIES are here! 🌟
🏆 What are the Poppies? 🏆
The Poppies are an annual Poptropica community awards event, hosted by Poptropica fans for Poptropica fans. This will be our sixth year celebrating, and as always, we welcome you to participate in the festivities and tell us where you think the spotlight deserves to shine in all things Poptropica.
First, we begin with the nomination round where you get to nominate your favorite picks for certain award categories. This round starts now and will end next Friday, July 10. It’ll be followed by a voting round, then culminate into a Poptropica party — more details to come! 🎉 But first, the it’s time to make some preliminary picks by nominating…
Part 1: The Nomination Round
Today marks the start of the nomination round. Each award category will be announced and described below.
To keep the nominations a surprise, you’ll be putting your choices in our surveyanonymously. However, you’re welcome to leave a comment in support of your choices. Maybe you’ll convince people to pick your faves, too!
Poptropica Gameplay Awards
🏝 OG Island We’ll Miss Most: We’re saying goodbye to a lot of islands by the end of this year, and there’ve been a ton of good ones over the years. Of all the OG classic islands, which epic adventures will you miss most?
🐶 Best Pet Accessory: Funky eyes? Fancy styles? The pet barn’s store has got all kinds of accessories for your beloved pets to wear. Which of these bling-blings is your favorite thing to complete your pet’s look? Is it the wings, or something else that clings?
🏠 Best Clubhouse Decor: Trampolines or lamps, basic or glitzy… the clubhouse decor store is full of fun home items with which to decorate your player-owned clubhouse. Which of these objects do you consider a must-have for any custom space?
🌳 Best Home Island Makeover: In this past year alone, Poptropica’s gotten pretty inventive when it comes to the appearance of Home Island. We’ve seen summer, (a very long) winter, wizardry, Halloween, fall, and spring. Which of these exterior designs was best? (All are nominated by default.)
🤖 Best Quippy: Common rooms on the Haxe build of Poptropica recently got a little upgrade in the form of an adorable android named Quippy, who sells wares related to the island where the common room is located. There aren’t many Quippys yet, but whether it’s the custom outfit or the items being sold, which of these little guys beats the rest? (All are nominated by default.)
🤩 Best Default Character: Earlier this year, Poptropica redid their home screen so new players could quickly hop into the game by picking any of the new default characters: Wild Fire, Pink Crush, Got Game, Old School, Cool Slice, Girl Power, Fast Ride, and Love Star. Out of this gang, who’s the GOAT? (All are nominated by default.)
“Fast Ride”
🤑 Worst Paywall Offender of the Year: Ah, the paywall of Poptropica membership. For those of us who can’t (or won’t) drop ~US$3.50 a month (and that’s most of us) for the privileges of monthly gifts, extra items, and even extra islands, we love to hate it. But in the past year, where did Poptropica go too far in its declaration of “members only”? Was it the time they locked away the player-designed Lightning Wielder, or perhaps the classic islands? Did they design a member gift you were just so envious of but couldn’t get your hands on? Or maybe a store item that used to be for all, now isn’t? Now’s your chance to make a statement.
Community Awards
😎 Popular Poptropican: Many awesome Poptropicans make up our community, whether they’re frequent commenters, fan artists, bloggers, YouTubers, or just someone well known in the online Poptropica world. But who should we recognize as this year’s Popular Poptropican?
🎨 Best Fan Art of the Year: Browse through the past year’s Community Creations posts and our We-Love-Poptropica DeviantArt group for tons of masterfully made pieces of Poptropica fan art, and tell us your favorites! (Anything published from July 26, 2019 onwards is fair game.)
📺 Best Fan Video of the Year: Poptropicans have gotten pretty creative with video in the past year, and we’ve highlighted some here on the PHB, too. Whether it’s YouTube or TikTok, a let’s-play or a deep discussion, let us know which Poptropica vids stood out to you this year (and please share the link!). (Anything published from July 26, 2019 onwards is fair game.)
Once again, the nomination round starts now, so be sure to fill out our survey and let us know who/what you think is deserving of the awards! Please limit your nominations to a max of three per award. Also, you’re not required to nominate for every category, though it is encouraged. 🙂
The voting round starts nextSaturday on July 11, and next week’s poll options will be made up of this week’s most popular nominations. So be sure to check back in a week to cast your votes, but in the meantime…
Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish here to unmask some updates on July’s new member gifts, store items, and the return of an island! Let’s get started.
It’s the start of a new month (did the time almost slip past you?), which means a new set of member gifts! And this time, Poptropica has joined the pandemic panic with a set of Fun Face Masks. Summer vibes have also arrived in the form of a Flamingo Floatie and Watermelon Purse.
With the face masks, you get three in one: there’s one patterned with the blue mouth of Medicine Man from Shark Tooth Island, a translucent light blue mask that’s also worn by one of the merchants on Arabian Nights (hey, I thought member gifts were supposed to be original items!), and a green monster-like jaw, which doesn’t seem to have a connection to any island.
Whipping up a traditional Shark Tooth delicacy.
Non-members, don’t worry — you can get in on the face mask fun too! There’s a new item in the store called the Friendly Face Masks, which comes in with three variations and costs 250 credits. Interestingly, the item card says “Member Gift” on them, indicating that they were probably intended as such at first before the Creators did us a solid by making these bad boys available for everyone. These come in red, white, and black:
Plenty of other items have popped up in the store as well. The good deals to grab this week for 75 credits each are the Fruity Cutie, Lazy Days* (seriously aesthetic pineapple shirt alert! 🍍), Dangerous Waters, Cool Boy Plush, and Coconut Drink. Also noteworthy: the plush of the character formerly known as Shark Boy is now simply Shark Plush*. Fireworks* have also hit these virtual shelves in time for the Fourth of July! 🧨 Scroll down for the full list of items.
This week’s items are:
Costumes: Friendly Face Masks, Boho Chic*, Fruity Cutie, Lazy Days*, Dangerous Waters, Waffle* (round), Waffle* (square), Lumberjerk (female), Lumberjerk (male) (oddly, this one is tagged Poptropolis), Game Show Robot*, Cool Boy Plush, Shark Plush*, Rockstar, Furry Monster 4* (somehow there are two different costume cards both with this name), Mech Pilot* (oddly, this one’s carrying a fish), Tofu Dog, Hot Dog, Big Burger
Followers: Dolphin*, Deer, Mini Astroknight, Dryad
Misc: Coconut Drink, Cool Boy Plush, Shark Plush* (yup, these plushes appear here too), PopGum (fire)
A * indicates the item is members only.
In other news, Timmy Failure Island is back to being available for all—but only on Poptropica’s Haxe build! (Thanks to PERCY JACKSON1010 for the tip.) This means that non-members can now venture into its common room store and see Quippy in Timmy’s iconic red scarf.
That’s all for this post! But stay tuned… we’ve got some great festivities planned for this month here on the PHB. Here’s a hint: you may want to get your Poptropican dressed up. Maybe a face mask would look dope with your ‘fit. If you’re venturing out IRL, though, you’ll definitely need one! 😉 😷
Good day, Poptropicans! It’s been a while since we conducted the 2020 PHB Readers’ Survey, but we’re finally ready to bring you the results with our analysis. Thanks to everyone who participated!
A couple months ago, we conducted our annual survey to gain greater insight of our reader base: you guys! In the three weeks the survey was open, we received 108 responses (an increase from last year) from Poptropicans all over the world. Really—here’s where in the world PHB readers say they’re from:
What country do you live in?
By the way, yes, (some of) our charts in this post are interactive, so hover your mouse around to view the data! Here are the rest of the results…
Which of our past surveys did you participate in?
Over a span of 7 years, the PHB has held a total of six surveys to better understand our reader demographics. Once again, we were eager to know how many of you taking this year’s survey have been around long enough to participate in those of previous years. For many of you, it was your first PHB survey, but even more of you had participated before, too.
(Note that the percentage total goes above 100% due to the ability to select more than one answer.)
What is your gender?
Like last year, girls make up the majority gender of PHB readers, but it’s mellowed out a bit with 63% this year compared to last year’s almost 70%. The proportions of boys and nonbinary people remains similar as well.
What is your age?
Most of our readers say they’re aged 15–18, which is on par with last year’s results. Notably, the 19–21 age group has increased. They’re now tied with the 12–14 group, compared to last year when they only matched about half the amount of 12–14s and were only the fourth largest group.
If you live in the US, which state or territory?
Like before, the most represented states tend to be the more populous ones. California leads this time, with Florida not too far behind. A few of you claim New York and North Carolina as home, and Poptropicans scattered all over the country are reading this blog.
When did you discover Poptropica?
As previous surveys have shown, many of you found Poptropica in its earlier years, particularly during their prime era when islands were released much more frequently. 2010 and 2008 are the top answers at nearly 15%, followed by 2011 and 2012 at 11%.
How often do you play Poptropica?
Most of you said you play Poptropica about once every couple weeks, down from last year when the most common answer was a few times a week (which was the second most common answer this year). Looks like Poptropica’s weekly store updates and daily credit rewards do interest some of you enough to log in, but let’s be real, they’re going to need more than that to reel everybody back in! As always, though, this chart is otherwise fairly evenly split between all the other options.
Are you a member on Poptropica?
Continuing the trend from last year, a ~64% majority of you have never been members nor have plans to be. More of you are saying you used to be (27%, up from last year’s 20%), and a smaller sliver are saying you currently have membership (7%, down from 11.6% last year) or that you will be (~2%, down from ~3%). Note, these answers came in before the classic islands were re-released for members only a few weeks ago.
When did you first find the PHB?
The results for this question were pretty evenly distributed over the years, with the top answers being more recent years: 2015, 2018, and 2019 all shared 12%, with 2016 and 2017 at 11% and even 2020 at 9.3%! Earlier years got smaller slices of the pie, but it still overjoys us to see that there are few who’ve been with us since the beginning.
How did you find us?
Not surprisingly, most of you (73.6%) discovered the PHB through searching the web. Other answers, tied at 8.5%, include hearing about us through a friend or sibling, as well as through another website, which is similar to results from before. But “a website link written on the school playground”—now that’s a new one!
How often do you visit the PHB?
Maybe asking on the PHB brings biased answers to this question, but hey, most of our readers say they’re checking in on us a few times a week—which is more than how much they’re logging into Poptropica itself! However, the second and third top answers are down from last year’s, being once every couple of weeks, or once a week, rather than once or a few times a day in 2019. We can’t promise to post every day, but we do try for a couple updates (or more) per week, so stay with us!
Which types of PHB posts do you enjoy?
Multiple answers could be selected here, which is why percentages add up to over 100%. As with previous years, the top answer continues to be news, which works out well as it’s the main thing we post! Many of you also enjoy our blog updates (which covers every time we post, basically) and Community Creations series. Lots of you like our walkthroughs too, but we didn’t count them as posts since they’re not exactly blogs, but are separate pages! Anyway, we’re always looking out for cool bits from the Pop fandom to spotlight, so consider sending in a guest post, too. 🙂
Besides the PHB, what portions of the Poptropica Help Network (PHN) do you regularly browse?
Although a chunk of survey respondents opted not to answer this one, among those who did answer, the Poptropica Wiki continues to be the most popular of the non-PHB sites in the Poptropica Help Network. The other options were only about half as popular, but hey, consider them checking them out! Even with lower activity, these places still have some good content from the past to look back on, and the DeviantArt group in particular still gets new art entries fairly often!
What other Poptropica blogs/fansites do you frequently visit?
Go check them out! Keep in mind that these sites aren’t affiliated with the PHB, though, so we can’t be responsible for their content. And if you contribute to those spaces, keep it popping—you’re doing great!
Anything else you’d like to add?
For those of you who took the time to write in a comment at the end, we want to affirm that we read each one and appreciated the feedback! Some common themes were keeping the community spirit alive despite the lack of game updates, doing more interactive contests with fans, plus more special posts like fashion ideas (check out our Pop-over series!), Pop Places IRL, and even tribe wars (have you seen our Tribal Tournament?).
Here are a few of the comments we received below, to give you all a taste of the thoughtfulness behind the PHB community:
I really enjoyed the Poptropica trivia and the costume closet page. Please post more behind the scenes stuff if you get exclusive access to it. I really appreciated your blog back in the day, when Poptropica was way more active, but since it kinda died down due to the whole Adobe Flash situation, I started playing less and left for a long time, but alas, the quarantine brought me back. Just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your efforts in keeping the blog and the fanbase active despite Poptropica’s current status and decreasing popularity.
Anonymous
Thanks for those kind words, they mean a lot! For those who want to revisit our trivia, we post fun facts about each island at the end of all our Island Guides. You might learn something new! Plus, over the years we’ve created a lot of good stuff collected under our Pop Plus page, so check that out too. 🙂
I think we should focus more on maintaining our small community. Poptropica’s getting old as well as the audience. I think it’s best that we do more events, getting to know each other, and do activities. We could probably do some brainstorming via social media. I haven’t been in touch with the Poptropican Discord server because the last time I checked (which was probably a year ago), the server was kinda dead. I might try to see which places Poptropicans are the most active and figure out how we could gather up everyone and increase activity without things getting boring pretty quickly.
Also, we should make sure that the Poptropica creators are aware that us Poptropicans are still here waiting for new content. As well as there a plenty of us who are willing to volunteer for beta tests or what not. I hope that Poptropica will live long enough to become a legend that will continue on for generations like the Pokemon and Mario franchises. I think we as a community should play a part in trying to market Poptropica and get more people to join in. We could probably make up fan stories, legends, make more memes that are actually funny, and build connections within other communities so that they’ll get interested. I don’t know what else to think of. But I really don’t want to let go of another childhood memory. I’m proud to be a Poptropican veteran. Long Live Poptropica!
Popular Biker
We love our Poptropica community, and we’re glad to hear it from you guys too! If you’re looking to get plugged in, we’ve list some places on our Community page. Although our PHC Discord server isn’t as active as it used to be, we do post updates there from time to time, and Poptropicans can be found on other servers including the aforementioned Poptropica Club. And we’re still keeping the PHB active, including the comments sections!
The Poptropica Creators have mentioned in their posts that they’re listening to what players want, even suggesting that there may be future opportunities to beta-test their Haxe build. All the other suggestions about spreading the word are great too. As our survey results show, it’s true many in the fandom are also Poptropica veterans who have stuck around (or re-found the game) for nostalgia—which is a pretty powerful force. Long live Poptropica, indeed! 👑
The Creators brought back the classic islands by popular demand.
Contests are a pretty good way to keep people engaged in the game, it would be especially good now since people are staying inside and I have a feeling that they are bored. However the blog seems to be doing pretty well right now, especially with the lack of updates the creators are putting in. Keep doing what you guys are doing!
Kashews
Contests are always fun, and since several of you brought it up, we hope we can bring you more of them in the near future! Stay tuned; we just might have something planned… 😉
Thanks for tuning into our PHB survey results, and we’ll see you next time!
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 