Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, I’d like to introduce you to some new friends…

Previously, we reported on the “Pick a Character” feature in Poptropica’s HAXE Javascript build. But we hadn’t mentioned that each of these guys have their own names—and now, their own poses! Meet the gang:

“Wild Fire” on the new “Pick a Character” screen

(Thanks to PHB reader Perfect Fish for the tip.)

Wild Fire, who shares a name with a Poptropolis Games tribe, is rocking a big puff of orange hair. Beside him is Pink Crush, with the pink ponytail. Then there’s Got Game, who’s got a big afro and a big smile, and Old School, who’s dancing with a tuft of swishy purple hair over their eyes.

Cool Slice is out here flexing a snazzy plaid overshirt, and Girl Power is just staring defiantly, daring you to challenge her. Finally, there’s Fast Ride with the shades, and happy-go-lucky Love Star with the slight blush.

You can’t see these names from the character selection screen—which as we mentioned last time, no longer allows you to pick a name—but you can find them on the Avatar Studio (which may soon be obsolete, as it requires Flash) when you save a HAXE Javascript character and look up their username.

PHB reader Perfect Fish also reported seeing the URL change depending on the character picked, like so: poptropica.com/haxe/master-minified-200421-1657/?npc_name=FastRide (and “FastRide” is replaceable with any of the other aforementioned names, no spaces). You can also enter these URLs in your web browser to go directly to playing with certain characters.

And by the way, you might find that the “pick a character” screen now dominates the Poptropica.com homepage. (For me, it showed up on one web browser but not another.) Goodbye, “play for free” button!

All these bizarre yet seemingly permanent names, and now the added poses on these stock characters and URL integration, raises the question: are these pre-named, pre-designed characters here to stay?

On that idea, we’re ambivalent. Despite all the swagger these characters carry, this new feature takes away a key aspect of making a Poptropican one’s own: the naming. At the same time, though, it is convenient (especially for new players) to just be able to pick and play, and once you’re in the game, you’ll have options to customize your character the way you like it.

Since Poptropica on HAXE doesn’t have the friends feature yet, and Flash is making the Avatar Studio obsolete, we may be entering a time where Poptropicans’ names are inconsequential. But for us nostalgic older players, picking the perfect name for our Poptropicans among a list of strange but familiar nouns and adjectives was part of the fun. And if the names are going to show up anywhere (like the friends feature, if it comes to HAXE), having only a handful of possible names is going to be a little awkward.

Right now, if you want to create a character with more freedom in the naming process, there are a couple of options. You can try the Custom Name Genie from our Glitching page, which lets you make a character with just about any name you like. Or you can create one on Poptropica Worlds, which still lets you pick from a randomized list like old times. (Update: There’s a third option—you can still pick a name on the mobile app.)

That’s the latest in Poptropica’s post-Flash development. Share your thoughts in the comments—about your favorite HAXE character, the story behind your Poptropican’s name, or your conspiracy theory on why Poptropica seems to be foregoing player names. Or just petition to bring them back.

Till next time, keep on popping on, Poptropicans!

~/🐠

Haxe Javascript

The adventures begin in Haxe Javascript

April 10, 2020 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Remember back in February when the Creators mentioned their Haxe Javascript project, which they’ve been working on since last year, and which would allow Poptropica to survive post-Flash?

So far, there hasn’t been much to see—but recent developments are showing signs of progress, or at least, experimentation. Let’s take a look!

Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build so far includes a limited Home Island, with some features like the Pet Barn, but missing others like the Arcade. It’s covered in fall leaves like the look we’ve seen in regular Poptropica, but this version is a bit emptier.

For some time now, the Haxe build has been accessible at a link that’s not too hard to guess: poptropica.com/haxe. Now, clicking on the “Play For Free” link on Poptropica’s homepage goes directly to this link, and players have been reporting some interesting features they’ve seen.

For starters, here’s a screenshot from Perfect Fish, showing daily login rewards of credits that increase as you keep up your login streak.

There’s also a new character selection screen, with about seven pre-designed characters you can pick from to hop into the game right away — no customization of name or appearance. (Thanks to Quick Fang for the tip.)

This “Pick a Character” screen used to be more similar to the one we’ve had since late 2018, but with different (one might say less appealing) colors of bright orange and purple. (Thanks goes to Scrooge200 for these screenshots.)

As seen above in the Home Island screenshots, your player clubhouse is among the features not yet ready in Poptropica’s Haxe. Still, a new clubhouse icon has popped up in the menu, replacing the friends icon. It might be a while before the friends feature is ready in this new Poptropica… 😢

If you visit the Haxe build at the link above, you’ll find that the map is looking even more sparse than usual: there are literally only 6 islands so far. (But don’t panic just yet—you can still find a more populated map by logging into the regular Poptropica, at poptropica.com/game.)

Along with Home Island, Snagglemast and 24 Carrot are counted as beginner islands, while “Adventures of Mystery” offers Survival 1, PoptropiCon 1, and just recently added for members only, Timmy Failure. (This is probably why they used the phrase “early access” when you click into it.)

But there is still one more page: the “Adventures of Deception,” which shows (unlabeled) Escape From Pelican Rock as coming soon. Silhouettes of two more islands can be seen on this page: Mythology up top and Shrink Ray on the right, by the looks of it. All these missing islands seem to suggest the Creators still have a long way to go with rendering AS3 (newer) islands into Haxe.

Survival 1 had me stuck in a never-ending loading loop over my character as soon as I’d crash-landed onto the island, and with this being the early stages, these few Haxe islands may still be working out bugs. Proceed with caution!

Poptropica in Haxe also brings in a couple of subtle changes to the iconography of in-game movement. When hovering over an entrance, the text that tells you what room you’re entering is now wrapped in a white bar, as opposed to the white outline on the text as before. Also, the movement arrow loses part of its white outline on the side facing your character.

That about wraps up what’s up in Poptropica’s Haxe so far. Not much, but not nothing, and with new features on the way, it seems!

Have you noticed anything else new in Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build? What islands do you hope will return next on the map? Share with us in the comments or contact us by email, Twitter, or Discord. Keep on popping on!

~/🐠

Store

April forecast: a weekly showering in store

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, April’s showering of store items is here—with a new twist?

A billboard on Home Island is promoting several springtime items now available in the store, with the promise that there will be “new stuff every week.” That weekly part is a first, since we’ve been getting monthly updates in the store for a couple years now.

In the store, we’ve got followers we’ve seen before from other places, such as last year’s Easter items: Chick, Narf, Mini Astroknight, Woodstock. Pranks this time are the Silly Streams, Egg Launcher, and Sneezing Powder. And in Miscellaneous, we have Hiking Shoes and a Marshmallow Roaster.

Some items from last month remain as well: in Powers, we still have Torch, Phantom, and Electrify; while in Costumes, there’s the Chomper, Red Heart, Clover Kid, Lilac Star, Wrestling Gear (boy and girl), and Prom King and Queen.

And if the billboard is any indicator, we’ll probably see the return of the pink bunny costume and pastel green dress in the coming weeks!

Stay tuned for updates to the store, as well as our next PHB post! Coming soon: we’ll be exploring the latest in Poptropica’s HAXE Javascript project…

~/🐠

Pranks

Flashy Fools: the real April 1st experience ⚡️

April 2, 2020April 2, 2020 Slanted Fish

Heeey Poptropicans! So you remember all that talk we posted yesterday about a grand PHB Flash Experience? Our little Flash game of homage to the pending doom of Flash and old school islands? Well, check your calendars…

Yup. So, April Fools! How long were you clicking to “allow Flash” and refreshing the page so you could play the game? Were you convinced that your computer just couldn’t handle Flash anymore? Did we fool you?

Whether our shenanigans had you flashing with anger at game that was never meant to load, or flushing with embarrassment for refreshing way too many times, we hope that, in the end, we can still make you flash a smile. So here, enjoy the behind-the-scenes of this year’s PHB prank.

Gentle Dolphin put a ton of work into making the preview scene of a glitching bridge in our prank post. Check out the stills behind the gif, from a peaceful Red Dragon Island scene to the world falling apart with game-breaking code.

In addition to the scenery, she also made plenty of outfit prototypes before settling on the final look of our invented villain, Addo B. Flash. (And yes, he even has the Flash logo in his design!) Addo also came with views from different angles when we introduced him, which was Gentle Dolphin’s idea to add to his legitimacy as a game character.

Which of these outfits do you like most? Were you bamboozled by the PHB Flash Experience, or cautiously suspicious through it all? We’d love to hear from you in the comments! Keep on popping, Poptropicans.

—the PHB—

p.s. Play the old school islands before Flash is truly gone, here.

p.p.s. Quarantined? We’ve come up with ideas for making the best of Poptropica in these bizarre times here.

Pranks

Once and for all: the PHB Flash Experience ⚡️

April 1, 2020April 2, 2020 Slanted Fish

Heeey Poptropicans, we’ve got a little surprise for you…

*Meet the evil meddler of worlds Addo B. Flash! Read on to find out what he’s up to… and how YOU can stop him.*

As you’re probably well aware by now, the oncoming end of Flash has done quite a number on Poptropica. It’s already killed Poptropica’s classic old school islands—and yes, you can still play them with this Old Island Directory. But in the official game, they aren’t coming back anytime soon.

Of course, here at the PHB, we couldn’t just let that happen without a proper goodbye! So, we’ve been working up a little something to pay homage to the many great classic islands that have gone before us, and now we’re ready to reveal this thing. What is it, you ask? We call it: the PHB Flash Experience.

Warning: The following experience contains bright, flashing imagery. It may cause discomfort for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

*Gahhh! What happened to the bridge on Red Dragon Island? That’s just a taste of the wreckage to come…*

The PHB Flash Experience a sweet RPG adventure (kind of like Poptropica!) where you travel around through different dimensions—from the clouds of the purple giant in Early Poptropica to the distant planet of E. Vile’s Legendary Swords battles—all in a noble quest to save them from perhaps the most nefarious villain of them all: Mr. Addo B. Flash, vanquisher of a zillion islands.

*The many sides of the devilish Addo B. Flash. He’s legit, y’all.*

You can play this epic PHB Flash Experience right here, right now on this PHB post in the blue box below. Of course, as the name implies, you’re going to have to enable Flash. But you already know how to do that, don’t you? 😉

Have fun, and hey, when you’re done with the game, share your feedback with us in the comments. 😜

—the PHB team—