Author: Slanted Fish

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!
Advertisements, Social Media

A gram of Hare and ad-ception

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! It’s Dr. Fish—uh, Slanted Hare—uhh, whatever; somebody with a funky animal name and honorific that only #RealPoptropicans would understand.

For those of you on the ‘gram, you might like to know that the PHB is now on Instagram, too! Well, sort of. We’re letting our fluffy friend Dr. Hare run the show:

insta

Dr. Harvey Hare, as any #RealPoptropican can tell from the profile, holds a PhB degree in Poptropica help, so I daresay he’s qualified to post his hare-y selfies while offering Poptropica updates and other tidbits on our new PHB feed. Plus, he just won “Best Poptropica Worlds Character” in this year’s Poppies, and he’s pretty proud of the fact!

Charming, is he not? Give him a follow on Instagram @PoptropicaHare!

In other events… while enjoying some good old Poptropica Multiverse at the Poppies party last weekend, I came across something a little odd… are you seeing it, too?

adception

Ads for Poptropica… while playing Poptropica! And not just one, or two, but three of them! Now I’m not sure whether this is desperate, or sad, or funny, or perhaps a mixture of all three… but it does seem rather excessive.

Anyway, these are the latest shenanigans on Poptropica. Let us know what you think in the comments, follow us @PoptropicaHare on insta, and as always, keep on popping!

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Contests, Poppies

Reflecting on 10 Years of PHB, and a Recap of Poppies 2018 🎉

Slanted Fish

recap poppies2018

A message from Slanted Fish, creator of the PHB

Wow. Ten years. A whole decade of the PHB.

Ten years since a little girl of 11 (me from the past) discovered the untaken WordPress URL that started this blog — poptropica.wordpress.com. Ten years since the release of Super Power Island, the fifth Poptropica island, and the first island to get a guide on the PHB. Ten years since she started blogging about a then-small game and clicking publish, many times over—the words traveling from an apartment in Hong Kong to reach millions of kids all over the world. The rest, as they say, is history.

We’ve shared a lot of fun memories over the years—this blog has celebrated in Poptropica parties like the one we just had, hosted contests (like the Poppies), and gotten to talk with some cool Pop Creators. We’ve brought you exciting news of island releases over 50 times and grieved with you when Poptropica wasn’t shaping up. And we’ve had the delight of sharing your amazing creations, making meme faces out of your Poptropicans, publishing your guest posts, hanging out on the chat… and more.

Perhaps it sounds clichéd, but it’s much more than I dreamed of when I first started blogging. I simply started out of a desire to write—to help others with the power of words, which I put into guides that, back then, didn’t even have pictures; to share a joy for a simple game that I watched become a pretty big and beautiful enterprise. I couldn’t imagine where it would go, and I still don’t know where it will go. And that’s okay.

Ten years ago a kid who’d just finished elementary school started a website for fellow kids to share in a common joy. Today I’m just a couple of semesters shy of an English degree, in part because this community gave me a platform to nurture a little creativity and love for the written word. And I hope it’s been a place of joy for you, too.

Thank you to every Poptropican out there who’s been a part of the PHB journey. It’s been pretty great, and 32 million views later, we’re still making history. There is good in the world, and we can all be a part of it. Here’s to a poppin’ decade. ❤️

Slanted Fish
Editor-in-chief, Poptropica Help Blog

During the party, the PHB staff hosted a livestream to announce the winners of this year’s Poppies. You can revisit it in the video above, or look down for the results:

And the Poppies Awards for 2018 go to…

That’s 10 for 10 years, folks! Thanks for all your nominations, votes, joining us at the party—and, even if you didn’t do those things, thanks, at least, for being a part of the Poptropica community and our PHB adventures. We’re glad you’re here. 💙

Best Fan Art nominee gallery

One visual representation of the wonder of the Pop community is the fan art it produces. To celebrate that, we’re including this gallery of this year’s “Best Fan Art” nominees:

“Alice and Fierce Fox” by POP-whitewolf
“Train to Zomberry Island” by ANNE14TCO
“i bet y’all weren’t expecting THIS” by napstachill
“Pisces” by ArtisticAsianBunny
“The Flight” by happyclonetrooper
“The day he lost everything” by epiphxny
“Black Widow” by Happy Lobster
“POP: .:S A V E T H E W O R L D:.” by criaha

Thanks for popping by on the Poptropica Help Blog!

Here’s to ten years. Cheers. 🍻

— the PHB —

 

Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Can Poptropica Original stick around?

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Zippy Paw, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post she’ll be exploring the question of how and whether Pop Original will last. Enjoy!

poporiginal stickaround

Hi! I’m Zippy Paw and I’m here to share my thoughts on this matter. As most readers probably know, Poptropica Original is probably going to fade away in 2020 with the retirement of Adobe Flash Player. Or will it?

How Poptropica Original can survive through a new platform

Poptropica is far from the only game built on Adobe Flash Player. There are many other games that run on this program too, and they need to find solutions to stick around.

Some games are creating a new program to support their digital multiverse, like making applications that can be downloaded to your computer, so that you don’t even have to go on any website at all. Poptropica has made Poptropica Worlds with a new technology called Unity. I tweeted @Poptropica and they said this:

​It definitely is possible that they just might be talking about Poptropica Worlds, but what interests me is that they said “Poptropica.com” and not “Poptropica.com/Worlds.” They also said “a lot of great technology has come out.” Could this mean that Poptropica might run on another program instead of Flash or Unity?

How Poptropica Original can survive through Poptropica Worlds

Poptropica Worlds was definitely worth the wait. Lots of new features were introduced: hands, a new house, plus you can buy costume parts instead of buying the whole outfit!

Plus, a new version of 24 Carrot Island made it into Poptropica Worlds. Why mention this? Well, 24 Carrot Island is the first (and so far only) island from Poptropica Original to be in Poptropica Worlds. Back when SUIs (sound-updated islands) were being made, 24 Carrot Island was the first island to get a larger screen and have sound incorporated. This was huge for Poptropica, as it used to have no sound and a smaller screen.

Could other Poptropica islands from the Original be back in Worlds? After all, soon after Beta Carrotene (the SUI 24 Carrot), other islands followed in its footsteps: Time Tangled Island, Mythology Island, Shrink Ray Island—getting the bigger screen and sound. Will there be more? Who knows?

Why Poptropica Original should and should not stay

Poptropica Original has its pros and cons. First, let’s take a look at the pros of keeping Poptropica Original:

  • Lots of hard work and effort were already put into the islands in the Original Poptropica. No reason to throw it all away.
  • There’s much more content in Poptropica Original than Poptropica Worlds.
  • Poptropica Original is still enjoyed by many players.
  • It looks like there will be a future update added to Poptropica Original, so why still bother if the game will be gone in two years?

And the cons of keeping Poptropica Original:

  • Managing two games could be tricky; if one is on its way down, then maybe it’s best to let it go.
  • Poptropica Worlds has a lot of potential and should become the dominant game.
  • 24 Carrot Island is in Poptropica Worlds. This could mean we might get more islands from Poptropica Original, so if we do get more, why keep Poptropica Original in the end if both games turn out to have the same amount of content?

That’s all for now! Have a nice day and stay poppin’!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Zippy Paw! Leave a comment with your thoughts.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!

Guest Posts, Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Bring Original Features Back

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Tallmeloniscool, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post he’ll be talking about what features he wants to see returned to Pop Original. Enjoy!

Pop Petition Header

For all the talk of focusing on Poptropica Worlds as the future of Poptropica, the Creators are still updating the original Poptropica. This strikes me as a bad move—once Flash goes away, won’t all these updates not matter anymore?

I’m not sure why they’re still updating Poptropica Original—maybe they don’t have enough Unity coders working on Worlds?—but since they haven’t let it go just yet,  here are the features I’d really like to see return to the original Pop.

#1: Bring back Realms

zrealms-background

Lots of people want Poptropica Realms to return. I see people in YouTube comments, the Poptropica Help Chat, and many other places wishing that Realms was brought back. Comments like this: “I have never been to Poptropica Realms, it looks really fun” or “I really wanted to finish my house.”

What I find even worse is that the Poptropica Creators never told us why Realms is down or when it is going to be fixed. So if fixing Realms is going to take longer than it already has, then the Creators should at least make a blog post on the Creators’ Blog saying what’s wrong with Realms.

#2: Bring back the old visual map

596a4-ghoststorymap

If you’ve been playing Poptropica for a few years, you might remember on the non-SUIs, you had this map where you can see where you were on the island. But when the Poptropica Creators made it so that the SUI (sound-updated island) menu shows on the non-SUI islands, it ended up removing the classic maps and replacing them with the home map where you choose islands.

What I recommend to the Poptropica Creators is to change it so when you click on the map it would show the old visual map. Then add a new button that teleports you to the home map. That way we Poptropicans can have the old map, and a way to instantly go to the home map.

#3: Fix the way the islands are organized on the home map

newmap2

The way the islands are currently organized on the home map needs some fixing. For example, Mission Atlantis (a medium-hard island) is in the easy category, while Early Poptropica and Shark Tooth (two of the easiest islands!) are listed among the challenging islands. Also, the adventure category could definitely list more than four islands.

This “Map Mishaps” PHB post from a year ago covers more of the issues present that are still crying out to be re-done.

#4: Add a way to answer pop quizzes

quiz

When the home screen changed so that it took you straight to Home Island as opposed to the old home screen, Poptropicans could not access the home screen and answer the pop quizzes anymore. What will a new Poptropican do to get these quizzes?

My solution would be to bring the quizzes to the Home Island billboard, so we’d have another reason to log in again!

#5: Bring back old store items & costumes

store4

In my opinion, the Poptropica Creators took a real step backward by removing so many old store items, even though they’re rotating the stock every month. Why? Considering that Poptropica Original won’t be playable after the year 2020, what they should do is add back as many store items as possible—all the limited time items and costumes, and even ones that were forgotten.

This would allow old players to feel nostalgic about these old items in the game, and for the newer players to experience the old and limited time items. Though this may degrade the rarity value of some items/costumes, since Poptropica Original is not going to last forever, I really think this does not matter. What matters more is that we get to enjoy this version of Poptropica while it lasts!

So that’s the end of my guest post on the PHB. I hope that you enjoyed and agreed, and I hope you have a great day. BYE!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Tallmeloniscool! If you did, be sure to check out another guest post of his: Pop 5: Ideas for Multiplayer Features.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our Write for the PHB page. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!

Big Nate Island, Sneak Peeks

Storefront sketches and the gate to Big Nate

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, Slanted Fish here, with two bits of news. 🐠

The first is this: another sneak peek! Yup, soon after the Creators posted a sketch of a pet barn on their blog, we find another view of the same scene posted on their Instagram. This one includes a movie theater (hopefully it’ll be better than the current one), store (which we’re familiar with), and the aforementioned pet barn. Check it out:

barn peek2

The caption on Instagram offers some insight into the island creation process:

Ever wonder how games like Poptropica are made? It all starts with our artists working on lots of concepts like this one! Once a design is chosen, it’s redrawn in Photoshop! Stay tuned for more behind the scenes pics! 🎨

And the comments reveal a little more. A commenter (hiskeyblade) asked, “Do you guys start just random doodles after you figure out a plot of a world?”

To which the Creators replied: “We do! We also create mood boards with photos of real places and other inspiration!”

Pretty cool to hear about — it’d be great to learn more about their creative process, and the prospect of seeing more behind-the-scenes pics is one we can all look forward to!

Now for the second shocker: there’s a good chance that Big Nate Island, which is currently locked for members only, will be unlocked for all to play! See for yourself:

The hundred-plus comments received on the Creators’ proposal on Instagram are overwhelmingly in favor (albeit with some repeat “votes”).

As it should be! Poptropicans who hear about the sponsored islands being made members only are still as salty as Cap’n Salty’s about it as the day the news broke three years ago. With Poptropica Original likely to fade by the end of 2020, perhaps all features should be made free — better that more of us get to enjoy it than not at all, right?

That’s all for this post, but be sure to scroll down the blog for more news. We’ve had a lot going on in the Poptropica sphere lately!

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