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!
PHB Parties

Recap: PHB’s 25M & Summer Kickoff 2016 Party!

Slanted Fish

phb party summer16

Hey Poptropicans… IT’S SUMMER*! (*Or winter, for those of you in the southern half of the world!)

Earlier this week, the PHB kicked off the summer* solstice (and simultaneously, celebrated our recent milestone of 25 million site views) with a Poptropica party that we invited everyone to check out. As you can tell from the collage above, it was a fire-cracking blast! 🌴🎉

The party took place on the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat – the PHB’s chat hangout on Discord, the first time we’ve had a PHB party since moving chat servers!) and of course, several Multiverse party rooms on Poptropica! After counting down to the official start of summer*, the festivities began with lots of chatting on our Discord server and Multiverse rooms for everyone to add friends and challenge each other in head-to-head game battles. Of course, we also blasted off lag-inducing special effects like fireworks, shamrocks, and even umbrellas to shade from the summer sun!

Lots of Poptropicans showed up, and it was great to see both regulars and new faces as well! Several PHB authors joined in the fun as well – Mighty Gamer, Brave Tomato, Spotted Dragon, Ylimegirl, and yours truly (Slanted Fish) were there. But the biggest celebrity of the party popped in about two hours into the festivities: Poptropica Creator and social media manager Skinny Moon!

As you can imagine, she was floored with messages, and for the hour that she stayed, the party turned into a Creator Q&A session, Strawberry Moon Party Edition! You can read all about it in this PHB post.

strawberry moon

Other highlights of the party include Poptropican doodle requests being taken by Pop fan-artist Ruby (criaha) – can you find some in the recap pic above? – and attempts to push down the tree in the enchanted forest Multiverse, reminiscent of the legendary Club Penguin iceberg tipping. We didn’t get that tree to fall, but we sure got a lot of Poptropicans in on the action!

To get a feel of a typical PHB party, check out TallMelonisCool’s video by clicking here. In it, he records his computer screen while enjoying the party, from chatting on our PHC Discord server to battling Poptropicans in Multiverse rooms! You can skip around the video of course, and although the video is under an hour long, this party went on for several hours, with Poptropicans coming and going!

Anyway, that wraps up this party recap. Thanks to all of you who came to celebrate, and for those who couldn’t: don’t worry, there will be more opportunities in the future! Plus, the PHC is always open for Poptropicans to hang out in, to Poptropica and chill – so pop on by!

🌴 Thanks for 25 million hits here on the PHB! 🎉

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER*!

– the PHB team –

Creators, PHB Parties, Uncategorized

Creator Q&A: Strawberry Moon Party Edition!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Did you get to enjoy the Strawberry Moon last night? 🍓🌔

Well, I sadly didn’t see it in my part of the world – but for those who attended the PHB’s 25M Hits & Summer* Kickoff Party (*or winter solstice, for those in the southern hemisphere), we were treated to a different, but very special, type of Moon: Poptropica Creator Skinny Moon! Which brings us to this…

strawberry moon

Yup, just a week after our impromptu Discord Q&A session with Skinny Moon, she’s back at it again to meet and greet more fans online! In this post, we’re reprinting most of the questions and answers that took place, so everyone has the chance to check it out. Note that this post is a little long and does not recap the party itself, which will have its own separate PHB post!

Skinny Moon showed up for about an hour, between around 8:40-9:50pm EST, taking questions she could answer (generally, not much could be revealed yet about New Poptropica) from those who were online. As she was on her iPhone, she could not join any of our Multiverse rooms, but it was still a fun time! Check out the Q&A below!

By the way, if you have a question for SM, you can let her know by tagging her on Twitter or other social media (if you don’t have any, message a PHB staffer on the PHC to ask them to pass it on!).

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Poptropica Game Questions

“Sorry everyone, I can’t answer most of these questions. Plans for current Pop and New Pop are still top-secret! There are so many questions I’m just going to answer the ones I can and not responding to the ones I can’t answer.”

PoptropicaPerfectSky: Hey Skinny Moon, I don’t know if you can answer this but will we be able to access our old store items in the new Poptropica?
Skinny Moon: Don’t know that yet, sorry!

Jumpy Feather aka MP: What would the new poptropicans look like in the new pop?
Skinny Moon: That’s still top secret. 😉

Shaky Skunk: Will our clothing be accessible? Like my cool shirt
Skinny Moon: Can’t give out info yet on current/new Poptropica specifics.

Cool Octopus: When will Poptropicans get an eye color change?
Skinny Moon: Can’t comment.

Slanted Fish: How involved is Jeff Kinney with Poptropica?

Skinny Moon: Jeff is involved with every creative decision. If it’s important, he’s involved with it!

Silver Wolf: Is there a possibility more Poptropican names will be added?
Skinny Moon: Yes I think there will be more in the New Pop.

WITHER STORM: Will E. Vile come back?
PoptropicaPerfectSky: Personally, I’d love if Ringmaster Raven came back.
Skinny Moon: I told the team that there are lots of requests to bring villains back! They like the idea (but no guarantees)!

Hyper Gamer: Are nonmembers every going to be allowed to submit realms?
Skinny Moon: Hmmmm, I don’t know. Sorry!

SydVC: How will our current accounts be “transferred” to new Poptropica? Will they basically be the same?
Skinny Moon: Can’t comment on plans for new Pop yet.

WITHER STORM: Any new Pop Quizzes? Because I haven’t seen any in 2 years.
Skinny Moon: I will ask my team! (*later response: “Prob no new Pop Quizzes anytime soon. Working on some NEW cool social features for the New Pop!”)

Pastelia: Why did you guys decide to design the characters like that?
Skinny Moon: Good question. I will ask! (*later response: “Pop characters weren’t designed in a particular way for a particular reason – that’s the design the original Creators liked in the end!”)

Yandari~Sama: Will there be any Create Your Own Island again?
Skinny Moon: Not sure, I will ask! I have a much smaller contest coming soon, though! (*later response: “Probably not another Create Your Own Island contest anytime soon. I am launching a much smaller-scale but definitely fun contest this week!”)

Sammeh (Samwow5): How many islands approx will be coming out the rest of the year? I have found over the years that Poptropica islands have decreased every year and I’m wondering if they might increase again soon also ;p
Skinny Moon: I can’t say anything about that. I know this year hasn’t been typical but we are going to launch cool stuff on current Pop and new islands will come to the New Pop!

“About Skinny Moon” Questions

“I’m on Twitter a lot. I do get TONS of messages and am tagged a lot, so I may not respond – but I see your tweets!!!”

Hyper Gamer: What made you want to be a Creator?
Skinny Moon: I started out managing Galactic Hot Dogs blog and social media. Poptropica asked me to take on their social media too, and I was thrilled to!

shirokurokuma: What role did you play in creating Poptropica?
Skinny Moon: I didn’t create Pop – I started working with the company in January 2015.

Shaky Skunk: Are you evil? like are you the true Poptropica villain
Skinny Moon: Not one bit evil. Pretty nice, actually. 😀😀😀

shirokurokuma: SM, do you know where the name Poptropica came from? Have you watched any Perfect Sky movies? If so, which ones, and how did you like them?
Skinny Moon: I’m not 100% sure but I’m almost positive Jeff Kinney came up with the name. It’s his creation!

PoptropicaPerfectSky: Do you watch Poptropica videos?
Skinny Moon: I watch some videos. Best way for me to notice videos and blog posts is to tag me on Twitter!

Yandari~Sama: Have you watched Balloons by Perfect Sky? If so, what did you think of it?
Skinny Moon: I haven’t seen a @PoptropicaPerfectSky movie. Tag me on Twitter and link to one!

redpanda1677: Do you know Jeff Kinney?
Skinny Moon: The first time I met Jeff Kinney was when I interviewed him during the launch of the MOTM book. As you can imagine he is SUPER busy. But when I have a question he finds time to answer my email. He is a super nice guy!

idk: Are you in constant contact with the developers of Poptropica?
Skinny Moon: Yes, we talk every day. We use an app called Slack for communicating and have daily video conferences.

InnerBeast(CO): How did you get a job at Poptropica headquarters?
Skinny Moon: I knew someone who worked there who told me about the job opening, and I applied and got it!

Ruby: Who is your favorite villain in Poptropica?
Skinny Moon: Captain Crawfish, my blog buddy – naturally!!!

Hyper Gamer: Why are you the only creator who joins things like Discord chat, comment on PHB?
Skinny Moon: I’m the social media manager so this is kinda my thing. 😀

Slanted Fish: What’s a typical day in the life of the Pop social media manager? 😄
Skinny Moon: Oh wow. Every day is different. I check all out social media channels (not just Poptropica), manage email, think about what to post, attend meetings, plan fun things for the community, write blog posts, read people’s comments and questions and ask the team for answers when I don’t know the answer… Right now I’m planning a fun contest for the summer, too!

Slanted Fish: Are the meetings online or in the Poptropica HQ?
Skinny Moon: The team is all over the country – even out of country – so meetings are in HQ and virtual.

InnerBeast (CO): Do you have a private office in the Pop headquarters?
Skinny Moon: No, I am not located at HQ.

Yandari~Sama: Can you promise more visits soon?
Skinny Moon: I can’t promise anything but I don’t see why I wouldn’t visit more! 😀

DJScratchStep: Just a random question, what’s your favorite fast food chain? XD had nothing else
Skinny Moon: I have a weakness for McDonald’s fries and cheeseburgers. Lol. It’s an occasional treat. 😉

Yandari~Sama: Will you be my Senpai?
Skinny Moon: I’m honored! I wish I could! 😀

Hyper Gamer: What do you like to do when you’re not working on Poptropica?
Skinny Moon: I like to write, read, and hang out with my family and friends!

PoptropicaPerfectSky: Do you ever just hang out in common rooms or multiverse rooms?
Skinny Moon: Yes!

WITHER STORM: When did you make your Skinny Moon account?
Skinny Moon: I think this past August.

Silver Flame: What is your favorite island?
Skinny Moon: I like MOTM a lot! Choosing a fave island is like asking me which kid is my fave.

Slanted Fish: How did you decide on the name Skinny Moon? Do you like it or would you change it?
Skinny Moon: I took the first name Poptropica gave me. I liked it! Seemed very “Poptropica.”

shirokurokuma: Do you like Danganronpa?
Skinny Moon: I haven’t seen/read it, sorry!

PoptropicaPerfectSky: Do you ever add people on Poptropica if they tell you their usernames?
Skinny Moon: Sure, I’ll add people!

Ruby: Silly question, but do any of the islands tug at your heart strings?
Skinny Moon: Lots do!!!

And perhaps the best Q&A of all…

TechWizard: Do you like Pringles?
Skinny Moon: OMG OF COURSE

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At about 9:50pm EST, Skinny Moon wrapped up her time on the PHC with, “Okay, I have to go. Sorry I can’t answer all questions! This was fun!!!” It was indeed! Thanks for popping by on this night of the Strawberry Moon, and thanks to everyone who participated!

Also, you may notice that a few of the questions have a “later response” tagged onto them in parentheses – at about 11am EST the following day, Skinny Moon popped back on the chat to deliver some answers to questions she wanted to get back to, which you can see above.

She also added, in response to a question Young Hippo asked her privately: “Yes, Lunar Colony and Mission Atlantis are connected – they have the same alien race.” Pretty interesting! Signing off, she messaged on the PHC, “I have to go – lots to do today – have a great day everyone!!!”

Thanks for checking out this Q&A! Hope you enjoyed all the insights Skinny Moon provided both about herself and Poptropica, and hope you’ll check out (or continue to visit) the PHC – you never know what friendly faces you might meet! If you were at the PHB party, thanks for coming – a recap will be made in a separate post on the PHB, so be on the lookout for that!

As always, stay popping, Poptropicans!

– 🌊 slantedfish 🐠 –

Advertisements, Crisis Caverns Island, Nintendo DS Game

Teen Titans Go for a Crossover Show

Slanted Fish

✨ Hey Poptropica heroes! ✨

There’s a new common room ad on Home Island’s Main Street for the upcoming Cartoon Network television crossover special event between Teen Titans Go & Powerpuff Girls – aptly titled Heroes vs. Heroes; or, as one might point out, Reboot vs. Reboot. Thanks to Yujo_Jacy_the_Jumpy_Coyote for the ad write-up, and both Yujo and Hyper Gamer for the pictures!

The advertisement seems to restricted in some way, since it is possible you may not see it at all.

Poptropica Heroes! vs Heroes ad

The waves at the bottom are animated, even allowing your Poptropican to swim. Clicking on Beast Boy’s snail form at the top right corner will give every Poptropican in the room a temporary Beast Boy floatie, which will vanish once you leave the Common Room.

ttg

Grabbing Cyborg’s Foot at the bottom left will earn you the Teen Titans Costumes item and grabbing Beast Boy’s fish form will earn you the Beast Boy Power. The Teen Titans Costumes item allows access to costumes of Robin, Cyborg, and Raven respectively. The Beast Boy Power is a hand held item that will display Beast Boy transformations of either a dog, a gorilla, or a tyrannosaurus rex once spacebar is pressed.

Poptropica Heroes! vs Heroes prizes

Oddly enough, both items are Teen Titans Go themed – even clicking on the outside of the ad will link to a Teen Titans Go webpage. Perhaps the Powerpuff Girls already had their fair share of advertising items from their last appearance on Poptropica.

In addition, Poptropica glitcher WimpyKidFan has been able to load the ad into Poptropica Realms- albeit on a blank dark blue background.

On the subject of ads, Poptropica Creator Skinny Moon has been hanging out in Home Island’s Arcade common room with Poptropicans wearing the Finding Dory ad prizes! Check out her tweet:

In other news, Poptropica glitcher idk recently shared with us some item cards from the currently-cancelled Crisis Caverns Island: a button for the fictional Caldera State Park and an Island Medallion.

Also, Cool Octopus recently found a way to play the Poptropica Adventures DS game on his iOS device (such as iPhone). To do so, you will need to download a DS emulator for your device and find the Poptropica Adventures game from there.

Here at the Poptropica Help Blog, we have not tested this option, but it does appear to be possible, and if you would like to try it out, try this guide for downloading Nintendo DS games on iOS.

Anyway, don’t forget about the PHB Summer Kickoff Party this Monday on the PHC – more details in our invitation post! We hope to see many of you there!

Stay popping!

–slantedfish 🌊🐠

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Lucky Snowball

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Lucky Snowball, a frequent commenter within the PHB community. See the bottom of this post for details on sending in your own MPIP!

luckysnowballmpip

2013 | Cautious Discovery

One day in third grade, I was playing on Funbrain, and after losing many times on the game Mighty Guy, I was utterly bored. So, as the story goes, I looked around the site and found Poptropica. I was always warned by my parents not to click on ads, so I was cautious for a day or two. Then, finally, I just thought, oh, what the heck, and I clicked on Poptropica.

I made my first avatar, but at the time I was sort of clueless, and I didn’t figure out how to save my game until a month later. In that time, I had made many many accounts (of which none were saved). Finally, I finished Zomberry Island and Early Poptropica, and I really wanted to save my game, because I was happy with my progress. I looked around for a way to save my account and finally made one. I believe my username had something to do with my pet parakeet, but I’m not sure…

Anyway,  I remember nothing about this account. No, wait. I remember, I finished all the islands up to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (This was quite a while ago, so all the islands were still open to non-members.)

2014 | Boredom Leads The Way

I am sorry to say, that after discovering Poptropica, I became almost completely inactive on Poptropica for about half a year. I got into a new game called Animal Jam that me and all my friends played. By this time, I was in fourth grade. Our school district had chosen our class for a pilot experiment where they gave us all Chromebook laptops. Then, one day, Animal Jam was blocked, and in my boredom, I rediscovered Poptropica.

I convinced some of my friends to do a Multiverse with me. Since I had forgotten my first account, I made a new one, happyhappy760, one of which I still use today. The avatar’s name first came out as Dizzy Lizard, and I thought it was a good name, but not great. Finally, after a million”change all”s, I plunged back into Poptropica as Lucky Snowball.

2015 | Discovering the PHB

By 2015, I was an avid player, and I was pretty smart, so I solved most the islands by myself. But, when I finally attempted Steamworks Island, my mind went blank. So, I looked up guides on the internet, and I found the Poptropica Help Blog. At that point in my life, I really did not understand blogging, so whenever I came across the blog, I would think, This is annoying, why do the pages keep changing? Finally, a friend explained to me how it worked, and I started to really like the PHB.

I also discovered Keith Sammut’s Poptropica glitches blog, which I also really liked. Finally, I decided to make my own blog. It’s called The Poptropican Journalist.

Anyway, I grew to really love the PHB. I found myself checking for new posts twice a day, until finally I restricted myself and said, hey, I’ve got to stop – I’ll check every other day. 😛 Also, thanks to the PHB’s fantastic guides, I’ve finished every island! Basically, the PHB was my one and only guide to Poptropica for a long time (and then I discovered Poptrickia and other blogs, and I got hooked on various Poptropica fansites because of the awesome stories. I was so looking forward to Giant Hawk’s Adventures! 😦 ).

2016 | Today, And Why Things Are the Way They Are…

(That was a long heading!) Today, I still avidly play Poptropica. Middle school, pets, and priorities take up a lot of my time – but, I still find that free time to play (until ten at night), and it (almost) never gets boring.

As for “why things are the way they are”… First, I’ll explain my costume. It sort of looks like a punk-angel pirate. I primarily liked this because it was a fusion of my absolute favorite Poptropica costumes: the Angel, the Biker, and the Skullduggery Pirate. (I find the pirate rather creepy actually, considering the fact it has a weird skull face…)

It also sort of describes myself. I feel like sort of like a devil/angel. I am very nice most of the time, but when things go wrong, I jump in, looking for adventure. (I know that sounds cheesy.) Like, because that’s what a pirate does. Always looking out for things to do. I’m also a part of the Wildfire tribe, which I really like, because of the grand piano in the common room. That’s literally the only reason I joined. 😛

Also, these days, I write lots of stories, about many different things in Poptropica. I wrote about Speedy Sam’s past, Lucky Snowball’s adventures, and my brother Short Eagle’s adventures. That’s about it for My Place in Poptropica!

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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). Look out for more community MPIPs in the future!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Squeezy Starfish

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Squeezy Starfish, a Poptropica player who likes the sponsored islands and creating good outfits. See below for details on sending in your own MPIP!

squeezystarfish

2012 | What’s this?

It was Friday Fun at school. I was in the computer lab, playing around on the running game QWOP. The teacher then told us a few websites we could go on: Sumdog, i-Ready, or Poptropica. The first two I knew were educational game sites, but what was Poptropica? Being the curious person I was, I googled it. I clicked on it and a bunch of characters ran across my screen.

I created a new character for myself, going through the names, not the outfits. I got Squeezy Starfish, which I thought went together pretty well. My beginning outfit was *violent shudder* me with my hair back in a green headband, a heart shirt, and a skirt. As you can assume, I didn’t like it.

But I shrugged and went along, my friend guiding me throughout the entire thing. He taught me about the pop quizzes, and saving your account, and the islands. The first island I wanted to try out was Red Dragon Island since I liked Magic Treehouse, the Wimpy Kid islands being the next since I liked those as well. And oh gee, that was a bad choice. Red Dragon’s actually one of my least favorite islands to this day. Now, I never really knew what I was doing, but I played around and switched islands all the time.

2013 | A Re-Discovery

Boom! After that day, I didn’t play at all. Until a day in 2013 when I was cleaning out my backpack, in small illegible handwriting on a post-it note, there lay my username (cs84910), and my password. At the bottom there were big bubbly letters with the words Poptropica on them. And so I went on my cousin’s computer and started playing.

Oh look, fetus Clare (Clare’s my real name) actually wanted to finish Red Dragon. But oh well, she couldn’t get past the bonsai tree part and still can’t to this day. Oh look, fetus Clare wanted to finish Wimpy Wonderland. But oh well, she couldn’t get past Twisted Wizard and still can’t to this day. You see, I’m not the most committed person. However, I surprisingly got past Wimpy Boardwalk.

I didn’t try out any of the other islands, since I just liked the books and wanted to do only those islands. Also, during this time, I finally got a non-cringey outfit and got rid of the bad hair for a wavy hairdo and a light blue kimono from Red Dragon. Then there was a small period of time that I forgot about Poptropica once more.

2014-2015 | The Year of Poptropica

I had stumbled across a website called the Poptropica Help Blog and remembered about Poptropica. I had also friended a lot of my friends on Poptropica. By this time, I was a *cough* emo nerd who considered herself a rebel… but that doesn’t matter right now. So I looked around the PHB. THESE PEOPLE KNEW HOW TO COMPLETE ALL THE ISLANDS?!?!?!?

From then on, I went on Poptropica as much as I could and tried to complete all the islands. And I almost did. Halfway through my island adventure, BOOM! I forgot about the sponsored islands and now I can’t finish them because I don’t think I really want to be a member. I was disappointed.

Oh, and look, Clare got an outfit that was even less cringey! A blue superhero suit and a blue beret! And… holding her signature fish. Also in this period, I made three more accounts. Cuddly Panda (tylerandjoshdunit), Spotted Fox (bluecrayon410), and one where I used an ASG on Red Lizard (poopyunicorn123). After this, I got an even less cringey outfit. The Hermione Granger costume and the Aqua Hipster costume (from the PHB Costumes page) combined! Yay.

Since Clare is a person who gives up easily, she never finished Red Dragon, Astro-Knights, Skullduggery, or any of the sponsored seven besides Wimpy Boardwalk.

2016 and beyond | ???

If I’m being honest, I think I’ll lose interest pretty soon. But that’s okay! I’ll still visit the PHB for funny posts and try to complete the mentioned islands. If the Creators keep going with islands, I hope they’ll make a Harry Potter one or a Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus one. (Hey Creators, if you decide to do a Heroes of Olympus one, be sure to include my bae Leo – What? I didn’t say that hahaha… *awkwardly slides away*)

Welp, thanks for reading Clare’s MPIP, and – goTTA BLAST!

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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). Look out for more community MPIPs in the future!

~the PHB.