Slanted Fish

Ready for some spooky action? Halloween is coming at the end of this month, and the new Lockwood & Co. ad on ad streets seems to be in the right spirit (I found it beside the mill in Survival Ep. 5).

Inside the building, once you find the three ghosts (in the rattling teapot to the right, the cracked mirror on the left, and rocking horse at the top) – you’ll win the Skull in a Jar follower, which says “I’m a skull in a jar” in a deep voice when you click on it. Creeeeeepy. 😛

Lockwood Co

By the way, you can also play a little interactive game for Lockwood & Co via this Poptropica page.

(UPDATE: The Creators’ Blog mentioned this little thing in their post about Lockwood – “Not a flamin’ skull, unfortunately, but you can’t have everything.” Could they, perhaps, be talking about the greatest Poptropica band of the days of yore? Hmm. 😉 We were pretty cool, but our glory days are over.)

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More behind-the-scenes from Twitter

Poptropica has been on a roll recently on Twitter, and over the past day they’ve released even more awesome behind-the-scenes (BTS) images! For even more BTS pics, see the PHB posts below.

Among the noteworthy are some early concept art for Arabian Nights characters, the frames of an animated sleeping dog for an “upcoming (and spooky)” ad (though not the Lockwood one above), and costumes for three monkeys and Jorge & Oliver from the official Poptropica comic strip.

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Props to you, Land owners

Lastly, Poptropica finally rolled out the anticipated furniture feature to Land earlier this week, and they’re calling it Props. Great for making your Land a little more homey! You can read more about it in our Poptropica Land guide, but we hope to update you guys with more specifics soon, so stay tuned. 🙂

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PoptropiCon, Ep. 2: description & poster

Thanks to Sneaky Panda for the tip that the description for the second episode of PoptropiCon (titled “Spoiler Alert”) is now up on the official Tour page! Here’s what it says:

The winner of the PoptropiCon costume contest will earn a one-of-a-kind prize. See if you can put together the ultimate villain outfit, but beware — the action at this convention is about to get real!

Looks like noon is approaching, and the cosplay contest is about to begin…

They’ve also added a new printable poster to the Tour page, and it looks pretty cool! You can view and click on it below. (thanks to Slippery Raptor for the tip!)

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Of course, the big news of this week is that Arabian Nights Island: Ep. 1 is now out for members, and for non-members, everyone can finally play Survival: Ep. 5! More info and helpful links about that in HPuterpop’s post. 😉 Have a great weekend, Poptropicans!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island, Galactic Hot Dogs Island

Unused ideas, upcoming islands, last Charlie post, & uncostumizables

October 2, 2014April 6, 2015 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! The following is a series of Poptropica news tidbits involving some unused ideas, future islands, the third and final Charlie Island post on the Roald Dahl site, and a look at why some things are uncostumizable. If you’re interested, read on!

Unused ideas: behind the scenes

Poptropica goes through lots of ideas in its planning stages, and recently on Twitter, they’ve posted a couple of these just for fun – check out the awesome rides on WaterThrill Island! (click to enlarge images) However, they’ve made it clear this won’t be an actual island. 😦

Or will it? Sometimes Poptropicans wonder if the Creators are running out of ideas, but perhaps this tweet will put your mind at ease – the creative geniuses at Poptropica don’t give up that easily, claiming to have “hundreds of ideas” up their sleeves!

Another behind-the-scenes moment they shared was the development of the Mission Atlantis Island logo, which went through many font style changes – I’d have to say they ended up picking the best of the bunch! What say you? 😛 By the way, if you’re curious about other island logo designs that didn’t make the final cut, check out the ones for Back Lot Island!

Upcoming islands: GHD and a 3rd Wimpy Kid Island?

Arabian Nights: Ep. 1 will be releasing to members this Thursday, but what other adventures are coming to Poptropica? Without giving an exact order, Poptropica says that more PoptropiCon and Arabian Nights can be expected soon (likely continuing to come out with episodes interchangeably), but after this, we may see a Galactic Hot Dogs Island – and even another Wimpy Kid Island!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Poptropica: The Run of the Factory

For the 50th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Poptropica has been sharing some behind-the-scenes about how they brought the classic story to an interactive online game – and now, their third and final post is up on the Roald Dahl website! Here’s a little excerpt:

Our final challenge in adapting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Poptropica was creating fun gameplay that would move the story forward, and be true to the spirit of the book. It’s here that the differences between a book and a game are the most dramatic. In the story, the children are punished for breaking the rules. On Poptropica, players are supposed to break the rules!

[To read the rest of Poptropica’s entry, click here!]

And here are links to the rest of the story on Poptropica’s delightful adaptation:

Poptropica’s Roald Dahl post #1: Bringing the Look to Life
Poptropica’s Roald Dahl post #2: A Story You Can Play
Poptropica’s Roald Dahl post #3: The Run of the Factory
Poptropica Creators’ Blog post: Charlie concept art
the PHB’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island Guide

As I’ve said before, it’s a great story with a great and unique island adventure! 😀

Why are some items uncostumizable?

Ever wondered why some costume parts just can’t be Costumized? Poptropica recently tweeted that they do it to keep some things valuable for business – but that doesn’t explain why some wearables can’t be obtained in any way (that doesn’t involve cheats, I mean), even if you’re a member or through buying merchandise.

In particular, Popman564 wanted to know about having a monkey costume – but to that end, it looks like that will remain rare. If you’re interested, you can read the slightly amusing conversation he had with Poptropica here (part one) and here (part two). Poor monkey.

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All right, that’s all for now, folks. You can all go home now – unless you’re reading this at home, in which case you should just ignore this sentence because I’ve rambled on long enough.

Stick around for the release of Arabian Nights: Ep. 1, How Bazaar coming later this week: the PHB will have a guide up for that as soon as possible! In the meantime, keep on popping on. 🙂

Daily Pop Sneak Peeks, Labs (Land), Legendary Swords, Merchandise, PoptropiCon Island

Facili-Tee, music previews, Avengers, & more

September 27, 2014September 28, 2014 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! A new common room has been added to PoptropiCon Island: Facili-Tee, located right outside the convention center! Funny that they released this after the island came out, but at least we have a new common room… that hasn’t happened for the past two islands. 😛

By the way, have you found the special “7” balloon in the common rooms yet? It’s quite rare, so it may take several tries, but you’ll win a snazzy 7th birthday costume if you manage to pop it. Good news: the Creators say they’ll be turning up the frequency of the balloon’s appearance, so there’s now a better chance of finding it. 🙂 Here’s a video from HPuterpop showing what that looks like:

Poptropica’s birthday party only lasts through September, so once the month ends, so will your chances to get the special costume and free balloon in the Store – so pick those up quick! Also, you can click here to check out the recap of the PHB’s celebration of Pop’s 7th birthday. 🙂

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Poptropica Music tour page

Poptropica Music now has its own page, which you can find here. It currently advertises the Volume One music album, and while you can listen to previews of the first two tracks there, you can hear previews for all the tracks on their actual iTunes and Amazon pages.

If you like listening to Poptropica’s music, check out our Behind the Scenes page, where we’ve listed links to where you can listen to these tracks online through Poptropica’s own files! (Be sure to read the simple instructions on the page to get those links to work.)

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Mighty Action Force = Avengers?

Have you noticed that PoptropiCon’s “Mighty Action Force” parodies some of the characters in Marvel’s The Avengers? Gold Face is Iron Man, World Guy is Captain America, and Elf Archer is Hawkeye or Black Widow (not to be confused with the Black Widow of Counterfeit Island!). It checks out:

(You can see the Mighty Action Force on PoptropiCon Island billboards, and members can get the printable poster with their own character from the Store. Avengers image credit to We Live Film.)

Anyway, just a heads-up that you can find cool trivia facts like this and more on all the PHB’s island trivia pages, which are all listed under the Island Help hub page. For more PoptropiCon trivia, click here!

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Daily Pop: legendary E. Vile & furniture

Among all the recent Daily Pop sneak peeks, these two in particular may be of interest – first is “Props to You”, which features the Legendary Swords villain E. Vile in his spectacular helmet (and your rocket) as decorations in the PoptropiCon convention hall, and the second is a preview of some furniture, most likely as an upcoming feature for Land (Labs). Here they are:

Props to You: May your legend never fade.

Furnished: Set the place up however you’d like.

Will we ever see a return for Legendary Swords? They used to promise a battle arena at the end of the quest, but this message has inconspicuously been removed from the ending for some time now (after they failed to deliver on it for three years, I might add 😛 ). RIP. 😦

As for Land, it’s likely we’ll get to play with furniture sometime soon, to further develop the many cool houses (among other awesome things) people have been making — but for now, maybe the PHB’s Land (Labs) guide will help you members get started with this cool feature if you want some tips.

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As is typical in these days, the action in Poptropica doesn’t stop — so be sure to check out the other posts on the PHB home page to catch up with all the news! Stay popping, Poptropicans. 😀

Advertisements, Galactic Hot Dogs Island, Mission Atlantis Island

Atlantis Ep. 3 in-app purchase, GHD, & more Jeff Heim

September 24, 2014November 30, 2014 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! This past weekend, we celebrated Poptropica’s (and Samwow5’s) birthday on the PHC, and the recap post is now up! But a few other things have happened too – so read on for more.

Mission Atlantis: Ep. 3 costs $0.99 on the iOS app

The final episode of the Mission Atlantis trilogy (Ep. 3: Out of the Blue) is now available on Poptropica’s iOS app – but it comes as an in-app purchase costing US$0.99, which is new for this app!

Asked why they put a price on the episode, Poptropica tweeted that it was to pay for all the work and resources that go into keeping the game running. Fair enough – just remember you can still play it for free online! If you need a walkthrough, check out our Mission Atlantis Island Guide. 🙂

Galactic Hot Dogs mega-dog game on iOS app

Also on Poptropica’s iOS app is an ad game for Galactic Hot Dogs, which you can find on the map. (It’s been around before, and now it’s back.) To win, just keep running right, jumping over obstacles or blasting objects on the ground (you’ll shoot automatically). Don’t let the robots catch up to you!

When you reach the end, you’ll find that Princess Dagger stole the mega-dog, but she’ll give it back and you’ll get a Jack Transform and Neon Wiener Follower for your app character. Cool! 😛

More on Jeff Heim

Recently, PHB reader Captain Spencer sent a little fan email to Jeff Heim (known for making much of Poptropica’s music) and even got a reply (pictured below)! From this, we now know why his Poptropica username is jeffheim88 – it’s his birth year, which means right now he’s around 26! (Btw: if you want to contact him over Gmail, that’s his email name too; just don’t spam him too badly with your love! 😛 )

Also, we’ve found that he’s not allowed to share what islands will be made into SUIs (sound-updated) next, but we do know that it’ll happen, as the track for Back Lot Island is in the first music album.

And a big thanks to Jeff for reading the Poptropica Help Blog! Thanks for the Facebook mention! 😀

How many Poptropicans does it take to change a lightbulb?

If you saw the Creators’ Blog post asking this question, well, we can help with that! Blake made a PHB post not too long ago about the BoxTrolls ad currently on Main Streets (such as Mythology or Reality TV), but if you missed it in the onslaught of posts that have hit our blog this week, click here to catch up on how to “balance the BoxTrolls”! The advertised movie comes to theaters this Friday.

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Anyway, that’s it for now, but be sure to keep up with all the latest goings-on of the Poptropica world in the posts below! Stay popping, Poptropicans. 🙂

Survival Island

Survival Island vs. The Most Dangerous Game

September 17, 2014August 2, 2018 Slanted Fish

In the first three episodes of Poptropica’s Survival Island, you’re trapped in the woods and are trying to survive: first you build a fire, then you catch a fish, then you send a distress signal. The story could have stopped right there, with you being rescued – but instead, it was just the beginning of something a little more sinister… and our quest for survival became a much more dangerous game.

The Most Dangerous Game (TMDG) is a short story published in 1924 by Richard Connell. Since Daily Pops of Survival’s fourth episode and beyond have surfaced, we’ve speculated that the island could take a twisted turn in the direction of this classic literary work — and now that the Survival series has come to a close, let’s take a look at some of the similarities and differences between the two tales.

If you’d like to read TMDG, you can click here for the full story. For our Survival Island Guide, click here. Note that for the remainder of this post, there will be SPOILERS for both Survival and TMDG!

Continue reading “Survival Island vs. The Most Dangerous Game” →