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” →

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island, Labs (Land)

Charlie post, Pop birthdate, more Land & music from Jeff Heim

September 16, 2014April 6, 2015 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! This is going to be another mega-post on the many Poptropica-related things happening recently – but while you’re reading the PHB, don’t miss out on the new BoxTrolls ad, Survival Ep. 5 for members, the upcoming “Home” feature, and more news from the posts below! 😀

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Poptropica: A Story You Can Play

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s beloved story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Poptropica has been revealing some of their creative process in turning the timeless tale into one of its many Islands. The second post of what will be a three-part series is now up on RoaldDahl.com, so click here to check it out the whole thing – and here’s a little excerpt from their post:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a beloved story. No wonder it’s been made into two movies and a stage musical (and even other video games). Because we consider story to be the most important part of a Poptropica Island, this, too, was both a challenge and an opportunity when bringing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Poptropica.

How do we re-tell a familiar tale, full of beloved characters and situations, while adding an unpredictable new character: the player? How do we make the player a part of the story without changing the story, but allowing the player the sense of freedom and control that a video game requires?

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

If you haven’t seen their first post, you can click here to read it, and check out their gallery of behind-the-scenes images on the Creators’ Blog or right here on the PHB. A great story complemented by a great island adventure with its own unique spin – and if you’re planning on playing it, our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island Guide may come in handy! 🙂

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When exactly is Poptropica’s birthday?

Since its third year, every year, Poptropica has celebrated its birthday in the month of September – but never with an exact birthday date mentioned. This year will be Poptropica’s 7th year, and in response to a question from Slippery Raptor, Poptropica revealed over Twitter that Poptropica’s birth took the entire month of September (2007) — hence the celebrations being not on any one single day.

pop 7th bday date

This year, however, they’re planning to have their festivities on the 18th – which is this Thursday! We can probably expect a birthday costume with a “7” b’day balloon, and maybe some balloons in the common rooms. In the past, they’ve also re-released retired items — we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for this year’s party!

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More featured Land creations

Poptropica Land: alpha version 2 may have been around for a while now, but the Creators are constantly being impressed by all the elaborate creations Poptropica members are making. Here are the latest to be featured on their official Twitter (click to enlarge images):

Cool Speck: crystal home

Golden Leaf: ship

Messy Lion: not quite sure what this is, but it’s cool!

Prickly Clown: medieval castle

Serious Bird: sub-pool theater

Skinny Sponge: desert town

If you just can’t get enough of looking at other Poptropicans’ Lands, then check out the PHB post featuring the winners of our Land Construction Contest! And for some tips on getting started with Land, check out our Poptropica Labs/Land guide.

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More Poptropica music from Jeff Heim

The PHB has previously mentioned Jeff Heim, Poptropica’s resident (and very talented) music composer — and while the recent release of Poptropica’s first ever music album may be unavailable to some due to cost, listening to Jeff’s Soundcloud tracks is totally free!

If you haven’t checked out his Poptropica collection in a while, you may now notice that he’s added several new tracks, mostly owing to the recent Survival and Mission Atlantis episodes.

In the comments of the “Science Fair” track, you may even notice Jeff’s response to HPuterpop saying that he “uploaded this track in part because I noticed you used it at the end of your Survival 3 Walk-through video”! Awesome.

One of my personal favorites, though, is the jaunty little tune that is PoptropiCon’s main theme. It just builds up to sound really epic as you get into it, plus it can get pretty catchy. 😀

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Don’t miss out on all the other cool things happening in Poptropica lately — you can catch up with all the PHB posts below! Keep on popping on, Poptropicans.

Author: Slanted Fish

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