Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! You may know about Poptropica’s World Champions live player maps, which were introduced last year with the release of Virus Hunter Island, and which you can use to check your rank for finishing an island in comparison to players across the globe…

Well, the Creators recently announced that this feature has gotten them a nomination for the Cynopsis Kids !magination Award, which is pretty cool! The awards program is “judged by a panel of industry experts” – let’s hope Poptropica finishes first! 😀

By the way, if you have not yet checked your ranks for Survival, there’s a different map per episode: click here for Episode 1, here for Episode 2, and here for Episode 3. Also, if you’re experiencing some glitches in Episode 3, click here for HP’s post, which may offer some solutions.

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If you’ve been keeping up with the “Poptropica” comics on the Daily Pop or Creators’ Blog, you’ll know the series is now on week 6 – but if you’ve checked out the PHB’s Comics page, you’ll know you can read up to week 8! Plus, Funbrain stores some Pop comic strips as well.

Anyway, Poptropica’s official comic series is now being published on a website called GoComics as well – and they’ve credited the comic’s creators, who we now know are Paul Gilligan and Kory Meritt!

As it turns out, both of them are already published comic creators on GoComics! Paul Gilligan does a series called Pooch Cafe, while Kory Merritt heads a comic called Lost Side of Suburbia, which also has a place on Funbrain.

PaulGilligan-KoryMerritt

Interestingly, GoComics’s page for Poptropica includes some links to Poptropica on the web, including the official Facebook page! There’s also a little blurb about the comic series as well as intros for the main characters, Oliver and Jorge. Enjoy the comics! 😀

Dork Diaries 7 ad: Back Lot bonuses?

June 6, 2014June 12, 2014 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! If you like the Dork Diaries series by Rachel Renee Russell, check out the new ad for book 7 (Tales From a Not-So-Glam TV Star) on Main Street of Poptropolis Games. 😀

dork diaries 7

Inside, you can add Nikki Maxwell as your friend (her username is npc:nikkimaxwell), as well as Costumize her or chat with her (she’ll then advertise the Fab TV Star costume you can pick up on the top floor). You can also click to read an excerpt from the book, play a quiz game, watch a video, Costumize two other girls, and find allusions to “Nikki” kissing “Brandon” (er… awkward).

UPDATE: As Super Nicey noted in the comments, the Fab TV Star costume is not only different between genders, but both versions contain a handheld item from Back Lot Island that was originally for members only! For girls, it’s the Clapboard, and for boys, it’s the Movie Camera from the bonus quest.

dorkdiaries7 costumes

UPDATE #2: The NPC (non-player character) for Nikki Maxwell can also be found in common rooms such as the Soda Pop Shop on Early Poptropica! (Thanks to KeithSammut for the picture.)

nikkimaxwell

Anyway, enjoy the ad! Also, if you’re a member, be sure to play the newly-released Survival: Episode 3 this weekend, and if you’re a non-member, Survival: Episode 2 just came out as well. If you need help, check out the PHB’s walkthrough. Have fun! 😀

Web Development

Poptropica’s official Facebook page – resurfaced!

June 1, 2014June 1, 2014 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans – did you know Poptropica has an official Facebook page? It seems to have been around for about for a month now, since their current cover photo was uploaded on April 24th of this year. You can find it at facebook.com/OfficialPoptropica, and as of now, this is what it looks like:

Seems like most people aren’t aware of this, as there were only about 70 likes when I checked, and it’s never been announced on Poptropica’s website! In fact, I’d only found out about it recently from Poptropica’s official Twitter (which also has never been announced officially either)–

According to the ‘about’ description, the page is only for the older audience—

Welcome! This official Poptropica® Facebook page is for fans ages 13 and up. Younger fans can find out what’s new at blog.poptropica.com.

The Poptropica Creators have also made use of Facebook’s ‘Timeline‘ feature to mark the launches of all their islands to date, each with its own graphic. They’ve also been linking to all Creators’ Blog posts starting from May 15, 2014.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Poptropica has tried to run its own page on Facebook. Back in 2010, they used to own facebook.com/Poptropica (now defunct), where they’d show unseen sneak peeks that even the Creators’ Blog didn’t post (this was before the Daily Pop) – including this cool sketch of a temple for Mythology Island:

KingPalace

They had some trouble regarding personal information, since fans wouldn’t change their profile icons to their Poptropicans when asked, and since people use their real names on Facebook. A few months later, they closed the page. I’m not sure if that’ll still be a problem with the new page they’re opening 4 years later, but then again, no one has commented on anything thus far, and the list of people who have liked the page is hidden, so no personal info there, at least.

Anyway, if you’re a Poptropican who’s 13 or older and has a Facebook account, be sure to give the Poptropica Creators a like so you can get updates on your news feed! 🙂

Magazines

POPCORN, the PHB magazine: issue #16 out now!

June 1, 2014July 5, 2014 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Issue #16 of the PHB magazine, now renamed The POPCORN, has just been released, with all sorts of Poptropica fan creations, including a story about some super-villains by Young Singer, an Anime Island idea by Bony Catfish, a plush doll by Unicorn Cat, and more, so…

check out issue #16 of our Poptropica magazine now!

…clicked it yet? If not, you’re missing out on a piece of the PHB legend. 😀

For more information about The POPCORN, check out our Magazines page to find out what kind of entries we’re looking for and how you can submit something in for publication!

They are now being published on the first Sunday of every month, just like the older series of 911s, so you’ve got until July 5th if you’d like to be a part of our next magazine!

Hope you enjoy our pop-pop-Poptropica Help Blog fan magazine! 🙂

How to Train Your Dragon 2: Poptropica ad

May 30, 2014June 1, 2014 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, there’s a new ad building around Poptropica for the upcoming Dreamworks animated movie How to Train Your Dragon 2, coming in 3D starting June 13! I found this on Main Street of Mythology, and it’s a common room too, so you can chat and battle with other players!

httyd2 poptropAd

As you can gather from the collage, there’s quite a bit to explore – on the left, you can watch a trailer, read the movie’s synopsis, customize from two dummies with cool berserker costumes, and claim two power cards: Dragon Ride (which places your Poptropican on Toothless the dragon) and Hiccup Flight (which shows Hiccup zooming around on a dragon).

On the right, you get to click on two different games to play, both of which will lead you to a new tab – How to Fly Your Dragon and The Dragon Trainer Matching Challenge. You can also click on a catapult with a sheep on it to fling it and conjure up some dragons.

(UPDATE!) There’s also a video ad in between places (such as underwater on Mission Atlantis) for Dragons: Defenders of Berk (Part 2), now on DVD. (This is a series related to the How to Train Your Dragon films.) Watch the video, and you’ll be awarded Hiccup’s Shield, which “protects you from fire” (see images below) when you press the spacebar. Basically, it summons some glowing blue light which swirls around your shield for a moment. /end update

Hiccup's Shield

On a different note, a Poptropican named Zippy Berry was featured today on the Creators’ Blog because she “made it through to tomorrow’s semifinals in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.” I don’t know who she is, but she must have some special connection to at least one of the Creators to get such a mention on the official blog! Well, whoever you are, Zippy Berry, congratulations. 🙂

Anyway, don’t forget that this Sunday we’ll be publishing the next issue of the PHB magazine, now known as POPCORN! We’re accepting entries at phbpopcorn(at)gmail.com (at = @).

Pop in later, Poptropicans! 😀