Author: Slanted Fish

Hijuyo: Herro! We’re back again, and today’s post is for Part 4 of Captain Crawfish’s “Behind the Scenes of Skullduggery Island: The Phoenix Warbird” presentation. Unfortunately (or fortunately? o__0), the captain is in quite a critical situation right now and isn’t available for…
Cpt Crawfish: JUYO! HELP!!
Hijuyo: 0__e
Cpt Crawfish: I SAID HELP!! THEY’RE GOING INSANE OVER HERE! THIS ONE GUY STOLE MAH “SWORD OF SKULLDUGGERY” AND TRIED TO KILL ME WITH IT!!
Hijuyo: …anyway. Where were we? Oh, Part 4. According to Captain’s papers, it should say:

Behind the scenes of Skullduggery Island: The Phoenix Warbird, part 4

You’ve already seen how the mighty Phoenix Warbird started life as a simple pencil sketch. (Wait, you haven’t? Check out the first part of our behind-the-scenes look at Skullduggery Island.)

The creators worked hard to get the details right, and now it’s time to give the Phoenix Warbird a sprinkling of that old Poptropica magic.

The designers color in the black-and-white outline they made earlier. They create a simple background of water and sky to demonstrate how the ship will appear in Skullduggery Island. And, as before, they add a little reference box that shows how big the Warbird is compared to a Poptropican.

The Phoenix Warbird is almost ready to set sail on Skullduggery Island!

Cpt Crawfish: Are you quite finished yet?! That’s MY speech, and I should be the one reading it! You plagiarizer! SUE!!
Hijuyo: Is it my fault that you’re currently being eaten alive?
Cpt Crawfish: Yes! No! I don’t know! Just save my life, Juyo!
Hijuyo: But, Captain Crawfish…

(Upon hearing the word ‘crawfish’, a third wave of Poptropicans run over to where the captain is already half-eaten by other moochers, and everyone happily noms him.)

Cpt Crawfish: :O WTH! That’s the third time you’ve done that, HJY! You don’t want me here to speak; I’m just your snack, hmm?
Hijuyo: Mebbe. :3

(An unexpectedly loud “RIIIIIP” is heard, an even louder scream from Captain Crawfish, followed by even louder than ‘even louder’ sounds of glee.)

Random nommer: Omg, guys! I GOT HIS EYEPATCH OFF!! YEAHHHHH!
Random nommer 2: Where’s the eye? o_o
Random nommer 3: Iono. Just looks like a swollen, bloody ‘rotten eye’ to me.
All nommers: EAT! EAT! EAT! *everyone dives in and fights for the eye* OMNOMNOM
Cpt Crawfish: STOP! STOP! GET YOUR FILTHY FINGERS OFF OF ME FACE, YOU [CENSORED] CANNIBALS!
Random nommer: I’ll be keeping the eyepatch!
Cpt Crawfish: Juyo, you’ll be responsible for my death! Charged with murder! How’s that, huh? Juyo? JUYO…?

Hijuyo: Me again. Where we last left off, our guest speaker – Captain Crawfish – was almost eaten alive! *grabs page that someone almost ate* This must be the third part of his speech in ‘Behind the scenes of Skullduggery Island’:

Behind the scenes of Skullduggery Island: The Phoenix Warbird, part 3

Poptropica fans already know that the Phoenix Warbird is the strongest ship on Skullduggery Island. But it didn’t always look that way! The designers went through several rounds of revisions, tweaking existing ideas and coming up with new ones.

Finally, they had settled on the basic design and set to work putting it into Poptropica. The first step: a black-and-white wireframe, which adapts the earlier sketches into the Poptropica style.

See that little box above the ship and to the right? That’s to help the designers remember how large the ship is in comparison to your Poptropican.

The ship isn’t finished yet. There are more design tweaks to be made, not to mention the most fun part: Coloring!

Hijuyo: Neat!
Cpt Crawfish: HEY! Are you going to help me here?!?!
Hijuyo: Crawfish, I…

(At the mention of the name of this tasty delicacy, another wave of audience members surrounds the captain and noms, finally taking his false leg off.)

Hijuyo: This is madness!
Random nommer: No, this is SPAAARTAAAA!!
Random nommer 2: NO, THIS IS PATRICK!!!
Cpt Crawfish: Just… stop… chewing… AUGHHH! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING WITH MY SWORD!?! DON’T POINT IT AT ME!! AND DON’T YOU DARE CHOP ME INTO SLICES…!!

Hijuyo: …and if you thought that was insanely cool, check out MonkeyTacoz’s PARTY WITH HOBOS, a popular “User TV” show broadcasting also on the Poptropica Help Forums! Chaos and humor are always a great combination. 😀

Hijuyo: Hi! This is the PHB post “Skullduggery in Sketch,” which is all about… Skullduggery in pre-island sketches! O:
Cpt Crawfish: Hey, it’s my turn to speak nao.
Hijuyo: Wut! You’re the n00b we have to destroy on Skullduggery Island! Who brought you back from the dead?!
Cpt Crawfish: But… but… I prepared a speech! I WANNA BE ON THE PHB!!11!!
Hijuyo: Oki then…
Cpt Crawfish: *takes huge breath* Well, here we go!

Behind the scenes of Skullduggery Island: The Phoenix Warbird

If you’ve earned enough doubloons on Skullduggery Island to buy the Phoenix Warbird, then you know it’s the fiercest craft around, even more than Captain Crawfish’s ship.

But how did the Phoenix Warbird go from idea to reality? First, one of the Poptropica creators had the brilliant notion of making the most powerful ship on Skullduggery Island have a bird theme. To explain his idea, he drew this sketch:

Neat, huh? But that was just the beginning of a long journey.

Hijuyo: :O That… that’s beautiful! :,)
Cpt Crawfish: WAIT! THERE’S MOAR!!

Behind the scenes of Skullduggery Island: The Phoenix Warbird, part 2

On Skullduggery Island, players start with a junky old sloop, and earn doubloons to buy bigger and better boats. Early on, the Poptropica creators knew they wanted the most powerful ship to have an animal theme.

Even so, there were still dozens and dozens of smaller decisions to make. Should the boat look realistic or fantastical? How big should it be? Should it be scary?

To explore the possibilities, the designers made a few more sketches.

After another round of discussion (okay, arguments), the creators settled on a direction and set to work on the final version.

Hijuyo: YEYYYY!!! So like, were you named after a boat?
Cpt Crawfish: Named after a boat? Wut? NO WAI! I was named after the best fish in the sea – crawfish tastes delicious, did you know that?
Hijuyo: Are you suggesting that we eat you? O:
Cpt Crawfish: Waiiiiit… wha…??

(Captain Crawfish disappears as a giant crowd engulfs all around him and noms.)

Cpt Crawfish: NO!!! THAT’S MY PEGLEG, YOU FOOL! DON’T EAT THAT… AHHHH!