Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by HPuterpop/Andrew Wiles. Enjoy!
From the moment of Poptropica’s inception, there has been constant evolution taking place in the minds of both the developers and fans of the game. “Poptropicans” as they appear in the original game are barely humanoid creatures, with bodies consisting of simple shapes and lines, the distinct lack of a nose, and large circular eyes that pop out of the top of their heads.
While this seems like a simple description at first, when you begin to look closer at official renderings of these creatures — from in-game to promotional art to the graphic novels — you begin to notice that there are in fact a near infinitude of choices that demand decision when drawing them. This complexity is further illuminated when looking at art made by fans of the game. There is a spectrum from the simple in-game avatars to fully realized, fleshy organisms that are in constant tension — an inevitable byproduct of the very concept of these characters.
Official Designs
Focusing on official interpretations, there was a fairly linear morphological evolution of Poptropicans over its lifespan. In the early years, Poptropicans were rarely if ever depicted as any more complex than the in-game avatars.
The most nonconforming example from this time period would be the Ned Noodlehead comic strip, where Poptropicans had slightly thicker limbs and nebulous hand-like appendages. A “polished” version of avatars would also appear in promotional material and daily quiz entries. Poptropicans didn’t have necks, fingers/toes, or realistically sized limbs, instead opting for floating heads, noodle limbs, simple spheres for hands, and oblong ovals for feet.
2011 shook everything up for the Poptropica style. The action figure line featured actual hands and thicker limbs, the former so that the toys could hold their accessories, the latter more than likely because of the physicality of the toys themselves. While they didn’t have necks, they didn’t not have necks…
Finally, the one other major jump these toy models made — they were three dimensional! At long last, we now had the official answer as to how Poptropican faces (and bodies) looked from the side! The original 2D in-game model was designed to suggest depth by having one eye smaller than the other, but the toys confirmed it: Poptropicans have symmetrical eyes. These toys also introduced the concept of the “ridge” as I’ll call it — the space at the bottom of the eyes where they sit, creating a small indent and hump (where a nose would be on a human).
These design choices stuck, and were further evolved when the Poptropica comic strip illustrated by Kory Merritt made its debut. Kory’s impact on the way Poptropicans were depicted moving forward can’t be understated: his Poptropicans boasted necks, fingers, and more realistic humanoid morphology. Kory’s depictions served as a catalyst that shifted the brand away from the simplistic avatars in promotional material, as well as an eventual attempt at in-game implementation with Poptropica Worlds avatars. (Funny enough, Kory actually wasn’t very keen on including the ridge on his Poptropicans.)
The in-game implementation of Kory’s design was, at least in my opinion, disastrous. Poptropica Worlds’ avatars are not very nice to look at, the fluid hand-drawn form clashing with the rigid vector-based shapes and lines.
Kory’s version was the last major evolution of note, at least that I’m aware of. We could talk about the 3D Roblox models, but to be honest I don’t think it’s really worth spending more time than this sentence on. However, there is one other prominent Poptropica artist who I would argue pushed the Poptropica style forward: Jon Pitcher. While not part of the official game, his Popstorm! series of sketches showed us a new, dynamic way to draw Poptropicans, especially when it came to head and body variation. This is where things were just getting good! Too bad Poptropica never became a household name like Jess M. Brailler dreamed.
Male/Female Dimorphism
A feature notably absent from virtually all official Poptropican representations (besides some very rare instances from Kory’s work) is male/female dimorphism, which is a distinct difference in size or appearance between the sexes of an animal. This is a pattern that most species on Earth follow — one sex is distinctly physically different in appearance to the other. Take peacocks, where the male has a beautiful saturated feather pattern, while the female is rather unsaturated and less ornate in comparison.
And this also applies to humans, where everything from our skeletal anatomy to where we grow hair is often a result of the difference of our biological sex (of course, gender is a different discussion). Poptropicans have NEVER been represented as dimorphic (besides those rare exceptions from Kory) — check out these identical boy/girl versions of the “Anatomy of a Poptropican” wallpapers.
It is true that the ONLY consistently dimorphic feature in the original game was the inclusion of eyelashes on the female models — a trope dating back the 1920s, when characters like Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck were essentially just clones of their male counterparts with minimally “feminine” features being added like eyelashes. In Poptropica’s case, this seems like an intentional choice to be as kid-friendly as possible, steering away from any reference to sexuality.
Community Designs
On the community side of things, experimentation has always been the name of the game. Fan artists give their Poptropicans unique eye shapes, floating eyebrows, stick limbs/human limbs/no limbs at all — and often give their characters more realistic body shapes instead of the classic oval (usually implementing male/female dimorphism). Fan artists have been pushing the boundaries of the Poptropican form from the very beginning, testing out thousands of different unique design elements. Each fan artist brings their distinct visual style to Poptropicans, resulting in near-infinite variation.
There is one particular recurring design element that I’d like to identify here: the flat eye design. Some fan artists draw whichever eye is furthest from the focal point of the drawing in such a way that it appears less like a spherical shape and more like a flat disc. This creates a unique effect, evoking the way a more… terrestrial eye might look from the side — and it’s definitely a popular idea within the community.
All of these stylistic choices beg the question: what makes a Poptropican a Poptropican? Which elements are essential, and which can be removed/altered while still being recognizable?
Essential Features
Well, a few things are definitely essential. I think the most important element that makes a Poptropican a Poptropican is the absence of a nose above all else. As soon as you add a nose (ignoring a few canon characters who like making things difficult), you’re no longer in Poptropica’s orbit — at least stylistically.
The “frog” eyes are another non-negotiable – the way they ‘pop’ out from the top of the characters’ heads is iconic (they needn’t even be spherical, they just gotta pop!).
I would argue that the last essential feature would be a large head to body ratio — Poptropicans tend to boast some pretty massive domes relative to their real-life counterparts.
Besides these three features, the level of humanoid morphology that an artist decides to use is probably optional. This is not to say that artists who draw Poptropican characters without those features are somehow invalid in doing so – only that their characters may not always read as Poptropicans visually.
Poptropica: Legends
These considerations and nuances have been brought to my attention as I’ve been working to establish the optimal style to represent Poptropicans in Poptropica: Legends. Poptropicans in Legends have historically been some of the most humanoid interpretations to date, in large part due to the level of maturity I want to bring to the Poptropica universe.
However, it’s hard to ignore the value of the wonderfully nostalgic simplified forms of those good old in-game avatars. Because of this, Legends will feature two different versions of Poptropicans — one for overworld avatars, and one for dialogue/cutscenes. The dialogue/cutscene version can be thought of as the “true” depiction of the character, while the overworld avatar is a simplified, abstract form (though there are clear through-lines between the two).
I like to think of the Legends style as if Poptropicans were designed by Walt Disney — and I’m naming it Whimsical Style. It’s clear that there is a delicate balance when it comes to depicting Poptropicans in-game, as we can see how that might be poorly executed with Poptropica Worlds. Because of this, overworld Legends characters (we’ll call this Overworld Whimsical Style) are close but not too similar to their more fleshed-out depictions (we’ll call this Detailed Whimsical Style).
With both of these styles, there will be a large variety of different head shapes, eye shapes, and body shapes, unlike OG Poptropica’s single standard. These variations have been inspired both by community artwork and by what might serve the story better — Poptropicans can’t all be the same height, right?
This project has been evolving ever since it first was conceived back in 2016. Our latest significant shift in vision is having both a Story Mode following the adventures of Meridian and company, and a Free Play Mode which will allow you to create your own avatar and explore Poptropica like the original game. This is a big change from previous concepts, and I hope you’re as excited for it as I am.
Poptropica: Legends has recently ramped up production, and we’re heading towards a demo release in late May/early June! Get ready to experience this next chapter in Poptropica history — made by fans, for fans. 😀
- www.poplegendsgame.com
- @poplegendsgame on Twitter
- @poplegends on BlueSky
- @poplegendsgame on Instagram
- Join our Discord!
Thanks for reading this rather long-winded essay. I hope you enjoyed, and maybe you can employ some of the techniques outlined here in your next Poptropica art piece. Just don’t forget the ridge!
That’s all for now,
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by HPuterpop/Andrew Wiles. If you did, you might also enjoy reading more about the development of Poptropica Legends, or the PHB’s own (simpler!) How to Draw a Poptropican Guide.
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!
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