Hey Poptropicans! If you’ve read our Q&A with Poptropica CEO Jess Brallier in this recent PHB post, you may have wondered what was meant by the ominous hint of an island to come: “Some place you don’t wanna be.” We gave a few clues in the comments, and some of you have figured it out – after Timmy Failure Island and Arabian Nights Ep. 3, we’re headed to a prison, of all places!
The Daily Pop recently revealed some jail scenes, and don’t forget about the sneak peek of dogs and police officers Poptropica tweeted as a behind-the-scenes pic:
Cellular: Won’t be getting calls in here.
Barred: Once you go behind these walls, you may never come out.
Our Daily Pop Sneak Peek Archive was recently updated as well, and amid all the Timmy Failure peeks was a hint that the underground cave island had not been forgotten (although “Mole Man” is for TF Island, the caption is worth a mention). Maybe due to some nudging over on Twitter, though. 😉
Down Under: Will this island ever come to light?
Mole Man: Also not the underground island you were thinking of.
On a different note, if you head over to some of the Main Streets, you may find an ad poster for Scholastic books: in particular, Tombquest, Spirit Animals, 39 Clues, and Infinity Ring. Clicking on it will give you Character Masks (a mummy, leopard, fedora, and pirate’s hat for each series respectively) and a printable Summer Wish List.
There is also a CapriSun Push Play advertisement on Night Watch Island, and the prize is a Balloon Launcher. Press the spacebar while holding it, and your character shoots other Poptropicans with blue, indigo, and green balloons. (Thanks to Cuddly Knuckle for the tip, and HPuterpop for providing pictures!)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post represent those of the author, not the entire Poptropica Help Blog or its community. Further discussion can be found in the comments.)
Hi Gs,
In 2013, Jeff Kinney was interviewed on Skype. One of his points was that in order to keep up with the times, they would have to update to mobile soon. Now, I for one object. Poptropica is not a mobile game. There are 40+ islands online to play, each taking 1-2 hours, some exceeding, with amazing art, dialogue, story, and overall gameplay. Poptropica is just simply not a flippant game that you play whenever you’re bored. You have to set down and devote yourself to an island.
So the absurd idea that kids aren’t playing Poptropica online any more is, well, absurd. Poptropica is a game for your computer, it’s a desktop game. I’m excited for the day whenever they actually release a desktop version. With that said, Poptropica didn’t really seem to care about the obvious facts. They went ahead and started to pursue mobile.
And in this process, they became extremely greedy, and lost a lot of their quality. Here’s why:
I’ve extracted the Android Poptropica app, and found some key files that have traces of a company called ‘Milkman Games’. Looking that up, I found that this company specializes in converting flash games into apps – Android and iOS. With this said, you have to realize that Poptropica isn’t solely a flash game. It uses PHP & a number of other codes, which contributes to the majority of the major game play elements.
So in an attempt to fix the game and be able to quickly and cheaply convert it into an app, they rebuilt the engine – in a matter of months, and with different developers than from the original game. This lead to what we know as SUIs. Anyone who has played SUIs know – they’re not as good as classic Poptropica islands. They aren’t as fluid, they’re glitchy, and likely to crash.
This is the one bad thing that’s happening to Poptropica.
Now we know the reason, and Poptropica can’t keep it under wraps any more. To prove it, you can just take a peek in the files. They have ‘Home’ Island, which is Tutorial Island on the app – verbatim, and updated to match the app. In fact, that’s where I got the Arcade sneak peaks.
So with this said, Poptropica’s little cheap scheme has been unveiled, and sadly, it’s growing every day as something irreversible. Unless the team gets their heads screwed on straight, Poptropica is going to become something not even considered a game, even less-so than what the gaming community once considered it.
Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here! Lots of news is out and I am here to give it to you.
Mystery of the Map Island official announcement and tour page
First of all, the highlight of the post (unless you’re into Butt Kites): Mystery of the Map Island has been officially announced on the Creators’ Blog! It is to be released for members on Thursday, May 21.
There’s also a non-members clothing item released for the island, so head down to the Poptropica Store and get yourself a Viking Shield. Also, if you’re a member, you can pick up the “Island Wildlife – Pig” and “Island Wildlife – Dodo” costumes. (Note: There’s currently a glitch that prevents them from showing in the inventory!) (Update: They should be accessible now!)
A lost Viking settlement… an island unstuck in time… a magical map with power beyond understanding… and a devious plot that could unravel the very fabric of Poptropica! Join Mya, Oliver, and Jorge for a thrilling new adventure that lifts the veil from the greatest secret of all: the origin of Poptropica!
Along with that, there are plenty of scenery sneak peeks, as well as the wallpaper:
A whole lot of new MOTM Island stuff! I’m quite interested to hear how the island will be and how it will differentiate from the comics. Hopefully it’ll be a great island and I’m looking forward to how it goes! Check out the PHB’s Mystery of the Map Island page for trivia and discussion. 🙂
Poptropica is no longer owned by Pearson
Next in today’s news comes from the Poptropica official Twitter, on which it was revealed that Poptropica isn’t owned by Pearson Education anymore.
@ishperson2580 Pearson used to own us, but not anymore. 🙂
It’s somewhat said to see Pearson is no longer involved considering they were likely Poptropica’s main funding. But, I’m glad that Poptropica now has the freedom to take liberties for whatever they’d like. Hopefully, this change will be for the good, bringing forth many new islands! 😀
Popstorm #26
There’s a new Popstorm released as well!
Remarkable Realms: Cool Boa’s panic room
This new Remarkable Realms was released on the Creators’ Blog recently! This one is a cabin-like house with a secret panic room.
New Poptropica Realms button in the SUI menu
Just wanted to throw in this post that there is a new button in the SUI menu.
As you can see the left button is one for Poptropica Realms. Like the Blimp button, which brings you to the map, the new Realms button, brings you to Poptropica Realms.
It simply takes this prompt and brings you directly to Realms. A fairly helpful tool for us to use!
Butt Kites and Alligators
Now to finish this post off on an extremely weird note (or a high note, if you’re into this kind of thing). New ad items have shown up on Poptropican for a book called The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry. Items include the Butt Kite and Alligator Tag-Along. You can see them below:
Really kind of strange to me that these are on Poptropica, but I digress.
What do you think of all of this? Feel free to comment your thoughts below!
First of all, to celebrate the newly released Galactic Hot Dogs book, the Creators put in a new promo code for a crazy looking Mega Dog Costume, along with a Jupiter Jolt sauce gun! The code is GHDBOOK, so run fast liek sanic over to the store to redeem the card.
Next, there are a handful of new cards that you can obtain by logging in for the Whatever After book series. While I shudder at the thought of the books, I must admit that the cards are pretty cool – one is a Prince (boys) or Beauty (girls) to Beast costume, and the other is a Magic Mirror.
The prince/beast (or beauty/beast) costume is pretty simple – when you put it on, you turn into a prince (or princess) – but when you press space bar, you turn into a beast! Cool costumes, me like. 🙂
The magic mirror is a bit simpler – equip it and press spacebar to say some quotes from… somewhere. Honestly, this item is pretty peculiar.
Next, the first installment of the Mystery of the Map graphic novel is going to be over tomorrow, and I have a feeling that’s when they’re going to be announcing the upcoming island. If you didn’t know already, you can go ahead and read tomorrow’s page today with our Comics archive. 😀
Lastly, there are a few new items in the store, pertaining to Mystery of the Map. They’re technically not able to be bought yet, as they won’t appear in your inventory, but they’re still pretty cool. (Psst! There’s a glitch going on right now where nonmembers can buy a ton of Member’s Only cards! Run fast liek sanic!!)
So, are you going to be reading the new GHD book? And are you excited for MotM Island? Tell me in the comments.
Quick post to tell you that there is an ad campaign for Poptropica happening on FunBrain.com, and some of the most prominent figures in the community are featured – including widdle old me!
These ads can be found here, and feature people like Slanted Fish, Shaggy Tornado, and Spotted Dragon. I’m so honered to be a part of the campaign! (The ads alternate, you’ll have to refresh the page a couple times to see them all on the site.)
So here’s a challenge for you – Identify who all the people in the ads are! Leave your guesses in the comments, and I’ll follow up the winners in the next post I make! (shh totally not making you find them so that I don’t have to 😛 )
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