Guest Posts – Page 43 – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Noisy Snowball (Inking 5). Enjoy!

Hey there! This is Noisy Snowball talking! This is my first guest post, and I’m super excited to share my dream island idea!

First, here’s how I got my idea: One day I was in online school, thinking about stuff. I had the concept of the butterfly effect on my mind, and Poptropica in my brain as well. The butterfly effect is the idea that a small change can result in larger differences later.

Anyway, I had a thought. Why not make an island using the butterfly effect as the main gimmick? It was perfect! I started writing as soon as I could. I call it: Opposites Island!

Plot

The player starts at what seems to be the ending of the island. You’ve managed to stop a scientist who was going to steal a dimensional travel machine. However, before everyone can celebrate, a portal sucks you away…

You wake up in a destroyed version of the island you just saved, and after walking, you spot another version of yourself! This other version of you says that the villain has managed to steal the device — while causing a lot of destruction, which didn’t happen in the original dimension. You agree to help this version of yourself stop the villain.

Soon you both notice that there are two versions of the villain, who seem to have teamed up, are switching between dimensions. Now, you and your double must solve puzzles and platforms to stop the villains!

Plane to See: Sometimes a simple machine isn’t too simple.

Near the end of the island, there would be a final boss fight, where you and your double must stop the teamed-up villains. Afterwards, both versions of the villain would be captured, both you and your double would get a medal, and you would say goodbye to your double.

The double trouble gimmick

The main gimmick with this island is that both versions of you would act in opposite of each other. For example, if you pushed a box to the right on the not-destroyed island, the box would be instead on the left for the destroyed island. Everything would be in reverse, and you would have to use that as an advantage to solve puzzles.

Do Not Enter: Why doesn’t anybody ever pay attention to the signs?

This island would really show how a simple choice can really change things, and how to look at things and imagine how things could have gone differently. That’s the butterfly effect!

That wraps up my dream island concept! This is Noisy Snowball, guest writer, signing off!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Noisy Snowball (Inking 5). If you did, you might also enjoy other posts in our My Dream Island series, such as the winning, upcoming Secret of the Jade Scarab Island by Girl Power/Lyndsey. And consider sharing yours!

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! 📰✨

Popspiracy: What happens to Poptropica villains after “the end”? 🦹‍♂️

March 7, 2021March 5, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by White Fox. Enjoy!

Hi! I am White Fox, and this is my first time writing on the Poptropica Help Blog. I want to write about the Poptropica villains—more specifically, what happens to them after you defeat them at the end of an island adventure?

Whatever happened to the Binary Bard, for example, after he had to give up the princess? Did he just float around in space? Enjoy my theories, and do share yours in the comments!

Dr. Hare meets space aliens?

You destroy his Rabbot, and he flies off to space. Then what? Well, he happens to land on Pewter Moon.

He runs into the aliens, thinking they know him because he is such a popular villain (blah, blah, blah)… but they don’t recognize him. One alien tells Hare to talk to their boss. The alien boss freaks out, and accuses the mighty Dr. Hare of being the Binary Bard in disguise. The who-what now?

Hare steals a spaceship (because that is his specialty) and takes off to another galaxy. The door to the next universe closes behind him, and he is stuck on the roof of an obsidian castle.

Binary Bard in a Hare-y situation

You defeat him, take the princess, take the medallion, ya go home. Right? Well, you never actually got rid of the Binary Bard…

When you had to defeat him, he was in a robot suit. After you destroyed his robot suit, he became weak. That ball on his robot was his power force. Too bad he didn’t have someone to help him repair it…

Turns out, being a genius, Dr. Hare could help! Can you believe the guy was watching you solve the problem on the door and fight the Bard? He went inside and saw another weak, evil villain (ahem, that is, a weak villain… Dr. Hare wasn’t weak. *cough* as if *cough*). The Bard told him he could have half of the universe if he helped him.

So, after the robot suit was repaired, and they were just about to split their kingship, poof! They ended up at Erewhon Prison for Super Villains. No one quite knows how they got captured and sent there, but most are glad it happened.

El Mustachio Grande’s gang’s got his back

This Wild West villain was a handful, but eventually you got him back in prison. Thing is, as soon as you take the medallion and ride on outta this island, the trouble begins…

You got him in the iron pen, but what about his gang, y’all? They broke in here once. Y’all were warned, right? The gangster said, and I quote: “Nothing can stop the Grande Gang!”

Well, the guard was on his lunch break, the Marshal was outta town, and Mustachio had his smoke bombs (and real ones, because that is how he is). So he dropped the smoke signal for: “Get your tushes on your horses and get down here!” The gang broke him out of prison and headed straight for the train, ready to ambush it again.

Lucky for the regular people, your trusty sidekick Annie Oakley was ridin’ on the train, right down to Dos Cactos. (Oh, I’m sorry, Oakley… I mean the superior friend Annie Oakley. Please put down your spud gun!) Anyway, she managed to shoot them down, but they rode away before she could call the Marshal (you) on ’em.

Heading for the casino in Dos Cactos, the gang happened to run into some lost cattle. Since the gang is not as nice as you are, they didn’t really try to herd them back to the ranch. Once they got to the casino, they were challenged to a shooting contest. They shot down all the targets against everyone. Then they had to face off against Annie Oakley—and no one’s a match for Oakley!

They did not bother her again. She turned them in, but the Pop Police decided they’d better be sent to Erewhon Prison.

Black Widow’s revenge

The Black Widow was a relentless, ruthless villain whose specialty was stealing art and selling it for money.

You were trying to stop her at the same time when a friend-who-you-thought-was-a-traitor-who-turned-out-to-be-a-friend will beg you to stop her before she destroys a million dollars worth of art. Oof. Tough crowd. Well, when you team up, everyone assumes she is done for. You knocked her out. The end. But do you really ever stop her?

Apparently, she hasn’t had her revenge quite yet. Since you have left the island, she plans to get back at the curator for ruining her plans. Her disguise won’t work anymore. But if she could just learn the secrets of where all the art is…

She managed to customize from the assistant curator. Now she looked just like him! In her disguise, she talked to the curator to find out where the art was. But being a smart old lady, the curator noticed something suspicious. She told the Black Widow that she had forgotten what a painting was called and pointed to “The Starry Night,” by Vincent van Gogh. The Black Widow didn’t know the names of art! She just knew how much she could sell it for! She was caught and sent to Erewhon.

That’s all for this post! Share in the comments your theories, plus what villains you would like to hear about next.

Peace,
White Fox

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by White Fox. If you did, you might also enjoy another Popspiracy guest post that looks at the reverse side: Speculations on Villain Backstories.

Arabian Nights Island, Guest Posts

Different POV: The Sultan is exposed 👳🏽‍♂️

March 3, 2021February 23, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Emu, who will be offering a different point of view on a Poptropica story: who is the real villain in Arabian Nights Island? ‘Cause that Sultan is looking real suspicious. Enjoy!

Welcome to my first DPOV (or “deepawv” in my Southern accent)! This series takes a look at Poptropica plots and characters from a less heard of, non-traditional, different point of view.

Today we’ll be looking at Arabian Nights, a Poptropica tale where (spoilers) Samhal the genie and Scheherazade the princess-turned-thief are often thought of as the villains. But now, let’s turn the tables!

He’s just a poor mixed up s̶o̶u̶l̶ er, genie.

We’re going to look more closely at the Sultan. Now, I know many Pop fans have confirmed that the Sultan is a bad man, but oh, he’s a BAD bad man. Let’s get started. 🧐 Remember this diary entry from Scheherazade before she ran away from home?

So, after reading that, you can obviously tell that the Sultan has a HUGE greed problem. 😂 He has quite the obsession problem also. Plus I gotta say, it’s pretty shady of him to let his daughter get almost kidnapped while he was caught up with finding out the name of a little green man.

Plus… HIS. POOR. WIFE. She must’ve gone through so much! She looks sooooo done with this in the family portraits! We never find out what happened to her, but I mean it’s reasonable to assume she just left! Sad.

Don’t hate me for what I’m about to say.

Here’s my take—get ready for it—I don’t think Samhal is bad. Are you glaring at that sentence? I get it, but here’s why I think the opposite.

The Sultan was an insanely greedy, self-centered, inconsiderate man, and I do believe that he bribed Samhal into dealing with him. Of course, by nature of his being, the genie did have no choice. We will never know what Samhal was like before the Sultan obsessed over tracking down this genie, and put his family on the line just to grow wealthy with his help. Besides, I think it’s pretty sad that even after the Sultan’s wife probably left, he still wasn’t scared of losing his daughter.

Thanks for reading my first DPOV! What are your thoughts on this post? Drop your suggestions for another DPOV in the comments.

Keep at it, Poptropicans!

—Emu 🤙

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Emu. If you did, you might also enjoy her other guest post “All aboard for alternate endings to Poptropica islands.”

Guest Posts, Pop 5

Pop 5: My Favorite Islands 🏝

February 28, 2021February 28, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Dangerous Dragon. Enjoy!

Hello, DD here! Today’s hot pop-topic is all about favorite islands. I’ll be sharing my “Pop 5” picks in this post, but I’m also looking forward to seeing your comments about some islands that you love. (The PHB has a whole list of islands.) Let’s get started!

#5: Monster Carnival

I wished I could rank this island higher, but there are so many good ones. Anyway, the story starts out with a carnival needing your help, and the art really makes you feel like you are at a real carnival. At first I wonder, “where’s the monster part?” Then comes the delightful twist: they all are monsters, thanks to Ringmaster Raven! Scary!

It was very disappointing to see Raven tortured by his town. I wrote more about this in my other guest post, “Why Ringmaster Raven is a real hero.” The island could’ve been better if he’d gotten a better ending, with the town giving him some much-needed love. Still, the story is fascinating, the designs are impressive, and the difficulty is suitably challenging

#4: Survival

Survival reminds me of survivor shows, and I can feel the dangers of being out on the island as if in real life! The art is fabulous, and it’s good they don’t show too many ads, so it gives you the feeling of being stranded.

The story is truly chilling — and what a twist to find that we are the hunted. Scary and surprising! All in all, a really good and challenging island.

#3: Mocktropica

Mocktropica reminded me of Back Lot Island but with games instead of films. The jokes were fun, and interestingly, one feature they made fun of made it into Pop: the pets!

As for the art, it really feels exciting and adventurous. Everywhere you see Mega Fighting Bots and you wonder what’s up with that, but then you find out the twist — shocking! The people running Pop were the people destroying it!

And the story itself is a unique, creative concept: you have to basically save Poptropica by bringing in the people who worked there to fix it. It’s also highly difficult — I still remember Thinknoodles groaning when he played this island.

#2: Mission Atlantis

I loved how Mission Atlantis mixed fiction and nonfiction. It reminded me of the book Thea Stilton Special Edition: The Journey to Atlantis.

The first episode was simple, but it was fun getting to know many animals in the sea. The art is amazing: the creatures look very detailed, our submarine pod looks cool, and the water design is epic.

The story starts out with us getting a simple job but we soon discover much more: an entire ancient underwater city! Things get a lot more interesting, and it makes you feel like you are an explorer. It’s a difficult island, but that’s what makes the challenge fun.

#1: Time Tangled

Time Tangled was my first island, so I think of this as my birth island. It’s all about exploring the world, from caves to the Great Wall of China! This was the island which made me love Pop. I love stories about time traveling and the future!

The story is basic but it is creative. We find all the objects in random places, with hints from the Oracle, and overall it engages you in checking everywhere to search for the items.
The art is really good too, and I enjoyed the Fact Monsters back when that was a thing. And the whole island really takes your attention, but it’s not too difficult, with no twist.

That’s my list, now what about yours? There are a lot more good islands but I prefer these. Anyway, tell me about your favorite islands!

And if you’re feeling especially passionate, try writing for the PHB! Writing is a good habit, especially when it’s about what you love. I love Poptropica, and look where I am now! Thank you to Jeff Kinney, because if he hadn’t created Poptropica, we wouldn’t be here.

Also, surprise: today is my birthday! If you want to help make it special, please share your ideas in the comments below on how to celebrate a pop-tastic birthday, Poptropica style!

This is DD popping out! Keep popping, Poptropicans! ~DD

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Dangerous Dragon. If you did, you might also enjoy their guest post “Popspiracy: Theories on how Poptropica villains turned evil.”

Guest Posts, Jade Scarab Island, My Dream Island

Inside look at Dream Island winner: Secret of the Jade Scarab 🏝🐞

February 26, 2021March 22, 2023 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we have a very special guest with us! Girl Power (aka Lyndsey, or GwenBrightly on Poptropica) is one of the winners of Poptropica’s Design Your Dream Island Contest. In this post, she’ll be sharing about her winning idea, Secret of the Jade Scarab Island. Let’s get digging!

Hello, Poptropica Help Blog readers! I’d love to share more details about Secret of the Jade Scarab Island. I kept the descriptions spoiler free, so that certain plot points remain a surprise. 🙂

I had a ton of fun brainstorming for Secret of the Jade Scarab in between grading homework and writing lesson plans (I was in the middle of student teaching). I grew up playing games like Cluefinders and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, which gave me a love of games that teach about history. Ancient Egyptian lore and culture has always fascinated me, so it was awesome to have an excuse to use all that knowledge.

First look

Our story begins when the player arrives outside the Ancient Antiquities Museum in a bustling Egyptian city and follows signs inside to find that Claira the Curator is in a panic because the newest exhibit isn’t going to open on time. She’s lost contact with the team of archeologists who were supposed to be excavating King Khnurn’s tomb (his name means “reborn sun” in Egyptian). Being the kind, friendly, and helpful Poptropican that you are, you volunteer to go investigate.

When you arrive in the village of Iteru (which means “river” in Egyptian), a local merchant points you in the direction of the archeological dig, where you meet Howard Diggory, head egyptologist. He explains that bizarre things have been happening at the dig and that there are rumors of a mummy’s curse, which has stalled progress in excavating and cataloging the tomb. It’s up to you to find the root of the problem and discover whether or not the tomb really is cursed.

You’ll explore the tomb and village, speaking to the locals and gaining their trust through various tasks. Befriending the merchant is a good place to start. She’ll tell you all about the legend of the Jade Scarab, said to give its owner untold power, but only if you help her translate some old scrolls and track down her great nephew for her. Could someone be after the scarab?

Featured locations include:

The Ancient Antiquities Museum in Cairo – a place filled with displays of famous ancient Egyptian artifacts. Players can learn about life in ancient Egypt and maybe find some easter eggs from other islands. I like to imagine that it’s owned by the Poptropica equivalent of Zahi Hawass – a very famous Egyptologist who has probably appeared in pretty much any documentary you may have watched on Egypt.

Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist (photo: Smithsonian Magazine)

The village of Iteru – Close to the dig site. I envision something multi-levelled and filled with bright colors against the sandy/tan-ish color of the brick buildings. There are houses on the higher level and a market on the lower one. You can visit lots of townspeople to learn about the origins of the mummy’s curse, tomb robbers, the importance of the Nile, etc. In order to get them to answer your questions, you have to run errands for them such as potentially fishing, sailing, gathering papyrus, etc. The merchant’s shop is a highlight, as she gives the player a lot of the background on the Jade Scarab after you find her grandson (who is in an alleyway playing with a cat).

The dig site – in the Valley of the Kings – lots of weird stuff is happening there, which has caused the locals to theorize that the team of archeologists have unleashed a curse. You can find typical archeologist tools, crates, tents, various artifacts that are being catalogued, and maybe a jeep. There are a few site members to interview, but several have fled, and one is in the hospital.

King Knurn’s Tomb – Either underground or inside a cliff. The Jade Scarab is supposedly hidden somewhere deep inside. The player can explore different parts of the tomb throughout the story, with some getting unlocked as they progress. Skills learned from the villagers (like reading hieroglyphics) can be used here to solve puzzles and gather more information about the legends surrounding the Jade Scarab.

Important characters

Claira the Curator – Runs the Ancient Antiquities Museum and is worried about the museum’s latest exhibit not arriving on time. I chose her name because I wanted something with alliteration and a tie to Egypt, so I took the a-i-r from Cairo and inserted it into a name that went well with Curator.

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, Egypt (photo: MoMAA.org)

Howard Diggory – Head egyptologist of the archeological dig, worried about the recent mishaps and potential curse. Very passionate about Egyptology and uncovering lost history. He was named Howard after Howard Carter, who discovered King Tut’s tomb, and Diggory because he’s an archeologist and spends a lot of time digging.

Awantagi – the foreman of the dig. He’s the prickly type and doesn’t particularly like you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.

The Merchant – a mysterious old lady who sells a variety of objects (both ancient and modern). She tells the player the legend of the Jade Scarab after they have helped her translate some old scrolls (learn about Egyptian culture and book of the dead) and located her great nephew (who is chasing after a cat).

Bast – the Egyptian cat who likes to pop up and do cat stuff, like expect you to cater to her every whim.

Visuals

I am not the best of artists, but I do have some pictures from an old project I did for school that I used for inspiration.

I didn’t necessarily plan for a pyramid to appear in Secret of the Jade Scarab, but I do really like the concept of having a scene that shows the Nile and some Egyptian boats.

This is sort of what I’d like the market to look like. Bright colors, hieroglyphics, and an abundance of different objects for players to interact with.

Anyway, thank you SO much to the PHB for reaching out, and to all of you for your interest! It’s such an honor to be able to share some of the ideas that have been floating around in my head for the past three months. I honestly can’t wait to see where Poptropica goes with this!

—Girl Power/Lyndsey

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Girl Power/Lyndsey. If you did, you might also enjoy other posts in our My Dream Island series, such as Prehistoric Peril Island by Sporty Boa. And consider sharing yours!

Category: Guest Posts

My Dream Island: Opposites Island by Noisy Snowball 🦋