Category: PHB Series

Hi Gs,

Well, I played PopCon 3. I liked the story, art, characters, etc. But what I didn’t like?

THE GAME DEVELOPMENT!!!

When I say game development, I mean the development of the skeleton of the game – the game mechanics, the programming. I have a sneaking suspicion that Jordan Leary, the lead game developer, either isn’t working at Poptropica anymore, or has been demoted. Either way, something is definitely wrong.

The art is great – like really great. I feel like the team of artists still are there with motivation to make quality content. Tons of amazing scenes and animations. The story is still charming as usual. But then you try to play the island and you have to log out and back in 5 times. It really takes the fun out of it, doesn’t it? I can’t appreciate art when I can’t even access it!

I still do have a point, however, and if you’ve read this far then I’m sure you’d like to hear it. I know what is going to save Poptropica, and it very well might already be in the works. A couple weeks ago, there was a survey on Poptropica that asked the standard questions – how much do you play Poptropica? What other games do you play? etc. But, just like always, they also asked about new features and what we thought about them – this time being a desktop version of Poptropica.

For the people that don’t know, a desktop version of an online game would be a downloadable game that can usually run offline. If Poptropica would become a desktop game, it would probably not run on flash anymore, which would fix a whole handful of problems right there. It’s hard to make a convincing game in a browser with flash, so converting everything over to desktop would be awesome. But that’s what I’m getting at – converting the game would basically be re-creating the entire skeleton of it, and if done right, could save the sloppiness that the programming has become. Please, Jess M. Brallier, take some advice from the fans. Hire the right people when creating a desktop version.

And one more thing – if Poptropica becomes an actual desktop game, it may be considered by the gaming community more to be a real video game, which means a bigger community. Right now, they have a reason not to take it seriously.

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Yo ‘tropicans. Are you in the mood for a totally weird and pointless Poptropica theory that nobody asked for? Well I’ve got one! Please note: This post contains a major spoiler for Spy Island & minor spoilers for Early Poptropica.

If you follow me on Twitter (which I know for a fact most of you don’t because I have like three followers), you’ll see that recently I’ve basically been live-tweeting a replay of Early Poptropica. And as I was playing, something occurred to me.

WHAT IF EARLY POPTROPICA CONTAINS EARLY (YOUNGER) VERSIONS OF SOME OF THE VILLAINS YOU ENCOUNTER ON LATER ISLANDS???

Look at this logic:

Sure, it was something Twitter-worthy I’d noticed, but I wouldn’t have gone as far as to call it a “theory” at that point. But then I spotted a young Black Widow.

If someone told you “I saw a female NPC in Poptropica with short black hair, pale skin, and a dark outfit, and she hung out in a creepy place with a lot of spiders” you’d be like “yeah, that’s Black Widow” WOULDN’T YOU? I mean, yeah, she’s a little different. But Early Poptropica was released a while before Black Widow’s first appearance (as Black Widow) and people change. Even when those people happen to be Poptropica villains.

ALSO, the official Poptropica account retweeted my Director D post! That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re confirming it (they didn’t make any comment on it) but it means they at least acknowledge the possibility… or they just acknowledge how silly it sounds. I’ll keep playing and keep an eye out for new possibilities. In the meantime, let me know in the comments if you have anything to add!

~ Cheerful Singer ~