Category: PHB Series

Pop Places IRL, Vampire's Curse Island

Pop Places IRL: Vampire’s Curse

Spotted Dragon

Pop Places IRL Header

Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL,” Poptropicans! Today, I’m bringing you an extra spoOOOooOoky setting. This time around, we’ll be traveling to Vampire’s Curse Island! Enjoying the series? Be sure to check out other Pop Places IRL posts.

So, first things first… where exactly does Vampire’s Curse take place? Though the setting is never directly stated, it is implied that the island is heavily influenced by the classic tale of Dracula. In fact, Count Bram is named after its author, Bram Stoker.

And, dear readers, the castle featured in Dracula is none other than the Bran Castle. Eerily similar to “Bram’s Castle,” don’t you think? The creepy tale made the IRL castle pretty famous, because you can even take tours of it today!

photo: Bran Castle Transylvania (vagrantsoftheworld.com)

I suppose this castle comparison leads us to another question… where is the castle located? If you haven’t already guessed, the infamous Bran Castle is located in Romania, a country in Europe. Specifically, the towering construction is near Transylvania, a region especially known for vampire lore. Though the towns in the area are much more modern today, you can definitely still see the remains of older architecture.

photo: Saxon Village (lonelyplanet.com)

However, when you begin to stray away from civilization on Vampire’s Curse Island, you’re sure to wind up deep in the woods (on your way to Bram’s castle, of course). A bit of a maze in game, I’m thinking IRL Romanian forests aren’t much easier to navigate at night. Though they might be less vampire-infested, Romania’s woods always seem to come with their own creepy lore either way.

photo: Hoia Baciu Forest (dailystar.co.uk)

Finally, I think it’s important to touch on the graveyards of Romania, considering their own spooky connotation in-game, where the grand Mausoleum has Latin that reads “meminervnt omnia amantes,” translating to “remember all the lovers.”

This sure adds to the island’s spooky aesthetic, but how does its appearance hold up to its counterparts in real life? It turns out that Romania has a pretty famous grave site called The Merry Cemetery, filled with surprisingly colorful gravestones. What a contrast!

photo: The Merry Cemetery (thecultureist.com)

Welp, that wraps up our IRL tour of Vampire’s Curse! Did it live up to your Halloween-y expectations? Hope we didn’t spook you too much this year. 😉

But I’m curious… what do you think? Have you ever been to Romania? How do our comparisons to the game hold up? What other islands do you want to see in this series? Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts below!

La revedere! Don’t let the vampire bats bite!

~SD

Pop Fan Artist Spotlights

Pop Fan Artist Spotlight: X1-gamer2538

LJ

Hey, Poptropicans, how’s it going? It’s Lucky Joker here, and welcome to another Pop Fan Artist Spotlight! Today, I’ll be showcasing the wonderful work of X1-gamer2538!

X draws in a style that is…hmm, how do I put it?…flippin’ AMAZING! It’s so shiny, bold and professional — X is one of my new favorite artists for sure. You might’ve seen some of his art featured in Community Creations, and with good reason. Check out this gallery of some of his work (and click to enlarge the images):

“Deadly Sick”
“Miles Power”
“Merry birthday”
“Waters”
“Lineless Dr.lee”
“Reset”
“Jupiter in love”
“Chibi Ty”
“Late night SuperCast”

Are you amazed yet? If you want to see more of X’s art, check him out on DeviantArt — he’s a fairly active poster.

Well, that concludes this spotlight! I hope you enjoyed this look into a Poptropica fan’s artwork. If you’ve made some of your own Poptropica fan art, we’d love for you to share it on our DeviantArt group gallery, We-Love-Poptropica.

Also, don’t forget to check out the other artists I’ve featured on the PHB!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Hellos & Goodbyes

A new author dives in: Gentle Dolphin

Gentle Dolphin

gd chibiHello, PHB readers!

My name is Gentle Dolphin, and I’m the newest staff writer on the Poptropica Help Blog. I’m grateful for this position, and I can’t wait to be a part of this journey!

Just in case anyone doesn’t know who I am, here’s a brief rundown. My real name is Jordyn, but I go by Gentle Dolphin in the Poptropica community. Well, technically, I go by three different names online: Jordyn, Gentle Dolphin, and @phs_animations. (I really should not have made my online names hard to keep track of…)

I’ve been a big fan of Poptropica for a long time (about six years at this point), but I started getting involved in the community less than two years ago. Since then, I have been making Poptropica fan art and even started my own fan blog: Gentle Dolphin’s Pop Blog.

Outside of the Poptropica community, I do plenty of stuff on and offline. I like to write stories and draw pictures; one of my goals in life is to become a comic artist and an animator. I enjoy baking, singing, dancing, playing computer games, and spending time with family. I also love animals; I especially love cats.

If you want to see more of my work or talk, feel free to check out my social media. I’m on DeviantArt, Twitter, Instagram, and Discord. If you want to friend me on Poptropica, just add me with the username magicalyre. Go and check out my blog as well (linked above) for more pop-tastic content!

It’s hard to believe that I’m actually going to be writing for this site, but I strive to make each of my posts informative and creative. Stay tuned to the Poptropica Help Blog for Pop news and more from all of us here on the PHB team!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin

Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Free the Colorizer on Worlds for all

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Here’s a guest post by Gentle Fang on how the Colorizer helped her express herself on Poptropica Original and why such a feature ought to be more accessible to all on Poptropica Worlds. Check it out, and enjoy. ~ 🐠

Pop Petition Header

Hey guys! It’s Gentle Fang! If you have never heard of me, I did my own MPIP back in 2017 about a year ago, and also wrote a guest post about several islands in 2016. I have been playing Poptropica for about 6 years now (not all that consistently), and I really enjoy exploring islands and getting involved in the community.

As I have been playing for quite some time, I found that I had completed almost all the islands and had little left to do. As such, when Poptropica Worlds was first announced, I was overjoyed. I was so happy they were finally going to make new islands, add new material, and improve upon the characters.

When I got around to playing the new Poptropica Worlds once it came out, however, I found that I was underwhelmed. First off, talk about bad first impressions—the game took FOREVER to load. I had always been able to switch from scene to scene in a second on Poptropica Original, but I found that on Worlds it took quite some time.

When I was finally able to get into my closet to change my character, I was quite upset to find that the Colorizer — one of my favorite parts of Poptropica Original — was for members only. (Well, non-members get a few pre-selected colors for free. But that’s nothing compared to Poptropica Original.)

popworlds summer update 4

My style is what sets me apart from the crowd. For years, I’ve had an outfit that was a mixture of all my favorite costumes, a little pet cat I called Buttons, and most importantly my bright turquoise hair. That hair color was the only thing about me that never changed. Hairstyles change (in real life, I recently cut off over 6 inches of hair). My outfit is almost constantly being modified (for some reason I went through a phase where I dressed like a police officer). My character also sometimes has glasses, and recently got freckles. The entire look was my way of expressing myself.

Most of my character’s traits represented something about my personality: her diva outfit showed my dramatic personality, her occasional glasses represented that although I need glasses I hardly ever wear them, and the new freckles reflected the ones that appeared on my actual face. But the hair didn’t represent my physical state — it represented my boldness.

Although I am not currently allowed to dye my hair, I know brightly colored hair would turn heads. That’s what I like to do — I am not someone who enjoys blending in or staying in the crowd. I wasn’t allowed to get a membership on any gaming sites because my parents didn’t trust technology that much, so I couldn’t buy anything that only members received. This meant I only had a minuscule amount of clothes and accessories to choose from. Since the Colorizer was free for everyone on Poptropica Original, and came with a wide array of colors, I was sucked in.

Six years of turquoise hair later, I was more than disappointed when my favorite color was taken away too, becoming a privilege only given to members. Of course, I attempted to get my mother to agree to buy me a membership, to no avail. I know that there are other kids or teenagers like me who cannot purchase a membership for whatever reason, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to express themselves.

I understand that memberships make the company money to keep Poptropica free. But I also think that things that were not under lock and key in Poptropica Original should remain that way in Worlds.

So, in closing, I would like to propose that the Poptropica Worlds Colorizer to ought to be accessible in its entirety to everyone.

This nifty tool is something that I quite enjoyed for more than half my life, and I would be very upset if it was removed from the game permanently for players without membership. I would very much like for this amazing tool to be made free for all.

Thanks so much for listening.

—Gentle Fang

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Gentle Fang! If you did, be sure to check out another guest post of hers: Tips & Tricks for Escape From Pelican Rock & Reality TV Island.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

📰 If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! ✨

Community Creations

Community Creations: September 2018

Spotted Dragon

community-creations-logo

Hello once again everyone! Spotted Dragon here bringing you the September recap for Community Creations! September’s theme was music and the featured work is not in any particular order. Be sure to check out all the featured artists!

No clue what’s going on? Go see our intro post.

Top 5 Picks

Erewhon Days by epiphxny

epiphxny - Erewhon Days

Anyone here a Gorillaz fan? If you’re unfamiliar with this virtual band, know that this drawing is specifically based off the cover art for their Demon Days album. But, of course, the artist skillfully put a little Poptropica themed twist on the design! And who better to form a parody band than our four main villains? I would definitely pre-order that EP. Anyway, this design is fantastic! The characters’ expressions are great and I simply must point out how amazing Binary Bard’s makeup is. Find his DeviantArt here.

This is Home by ray-of-light

ray-of-light - This is Home

This is not just a simple drawing folks! This artist (Birdie-bee on YouTube) actually put together an animatic for the song This is Home by Cavetown, but with Binary Bard’s backstory. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE! The creativity and effort put into this submission is clear, I’m sure, and the video is put together very well! The lyrics reflect Binary Bard’s tragic story line pretty darn well, and the drawings that go along with the song are simple but stunning. The mood is expertly captured. Find his DeviantArt here and his YouTube channel here.

Puppet V2 by ANNE14TCO

ANNE14TCO - Puppet

This submission, like the last in fact, includes a song! However, this one also comes with a unique and creative twist. The artist of this gif actually composed a song herself, inspired by the creepier side of Poptropica. LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE! The composition is successfully chilling and goes perfectly with the upcoming spooky season of October. Featuring BlazingAngel123‘s Poptropican, the drawing’s lighting is super eerie, perfectly reflecting the music-box styled, well, music. Additionally, you may have noticed that this is the second version of this song! A first version was made prior to this one, which you can listen to here. Find her DeviantArt here and her YouTube channel here.

Home Island Theme Flute Arrangement by happyclonetrooper

happyclonetrooper - Home Island Theme Flute Arrangement

Yet another unique entry! Originally composed by Poptropica, this artist arranged the classic Home Island theme into sheet music for the flute. LISTEN TO THE ARRANGEMENT HERE! The tune, while simple, is extremely accurate to the in game music. Plus, now any musicians out there can play it for themselves! This submission was super different and obviously took a lot of effort. Absolutely amazing! Find her DeviantArt here and her MuseScore account here.

Fiona’s Song by izthewizard

izthewizard - Fiona's Song

So, anyone in the comments whose favorite island is Ghost Story? It sure is a classic adventure, in which Poptropica’s first glimpse at music takes place. Fiona’s song was surely a significant scene for all of us, and thus a perfect topic for this month’s theme. (Are you looking for someone?) This drawing is super cool, portraying a great mood in reference to the island. I especially like the ghostly glow added to the violin! Great coloring. Find her DeviantArt here.

Honorable Mentions

Wild West Music by BeanSkelly
Pop Froot by Criaha
Clash of Genres by JordynGowens AKA Gentle Dolphin

The submissions this month were so unique! And stunning as always. Remember, even in themes that are directly related to music, you can still submit animations, songs, etc. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with next month!

October: How Do I Participate?

Community Creations is a cool series for anyone in the Poptropica community to join in on. To sum up what it’s about, it’s basically a chance to show off your artwork, creepy fan-fics, Worlds houses, costumes, and anything else that pops into your mind.

If we really like the piece you submit, we will feature it here on the PHB! As long as it relates to that month’s theme. So what is October’s theme? October’s theme is…

VILLAINS!

October definitely is the spoopiest time of the year, so what else could live up to this month’s haunting aesthetics? Poptropica villains of course! Everyone’s favorite baddies can really bring their fair share of tricks, as well as treats.

Sooooo what are some examples of entries exactly? Welp, the list of possibilities is even wider than usual! Write fan-fic of your favorite villains teaming up, draw some creepy portraits of the baddest of bad guys, create a villain inspired Halloween costume, etc. Even compose a song based on some evil characters’ personalities!

mustachesupervillain1

  • Submitting: Comment below with a link to whatever you’ve created OR share it with me (SydVC aka Spotted Dragon) on DeviantArt, Twitter, or Discord.
  • Results: I will feature 5 of the submissions as well as 3 honorable mentions.
  • Limitations: Nothing NSFW, and make sure you relate to the theme.
  • Due Date: I will take any entries before the end of this month. Submit as many things as you’d like!

I will always be sure to let you know I have seen your creation. Bonus points if you make a compelling description for your piece! While quality counts, I’m mainly looking for something to simply catch my eye, so don’t be afraid to join in!

So what are you waiting for? Go make something awesome!

~SD