Category: PHB Specials

Hey Poptropicans! 😀

Throughout Poptropica, you may come across the occasional hidden game – a mini-game you can play just for fun, that has no effect on the island quest you’re on. In this PHB Special, we’ll be taking a look at these sometimes-forgotten fun features that add a little excitement to Poptropica!

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Note: this list does not include games that are required during islands that you can re-play for fun later, nor does it include official mini-quests that come with their own item card in the Store.

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Table Football :: Big Nate Island

The first truly noteworthy “extra game” to arrive on Poptropica can be found on Big Nate Island. Inside the secret clubhouse at the top of the playground, you have to play the ‘Go To Jail’ hangman game, but the ‘Table Football’ game is optional. In Table Football, you aim a folded piece of paper into a football post, and you need 3 goals out of a maximum of 5 chances to win.

Plus, if you do win, you get a bonus book called Big Nate’s Pratical Jokes! Good, wholesome fun.

Computer Ping-Pong :: Counterfeit Island

Inside the Web Browser Cafe on Counterfeit Island’s Main Street, clicking on the computers will activate a cool little computer game of ping-pong! The graphics and concept are simple: just move your cursor up and down to control your white ping-pong board on the left.

Like a goalkeeper, you want to prevent the pixelled balls from getting past your wall (the left) by bouncing them back with your board. The red balls are normal, while the yellow bonus balls move a bit faster and will also split apart into more balls and come back once they hit your board.

Slot Machine :: Wild West Island

On the facade of the Four Aces Casino in Dos Cactos on Wild West Island, you’ll find, at the very top left corner, a slot machine! It’s fairly straightforward: click on the crank at the left to turn the machine, and see where each of the three slots land when they’re done spinning. If they’re all the same, a slew of jalapeno peppers will rain down like confetti! If not, nothing happens.

Pool :: Game Show Island

On the bottom level of the Club Nouveau Riche on Game Show Island’s Main Street, under the glowing 8-ball sign, you can play a game of pool by clicking on the pool table! There’s just one ball, the white ball, and your goal is to align your pool cue (the stick) to try to roll the ball into the hole.

The blue circles, which appear in varying sizes, will make your ball bounce back, resulting in possible point multiplications. Every time you win (by rolling the ball into the hole), you get more lives. See how high of a score you can get before you run out of lives!

Planet Slug :: Night Watch Island

Notably similar to the pop-ular mobile game Angry Birds, Planet Slug is an app game found on your cell phone on Night Watch Island. In this game, you fling a little rocket ship from a slingshot in outer space, and your goal is to aim it at these green planets that look like slugs. Your rocket ships may also hit the asteroids, but that is not the ultimate goal. If you can hit all the slugs before you run out of lives, you win!

Terror in the Garden :: Zomberry Island

During the zomberry apocalypse, Gamer Guy is too busy holed up in his apartment on Zomberry Island playing video games. If you click on his gaming console, you’ll activate a game called Terror in the Garden! This game is essentially the same as the final showdown on the island when you’re saving the citizens with the zomberry antidote, except instead of people, you’re shooting at vegetables with faces! There are no prizes for winning, but it’s good practice for later in the island.

Mega Fighting Bots :: Mocktropica Island

Inside Ephraim University on Mocktropica Island, if you click on the computer in the classroom, you can play Mega Fighting Bots! In MFB, you play as Bucket Bot, and you move around by clicking on where you want to go. To attack, you double-click, and your goal is to destroy your opponent before they destroy you.

Since MFB is also a main part of the Mocktropica bonus quest, you can find more tips and info for the game on our Mocktropica Island Guide. Alternatively, you can also play MFB on the external Mega Fighting Bots site set up by the Poptropica Creators!

Feats of Speed :: Home Island

Most recently, Poptropica added a new mini-game to Home Island called Feats of Speed, which you can read more about in this PHB post. Not part of any island quest, this recycles a part of PoptropiCon: Episode 1 where you race the Cheetah Bandit to the top of a building.

To get started, talk to Speedy Sam on Home Island (you’ll recognize him by the treadmill) and he’ll challenge you to a race. If you can beat his score, he’ll let you try for the world record, and if you beat that, you’ll win a snazzy pair of Sneakers that you can wear on your feet (really)! There are more sneakers to come, so stay tuned for that as well.

Plus, we’ve been getting hints of Poptropica working on some more mini-games that are Zomberry-themed – we’ll have to wait and see what this becomes!

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Anyway, that about wraps up this list of hidden games in Poptropica! Which ones do you like? What are your high scores? Do you want Poptropica to include more of these hidden games within the islands? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

As always, stay popping, Poptropicans!

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Hey Poptropicans! 😀

I recently came across a couple of interesting Poptropica PowerPoint presentations by Christopher Barney, a Creator thought to be Triton. These were made for the Game Developers’ Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers.

In 2013, Chris spoke on the topic of Poptropica Friends, and in 2015, the talk was on Poptropica Realms. As you go through these PowerPoints, you may already be familiar with some of the info presented, but keep in mind that this was for other game-makers who may not know much about Poptropica. While there are a lot of slides to sift through, it’s still worth a look!

GDC 2013 | 100 Million Friends You Can Never Know

In this Poptropica Friends presentation, we see the inside of the Creators’ process in creating the Friends feature. Below are some of the more interesting slides (it looks like a lot, but this is only part of it!). Click to enlarge the images, or click here view the full presentation!

Interspersed between some neat graphics, we can find a lot of information:

• Pop Quizzes were originally going to be text-based.
• Photos were made to reward progress as players went through islands. More than that, they were originally going to be Badges! This explains (as we can see on one of the slides) a sneak peek of Badge Albums we uncovered years ago.
• The Creators carefully considered our experience with ads, and decided to spare us from bad ad placement. We appreciate it!
• One slide shows a scene that appears to be from Shark Tooth Island, but there’s a hay tipi beside an “Enter Poptropica” sign that goes to the blimp. Is this an early idea for account creation?
• Early designs for the Friends feature was Facebook-like with several vertical screens, and a player room with platforms was also considered (not sure how this may be different from common rooms).
• The Map was originally going to have zooming, but it was too disorienting.
• Girls are likelier than boys to change their mood on their profile. Happy and excited are the most popular moods. Bashful is the least popular.
• Some Poptropicans choose a different country identity than where they’re from. (Side note: Why do they recognize Hong Kong as its own ‘country’ here, yet Hong Kong is not an option in the actual game when you select your country on your profile?)
• Tribe members’ “play habits” conform to the theme of the tribe they’re in.
• Tribal home pages and challenges may be coming in the future.

2015 | Turning 100,000,000 Friends Into Game Developers

A couple of years later, Chris presented a sequel to the previous talk, this time focusing on Poptropica Realms and how it adds user-generated content to Poptropica. Check out some of these noteworthy slides, or click here view the full presentation!

Some interesting takeaways from this presentation include:

• There are about 8 million active users on Poptropica per month.
• “Success makes innovation harder.” Hmm, food for thought.
• Realms was created in part to give a new gameplay experience that still felt “Poptropica”.
• Poptropica has to prioritize COPPA standards (children’s online privacy) when they allowing any form of sharing/user content.
• Realms was originally thought of as a single infinite random world, and eventually became many worlds.
• There’s some technology jargon in there for those interested.
• Not everything went right the first try: prototypes had no tutorial, intros were too long or short, etc.
• They sure got this right though: “Raising our (under age) players’ desire for membership does not increase their parents’ desire to buy it for them.”
• Earlier Realms designs lacked a strong art style, player progression, motivation to build, and narrative direction.
• Limited features meant there was not a lot to do for the less creatively-inclined player.
• On average, Realms players spend over twice as much time on the site than those playing islands. Among the stats, 1.4 million players use Realms.
• Sharing Realms would take more time to implement, so they held off on releasing that feature. Lots of public Realms have been visited, but only by about 30,000 users (not a lot compared to the other statistics).
• Future plans include tying Realms with Friends, catering to more player types, multi-user Realms, tying island gameplay to Realms, and more.
• Out of about 40 developers at Poptropica, the team dedicated to Realms is capped at 4, so that others could work on other Poptropica projects outside of Realms.
• Chris Barney thinks it’s funny to end his presentations with an image of the Jersey Devil, often cited by players as one of the scariest Poptropica moments.

Well, that concludes these fascinating Poptropica presentations from a game developer’s perspective! Hope you enjoyed these insights! 😀

Stay popping, Poptropicans. 🐠🐠