Category: PHB Specials

PHB Specials

PHB Valentine’s Special, Part 2: Tainted Love

Blake

Valentine's-Special

Continued from Part 1…

(The remaining AUTHORS are sitting in BLAKE’S office, as STRANGE MONSTER and POPULAR WOLF hold the door shut.)

Blake: Wow, I actually thought shooting them again would stop them.

Fishy: You just made it worse! Now they’re after us.

Blake: Well maybe someone should pay for lessons to teach me how to read, eh? How was I supposed to know the label said “Puppy Love?”

HP: I honestly thought it would turn them into dogs or something. But no, now they want to kill us.

Skinny Ice: Honestly? Not how I wanted to go down.

Ylimegirl: Yeah, I know. I wanted to go down on a beach in Paris, shooting down the enemy armies as my fighter plane barrels into the ocean..

(The ENTIRE GROUP stares in shock.)

Ylimegirl: What? Too vivid?

Blake: Um, yeah. So anyway, how do we stop them? Taking them down isn’t an option, since two of them are our own.

GH: There’s so many of them!

Paul: Well maybe SOMEONE shouldn’t have released them into the streets of Back Lot Island!

GH: You know, I thought that would work. You know, zombies LOVE Queequeg’s.

Paul: Have you been reading the landlord’s collection of zombie fanfiction again?

GH: Maybeeeee…

(The DOOR shatters, as SD pokes her head inside.)

SD: Hey guys! You guys wanna let me in there? I can show you the love you desire!

PW: They’re breaking down the door! What do we do?

Blake: It’s quite simple, actually. You see, if I just walk over to this crate and open my “Emergency Plot Point Kit,” I retrieve my..

(BLAKE pulls out a small bottle of black liquid.)

Blake: ANTI-LOVE SERUM!

WKF: Really? You couldn’t have pulled that stuff out when you shot them originally?

Blake: Shhhh…don’t ruin my moment.

(BLAKE aims carefully, and hits SD in the arm with an arrow dipped in the Anti-Love Serum. She quickly reverts to normal.)

Blake: Thank you, Plot Point Kit! Now, everyone grab a bow from the crate and start shooting!

(LATER *since I didn’t want to write the same sequence over and over…*)

Blake: Well, it looks like everything worked out alright in the end!

HP: It is a shame that nobody but us will ever see that epic action sequence we went through.

SD: Well, it is  a kid’s blog!

(THEY ALL laugh.)

Blake: Now, come on. Who’s ready for some Valentine’s pizza?

(The CROWD cheers as they all walk out of the entrance. Enter TALL CACTUS and CUDDLY KNUCKLE, drenched in mud.)

TC: Hello?  We made it!

CK: Yeah, whenever the bus crashed, we ended up in a mud bank, and went on a journey of self-discovery!

TC: Cuddly, I think the special’s over..

(A strange BLACK FIGURE materializes.)

Black Figure: Not necessarily… How would you two like to join my Monster Army?

TC: Gladly!

CK: Yeah, we’re sick of getting 2-paragraph cameos at the end of things.

Black Figure: Excellent. Let us begin…

To be continued in the 2016 PHB Halloween Special…

Hope you enjoyed the PHB Valentine’s Special!

Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤

PHB Specials, Pop-over

PHB Pop-over Special: Gravity Falls Gang!

Slanted Fish

Gravitate over here, Poptropicans – it’s time for another PHB Special*!

(*Side note: PHB Specials are a category of posts that can pertain to a variety of things. You may be familiar with Blake’s Special scripts, for instance, of which the most recent is the Valentine’s Special.)

Many of us here at the PHB are fans of Gravity Falls (a Disney TV show), and if you are too, you may know that the finale will be upon us this Monday, February 15th! To commemorate this great show, and to acknowledge requests for more costumes, we’ve made some Gravity Falls Poptropica costumes for you to enjoy. (And if you’re not a fan, we highly recommend you start your binge-watching today. 😉 )

gravitypop

From left to right, here’s how you can get their costumes:

  • Soos: You can get his hat from the tent guy on Ghost Story and the shirt from the Bigfoot Fanatic costume in the Store. Alternatively, the green video game shirt from a guy on Reality TV also works, and it’s customizable when you friend phbSoos.
  • Dipper: His hat is from a guy on Lunar Colony’s Main Street, and the jacket is from a guy on Red Dragon’s Frog Creek. Simply friend phbDipper and customize.
  • Mabel: Her whole look can be achieved from the start at account creation. You can friend phbMabel and customize her whole look.
  • Grunkle Stan: His fez (hat) is from Time Tangled’s Timbuktu (Mali Empire), the suit from Spy Island, and you can buy Fake Noses from the Store (yes, we know Stan’s glasses aren’t like that, but close enough). (Extra: get the Timmy Failure Scarf in the Store and use the ASG on WillyWonkaASG for the cane!) Friend phbStanPines for the outfit. For the beard, use the ASG on ZeusASG. (Double extra: friend StanfordPines2 for Grunkle Ford’s costume!)
  • Wendy: Her freckles are from a lady on Cryptids Island, and the rest of her costume is from the clothing crank on Home Island. To make it simple, friend phbWendy and customize. For a plaid shirt instead, try the Fall Fashion Outfit from the Store – but note that this is red, not green.

These guys are also now on our Costumes page! Hope you enjoyed these costumes, and let us know what you think! 🙂 Oh, and if you have the Pixel Pig Power, you can pretend it’s Waddles. 😉

By the way, if you have any costume ideas, we would love to hear them – and you are more than welcome to make your own, especially with instructions or accounts to befriend for said costumes. The comments section of our Costumes page is a great place to start (as well as just to browse).

mabel

Let’s #TakeBackTheFalls together!

PHB Specials

PHB Valentine’s Special, Part 1: Love Zombies

Blake

Valentine's-Special

INT. PHB OFFICES- DAY

(The AUTHORS are gathered for their Valentine’s party. BLAKE is sitting on a folding chair, sipping some punch.)

HP: Dude, I can’t believe you brought that thing up three flights of stairs just for this gag.

Blake: Insert funny joke here.

(HP looks at BLAKE with a smirk. A STUDIO LAUGH TRACK plays in the background.)

Fishy: Quiet, everyone! Alright, as you all know, this is our first annual Valentine’s Day party, and of course, this will be the first office party open to the viewers.

Blake: Well, they did say to open up to them a bit more.

(Another STUDIO LAUGH TRACK.)

Fishy: Blake, if you press that laugh track button one more time, you and your folding chair are out of this party.

Blake: Fine, fine! We only chose six of them anyway.

Sam: Yeah, this is some weird Willy Wonka stuff right here.

Fishy: Well, think. There are nine of us. We don’t have enough room in here to have a wild party! Plus, the landlord will kick us out if we get too loud, so..

HP: Yeah, the landlord is pretty scary. Remember what she did to SD that one time she left the door open?

SD: Yeah… I don’t want to remember…

(SD shudders as the sound of a broom swooping in the air is heard.)

Fishy: We all pray for you, SD. Now, let’s get ready! They should be arriving any minute now.

(The door opens, and the six selected partygoers enter. Among them are YLIMEGIRL, POPULAR WOLF, BRAVE SKY, WIMPYKIDFAN, SKINNY ICE and STRANGE MONSTER.)

Popular Wolf: Oh my gosh! Great to be here, you guys! It’s always been my childhood dream to come here!
WKF: All my life I’ve imagined what this place would look like…. This isn’t it..

Skinny Monster: I thought we’d never get here! Stupid bus crash!
Blake: Well, all that really matters is that you’re here now. You guys mingle a bit, while us authors set up the games!

(BLAKE tapes a target to the wall, and gets out a BOW, which is emitting a strange pink glow.)

Brave Sky: Ooh, archery! I’m pretty good at this!
Blake: Yes, this game is basically archery. What’ll happen is, you get two shots, and whoever hits the target will score 10 points!

HP: Pssh, that’s easy, Blake.

Blake: The winner gets this caramel apple I found in the fridge!

(HP snatches the bow and two arrows from BLAKE.)

HP: DEAL! I’m up first!

(HP aims. The arrow slowly drifts right, and HP lets go, hitting SD in the arm by accident. He tries again, only managing to hit the cactus in SAM’S cubicle.)

SD: You know, I suddenly feel the strange urge to go hug that cactus.

(SD runs toward the cactus, leaving the remaining partygoers to ponder what just happened.)

Blake: Well, that can’t be good.
Sam: She’s after Phil! I have to stop her!

(SAM runs off. HP swipes an arrow from Blake’s quiver, and aims, accidentally hitting SAM.)

Sam: Ouch! What the heck, ma-

(The potion in the arrow’s tip takes it’s toll, and Sam is also drawn toward the cactus.)

Sam: Well, that settles it. C’mere, tiger!

(SAM runs into the cubicle with SD.)

Blake: Seriously, what’s going on? I mean, all I did was buy this bow and quiver of arrows from a shady guy with wing tattoos in the back of a van! Nothing wrong there!

Fishy: Wait, did you say wing tattoos? Could this actually be Cupid’s bow?

Blake: Probably! I mean, you know us, always getting into these kinds of situations…

Fishy: This is serious, Blake! We have a group of crazed love zombies running around the office!

Blake: Oh, those are just my fans. Some say my humor makes them dumber by the minute.

(Once again, a STUDIO LAUGH TRACK.)

Fishy: That’s it. Get out.

To be continued…

Creators, PHB Specials, Poptropica Portfolio

Poptropica Portfolio: Jordan Leary

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

Last week’s Poptropica Portfolio feature was pretty popular, so here’s another! (Here on the PHB, we’ve previously featured the works of Abraham Tena, Chris Goodwin, and Nate Greenwall.) The lucky Creator to be featured this time is Jordan Leary, also thought to be Dr. Hare.

On his Behance page, Jordan says this of his work with Poptropica: “I’ve been leading the development of Poptropica, one of the most popular online kids’ games in the world, since 2007. I developed the original game engine, the animation system, and hundreds of games, scenes, and effects. Play the game at www.poptropica.com.” The original game engine, we assume, refers to the classic non-SUI (sound updated islands) on Poptropica. This game demo reel also shows a lot of his Poptropica work:

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Many of the Poptropica designs Jordan displays on his website are interactive, which we unfortunately cannot embed here on the PHB. Instead, we recommend that you visit his portfolio site directly so you can play around with his designs. We’ll also post pictures below to let you know what to look out for.

When you first land on the site, you’ll be on the Games tab, where you can find a few Poptropica-related bits on the side (including a screenshot of the PHB’s Star Link video!). However, it’s the next tab, UI, that shows the good Pop stuff. You get to make a bunch of Realms “bubbles”, view prototypes of the inventory cards and age picker, play a game of Mancala, the matching game with Mahjong tiles, Fiona’s violin, and more! Check it out on the UI tab on Jordan’s portfolio site!

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As foundational as he’s been to the game’s development since the beginning, it appears he’s no longer part of the team – his LinkedIn page shows that he left Poptropica in October 2015. Goodbye, Dr. Hare!

Thanks for all your work in making Poptropica what it is, Jordan – and we promise we’re not 12-year-old stalkers anymore. Maybe a little older now. 😉

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this look into a leading Poptropica developer’s popping portfolio! Stay popping, Poptropicans. 😀

PHB Sneak Peeks, PHB Specials, Poptropica Portfolio

Poptropica Portfolio: Abraham Evensen Tena

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! 😀

It’s been a while since we’ve featured a Poptropica artist’s portfolio here on the PHB – if you haven’t already, check out the works of Chris Goodwin and Nate Greenwall.

This next one has been around for a while, but we’re finally getting around to posting about it: the portfolio of Poptropica illustrator Abraham Evensen Tena! (The character of Gamer Guy, or Abe on Zomberry Island, is most likely modeled after him.) You can check out the works we’re highlighting in this post and more on his portfolio website.

Perhaps the most interesting pictures from Abe’s portfolio are these glimpses of the forgotten underground island that we’ve seen sneak peeks of in past Daily Pops. It’s a land lined with pink crystals, flowing streams, and even dinosaur bones! I for one would love to play this island someday.

The concept art…
…and the final production piece!

The rest of the Poptropica-related art on his site are mostly desktop wallpapers for islands we’ve already seen, some illustrations he made for the Poptropica Lunar Colony chapter book, and other miscellaneous concept art. Here’s a look at some more pieces (click to enlarge the artwork):

If you check out his website, you’ll find even more Poptropica pieces. You can also see some of his personal non-Poptropica work on other parts of the site, but be warned that some of his (non-Poptropica) illustrations contain nudity, so only proceed if you are comfortable with that.

Abe Tena’s resume states that he worked as a game designer (most likely for Poptropica) from October 2010 to July 2015, which means he no longer works there. Right now, though, he’s an assistant professor specializing in human figure drawing at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, the city where Poptropica HQ is located. How cool would it be to have a Poptropica Creator be your art teacher?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this look into a Poptropica artist’s portfolio! Thanks to Abe for all the fantastic ideas and artwork he’s contributed to the game we know and love. 🙂