Thanks to IsaacEntertains for bringing this to my attention!
In celebration of the upcoming Fairy Tale Island (the first winner of the Dream Island contest from last year), the creators are holding a competition calling all artists who are up to participate.
The idea is to illustrate your favorite character, scene, and/or item from your favorite tale in the Poptropica style. All types of media are acceptable and your drawing can be as simple or as intricate as you’d like. To enter, simply post your creation to Instagram making sure to tag the official Poptropica account (@poptropicacreators) or submit through Poptropica’s submissions form. Easy-peasy!
The prize? There will be 3 winners chosen, and not only will the team of creators (along with every Poptropican who pays any attention to the PCB and Poptropica’s social media) see your work, you’ll also be rewarded with in-game credits. How many? That is yet to be discovered… Anyway, you have until April 21 — a mere week from now — to get your entries in, so you don’t want to procrastinate on this one.
Also FYI, Fairytale Island is set to be releasing the day after on April 22! How exciting… it’s not a dream (hopefully)! The wait has actually been pretty short which is a little out of character for Poptropica at this point, so that gets me wondering about the quality of the gameplay we’ll be receiving. I’m a little ambivalent if I’m going to be honest, but I’ll try to find some more optimism.
What about you? Will you be getting involved in the fantasy fun? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you in the next one. Pop on!
– LJ 🍀
UPDATE: In other news, more fabulous masterpieces were shared on Poptropica’s Instagram story. Keep them coming, creators! I’m loving the frequent engagement with the online community.
Howdy Poptropican friends! It’s LJ with some new store swag for both your clubhouse and your next Poptropica fit, plus some more artist highlights form Poptropica’s Instagram. Let’s get into it.
In the newly opened Adventure Outfitters, there are a total of seven new outfits (indicated below) — two of which are for members only. The prices range from 75 to 350 credits.
Albeit members exclusive, I’m glad to see the Lightning Knight costume back since it’s of the best costumes in Poptropica in my opinion. Now onto the Clubhouse store. There’s much more to see there…
The entire stock has rotated from the last time leaving us with 55 different décor options — and the best part of all, only a mere 7 items are members only! Good job Poptropica. Time to start decorating! Perhaps you can send in your very own clubhouse tour.
Yesterday, Poptropica featured more fantastic artwork from fan artists on Instagram, this time including me! A cute comic redraw, a pop portrayal (which you probably recognize from Guess That Poptropican), an island pitch, a suggestive picture of Binary Bard after the glow up… it’s all there!
by @happylconetrooper
by me, @ljokerpop
by @hollysimspet
by @ladystxr
I love everybody else’s drawings and I hope the creators keep on sharing them; it’s really one of my favorite parts about the online community. If you want to view more from the past year, you can see them in the Fan Art highlight story on their Instagram page.
Welp, that’s all the news for now. Thank you for reading as always and I’ll talk to you in the next one. We have some exciting things happening later this month and you won’t want to miss it. Pop on!
Howdy Poptropicans! It’s LJ here with a showcase of fanart the Poptropica creators spotlighted on their Instagram story yesterday.
Some of the works come from familiar artists including our very own talented Gentle Dolphin, while others come from people whose names I don’t even recognize. It’s so cool to see so many amazing pieces of Poptropica art all over social media!
Here is a gallery of all the astounding creations (click on the images to see them in their full glory):
by @madeline.scribbles
by @sakurannb0
by @adriaticsee
by @sakurannb0
by @phs_animations (Gentle Dolphin)
by @happyclonetrooper
by @myartworkpage2
I admire all of the different and fun styles, don’t you? I really appreciate that Poptropica acknowledges their fanbase by occasionally sharing art like this. This fandom has a lot extremely gifted artists who produce some genuinely great stuff!
That’s it for now. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you in the next one. Pop on!
– LJ 🍀
P.S. Don’t forget to participate in this month’s Community Creations before time flies ahead of you. The theme is bugs, so start conjuring up those ideas! Also, look out for the Readers’ Survey results coming tomorrow.
Hey Poptropicans! You’re familiar with Home Island, the perennial launchpad of your Poptropica adventures (and home to a brand new store interior!), but are you aware of its storied past?
An early iteration of Home Island in 2016. Yes, before DJ Saturday Nite was whitewashed, she dyed her hair blonde. Welcome to Poptropica.
This week on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog, guest writer Invisible Ringlays out a history of Home Island and how it connects to the disappearance of Monkey Wrench Island, released in 2016 as a tutorial for first-time players. Her main theory is that, as Home Island kept changing with seasonal makeovers, the connection to Monkey Wrench must have gotten cut off. “How could Amelia land her airplane on Home Island if Home Island won’t stay still?”
Monumental: You finally made a monkey out of me.
Ring also gives a shout-out to “Monkey Wrench posts on the PHB” which inspired her to contact the Pop Creators about bringing the island back. (One such post: Purple Paw’s Pop Petition: Bring Monkey Wrench back.) In response, the Creators have confirmed a return for Monkey Wrench, although no dates are set yet.
As for Home Island’s history, in addition to Ring’s guest post, the PHB has captured its evolving stories over the years as well. Before 2015, there was no Home Island — when you logged in, you’d find yourself wherever you last left off on whatever island you were on. Since its release (back when it was briefly known as Hub Island), it’s gone through a lot of cosmetic and functional changes in the past five years.
Did you know that in the first Home Island, you had to find a wrench for Amelia Earhart and medallion shards for an explorer, which was later disbanded into the separate islands of Snagglemast and Monkey Wrench? Anyway, we went through our archives and pieced together some pics from over the years! Do you remember these scenes?
Enjoyed the throwback? There’s much more in the PHB archives!
Anyway, how do you feel about Home Island? What changes do you want to see on it, or have you had enough of its constant facelifts? Do you miss Monkey Wrench, or is Snagglemast superior? Share your thoughts in the comments, and pop on, Poptropicans! ✌️
Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish here with a behind-the-scenes look at the Poptropica Creators’ creative process! 👀✏️
Operating System: When technology meets talent, anything is possible.
About a month ago, I sent the Pop Creators several interview questions, and this week, the questions were answered! You can catch the full interview on the Creators’ Blog as well as below, along with some additional notes (in italics) here in the PHB edition:
Where do you get your ideas from?
We get a lot of ideas when we’re together talking about our favorite things. That inspires a lot of creative fun ideas. Pets came from the idea that almost everyone on the Poptropica Creators team [h]as pets and the types of pets varies from dogs to cats to rabbits and more.
We also get a lot of ideas from players. Poptropica players are always sharing super cool stuff that they want to see in the game. We get awesome fan mail and see people’s ideas on social media too.
(PHB’s note: We share ideas from the community here on the PHB as well — check out our Pop Petitions for things we want to see in the game!)
What does the process of making something on Poptropica look like from start to finish, whether it’s an item, island, or character?
We’ll use the new store we’re working on as an example! First, everyone on the team does research. We go through player feedback on what people have and haven’t liked about the Poptropica store over the years. We also look at other stores, including stores IRL. Then we start to concept what we want the store to be like. We have to come up with designs that will be easy to use both on your computer and on mobile.
After the sketches are done, some of the artists will start to design the actual scene with color and place items, so we get an idea of how big it needs to be. Once everyone feels like it has what it needs, it goes to the developers.
The developers are the ones who bring the whole thing to life. They code the entire experience and that’s the first time any of the Poptropica Creators can actually play what they’ve designed! We just did our first play-through of the new store and were psyched with how it’s come along.
Everything we make requires the whole team and takes a lot of time. It’s totally worth it though!
(PHB’s note: Check out these sneak peeks for the upcoming interior of the store! Also, it’s cool to hear about how different parts of the team work together to create the game’s designs.)
Can you share some snapshots of what you’re working on?
Here [are] some more sneak peeks [for] the new Fairy Tale Island!
“Forest detail”
“Huntsman”
(PHB’s note: Nice pics! We’ve also shared more sneak peeks of Fairy Tale Island on this blog. Stay tuned to the PHB for the latest news on this upcoming adventure! Also, thoughts on this new hands-on-hips pose?)
What kind of stories do you hope to tell?
We love unique stories with a fun twist. Elements of surprise are always super fun too. When we’re brainstorming new ideas or choosing winners for the Dream Island Contest, we’re looking for things that we think we would love to read as a book. If it would make a good book, then it would make a great island!
(PHB’s note: Interesting. We love a good book too, but a Poptropica island is not a book — wouldn’t it be cool to explore more on the affordances of Poptropica’s platform? Interactivity, non-linear storytelling, social interaction, and more are all possibilities with digital storytelling that you would not find with a book. Still, there are certain elements that make up a good story no matter the medium, and we always look forward to what stories will be told through Poptropica!)
How do you gather player feedback and how does it influence the game?
Players share their feedback in a lot of different places, from actual mail to videos online. There is always a lot of feedback and it ranges from super fun ideas to questions about why we’ve made changes to Poptropica. When we get a lot of the same feedback from different players it can definitely influence what we do. For example, there have been a lot of requests for more ways to customize your character now that New You is gone. We’re already incorporating that into the new features we’re working on.
(PHB’s note: Why is New You gone, anyway? BTW, if you have feedback for the Creators, you can send them through their submission form!)
What advice do you have for young creatives who want to work on a game like Poptropica one day?
If you’re passionate about making games, start learning no matter what age you are. One of the newest developers on the Poptropica Creators team started learning how to code when they were 12, and that was before there were so many amazing online courses! Always be open to learning new things and be willing to put in the hard work and dedication to become really good at it. Sometimes starting something new can feel hard, but with practice, anyone can become great!
That’s the end of the interview! Thank you, Poptropica Creators, for taking the time to answer these questions and give Poptropicans everywhere some insight into the game’s inner (and outer) workings. It’s hard work building this space to be quality fun, but well worth it! 💙
What are your thoughts on the Q&A? What questions do you have for the Pop Creators? Share them in the comments here, and/or on the original guest post on their blog, and they may be addressed in the future!
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 