Category: Sneak Peeks

PHB Sneak Peeks, Social Media

Of Bucktoothed Bunnies and Binary Boots

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

Dr. Hare has taken over the world again! Well… his face has, and by “world” we mean “Poptropica’s social media.” Check out the rad new profile picture on Pop’s social accounts! It’s got some pretty smooth and stylized lines and highlights, again possibly to be seen in the upcoming Poptropica Worlds.

drhare-icon

It’s even made its way to the side of the Creators’ Blog:

drhare-pcb

This tweet from Poptropica confirms that this will be the new face of their social media, but also that they plan to rotate the selection of icons, which means we may see another villain featured in the future:

For more social media shenanigans, check out their latest Snapchat snaps, recapped here.

Speaking of Poptropica Worlds style, there’s been a leak for another familiar face (and body and limbs): Binary Bard, with fingers, thicker arms and legs, and snazzy jester boots! Credit goes to the Poptropica Skunk Blog and an anonymous glitcher for sharing this interesting find. (Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee whether or not this is real.)

poptropica-worlds-binary-bard

While we wait for more exciting news to develop, glitcher idk has continued to poke around in Poptropica’s unused files and discovered a few things.

First, there’s the unused idea of interacting with NPCs (non-player characters) the way you would with players in a common room, by asking them questions, costumizing, or friending. The chat options are like the ones you get in common rooms, and you’ll even get a response. Check out this video for a closer look at this in action.

npc-chat

idk also found versions of SUI items (SUI meaning sound-updated island) in non-SUI form, including items from Monster Carnival, Virus Hunter, and Mocktropica, as well as medallions from the latter two plus Beta Carrotene. These medallions also came with a secret island reset window, which looks like this (however, clicking yes will only lock the game):

reset-island-unused

And recalling an earlier find, a mysterious unused amulet from Vampire’s Curse, it turns out this item glows as well! That’ll keep those vampires away, I guess…

vc-amulet

Anyway, that’s all for now! Stay popping, Poptropicans!

–/🐠

Contests, PHB Sneak Peeks

Snapping peeks at 2007 BETA, a test room, & #PoptropicaFun winners

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

Post update: After a long silence, Poptropica has finally posted something on Snapchat! (Perhaps you don’t even remember they had one to begin with! You can add them via the username PoptropicaSC.) It looks like Skinny Moon runs this account as well, as that’s her dog Toby and her Poptropican who’s “all cozy for fall!”

Here’s hoping we see some more behind-the-scenes of a Poptropica Creator’s life in future snaps! The PHB will let you know if anything interesting pops up. 😀

–

Remember what Poptropica looked like in September 2007 when it first launched? Don’t worry, neither do most of us. But this interesting old YouTube video (uploaded by Codien, an old friend/author of the PHB) shows us a primitive version of the game way back in the day (recording software watermark aside). Here’s a screenshot from the video:

beta-pop

Notice the ‘BETA’ beside the Poptropica logo at the top. Apparently, the game was still considered to be in a beta testing stage back then. Early Poptropica, which we see in the video, was the only island at the time. The Items and Map features are reduced to simple buttons with text – orange and purple respectively. Interesting.

On another interesting note, our friend idk has shared with us another behind-the-scenes look at a developer test room. You can see an unreleased, “under construction” cityscape in the video below:

Cool views! You can check out more developer rooms here.

Also, over on Poptropica’s social media channels – and as we saw earlier with the Snapchat story, Skinny Moon has updated her icon with some fall vibes, donning the colorful scarf from the new Fall Fashion 3 outfit and clutching a football. Nice.

skinnymoon-fall

And winners have been contacted on Twitter and Instagram for the #PoptropicaFun Halloween Photo Booth challenge! On Twitter, the winners are unhurted083, mrmontana64, and MWare55, and on Instagram, it’s happyclonetrooper. Congratulations and enjoy your 1-month memberships!

Speaking of contests, I’m doing a little giveaway in my previous post, so be sure to enter! You have until next next Tuesday, November 15th.

Stay popping, Poptropicans!

–/🐠

Glitches, PHB Sneak Peeks

Friend Cards and Other Observations

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, what’s popping?

Poptropica glitcher idk is back at it with the behind-the-scenes insights, starting with this prototype of the Friends feature. Here, we can see that they are formatted like our item cards that you can flip through to take a look at. Interesting, but fortunately the final version we have today is much cooler.

idk has also found a way to bring back the old homepage – remember, that thing we had before Home Island? To see it, just reset your island progress on any non-SUI by clicking the gear in the top-corner menu. (Note: Resetting via the travel map will not work.) Reload the page, and there it is!

old-homepage

Lastly, just a random observation from the recent Littlest Pet Shop ad – who’s this Poptropica-like action figure and what’s it doing here?

Thanks for popping by, Poptropicans, and see you next time!

–/🐠

Poptropica Worlds, Sneak Peeks

New Poptropica – Monster Worm!

HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

Finally, some new content! Earlier today, Skinny Moon gave us an inside peek into the New Poptropica that we’ve been promised — the development of a “monster worm” creature that will apparently appear in an upcoming island.

sneak2bpeek2bnew2bpoptropica2bfb

The bulk of the post, which you can read here, was written by Jon Pitcher, a veteran artist for Poptropica. He gives a step by step development process for creating the creature. This includes a developmental sketch, vector illustration, coloring, and animating. The process is impressive, as is the final product. Here’s a summary look at the process:

monsterwormprocess

Some notes:

  • Jon reveals that this creature has an earthy, dirt-covered home. What this could mean? Am I the only one to think of Crisis Caverns?
  • The art style is definitely different from regular Poptropica. It startles me that this is just a worm, considering the level of detail that went into it.
  • The FPS of the animation seems dramatically increased. Will this be a constant in New Poptropica?
  • The vector illustration is made with Adobe Illustrator – perhaps the rest of Poptropica’s graphics use this tool as well?
  • One of the programs he’s using is called “Spine”, a 2D skeletal animations tool. What does this mean for the Unity theory?

Equally intriguing is what seems to be verification that New Poptropica is still on track to be released later this year (how much later remains a mystery). See you next time, Poptropicans.

PHB Sneak Peeks

PHB Sneak Peeks: Pets, alternate worlds, and more!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

While Poptropica remains pretty quiet about what they’re working on, our resident glitcher idk recently uncovered some interesting test scenes behind-the-scenes. Keep in mind, as these are test scenes, there’s no guarantee of whether they’ll appear in game eventually. With that said, let’s take a look!

In this scene, we get a backdrop with a scenic mountain range that features a few platforms and a character you can talk to – who’s accompanied by a cute little blob that may be a pet!

We know from Poptropica that pets will be part of the New Poptropica – and this might be one of them. Or maybe just a prototype. Who knows?

test1

Here’s another room, named “Air Control Test”. According to idk, the red block shoots your character into the air! Wonder what this could be for. Some skydiving, perhaps?

test2

There was also this rather empty room, save for a character who offers you something to open a treasure chest. Thanks… matey.

test3

Moving on, here we have a royally-dressed character who seems to be hinting at something super interesting… the idea of other Poptropicans coming from an alternate “Poptropiverse” (probably meaning Poptropica universe)! Could the Realms theory proposed in an earlier Popspiracy be true?? Hmm… perhaps this will be answered through the Poptropica graphic novels, as book 2 hints!

Finally, idk also uncovered these unused graphics for the Daily Pop which featured a “Challenge of the Day”, although the activity is unknown. Perhaps it was replaced by the flash games section.

Anyway, that’s all for this sneak peeks post! Hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look! Keep poppin’ on, Poptropicans. Have a geisha goodbye, courtesy of Shaky Skunk! 🎎

geisha

~/🐠