I can show you the world… — “I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT!” Oh, but you’ll want to see this!
Hey Poptropicans! So last week’s buzz was about the release of PoptropiCon Ep. 1 for members, and Mission Atlantis Ep. 3 for everyone — but looking ahead, let’s see what we can find out about the upcoming Arabian Nights Island — in particular, the first episode: “How Bazaar”!
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW (but that’s what you want, isn’t it?)
:: overview ::
About a month ago, the PHB posted sneak peeks of some backgrounds of places we’d be visiting on the island, which had some rough notes on them. These have since been updated with backdrops, foregrounds, and the like. (Special thanks to Poptrickia for putting these together into corresponding images and allowing them to be used in this post!) First, here’s a look at the Cliff area (click to enlarge):
To the right of the cliff image with the notes, it says “to cave” — that’s because we’ll be venturing into one! Here you can see the updated Cave scene (where the bag of salt lies in a lower corner):
Anyway, at some point (perhaps the beginning), you’ll speak to the Sultan, who resides in a beautiful palace (with its lovely exterior illustrated by Nate Greenwall):
It’s not so pretty on the inside though — that’s because, as per the episode’s plot, it’s been ransacked by the Forty Thieves! The palace is in disarray, but more importantly, the sultan’s precious lamp has gone missing… and as those who are familiar with Arabian legend know, that lamp is supposed to contain a genie that has now disappeared!
image of the Sultan from Nate Greenwall’s portfolio site
You: What happened here? Sultan: The forty thieves happened! They ransacked my palace and left me with nothing.
You: You mean, you’re broke? Sultan: Money can be replaced, but the thieves took one precious thing from me: a lamp that is like no other. Find it, and I will grant you a fabulous reward.
You: How can I find the lamp? Sultan: I don’t know. But perhaps you can start your quest with this. It is my last jewel. Trade it wisely.
So, remember Blake’s post showing the items you’d obtain in Arabian Nights? You’ll be trading some of these in the Bazaar (a Middle Eastern market), and based on the above, it looks like you’ll be starting off with the Sultan’s crown jewel.
Inside these pretty patterned stalls, you’ll get to trade/barter with the store owners, which may or may not involve the items pictured below, placed in the various stall scenes:
And we can’t forget the Daily Pop sneak peeks! These can give some insights to the island as well, like the fact that the oasis may just be a mirage, that the palace is heavily guarded, and that the telescope item can be found atop a palace minaret. The Creators even referenced CliffsNotes! Oh my.
Open Sesame: Into the jaws of defeat.
Cliffs Notes: There are no shortcuts to knowledge.
Spelunky: At the end of our rope.
The Saddest Snowman: Think chilly thoughts, think chilly thoughts…
Camp Value: The pup tent sleeps one.
Missing: This place is a shadow of its former self.
Sleep Tight: Don’t let the desert locusts bite.
In Spired: I can see my house from here.
Whattya Buyin: Got some good things on sale, stranger.
The Sting: Watch your step.
Hump Day: Dromedarius to the maximus.
Shuttered: This place looks deserted.
Crystallized: The caves have come around again.
Palace Intrigue: Don’t let your guard down — or, better yet, do.
Mirage: Don’t trust what you see in the desert.
How Bazaar: Every time I look around.
By the way, for more Poptropica behind-the-scenes, particularly files and music, check out the PHB’s Behind the Scenes page, which includes part of the soundtrack for Arabian Nights Island and more!
On Arabian Nights Island, Poptropicans go on a quest across the desert to rescue a sultan’s genie from the Forty Thieves.
Now, onto the theories! From what’s been gathered here, it looks like the Sultan’s palace has been ransacked by the infamous Forty Thieves, and his most precious belonging — a lamp containing a (wish-granting?) genie — is now missing. Once you get past all the palace guards and manage to talk to the Sultan, he asks you to help him retrieve it. He gives you his last jewel to trade in the bazaar, in the hopes that you’ll eventually win his lamp back. Along the adventure, you’ll venture into a cliff, cave, and desert to look for various items requested by the barterers at the bazaar.
Shark Boy may have been alienated from Poptropica, but his alter ego (otherwise known asNate Greenwall, Poptropica’s lead graphic artist) is still out and about, churning out some really cool (and even unreleased) Poptropica imagery. They’re available for viewing on his portfolio website (scroll down for more info!). Here’s a look at some graphics of interest (as usual, click to enlarge):
Wow, did you catch all that?! Anyway, Nate has several pages on his portfolio site dedicated to various works he’s created for Poptropica (not all of which are posted above, but some may be familiar). If you’re interested, you can browse through them by clicking the links below:
Advertisements – designs for Poptropica ad buildings & characters
Character design & animation – various Poptropica character designs (if you look closely, you’ll see the Sultan to be encountered on Arabian Nights Island!)
In-game illustrations – some full views of areas in the game, including the area by the sea in Ghost Story and even a palace for the upcoming Arabian Nights Island
Merchandise – among various things, the most noteworthy of all are the iTunes music CD covers and kids’ tattoos/face paint designs, both of which it looks like Poptropica is planning on releasing one day! (you can listen to Poptropica’s music at the PHB’s Behind the Scenes page too)
Logos, web, mobile design – graphics relating to Poptropica’s user interface (UI), including an array of buttons and icons, some of which have never been released
There’s a lot of creative work that goes into making Poptropica what it is and what it will be, and the artistic geniuses at Poptropica give us beautiful results. Enjoy the Nate Greenwall collection! 🙂
Hey Poptropicans — friendly reminder that the PHB’s Land Construction Contestends this Friday, Sept 5th, so if you haven’t sent in your greatest Land creation to us yet, get building and click here for the post with instructions on how to enter! Or, if you’ve made something that caught the Creators’ eyes like Magic Fire‘s self sculpture (she’s a PHB reader too – hi MF!) and Young Fish‘s panoramic port city have, you might even be featured on the Creators’ Blog! (click to view full images)
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Have you ever wondered why Poptropica tends to release islands on Thursdays? While this doesn’t explain why Thursday exactly (Friday in some time zones), they did recently address the question (brought up by Poptrickia) via their official Twitter:
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PoptropiCon (guide here) had its first episode debut just last week for members, but if you’re wondering what’s up next, a good place to look are the Daily Pop sneak peeks. Let’s take a look at what we’ll be seeing inside the convention center (click to enlarge images):
Collect Em All: Keep them in the original packaging and they may be worth dozens someday.
Victory: It’s in the cards.
Hall Pass: Low-pill carpet for a high-traffic area.
The Help: With an attitude like that, you’ll go far.
Look Closer: It’s what’s under the cap that matters.
Silver Age: This archer gets right to the point.
Marvelous: A real stand-up comic booth.
History Lesson: Golden age, silver age, outrage… we’ve got it all.
Brony: Don’t say no, here we go, off across the plain.
You Hall: The swag bag is loaded, but where’s the exit?
Off-Screen: But we’re monitoring the situation.
Among all the random tidbits, it looks like there’ll be a booth for a comic hero called Elf Archer — created by some guy called “Stan Ditko”: a reference to Marvel Comics co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Plus, there’s even a Balloon Boy collectible that can be seen on a table!
And not far from the My Little Pony mimicry (“Pony Bros”… even the Daily Pop’s caption is “Brony”), there’s a poster for “Lava Twins” — it may be a long shot, but could this be a reference to a film called The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl? Yes, you read that right, “Shark Boy”: like the beloved Poptropica character who no longer is. (You can read all about the Shark Boy Mystery here!)
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Although it’s been about two years and ten islands since Super Villain Island, Brave Tomato recently uncovered this little snippet of Poptropica Creator Jeff Kinney working on it on a computer. It may not look like much, but it’s a pretty neat find nonetheless:
This came from a “making of” bonus feature on the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days DVD, where they talked briefly about Jeff and Poptropica. (Jeff is also the author of the Wimpy Kid series.) Speaking of Jeff Kinney, I wonder if/when we’ll get to see his ice bucket challenge? 😉
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In other news, issue 19 of the PHB magazine, The POPCORN, releases this Sunday, Sept 7th, so be sure to have your creative entries sent in to phbpopcorn(at)gmail(dot)com before then! That’s all for now (or TAFN, as HP the hip one likes to say)! Keep on poppin’ on, Poptropicans. 🙂
What’s popping, Poptropicans? Blake here, with a bizarre (you might even say bazaar) sneak preview of items for episode 1 of the upcoming Arabian Nights Island! (Thanks to Nameless UnDEFiNed for the linksand Giant Rock for providing full views!) Click to enlarge the images, or scroll down for file links:
camel harness
cloth
crown jewel
grain
ivory camel
lamp
pearl
salt
telescope
Down on the right is a sneak peek of one of the island’s areas, which you can find more about in this earlier PHB post. Also, here are the original links to the SWFs:
Hey guys! HPuterpop, Samwow5, and I have decided to start a new series together, called Behind the Scenes Overview & Theory. We thought that it would be best to take all the knowledge that we can gather from behind-the-scenes (BTS) Poptropica files/coding and compile them together in one simple-to-find place. Plus, with three minds thinking at once, a more spot-on theory is sure to come out. 🙂
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW (but that’s what you want, isn’t it?)
Overview of evidence
To kick off the series, let’s start with an island soon to be: PoptropiCon (Ep. 1: Line Forms Here). We have circled/boxed certain things in red in each picture that we think are important/just want to mention. Click to enlarge all the images.
If you’ve been keeping up with PopCon sneak peeks, you’ve probably seen the background above before. The window that has been circled are noticeable in both pictures. It looks as if we, or someone else, breaks in or out of the building. The “Thor” advertisement is circled because dialog related to it is shown further into the post.
This was also found, possibly representing a fight of sorts. The “glass breaking noise” might be from the window in the pictures above.
Now for some dialogue.
As you can see, this is why the “Thor” advertisement was circled before (Bucky Lucas plays him in a movie). Other things that we found connections to were a Fremulon mask and the time of a cosplay contest (more on that below). Now, all of this dialog is from Poptropicans waiting in line for the bathroom. Why do we want to get into the bathroom ASAP? The boxed text in this next picture may explain why.
In this image, you can see that the cosplay contest begins at noon.
Here, we can see where we get the Fremulon mask, earning it by speaking Fremulon. We also wanted to box the dialog about pizza and costume creation because we found image connections.
The pictures speak for themselves, aside from the squid mask. That was circled simply for the fact that this island is definitely going to be filled with cool, customizable objects/outfits.
Yep, that looks about right. Plus, it seems that we have already met this man by the bathroom.
It looks like we need a ticket for some reason, huh? Could we have been looking for the “Power Amulet” in the bathroom?
Here we go, the final facts. There are a lot of guards/bouncers around, along with VIP sections and long lines. But why would we need a catapult? o_o
PoptropiCon is the hottest ticket in town. It’ll take all your wits — and more than a few disguises — to crash the party!
Yes, we can’t forget the island synopsis that has been given to us. It definitely backs up our conclusion…
Final theory
Based on the evidence above, we have more or less agreed on this concluding theory:
We don’t have a ticket to PoptropiCon and need to get in. By helping the people around us, we either manage to get a ticket, get progressively closer to the front of the line (although it’s a bathroom line, so… XD ), or use a catapult to bust in through a window. There are a lot of guards around, presumably because a few famous people are inside.
I know, I know, not the deepest theory out there, but it’s the best we got. Besides… it look like PoptropiCon is right around the corner! 😉
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