Category: PHB Sneak Peeks

Arabian Nights Island, PHB Sneak Peeks, Popspiracy Theories

BTS Overview & Theory: Arabian Nights, Ep. 2

Spotted Dragon

BTS - Arabian Nights 2

Hey everyone, and welcome back to our BTS Overview & Theory series! This time, we’ll be covering Arabian Nights, Ep. 2: Lair of Thieves, written by myself (Spotted Dragon), Samwow5, and HPuterpop. Plus, in honor of Slippery Raptor joining the team, he will be helping us with this round! Click here to read the theory for Arabian Nights: Ep. 1, written by Slanted Fish. 🙂

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW (but that’s what you want, isn’t it?)

Overview of evidence

The next installment of Arabian Nights Island is just around the corner – we mentioned earlier that early access for members starts Nov 25, and it opens Dec 11 for all… HOWEVER, as of a more recent tweet, it looks like the Creators have pushed this back in their schedule: early access for members is now set for Dec 11, while everyone will get to play starting Dec 30.)

Episode 2 is called “Lair of Thieves“, and the official tour page was recently updated with this description:

In the den of the forty thieves, danger lurks around every corner. To outwit the most dangerous thieves in the desert, you’ll need a little help evening the odds — and you’ll find it in the form of an incredible magic power!

Oddly enough, the behind the scenes files show that this episode is called The 40 Thieves.

arabian nights title 2

Strange, right? Well, let’s just continue with the name being “Lair of Thieves.”

Let’s take a a look at some of the major Arabian Nights themed Daily Pop sneak peeks. Click to enlarge all images featured in this post.

Also, check out these two images in the same scene… very similar, but if you look towards the top, you can see a little difference. Could that added Poptropican be us, spying in the lair of the 40 thieves?

Alert: Be careful in a den of thieves.
Arabian Nights sneak peek via Poptropica’s Twitter

Maybe some dialog will hint at what’s to come? Here is all the text we could gather up:

Now this reveals a lot! It looks like we will have to disguise ourselves to fit in among the thieves, as well as break out of/into some jail cells! We already knew that we would be in search of a magic lamp, but something bigger seems to have popped up. Hmm…

Hopefully the items we found will reveal what’s really going on? Sadly, we are not able to view entire images, since they are protected files.

Well, the magic sand and/or gunpowder may help us break in to/out of cells… and on that note, it seems like the viper skin will aid in creating the magic sand! …And on THAT note, since we have a formula containing “viper skin,” “borax,” and “quicksilver“, maybe those three items (plus more?) will create magic sand when put together! Oh, the suspense! Of course the cell key will help us unlock a cell and we will have to make the white robe black to fit in with the thieves. Looks like everything fits together! 😀

All that’s left is to put together some scenery. Below are the scene layers of the lair’s entrance.

There is nothing much to say about these images, considering it is just the entrance.

Next up we have some of the scene layers for the Treasure Keep. Here are just the relevant ones:

In the interactive layer, you can see part of the floor crumbling. Could this be the result of our magic sand?

Next up are the scene layers for the cells.

Again, we see some unstable floors and what may possible be the magic sand bomb-like things.

Last, we have the scene layers for the Sanctum.

Well, we see an oil can in the interactive layer, and if we math it up with the other layers, it looks like it is inside a barrel. That might be a useful thing to remember in the quest.

Final theory

In “Lair of Thieves,” our Poptropican will be searching for the magic lamp that the Sultan requested (in episode 1), while trying to outsmart the thieves in the lair we entered at the end of the previous episode. We will disguise ourselves to fit in with the surrounding thieves and try to gather up ingredients to make “magic sand”, which will help us navigate their lair. While sneaking around, we stumble upon a huge supply of lamps and possibly something more.

That’s what we think of Arabian Nights Episode 2, but what do you think? Comment below! The episode will be released to members on Tuesday in three weeks (on Dec 11), so be ready (and it comes out Dec. 11 30 for everyone)! 🙂

~SD, HP, SW5, and… SR!

PHB Sneak Peeks, PoptropiCon Island

BTS Overview & Theory: PoptropiCon, Ep. 2

Spotted Dragon

BTS - Poptropicon 2

Hey everyone, and welcome back to our BTS Overview & Theory series! This time, we’ll be covering PoptropiCon, Ep. 2: Spoiler Alert, written by myself, Samwow5, and HPuterpop (thanks to Fishy for writing the last BTSO&T). To read our BTSO&T for the first episode of PoptropiCon, click here.

(By the way: PoptropiCon, Ep. 1 is now available on the Poptropica app for 99 cents!)

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW (but that’s what you want, isn’t it?)

—–

Overview of evidence

In the last episode of PoptropiCon, we broke into the building by using a catapult (which went along with what we predicted). Sure, this got us in to the building… but what next?

Card Deck
Card Deck (see card images below)

The winner of the PoptropiCon costume contest will earn a one-of-a-kind prize. See if you can put together the ultimate villain outfit, but beware — the action at this convention is about to get real!

From the synopsis of the episode, we can already tell that we will be competing in a costume contest (the recently posted Poptropicon 2 poster also supports this).

Anyway, let’s first take a look at some of the major Spoiler Alert themed Daily Pop sneak peeks. As with all images in this post, please click to enlarge the pictures.

As you may be able to gather yourself, there will also be some sort of card contest. That’s two contests already… could there be any more? Below are what the cards will look like.

Phew, I think we got them all! I also want to mention (from the Daily Pops above) that the last two images hint at us having to avoid surveillance or something to that effect. Now let’s take a look at some behind-the-scenes dialog and text:

Well, we seem to have clarified the card game, which is related to the Poptropica-invented franchise “Mighty Action Force”. The dialog also tells us that we will be looking for an Elf Archer costume. Could the card game be related to this? Maybe what we have to accomplish in this episode is just to collect the perfect items for the perfect costume.

We also wanted to mention how this episode will in fact have a common room! If you didn’t know already, episode 1 was updated with a common room (after its release, strangely enough).

In the “Demo Hall” image, you can see the edge of the “Showdown” Daily Pop. In the last image, you can see the edge of the “Galaxy Litigation” (poster) Daily Pop. In multiple images above, you can see posters for the costume contest. Nothing else is really given away, but it gives us a good sense of what we will see.

There isn’t anything else worth showing to determine the plot, so here is our final theory! 🙂

Final theory

In PoptropiCon – Episode 2: Spoiler Alert, we will put together the best costume possible to win the costume contest. To do this, we go around doing certain tasks, such as winning a Mighty Action Force card game. But before we can win, we have to collect all the best cards.

That may not sound like the deepest theory ever, but hopefully it sparks some ideas! Are you excited for PoptropiCon: Ep. 2? We definitely are! 😀

~SD, HP, SW5

Advertisements, Galactic Hot Dogs Island, Merchandise, PHB Sneak Peeks, Shark Boy Mystery

Home, Cosmoe, Shark Boy, Thinknoodles, & more of Nate’s pics!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Survival Ep. 5 released to members this past Thursday (and to the disappointment and outrage of non-members everywhere, PoptropiCon Ep. 1 has not come out for all) — but epic as MVB’s defeat may be, interesting developments in Poptropica don’t stop there! Read on for more! 😀

Home: medallion & sneak peeks

Some Poptropicans have noticed that, in their medallion collections, a new blank medallion has been inserted between those of Survival: Episode 1 and Mythology. If you hover over it, it says “Home not yet completed.” But what exactly is ‘Home‘?

home blank medallion

Well, a few recent Daily Pop sneak peeks might give us a hint — and from the looks of it, it’s a “hub” area that involves character customization!

Over on Poptrickia, Nice Hawk has uncovered that this “Home” world will be for Poptropica’s mobile app (currently available on iOS), and you can see the design still follows the “sky island” theme of the app’s “tutorial” island. Here are some sneak peeks, courtesy of Poptrickia:

In the first scene with the blimp, the blue box is for the logo of the island you last traveled to, and from here, you can enter the two customization buildings: the Bundles Shop and New You.

The Bundles Shop sells gold card costumes and items from the Store, but whether this will cost real money on the app remains to be seen. New You contains a barbershop with a Colorizer, where presumably you can change your hairstyle and colors. There are also three pedestals — perhaps a costume closet of sorts? We’ll have to wait and see!

Cosmoe on Main Street

Remember Cosmoe from the Funbrain graphic novel Galactic Hot Dogs? (By the way, GHD is publishing its first book in May 2015!) Anyway, Cosmoe has appeared a few times on Poptropica before, but now he’s here on Main Streets of islands like Mythology! If you click on him, you can chat with, Costumize (works for boys only), or friend him. (The Princess Dagger prize pack has also returned in places like 24 Carrot!)

If you chat, you can ask him a few pre-scripted questions: who are you? (Cosmoe) what’s in your hand? (my Goober Sword) and why are you standing here? (I’m waiting for Princess Dagger)

cosmoe on main street

Earlier, we found that Cosmoe’s username was npc:cosmoe, but this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. If you add npc:cosmoe now, you’ll find a random character wearing a birthday cake (was the account hijacked? however, it still shows as Cosmoe on the Avatar Studio).

New PHB page: Mystery of Shark Boy

Remember the PHB posts about the disappearance of Shark Boy? Well, now all the data we’ve collected regarding this strange case has been compiled into a new page, so you can get the whole story all in one place! Click here to check out our new article, also found under the “Cool Stuff” tab!

shark boy mystery

Poptropica vs. Thinknoodles

Recently, Poptropica has decided to create their own video walkthroughs narrated by Captain Crawfish — but what’s interesting is that, despite advertising on the Creators’ Blog and even the Poptropica homepage itself, the “official” walkthroughs are still not as popular as those of Poptropica player Thinknoodles, who also narrates his guides, but has videos for every island on his YouTube channel. Check out the view counts of both their PoptropiCon Ep. 1 walkthroughs — the numbers don’t lie!

think vs crawfish

The Creators only have video guides for PoptropiCon Ep. 1 and Survival Ep. 5 so far, and for both, it looks like Think is still in the lead, despite both being released on the same day! Noodle on, I say! 😛 (Also, doesn’t anyone else wonder why Crawfishy doesn’t use his own peg-legged avatar in his videos?)

By the way, we here at the PHB have some video walkthroughs too, which you can check out on our Poptropica Help Videos channel or HPuterpop’s channel. 🙂

More Poptropica pics from Nate Greenwall

You may remember when the PHB posted some highlights from Nate Greenwall’s Poptropica portfolio earlier, but over on his Facebook profile (that is his personal account, so be respectful if you choose to contact him!) are a few interesting glimpses into life at Poptropica HQ! (Click to enlarge pics.)

The white board we have at work hasn’t been erased for about 7 years.
Practicing my Hadoken skills.
Lunch with some of my fellow Poptropica co-workers.
Some of our Poptropica merchandise hanging around our office. Now we just need to build a ball pit and fill it with plush toys.

Isn’t that little doodle of Binary Bard cute? And that’s a lot of Poptropica toys – I don’t think some of it has even been released before, like those badges in the corner or the big print of the pink rocker girl! 😮

On a similar note, some other Poptropica Creators are on Facebook too: to name a few, Justin Lacy has Hazmat Hermit as his profile picture (and complains of having his corner of Poptropica’s office replaced with plush toys), and Jon Pitcher‘s icon is, of course, the “Jon” pitcher from Survival Ep. 4. Clever. 😉

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That’s all for now — hope you enjoyed this post! Keep on poppin’ on, Poptropicans. :mrgreen:

Merchandise, PHB Sneak Peeks

Music album one, dust bunnies, and more on Dr. Hare

HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

Poptropica Music Album: Volume One

A new type of Poptropica media is out and available for download – music (of course we already knew)! Poptropica Music Volume 1 is available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon, featuring 12 tracks. Each track is $0.99 USD, which is pretty pricey considering you can listen to tons of Poptropica music on our Behind the Scenes page (which boasts 100+ tracks).

You can also buy the whole volume for $8.99 on Amazon, or $9.99 on iTunes. It includes one unreleased track, the Back Lot main theme, which hasn’t been uploaded to the files yet (don’t worry, we’ll find it soon 😛 ). You can listen to the preview here. :3 Also, these tracks contain added sounds exclusively for the album, so that might be worth checking out!

volume1

Dust Bunnies & more on Dr. Hare

Recently we released a post about Nate Greenwall’s portfolio which included lots of unreleased material for Poptropica. We did not show all the work, however, and on the “Character Designs” page you will see a character drawn in a Poptropica-esque style. It’s a bunny in a purple suit with a tank on his back that has the word “dust” on it.

Obviously the idea is a dust bunny, but my point is that with the Poptropica like style, it may be an upcoming villain and nemesis/comrade to Dr. Hare, or perhaps an old draft of what later became Dr. Hare. As you know, Dr. Hare was created by Nate, so he would likely be the one to design a second bunny character for Poptropica, should that happen.

Also, something no one else noticed – the LEGO design image for Dr. Hare’s minifig reveals what’s behind those goggles! It’s not a big discovery, but it’s one step more into why Dr. Hare is how he is. Just look at those manic eyes.

Mission Atlantis Hub

I’ve recently released a new video on my channel that is a “hub” video for Mission Atlantis. It includes all the links to everything you need to know about the island, and I’ll be making hub videos for all the episodic adventures eventually. 😀

—

Poptropican Portraits: Season 2 is still coming very soon. 😀

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Arabian Nights Island, PHB Sneak Peeks

BTS Overview & Theory: Arabian Nights, Ep. 1

Slanted Fish

Arab1 BTS

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):

(The corner with the crystals also looks like a Daily Pop sneak peek that we originally thought might mean the return of Legendary Swords. Looks like that theory’s out, sadly! 😛 )

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):

arabian nights palace

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!

palace interior

Among Poptrickia’s uncoverings was this snippet of conversation you have with the Sultan:

sultan
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.

bazaar

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.

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!

:: theory ::

Looking back to the original island pitch from Sarah S., the winner of Poptropica’s Create Your Dream Island Contest and brainchild of Arabian Nights Island, here’s what we know:

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.

How bizarre, indeed.