Category: Social Media

24 Carrot Island, Creators' Blog Guest Posts, Social Media

Verify your villainous side with a varnish

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Today in the Poptropica universe: a tag yourself challenge, petition to get Pop verified on Twitter, and mixing refreshing drinks. Let’s pop right to it!

On social media, the Pop Creators posted a collage of various Poptropica villains with the charge to “Tag yourself!” The lineup—Rumpelstiltskin, Mordred, Betty Jetty, E. Vile, Myron Van Buren, Dr. Hare, Black Widow, and Ringmaster Raven—misses some other iconic villains like Captain Crawfish and Zeus, but there’s only so much space. And hey, looks like Poptropica remembers Betty Jetty after all. 😌

Also on Twitter, Poptropica started a little petition to get their account verified with the tag #verifyPoptropica. We’re not sure why their account isn’t already verified, especially after over a decade’s experience as a well known site, but it’s up to Twitter to make it happen. In the meantime, plenty of Poptropicans have been liking and sharing their tweet to demand the coveted blue badge for this charming blue brand!

In other news, after a long while, there’s a new guest post on the Pop Creators’ Blog! A new guest writer, Golden Wolf, shares a neat trick hidden within 24 Carrot Island: you can change your hair color by mixing a drink in the Carrot King Diner with your desired color. 🥛🥕

What you might not know is that this Easter egg was part of the original 24 Carrot Island released back in 2008, but was removed in a re-release in 2013. When the island was ported over to Haxe (Flash-free Poptropica), the hair-dyeing drinks returned!

For more fun tips and tricks, check out our 24 Carrot Island Guide. You might learn something new from the trivia section, which is something we have for all of our island guides!

~🐠

Big Nate Island, Creators, Fan Art Features, Social Media

Coming out with fan art and Fiona’s song 🎻

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! In this post: a TikTok video and fan art features with sweet jams. Plus, a hint at something big to come. Let’s pop right to it!

The Pop Creators finally made their second TikTok video after opening their account back in April. The new clip showcases the Pride costumes released this week in the store, with Diana Ross’s ’80s banger “I’m Coming Out” playing in the background. 🏳️‍🌈✨

Poptropica also shared the video on their Instagram story to promote their TikTok handle @poptropicacreator.

Also on their Instagram story, Poptropica shared tons of fan art! One particularly noteworthy post is happyclonetrooper’s sheet music for Fiona’s violin song from Ghost Story Island. Although she acknowledges it’s been done before, this is one melodious masterpiece that’ll never get old! 🎻 (Click to enlarge the pics below.)

In other news, Jess Brallier’s blog isn’t done with Poptropica just yet! His most recent post shares the story of selling the Big Nate series to book publishers, citing the success of Poptropica’s Big Nate Island.

Opening Nate’s locker on Big Nate Island.

At one point, Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Poptropica’s Mystery of the Map held down three of the top five slots on the New York Times bestseller list.  I was the happiest publisher in the world.

Jess Brallier

Hold on for tomorrow’s post from the former Poptropica CEO, which will tackle the big topic on our minds: “What about today’s Poptropica?”

Tomorrow brings one more big event we have to mention before we wrap up: the PHB’s Pride Palooza! Join us Friday, June 18 at 8 pm Eastern in Poptropica’s Arcade and wear the colors of the rainbow. 🌈

We’ll also hang out on the PHC and in the PHB comments. See you there, loud and proud Poptropicans! 💖

~🐠

Creators, Social Media

Pop Creator Jess Brallier spills on “storytelling, games, and Poptropica”

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re getting right to the heart of Poptropica with OG Poptropica CEO/publisher Jess Brallier! We’ve shared his vision for Pop and even interviewed him here on the PHB before, but there’s more…

  • from JessBrallier.com
  • Jess identifies as Zeus in Poptropica

Jess recently shared a personal blog post titled “Storytelling, games, and Poptropica,” discussing how it all began with our favorite virtual world—and it’s well worth the read. (Thanks to Brave Tomato, former PHB staffer, for bringing it to our attention!)

The post starts off affirming the success of Poptropica co-creator Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Jess ponders further potential…

What I really wanted (as I always did) was to publish stories for kids.  What was different this time, was that those kids were now intensely engaged in games.

Hmm.  There’s gotta be a gaming literacy with which to tell stories.

…considering that print, film, and theater all have their ways to tell stories. Jess goes on to share how, throughout his career, people didn’t take seriously his ideas for using gaming to tell stories to kids. That is, until he began collaborating with Jeff Kinney to create Poptropica.

Jess captions this photo: “Top row, second one in, is actually me. Makes sense, the old guy, with a worried look on his face, “How am I going to sell this up to ownership?””

The characters in the stories would be avatars.  The user would be the story’s protagonist.  So this avatar had to be human-like.  Able to fashionably dress in any historical or imagined time or place (just like stories!).  They would move—jump, slide, flip.  And express—facial emotions.  Just like humans.  This would not be a virtual world of cute little animals moving stiffly around getting rewards of bananas and apples. The art and design would be second to none.

Jess Brallier

Jess even quotes from an old PHB post, though without naming us. The commentary from “one critic,” about the scene of bubbles in Realms, comes from our post Pop 5: Most Beautiful Scenes in Poptropica, by Happy Lobster. Jess writes, “Good stuff! Our fans “got it.””

The PHB described this scene: “Based on Yggdrasil from Norse mythology, the tree containing all worlds, this scene may seem simple, but really, it is quite captivating. The minimal sky background, the way the colossal tree’s branches twist, and the shining bubbles containing enigmatic pinpricks of light all add up to its enthralling aesthetic.”

Jess continues his story of how Poptropica got started by describing the scramble to find room in the budget for two positions, a front-end and a back-end developer. They eventually track down Pearson’s CEO, Marjorie Scardino, who gives them ten minutes of her valuable time—and the green light to hire the people they need.

That wraps up Jess’s post, which you can read in full on his blog! The PHB reached out on Twitter to ask if he’d be sharing his thoughts on where Poptropica is at today, and he wrote back that he would. Considering how much the game has changed since his days as CEO, we’re definitely keen to hear what he has to say. Stay tuned with us!

The cool thing about all of this, which we thought about from day one, is if we did it right, we’d also be developing a next generation of storytellers, artists, and designers. Cool!

Jess Brallier

~🐠

Fan Art Features, Social Media, Uncategorized

Illustrative Instagram stories and bizarre bunny memes 🐇

Agent Bubbles

Happy beginning of hot blazing horrible weather, everyone! 🌞

Poptropica’s social media activity has been up this week, with tons of new Instagram stories, as well as an odd Twitter post recalling our dear Dr. Hare. First, let’s turn to the ‘gram…

Among the feature are highlights to the latest Poptropica store update and the nearing end to the first of the new Monthly Costume Contests.

There is also a particularly large number of shares for fan art features:

There’s some really cool art in here! Glad to see entries for the Monthly Costume Contest as well. I personally love the sharp design and dramatic color scheme of the Black Widow piece! 🕷

Meanwhile on Twitter, the Creators tweeted a “Feel old yet?” joke, featuring Dr. Hare and a Snapchat photo of actor Matthew Gray Gubler in pink bunny ears with the caption “I hate it here.”

Wait, what was that?

While memes can be a fun way to spread hype and provide some comedy to a community, this more obscure and random one is a bit out of character for Poptropica’s usual social media antics. Several people were quick to comment with a mix of amusement and confusion.

What do you Poptropicans think? Are there any particular artists or pieces you like from the gallery, and what do you think of this odd addition to the Twitter timeline?

Until next time (yes I do remember the Island Flash-backs, they will be returning!) stay creative, maybe by making some Poptropica memes and joining our Community Creations this month!

Castori honorem ~ Maryann/Smart Bubbles

Nabooti Island, Social Media, YouTubers

Looking back on good times with Jeff Kinney and Dimension Bros 🐦📺

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re throwing in some throwback talk from a few familiar faces: Jeff Kinney, creator of Poptropica; and the Dimension Bros, who make Poptropica and other fandom videos. Let’s pop right in!

The other day, Jeff Kinney (@wimpykid) responded to a Poptropica fan account on Twitter dedicated solely to bringing Nabooti Island back, saying: “Nabooti was a good one.” He also commented on a separate short thread about losing game progress while playing the island when it first released in 2008, calling it a “tragic tale.”

It may not sound unusual for Poptropica’s founder to tweet about the game he created, but Senpai Jeff’s public comments about Poptropica are sadly few and far between these days. Although he served as its creative director since its beginning, he’s not involved with Poptropica these days, and most of his Twitter activity goes to his more popular creation, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But with #Poptropica tweets recently showing they still have some star power left, maybe it’s worth a little more attention now!

Who remembers The Poptropica Timeline? The Dimension Bros on YouTube recently dropped an updated version of their first ever video, which won Best Fan Video at last year’s Poppies, the PHB’s annual Poptropica fan awards. With the Poppies coming up again in July, catch up on what’s sure to be another contender for the award:

Note for our younger PHB readers: While the Dimension Bros channel does have plenty of Poptropica videos, not all of them are kid-friendly, and generally are for ages 13+. The above video is fine for all ages.

The Dimension Bros also just announced that Poptropica Month will be returning this September—with a twist. While last year’s month-long celebration of fan-made videos honored Poptropica’s 13th birthday, this year’s theme will be “Poptropica Month (In Memoriam),” in recognition of the disappointment of a huge chunk of the game being lost in the Flash-to-Haxe transition.

Although September is a whole season away, it’s never too early to start thinking about what Poptropica videos you’d like to create and share with the world when the time comes. Remember, you can still play the old islands through the mobile app and Flashpoint, and keep petitioning for their return to the main web version of the game.

Let the memory of Poptropica live on!

~🐠