Back Lot Island, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island, Game Show Island, Ghost Story Island, Legendary Swords, Mocktropica Island, Monster Carnival Island, PHB Sneak Peeks, PHB Specials, Poptropica Portfolio, PoptropiCon Island, Survival Island, Twisted Thicket Island, Virus Hunter Island

Poptropica Portfolio: Chris Goodwin

Nate Greenwall isn’t the only one posting his Poptropica illustrations – I recently stumbled upon the site of Chris Goodwin, an illustrator/designer working for Poptropica, whose online portfolio can be found here. This post comes in three parts. As always, click to enlarge the pics!

Perhaps the most interesting section is character design: designs for E. Vile’s robots from Legendary Swords (as well as some props seen in P-Con: Ep. 2), a huge collection of characters (including several unreleased ones – some possibly for Ep. 3 of PoptropiCon!), unused flying ace designs (the corner suggests they were for the Virus Hunter minigame, Nano-Combat Training), ideas for Max McGullicutty’s look in Survival: Ep. 5, and finally, rough drafts of robots for Game Show Island.

The next section is concept art – ideas for various parts of the game. Here we see color plans for areas inside Joe’s body on Virus Hunter Island, shape ideas for “air creatures” in his lungs, a look at an extravagant (though unused) virus bug, several sketches of dark scenes, racer cars we’ve seen before as a scrapped idea, a Legendary Swords doodle, the Monster Carnival common room, and a sketch from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Island.

Lastly, there’s a section devoted to scene illustrations – most of these are already in the game, though the one of the cabin is not (but it seems to belong to the unnamed geological park island).

The rest are: the tutorial island in the Poptropica app, Ephraim University (both exterior and interior) from Mocktropica, Soundstage #1 on Back Lot, the Hemlock Herald newspaper room on Ghost Story, a hallway door and post office common room on Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, and the bonus quest on Twisted Thicket. Seeing them each as one big scene makes it all the more awesome. ❤

Poptropica sure is beautiful, and Chris has made some really creative contributions to the game we know and love. Enjoy the Chris Goodwin collection, and stay popping, Poptropicans! 😀

Comics, Labs (Land), Nintendo DS Game, Shrink Ray Island, Sneak Peeks, Virus Hunter Island

Shrink Ray reborn, comic surprise, & more!

Hey Poptropicans! There’s lots going on over on Poptropica’s official Twitter, especially with behind-the-scenes peeks and info, which will be covered below. For the latest in Pop, follow the PHB on Twitter! 🙂

Shrink Ray Island: the remake!

Among the many projects Poptropica is currently undertaking, Shrink Ray Island is being remade into an SUI (sound-updated island) – but not just that, there are going to be new characters/costumes! Like all the classic islands, it will still be a full island, rather than an episodic one. Poptropica tweeted this screenshot of a couple of characters wearing recycled trash:

shrink ray 2 chars

That’s not all – they’ve also created a new YouTube playlist called “Inside Poptropica”, and of the clips currently in there, two now three of them are new! The first one shows Creators attempting the audio for different weird voices for “I’m a skull in a jar” (for the Lockwood & Co ad), another one shows the rendering of the Milk Box Head character depicted above, and the last video is just a silly ten-second clip of a Poptropican with a disco afro affected by the Big Blue Zomberry power dancing inside the Club Nouveau Riche on Game Show Island. Watch the playlist below:

Behind-the-Scenes: Dr. Lange rejected art & Poptropica comic book?

Poptropica continues to tweet more behind-the-scenes images, as they have been doing recently. Check out this cute doodle of Dr. Lange from Virus Hunter Island! (It wasn’t quite the look the Creators were going for, though, so it was rejected.) Still, what a cheery doctor. 😀

dr lange rejected art

Another sneak peek they tweeted was this illustrated comic page (not strip!) of an untold Jorge & Oliver adventure with Vikings – and apparently, it’s coming January 2015! The colors are more saturated, too, so if this is what it looks like, perhaps they’re planning to make Poptropica comic books available in print! (They didn’t exactly confirm this yet, but that’s my guess!) It would be pretty rad. 🙂

jorge oliver vikings

Forgotten Islands to 3DS next week

Some time ago, we mentioned here on the PHB that Forgotten Islands, the fetch-questy Poptropica game currently available on iOS, will be made for the Nintendo 3DS as well. Well, this upcoming video game has a release date now: October 14th, which is next Tuesday!

The storyline of Forgotten Islands is not the same as any island on the online version of Poptropica, and if you’d like to check out what it’s like, take a look at the PHB’s Forgotten Islands Guide under MiniQuests! The 3DS version is likely to be the same as the iOS version, however.

Poptropica app to Kindle Fire

Poptropicans with a Kindle Fire, there’s good and bad news: Poptropica is working on an app for this device, but it won’t be around until early next year. (If everything goes according to plan!)

Poptropica Land “WOW!”s

Poptropica has tweeted some pretty cool Poptropica Land creations just in the past week or so (they’ve been calling them “today’s Poptropica Land WOW!”). Here’s a gallery of the latest “WOW!”s:

Great uses of the new Props feature! For more tips and tricks on making the best out of Poptropica Land, be sure to check out the PHB’s Land guide. 🙂 Stay popping, Poptropicans.

Poptropolis Games Island, Virus Hunter Island

Virus Hunter for all & the rise of Poptropolis Games 2013!

Virus Hunter Island is now available for everyone to play! The PHB’s Virus Hunter Island Guide (with pictures) should complement your adventure nicely, so do check it out! It even has a walkthrough for the members’ bonus quest (thanks Strange Cat,Weirdo), which was also just released.

vh here

Also on the rise is Poptropolis Games Island, which was released in 2012 and sank back into the ocean in January of this year. Looks like it’s about to make another big splash on the map, complete with the music and bigger screen we’ve seen on Virus Hunter:

Poptropolis Games 2013 also brings two new events that weren’t around last year: Volcano Race and Octopus Volleyball! There’s also a new desktop wallpaper and printable poster on the island tour page to get you in the spirit of the games – so much for rising “once every 100 years”! Seems like 1 year in our time is 100 in Poptropica. Crazy, isn’t it?

Stay tuned to the Poptropica Help Blog for more news on the next island!

Daily Pop Sneak Peeks, Merchandise, Virus Hunter Island

More for the Poptropica Shop and cave sneak peeks

At the online Poptropica Shop, you can buy personalized clothing with your Poptropican on them (adult sizes were recently added too!) – but there’s potential for even more.

shop poll

From now until the end of next week, you have the chance to vote in a poll on the sidebar of the Creators’ Blog for what you think they should add (vote for as many as you like!). So far, iPhone cases have taken the lead, followed by backpacks, water bottles, birthday party supplies, long sleeve t-shirts, and finally, towels.

Virus Hunter Island should be out in less than a day now! Members will get to play the bonus quest then, and non-members will finally be able to complete the entire island in all its sound and big-screened glory. Check out that salivated space:

While we wait, let’s take a look at some recent Daily Pop sneak peeks! These look like a continuation of the geology-themed, underground cave exploration pics you may remember were posted on the PHB earlier. Maybe rock crushing is the new Candy Crush?

Match 3 – No, this isn’t any kind of Bejeweled Candy Crushery.

match3

Pooled Resources – Hydrothermal energy is the wave of the future.

pooledresources

Outcropping – These formations rock.

outcropping

Low Tech – We’re talking really, really low.

lowtech

Shroom Available – Looks like a fungal infection has gotten out of control.

shroomavailable

Minerals and mushrooms… hmm. What IS this place?

Advertisements, Bonus Items, Membership, Virus Hunter Island

Ship Follower (for members) and Spirit Animals ad

get shipfollowerHey everyone! The last item prize from the vending machine on Virus Hunter Island during Early Access is now available – unfortunately, this one’s also only for members. If that’s you, be sure to pick up your free Ship Follower so you can take the Panacea with you anywhere you go.

For everyone else, Virus Hunter Island releases this Thursday, September 26! Members will also get to play the long-awaited bonus quest starting then, and the Virtual Virus Costume members’ bonus will be pulled from the Store. Remember, we’ve got a Virus Hunter Island Guide right here on the PHB.

Also, there’s an ad building for Scholastic’s Spirit Animals, the fantasy book series. (I found it on Ghost Story Island.) Inside, it’s a common room where you can see other players, but also be able to customize and interact with various characters from the books and their powers.

spiritanimalsad

On the first floor is Abeke (left) and her Uraza power which temporarily turns everyone into a leopard, Conor (right) and his Briggan Storm which flashes lightning and brings his wolf on the screen, and next to him a green-and-yellow-plated winged helmet you can customize.

On the second floor is Rollan (right) whom you can talk to for the Essix (hawk) Follower, as well as Meilin (left) and her Stealthy Jhi power which temporarily makes the room blink black. On the third floor are links to the Spirit Animals website.

What do you say your spirit animal is? Mine, of course, is the almighty fish. 😀