Hey Poptropicans! Just last week, I posted an open letter to Poptropica here on the PHB, addressing some improvements Poptropica should make to the game. To the PHB’s surprise, a Poptropica Creator has responded! With her permission, the response has been posted below. Enjoy! 😀
Dear Slanted Fish and Poptropicans everywhere,
On behalf of the Poptropica Creators, greetings! I love your blog, and I read every post. After your recent Open Letter, I wanted to personally respond and, hopefully, start a better dialogue with you.
First, an introduction….. I’m Jen MacLean, and I joined the Family Education Network as the President of the Kids and Games division in November. More importantly, I’m a lifelong gamer, a Poptropican, and the mom of a Poptropican. It’s been a whirlwind few months as a new member of the Poptropica team, and one of my biggest priorities has been understanding where Poptropica needs to improve and helping the team build a roadmap to get us there.
So, ‘fess up….. Have you been hiding in our offices? Bugging our conference rooms? You’ve made some great points about how we need to make Poptropica better, and I’m excited to share that many of the ideas you proposed are already in development.
I’m happy to give you a sneak peek at some changes that are coming soon. In the next few weeks, expect a new and improved experience for first-time players, including a brand new island specifically designed for new players. It’s a short island, but we’re hoping it will really help new players better understand how to play and what Poptropica is all about. Though it’s design for new players, I’m sure veterans will get a kick out of it too, so not to worry!
We also understand and agree that we need to improve the Island experience for all Poptropicans! We want to make it easier to teleport, find help, understand the quest, and identify the next steps in a quest. We’re not ready to share specific times and releases yet, but we will keep you posted as we roll out improvements. We are also looking at ways we can make a Poptropica membership even more valuable; we’ll be updating our membership this Spring.
I’m so glad you brought up the “I’m trapped in a classic island and can’t get out” issue. We’re working on a fix for that too, so very soon you should be able to leave classic islands from any scene. Teleporting between scenes is a great idea, but it could end up breaking a lot of the islands; however, it’s something we’ll keep in mind though as we keep finding ways to make the player experience better.
An important part of any game development project is squashing bugs. We need to get better at fixing the bad bugs and incorporating “good glitches” into the design of the game. As part of that focus, we’ll be starting a Friends and Family Beta Program this year, and we will be reaching out to you with more details when we’re ready to launch!
Speaking of reaching out, I know it’s been hard to contact us. I’m excited to introduce Jessica, our Official Poptropica Community Liaison. Jessica will share information with you on all things Poptropica, including product updates and improvements, and will make sure your comments, questions, and feedback are shared throughout the Poptropica Creators team. She’ll also help us understand and address some of your ideas and requests, including officializing a Poptropica wiki.
Last, but most importantly, THANK YOU! Thank you for your wonderful support of Poptropica, for being a great resource for Poptropicans everywhere, and for being such a strong community. I’m excited to get to know you better and to make Poptropica an even more amazing experience for you.
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Wow! It’s the first time a Poptropica Creator has contacted the PHB directly (with the exception of Jeff Heim during the Poppies) – and this response certainly gives us a lot of hope about what’s to come out of Poptropica HQ in the future. A better tutorial, some form of teleportation, doing something about glitches both good and bad, and even the possibility of officializing the Poptropica Wiki are some things Poptropica’s currently working on, and that’s really awesome to hear. 😀
A huge shout-out and thanks to Jen MacLean for taking the time to write to us and allowing her letter to be published here! On behalf of the PHB and Poptropica community, we look forward to more interactions with the powers-that-be at Poptropica HQ to make the game and community all the more awesome. We’re honored to have the Creators read the PHB, and we’re excited for what happens next.
What would you like to say to the Creators? Share in the comments below – if this exchange has been any indication, they may well take you up on your suggestions (within reason, of course)!
Stay popping, everyone. 😉
–Slanted Fish 🐠🐠
