Category: Web Development

Hey Poptropicans – did you know Poptropica has an official Facebook page? It seems to have been around for about for a month now, since their current cover photo was uploaded on April 24th of this year. You can find it at facebook.com/OfficialPoptropica, and as of now, this is what it looks like:

Seems like most people aren’t aware of this, as there were only about 70 likes when I checked, and it’s never been announced on Poptropica’s website! In fact, I’d only found out about it recently from Poptropica’s official Twitter (which also has never been announced officially either)–

According to the ‘about’ description, the page is only for the older audience—

Welcome! This official Poptropica® Facebook page is for fans ages 13 and up. Younger fans can find out what’s new at blog.poptropica.com.

The Poptropica Creators have also made use of Facebook’s ‘Timeline‘ feature to mark the launches of all their islands to date, each with its own graphic. They’ve also been linking to all Creators’ Blog posts starting from May 15, 2014.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Poptropica has tried to run its own page on Facebook. Back in 2010, they used to own facebook.com/Poptropica (now defunct), where they’d show unseen sneak peeks that even the Creators’ Blog didn’t post (this was before the Daily Pop) – including this cool sketch of a temple for Mythology Island:

They had some trouble regarding personal information, since fans wouldn’t change their profile icons to their Poptropicans when asked, and since people use their real names on Facebook. A few months later, they closed the page. I’m not sure if that’ll still be a problem with the new page they’re opening 4 years later, but then again, no one has commented on anything thus far, and the list of people who have liked the page is hidden, so no personal info there, at least.

Anyway, if you’re a Poptropican who’s 13 or older and has a Facebook account, be sure to give the Poptropica Creators a like so you can get updates on your news feed! 🙂

As you may have heard, the Costumizer feature is finally fully functional on all the new sound-updated islands (SUIs). Let’s take a closer look, shall we? First, to access it, you’ll need to open the Menu, which should be in the top right corner. Look for the green shirt button:

Once you click on that, you can select the character you’d like to customize from!

This will then bring up the new Costumizer window, with a more fanciful background than the plain blue of the old one. You can hover over items the other character is wearing to select what you’d like to put on. So far, so good – it’s a lot like the old Costumizer!

But here’s a new handy feature: click on the green shirt with a magnifying glass on the left side to bring up a panel where you can choose from all the items that are customizable!

If you click on the button above that – the Poptropican with a cursor on it – you can select another character in the area to customize from. (Or, if you’re the only character visible on the screen, the Costumizer will bring up only you and you can un-customize from the right.) And if you need some inspiration for your new wardrobe, check out our Costumes page! Happy Costumizing! 😀

(¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.-> Hi Gs, <-.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯)

I know, the title is sorta snotty, but it’s true. We demand a lot out of the Creators, and sometimes we get a little impatient. 😉 There are a few key features of Poptropica that were lost when islands converted to SUIs, and one of the features that they got rid of… that has been a part of Poptropica since it started… was the Map. But, as the title states, we citizens of Poptropica want our way! That’s why, over the past week, I have developed fabricated SUI maps to be put on the PHB’s Maps page (Also, check out the fonts page for a plethora of new fonts to use!):

I tried to make them as accurate as possible to the original maps, and hopefully they will help a few of you guys out. Other than that, they’re a nice tribute! 😀

If you’re unfamiliar with the island maps, this was a feature that showed you where you were on an island and what places you had yet to discover. This was a great help to the beginners as well as the oldies. The PHB has a Maps page (under the Cool Stuff tab) that documents all of the maps as if you had already played the island. This told the player a little more about the island, and more about where he should go. Maybe it was just a little too easy with the Map to play Poptropica.

As you may have guessed, this is you guys’ prize for getting me 10 likes on my Following Up post. Let’s try to get this post 15 likes! I know you can do it! Who knows what the next prize will be… 😛

-HPuterpop

(¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.-> Hi Gs, <-.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯)

First of all, I want to thank all of you guys for liking and commenting on my posts. I just reached 200 likes on this blog! That is amazing, and you guys are responsible — I’m going to bet that you can’t make it over 10 likes on this post. If I lose, you guys will get a prize. Let’s see who wins. 😉 BTW, I know I’m sorta overloading everyone with posts at the moment, but that’s just how it’s gonna be when a new island is in the air. I hope it’s not too incredibly annoying. And now, back to the scheduled programming. 😛

Many posts of mine are predictions, petitions, and things that are left unanswered. There needs to be a follow up to all these posts, and so from time to time, I’m going to make a follow up post, which closes the cliffhangers of the posts that we now know the answers to.

Re: The Life of a Lab Tester

I just wanted to mention a few of the possible preliminary workings of Poptropica Labs from Jordan Leary’s (Dr. Hare) blog. First, he posted a land mass generator (probably used for the land generator for Lands):

[gigya src='http://www.jordanleary.com/files/LandMassGenerator.swf' width=400 height=400]

Lastly, he posted a poogle gallery— creatures that look very similar to the “pet rocks” that appear in Lands. He calls them “Poogles”, however, which is a pretty neat name, and probably the correct term for the pet rocks. Yay for hacked terminology. 😛

[gigya src='http://www.jordanleary.com/content/art/Poogles.swf' width=400 height=400]

Re: Nightmares of the Carnival & release of Poptropica Labs

In this post, I theorized that Monster Carnival may be released as the classic pop, and not be a SUI. But according to Jeff Heim’s Facebook, he has made a soundtrack for the island, ruling out this theory.

And BTW, this post is where I got the fact that MCI was coming out mid-February; so ha, naysayers! 😛

Re: Release Dates

In this post, I theorized that the Mythology Island SUI would come out February 7th. Obviously it didn’t come out then — perhaps because the Creators wanted to trip me up. I said in the post that I didn’t really care. 😛

Re: Things get annoying (video ads)

In this post, I alerted everyone about the new ad unit of Poptropica, video ads. Sometime after, they disappeared. Has anyone else seen the ads?

Re: Spying on Spy Island

In this post, I theorized that Spy Island was going to be the next SUI… I don’t even know why you guys still listen to me. 😛

Re: Predictions

In this post, I theorized about Mocktropica’s plot. I said that Gamer Guy might be the villain, trying to get revenge on Poptropica for firing him. This is obviously not the case, but I still have a feeling that we may be seeing Gamer Guy in the future…

—

Now I can finally put those posts to rest. 😛

-HPuterpop