🦄 Ponytropica 🦄

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Mud Bub, who’ll be taking a look at Poptropica islands from her perspective as a college art student.

She shared with the PHB, “Poptropica allowed me to get more in-tune with my passion for art. Similar to other Flash or After Effects products like Wow Wow Wubbzy or this video, I get the most thrill out of flat yet bold and colorful designs, and this has greatly affected my art style.

As a college art student, having an influence such as Poptropica is very much needed for me, both with art and being a general stress reliever… I may be older… but time has given me a better understanding, excitement, and idea-fueled drive for the game. This [guest post] is more than just a Pop 5 list to me, but finally articulating the artistic passion that I’ve had for over a decade. Without the openness of the PHB accepting blog post submissions, I would not have finally gotten to express that.”

Thank you, Mud Bub! And with that wonderful intro, let’s get into the post…

Greetings! I’m Muddy “Mud Bub” Bubbles, an art student at Ephraim University and collector of black-framed glasses. Professor Max McPatrick assigned me to analyze only the finest of Poptropica’s island artistry, and I can only hope that he won’t deduct points for not including his native island, Mocktropica.

Poptropica islands are known for their vast adventures, but their visuals are also notable. I’ve discovered that they are all worthy of praise, but there are a mighty few that stand out in their attention to detail and interactions with art.

#5: Counterfeit Island

This wouldn’t be an article on Poptropican art without mentioning Counterfeit Island! This island arguably offers the most extensive art collection of them all, although the genres are a bit narrow, and seeing less represented forms of art would have been nice. It does beat Early Poptropica’s Pop Art Museum by a mile, though. There may be French stereotypes, but Counterfeit Island’s store logos and calming interior design of the abandoned house make for an authentic island experience. Most of all, it allows for literal hands-on experiences with fine art and learning its value, which makes for a great introduction to art history.

#4: Mythology Island

It’s no myth that this island has lovely Greek and Roman art. Although the meandering may be overdone, they make the island more unique and memorable. The fonts and architecture also stay true to ancient form. Hades, Zeus and Poseidon have their own icons that are presented consistently, from the island logo to the Mythology Surfer costume. These are examples of brand design, a modern form of art, that other characters use as well, such as Dr. Hare and his rabbit gimmick. The pictures above show how two forms of art (wall art and iconography + sculpture and iconography) can merge into one to truly showcase the personalities of the gods.

#3: Steamworks Island

This island is more inventive than just its gadgets! Steamworks Island takes on a truly vintage and trinket-y form that makes it hard not to love. The color palettes perfectly show the dullness of the tools in a somehow bright way. There are banners with gears and stripes on them, as well as buildings covered with beautiful vines. So many bits and bobs to be found that make it easy to understand the intricate stylings of steampunk. Exploring this town can get kind of isolating though.

#2: Red Dragon Island

This island truly deserves recognition for the interactions with art it allows us. From literal bridge-building to bonsai trimming and calligraphy, Red Dragon Island is an authentic celebration of Eastern art. Despite the wild ninja adventures, one can feel relaxed, too, while wearing a beautiful kimono as cherry blossoms fly in the breeze. Seriously, this island could be Black Widow’s next strike. The land of Edo leaves Jack and Annie’s neck of the woods in Frog Creek with a little more to be desired, but that stark contrast may make ancient Japan look all the more unique.

#1: Nabooti Island

This island is a real gem, and I’m not just talking about its logo! Nabooti Island allows you to explore many environments and rare items of Africa. It’s also a rarity to see how an entire continent can fit in one island, and note how the starting point isn’t even a separate piece of land. Still, there are artful features such as masks, sculptures and animal photography that allow us to see the beauty of the island’s culture. This is also shown in its fashioned natives, shimmering minerals and detailed hieroglyphics. Nabooti Island gives its players a diverse and unforgettable artistic appreciation of Africa.

Honorable mentions

Arabian Nights Island: This island proves that there is beauty to be found everywhere—even in a desert hijacked by forty thieves! The mansion in particular shows bold application of Middle Eastern architecture and design.
PoptropiCon Island: Yes, PoptropiCon, and this is not just because of my love of puns! This place is riddled with costume-makers, comic book writers, and other artists that connect over their craft. PoptropiCon is a testament to the ever-changing mediums of art and its content. That said, they could have shown more of the communities that conventions have to offer.
Big Nate Island: This unique island allows us to jump in a graphic novel. What it lacks in detail it makes up in its dynamic character design and a bright, consistent style. If nothing else, this one wins for the most colorful and characteristic island logo.

This list was so difficult to narrow down. Will you fight for the royal aesthetic of Astro-Knights? Maybe I wimped out on the Wimpy Kid islands and owe Greg Heffley an apology. Or will you be bold and claim the best art comes from your own Home Island? Share your favorite art from Poptropica in the comments!

– Mud Bub

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Mud Bub. If you did, you might also like the PHB’s tour of the art museum on Counterfeit Island or our Pop Places IRL series, which explores the real world inspirations of Poptropica islands.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB, and share blog posts on the PHC.

📰 If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! ✨

Hellos & Goodbyes

New author popping in: Purple Paw

November 18, 2020November 19, 2020 Purple Paw

Hi there, everybody! I’m Purple Paw, and it’s true—I’ve just become the PHB’s newest author!! I’m incredibly proud, very surprised, and most of all, excited to have this opportunity.

Art of my Poptropican (username: PurplePawzz)

Beginning my journey as a writer for this blog, I’ll tell you a bit about how I joined this fandom.

I first started playing Poptropica in 2015, finding the game through Funbrain (as many players do). After playing my first island—Mystery Train—I quickly became engrossed in the game. In mid-2016, I ran into technical difficulties that prevented me from playing for several months. But as soon as everything was fixed and back in working order, I jumped right back into playing!

For quite some time, I wasn’t as interested in Pop, as my attention gradually shifted to other fandoms. Throughout 2017, 18, and 19, I would occasionally log in to check out what was happening, but nothing interested me enough to convince me to stay. That is, until 2020 came…

This past summer, I had a thought to check back on Poptropica. And this time, something did convince me to stay: the return of the old islands. I was thrilled to see that they had come back. I bought a membership so that I could enjoy them once more.

Whilst playing through a difficult island (which one, I can’t remember) I found myself stuck. But I wasn’t worried; I knew there were plenty of helpful walkthroughs out there. So I browsed the Internet for the best one I could find. And then I came across the PHB! I liked the PHB enough to revisit it several times. But I didn’t involve myself in the community at first—that is, until the PHB’s Tribal Tournament began in August. Now, this was something I couldn’t resist. I sent in my submissions, and was very surprised when I was crowned MVP!

I joined the PHC Discord community for the end of tournament party, and decided to stick around. I met several online friends there on the Discord server. In the following months, I started writing guest posts for the PHB and participated in a few other contests. By that point, you could say I’d put myself out there in the Poptropica fandom.

But the most shocking surprise came just this week. I had logged onto Discord, and was typing a message, when I noticed a new DM from Slanted Fish. Curious, I opened it, and it took all my willpower not to scream when I saw the invitation to join the PHB team!

I won’t deny that I had considered becoming a PHB author, but the fact that it was really happening was unbelievable! The down-to-earth side of me tried to convince myself the invite was just a dream, but I knew it wasn’t. Ecstatic, I accepted the offer. And that just about brings us to where we are today. I’m super excited to be part of the PHB staff, and can’t wait to see what happens next!

~Purple Paw 💜

Merchandise, Store

Deck your IRL avatar with not-so-crude Poptropica merch! 🧢👕

November 17, 2020 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, big Pop drop: the official Poptropica merch store, teased about a month ago, is here!

And there’s plenty to choose from: clothes, stickers, notebooks, phone cases… 54 items now and more to come, say the Pop Creators. (You can also send your ideas!) Take a look at these beauties, for starters:

The official Pop merch store is hosted on Zazzle, which means “they make and ship all the products for [Poptropica].” Right now, there’s a discount of 20% off if you use the code BESTZAZGIFTS at checkout. That’ll probably come in handy, as the items can cost quite a bit, ranging from US$4.95 for the lowest-priced sticker to $91.90 for Dr. Beev pattern high tops (our beloved Beev has quite a bit of merch here!).

Items are sorted as Apparel and Accessories (hoodies, T-shirts, party glasses, socks, tank tops, hats), Stickers (blimp, Herc’s Hero Hut logo, Zomberry clown, Poptropica logo), and Vintage Distressed Pattern (with a jigsaw puzzle, face mask, and more — also, you might recognize this as the background the PHB uses!). Browse the Pop shop now!

By the way, this isn’t Poptropica’s first time on Zazzle! For a few years starting in 2009, they used to sell different T-shirts, wall stickers, and posters there, but they haven’t been available for a while. To see what else Poptropica sells IRL (or used to sell), check out our page on Poptropica Merchandise: A Guide to Poptropica Shopping. 🛍

Whether or not you’re getting the real-life gear, you can still treat yourself to a shopping spree on Poptropica: The Actual Game!

The in-game store has gotten a few updates since last week, with new costumes like the Pumpkin Pleasure and Aqua Rebel, and a couple new powers: the Levitation Spell Book (which has you shout out “Volantem Levitatio!”) and Spark Shower Wand (check out our gif below):

While you’re in Poptropica, you may notice a new ad for The Croods: A New Age, a Dreamworks animated movie which will be in theaters in time for Thanksgiving. Check out the Pop Creators’ video of the mini-game, where you ride a creature named Chunky to collect bones and avoid baddies, in the end winning your very own Chunky Follower!

The Pop Creators also recently released a video for another ad, which you may recognize as it’s been around for about two months now: it’s for American Girl: Courtney’s Island, and contains plenty of prizes!

Also on Pop, you may notice something a little different from the bottom left corner: instead of the usual video ads, this space is now playing a slideshow of some recent Poptropica fan art!

Part of the fan art slideshow includes this piece featuring Gentle Dolphin with the *Jersey Devil*, by the PHB staffer herself!

You may have seen some of them spotlighted on the Creators’ Instagram stories, which we’ve also shared on the PHB. Pretty cool to see it within the game browser, too — and an improvement compared to ads. 🙂

In other news, Poptropica has disabled the Avatar Studio, the much-loved tool that allowed us to view player characters by entering their username. It’s not too surprising, given that Poptropica hasn’t linked to it on their site for a while now. However, the ASG still works.

Fortunately, you can still access the AS via this link on idk’s website, which simply loads the Shockwave Flash (SWF) from Poptropica’s files. But with Flash’s end coming up, it’s not guaranteed to last.

That’s it for this post! So, will you be getting any Poptropica merch? Or just sticking to the virtual store? What items do you want most? Share with us in the comments!

👋 Want to dive deeper into the Poptropica fandom? Connect with Poptropicans on our Poptropica Help Chat (PHC) Discord server!

Contests

Design Your Dream Island contest is back! 🏝

November 15, 2020November 15, 2020 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans—contest alert! 🚨 From now until December 18 at 11:59 p.m. PST, you can submit your own original Poptropica island idea for a chance to have it made into game reality!

The next Poptropica island could be from your imagination.

Some of you might remember that Poptropica hosted this contest back in 2013. The winning idea added to the game? Arabian Nights Island. 🐫

Fans have been hoping for another chance at the contest ever since the massive success of the first one. More recently, the question was put forth in the PHB’s Q&A with Poptropica’s CEO, who answered, “How about after this interview gets posted we start the contest?” And true to their word, here it comes now!

📝 The Pop Creators have put together a brand new submission form (poptropica.com/submissions) which allows anyone to share their island ideas — as well as fan art and letters outside of the contest’s purposes! The form is simple: you enter your username, write a message, add an optional attachment (which can be a jpg, png, gif, or pdf file), click a checkbox captcha, and with the press of the submit button, your submission is sent to Poptropica.

Share your island idea on Poptropica’s new submission form.

Fortunately, there are no geographical or age restrictions like the previous Dream Island contest, but children under 13 do need a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. Your island idea should only be entered once.

As the Creators shared on the official blog, they’re looking for the following in a successful island idea: an original and exciting story, key characters, and setting (don’t copy from other brands or people!). Not only will the winning idea become a real Poptropica island, its inventor will also win a one-year Poptropica membership!

⛅️ For some inspiration to get your creative wheels spinning, you can take a look back at some of the most successful entries from the 2013 Dream Island contest. In addition to the winning Arabian Nights Island, the Pop Creators named these as their top ten runners-up last time: Bikers vs Boards Island, Fashion Crisis Island, Golden Mustache Island, House of Cards Island (with in-depth look from its inventor), Pharoah’s Fantasies Island, Prehistoric Island, Shakespeare Island, Space Bar Island, Stormchaser Island, and Symphony Island. (Plus, check out one former PHB staffer’s personal opinion reviews for each of those ideas!)

What ideas do you have for a Poptropica island? Start dreaming, maybe bounce some ideas with our PHC Discord community, and remember to submit your idea before the December 18 deadline!

And stay tuned — the winner will be announced December 28. Whatever it is, we’re excited to see, and eventually play, another fan-invented island! 😄🏝

— the PHB —

Haxe Javascript

Message to all: the Fall Festival is here! 🍂🎡

November 12, 2020November 13, 2020 Gentle Dolphin

Come one, come all! Poptropica’s first Fall Festival is now open to all players! This limited time event includes thrilling attractions, collectible prizes, and plenty of autumnal joy!!!

The Fall Festival is only available on the Haxe version of the game. If you don’t have a Haxe account, you can either make a new account or use idk’s Format Loader and select “HTML5 (Haxe JS)” to switch to Haxe.

Once you log in, you can find the Fall Festival on the first page of your map, where the Zomberry Hero event used to be. On a side note, the mysterious envelope next to the Poptropica logo has disappeared. Where did it go? More on that later… 👀

The festival’s decorations take some influence from Monster Carnival Island, as seen with the Snack Shack and the heart-shaped tunnels. Th area itself is one big common room, so you can run around, talk to other players and challenge them in head-to-head games.

Speaking of games, you can find three arcade cabinets to the right of the festival. The three games available— High Dive, Bubble-Loons, and Star Link— are carnival-themed versions of three classic common room games: Sky Dive, Balloons, and (of course) Star Link.

After playing with some friends, check out the newest thrill ride: “The Swirly.” You may recall seeing this attraction in an Instagram teaser last month. Unfortunately, you can’t ride it as it is currently being occupied by other Poptropicans.

Anyway, jump to the hill next to “The Swirly”. You’ll find a scarecrow wearing a cozy outfit and holding a steamy beverage. Click on it to obtain the “Chill in the Air” outfit.

Every festival has to have a Ferris wheel, and this one is no different! It’s unfortunate that wheel doesn’t spin (they may have lost the transformer), though you can jump on the carts to get a view of your surroundings.

When you’re on the Ferris wheel, you can spot a shiny red lever on the Fall Festival sign. Pull this lever to unleash a storm of raining pumpkins! Don’t forget to bring your umbrellas and helmets!

Head to the hill on the left to see the winners of the butter sculpture contest. That cow sculpture looks friendly, so why not befriend it and have it become your Butter Cow Follower.

Looking at all of that butter is making me hungry. Jump down the hill and grab some cotton candy at the Snack Shack. Next to the shack, you can find a small plush bear sitting on a giant version of itself. This cuddly teddy is the perfect companion for fairgoers of all ages.

That was a tour of Poptropica’s first Fall Festival! It’s a pretty simple but fun event for players who want to hang out and enjoy the setting of a county fair. Who knows if this will become an annual thing? This is a limited time event, so don’t miss out on the fun!

Going back to that mysterious envelope, it seems to have moved from the Poptropica map to the player menu. Open your menu and click on said envelope to access the brand new messaging system.

This new messaging system will notify players of new updates and events in the game. The interface is similar to the cellphone on Paradise Island, which is what players used to check out new updates.