Hey, everyone! There have been some new developments on Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build… let’s take a look.
If you recently created a Haxe account, check out your clubhouse by clicking the clubhouse icon in your menu. When you arrive, you will be greeted with a welcoming pop-up and a fully-furnished living space. The sleek and modern designs of the furniture remind me of the ones from Poptropica Worlds.
These new items will appear in your clubhouse inventory, which you can access in Decorate Mode. Unfortunately, most of the old default items are gone, including the Poppies-award-winning Poptropica blimp! 😮 The only old item remaining is the green treehouse wallpaper.
If a player already visited their clubhouse prior to this update, they will get the new white wallpaper but not the new furniture. Why leave older accounts out of this special deal, Creators? Anyway, there are still plenty of items you can buy from the clubhouse store, so you won’t be stuck with an empty room.
Next time you visit Home Island on Haxe, you may notice that every character (except Amelia, the ice cream girl, and ad characters) has vanished. In their place, randomized NPCs can be spotted walking around and going in and out of buildings. Among these extras, you can spot some characters from Snagglemast Island, such as the vampire boy and the pink-haired girl.
Now let’s move on from game updates to social media updates! Last week, the Poptropica Instagram page posted a story asking fans what type of videos they want to see in the future. The Creators are probably eager to upload more content to the Poptropica YouTube channel.
This week, the Creators’ Blog released a post featuring a new YouTube video. The post and the video highlight the Upside-Down Magic advertisement, the Dritten Follower prize (which they misspelled in their post as Dritton Follower, though it’s a simple mistake considering it’s a kitten and dragon crossover), and the ice cream stand on Home Island.
That’s all for now. What are your thoughts on this new clubhouse update? What type of videos do you want to see from Poptropica? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Lights? Check. Internet connection? Check. Dr. Beev—wait, come again?
This weekend, we hosted the Poppies, our annual fan-directed Poptropica awards event, in celebration with the PHB’s 12th birthday. And what an event!
Despite the lack of Multiverse rooms (that feature disappeared a while back), just a few classic head-to-head mini-games to play (only Balloons, Sky Dive, and Star Link remain), and our decision to forego the traditional livestream in favor of concentrating our energy on announcing Poppies winners via our PHC Discord chat server, we had fun in the presence of emojis of all kinds (including the beloved Dr. Beev, the Dr. Hare/beaver parody from Mocktropica Island) and hit up the Party Time Tower on Time Tangled and Midas Gym on Mythology to shake the floors with our stellar outfits and groovy dance moves.
But enough about that, right? You want to know who won, and we’re here to bring you the highlights. Our winners for the 2020 Poppies are…
🏆 Gameplay Awards
OG Island We’ll Miss Most: Astro-Knights Island (runner-up: Mystery Train)
Best Pet Accessory: Buccaneer Hat (runner-up: Flower Headband)
Best Clubhouse Decor: Poptropica blimp (runner-up: Fox)
Best Home Island Makeover: Halloween (runner-up: Wizardry)
Best Quippy: 24 Carrot (runner-up: Escape From Pelican Rock)
Best Default Character: Old School (runners-up: Love Star and Girl Power)
Worst Paywall Offender of the Year: Classic islands return for members only (runner-up: Store items that used to be for all return as members only)
🏆 Community Awards
Popular Poptropican: idk*, creator of the Old Island Directory and admin on the Poptropica Club Discord server (*in acknowledgement of winning the award two years in a row, idk handed the title to noveen, one of this year’s nominees and fellow admin on the Poptropica Club) (runner-up: Thinknoodles, YouTuber known for Poptropica walkthroughs)
Best Fan Art of the Year: “Endgame” by Magniventris (runner-up: “Untitled” by anne14tco)
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2020 Poppies!! 🏆 And if you’re interested in knowing the rankings of each nominee, head on over to the PHC and check out the pinned messages to scroll up in the chat. We’ll leave the pins for some time, but not forever, so check them out while you can.
As an added bonus, here’s a quick thank-you video from Theo of Dimension Bros, whose channel won Best Fan Video (you may recall the PHB’s spotlight post for them last month). Thanks for celebrating with us! 🥳
🎨 “Best Fan Art of the Year” Nominee Gallery
We’re always impressed by what this fandom produces. To celebrate that, we’re showcasing our top nominees for this year’s “Best Fan Art” award:
Thanks to all of you who nominated, voted, came out for the Poppies awards show—and most of all, for being part of the Poptropica community in ways big and small. 💙 Also, happy birthday to the PHB! 🥳 We’re grateful to you, dear reader, for your part in making these 12 years so special.
A minute of beauty onstage is years of work offstage. Now let’s pick up those Dr. Beev emojis littered all over the blue carpet and get it rolled back up!
Hey Poptropicans, you need look no further for the news—and this time, it’s all about the looks. Let’s pop in.
First, new store items are here! Poptropica actually missed last week, which is the first time that’s happened since they made the store rotations weekly.
The non-costume categories haven’t changed since the last rotation, so only the store’s costumes are pictured above. This week’s items are:
Costumes: Lumberjerk (male and female), Boho Chic*, Furry Monster 4 (two different versions)*, Magician (male and female)*, Friendly Face Masks, Mud Pie, Rockstar, Mech Pilot*, Clown, Pig#, Bottle Cap#, Ringmaster*, Cool Boy Plush#, Shark Plush*, Milk Box#
Followers: Deer, Dryad, Dolphin*, Mini Astroknight*
As is the norm these days, about half of the store stock is for members only. Still, both non-members and members have the chance to snag some great deals with several items at 75 credits (marked with #): the Pig, Bottle Cap, and Milk Box costumes, plus the Cool Boy Plush and Coconut Drink.
Interesting detail: the handheld plushie of the Shark Tooth Island character previously known as Shark Boy before his erasure is not called “Shark Guy” as he later came to be known, but now, the item is simply “Shark Plush” despite not being a shark but rather a dude in a shark suit. 🦈
If you’re playing in Haxe, you may also notice that a couple of NPCs have gotten makeovers! The person in front of the store is now a golden-haired girl, and the lady by the New You building has gotten a glow-up.
That’s not all that’s new in looks. If you head over to the home page to create a new character with one of the default picks, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can further customize your character before diving into the game.
We’ve seen this orange customization screen before, back before “pick a character” became a thing. And new players can still access it by speaking to Amelia, the girl on the Home Island bridge. But it’s interesting to now have it show up right after picking a default character design, when it seemed the whole point of that was to skip the step of customization from the beginning.
However, when the “pick a character” update first rolled out, players had commented on how it took away from the fun of carefully crafting one’s character right from the get-go. For them, this reversion may be a welcome update. But having both a simplified selection screen and a customization screen seems odd—what about the new player who carefully selects a default character only to realize it could’ve been altered all along? Will this inclusion of both features be temporary?
Speaking of customization, there’s been a startling development: the beloved Costumizer tool—the green shirt button which allows you to “steal” clothing parts from other characters—has disappeared from most areas in Haxe. Will it return, or are the Creators sabotaging the fun in yet another way? We can only hope this is temporary, but it’s hard to tell…
No more Costumizer in Haxe!
Except in common rooms like the arcade…
…and on PoptropiCon Island, where it’s essential.
That’s all for this post. Be sure to check out our previous posts to catch up on other Poptropica news, and see you at the Poppies this weekend! 🏆
Hi, everyone! Gentle Dolphin here bringing the latest news. Let’s take a look at some of the latest updates over on Poptropica’s Haxe build…
This feature is similar to the quest log from Poptropica Worlds. The main difference is that the Worlds quest log has a more detailed list of objectives, while Haxe’s quest roadmap only highlights the main story points. So far, the roadmap feature is only available on 24 Carrot Island, but it’s likely to make its way to other islands in the near future. For more in-depth guides, though, check out our written walkthroughs!
Remember the three loading screens that were added to the Haxe build last month? Well, they have been replaced with six brand new loading screens, full of Poptropicans flexing their fanciest selves:
These new screens look cool and give a sneak peek at some future items (bubble tea? AirPods??), but they highlight a key element that has been plaguing players for a long time: membership.
All but one of the new screens mention the incredible perks of having a membership (exclusive items, access to all islands, and so on). It’s no secret that these constant reminders leave many of us unamused and annoyed, especially since not many people are able (or willing) to shell out ~US$3.50 a month for extra items. Is Poptropica prioritizing membership over the general player experience?That’s an entire debate that’s been going on for years, and not dying down anytime soon, it seems.
On a lighter note, saving a new account now rewards you with 350 credits instead of 75 credits. This is a nice start for new players, so they can go ahead and buy more items like a new outfit or a few pet accessories.
Our final Haxe update is a rather odd one. When you walk around Home Island, you may notice that the area appears to have been cropped so you can’t see the outer edges of the island. This is most noticeable when you walk to the left and discover that you can not access the movie theater. I know the theater wasn’t too popular, but why would they basically crop it out of Home Island? Do you guys have any ideas?
Ever since the massive advertisement that was American Girl: Joss’s Island ran its course, some of us have been wondering when a smaller ad on would appear on Poptropica. Suddenly, a new advertisement magically appeared to charm players across both Haxe and Flash platforms.
Our new ad is for the upcoming Disney Channel movie Upside-Down Magic, based on the titular book by Sarah Mlynowski. Watch a short trailer to receive the adorable Dritten Follower.
That’s all for now. What do you think of these little changes? By the way, don’t forget to cast your votes for this year’s Poppies before Wednesday, July 22! Stay tuned for the big celebration on Saturday, July 25, where we will announce the winners and hang out in the PHC Discord server.
Hey Poptropicans—we’re taking another look into Poptropica’s post-Flash future. In case you missed it, we took a deep dive on the subject back in January, and again in February when Poptropica put out their own State of the Game address. And, of course, we’ve been following along with the latest developments in Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build.
The Haxe engine is the future of Poptropica. It looks a lot like the old Flash engine, but it’s kind of starting over from scratch.
Ever since the Haxe build launched earlier this year, there’s been at least one glaring issue: Poptropica accounts on Haxe are separate from the accounts used in the Flash version. So in this post, we’re asking the big question: What will happen to our Poptropica accounts post-Flash? Here’s what we know so far.
Why are Flash and Haxe accounts separate?
Adobe Flash and Haxe Javascript are separate technologies. Flash is the older engine that’s about to have its plug pulled, while Haxe is the newer platform where Poptropica is working on moving the game. So far, Poptropica hasn’t made a way to connect accounts from Haxe and Flash together, perhaps due to tech limitations. So each account can only play in either Flash or Haxe.
However, there does seem to be some continuity available between the two. When Poptropica made the classic islands available to members in June*, players logging in from their accounts in Haxe could (and still can) head over to Early Poptropica to play the old islands in Flash. (*Non-members: check out the Old Island Directory to play the classics.)
Players have to log in again through the old Flash login screen, but once they do, they may notice that their Haxe character’s outfit will transfer over (for the most part). So perhaps a connection is possible… at least for one’s #OOTD.
My character in Haxe. The hummingbird’s wings don’t flap like they used to in Flash.
My character on an old island in Flash, after hopping on the blimp in Haxe!
How do I know if I’m in Flash or Haxe?
If your account was made before early 2020 when Haxe launched, it would be a Flash account, meaning that when you log in, your account would be in the Flash version of Poptropica.
You can tell based on a couple things: (1) there are more islands on the map (stretching back to islands released in 2013, when they were first made with sound and a newer version of Flash), and (2) there’s a daily spin wheel for credits on Home Island. As a bonus, you may also have some items or (especially rare) clothing parts that haven’t appeared in Haxe yet (though many store items have been converted to Haxe by now).
Daily spin wheel in Flash
Daily login rewards in Haxe
If your account was made after Haxe launched in early 2020, chances are, you’re on a Haxe account. As with Flash, you can tell by (1) seeing how few islands there are on the map (as of this writing, Mythology Island is coming soon), and (2) instead of the daily spin wheel, you’ll see a pop-up for daily login rewards of incremental credits. But there is a possibility for a Haxe-made account to enter the Flash dimension…
Can you switch from a Flash account to Haxe, and vice versa?
You can turn a Haxe account into a Flash account by logging in to the Poptropica mobile app. However, you can’t reverse this, and so, on the flip side: if yours is a Flash account, it can’t switch over to Haxe. Unless…
There is a way around this, but the method isn’t from Poptropica: you can idk’s unofficial Old Island Directory’s Format Loader to switch between the two.
How do you create a Flash account? And a Haxe account?
As mentioned above, you can convert an account to Flash just by logging into the Poptropica app. After that, Flash accounts will stay in Flash no matter what platform you use to log in.
When you create a new account via desktop computer on Poptropica.com, it will be in Haxe. Right now, Haxe accounts can only be made on a computer.
Will I keep my username and player name from Flash?
There’s no guarantee we’ll get to keep our usernames or player names from Flash after it’s gone. However, if you try to create an account on Haxe with a username that’s already taken by a Flash account, you won’t be able to. So it seems the collection of unique usernames between both platforms is shared. This could mean that as Flash nears its end, Poptropica may automatically switch all accounts to Haxe, or they may simply purge all Flash accounts (and usernames). Just speculating, though.
As for player names, we’ve previously noted how, with Haxe, player names don’t seem to be an important feature. Unlike the many combinational name possibilities we had on Flash, with Haxe there is only the small selection from the default characters on the home page—at least for now. But right now, there’s no indication Flash player names will transfer.
Picking one’s player name was a standard feature in Flash.
Another detail worth noting is that with Haxe, you can’t save usernames with punctuation marks. It might not feel like a big deal, but some Flash players may recall this as a method to claim an account with an otherwise common name without having to resort to adding a string of numbers.
So, what will happen to our Poptropica accounts after Flash is gone?
The short answer is: we don’t know for sure yet. Maybe we’ll get to keep our usernames, and as mentioned, there is some indication that at least our current outfits can be connected from Flash to Haxe.
As for the other stuff from our Flash days—like lists of friends, island medallions, costume closets—there’s no guarantee they’ll carry over.
The old friends page in Flash, showing off player medallions, costume closets, album photos, other friends’ pages, and more.Its redesign isn’t quite the same.
Poptropica hasn’t commented about this issue yet. But they’re working hard to bring a lot of the items we know and love from Flash to Haxe. Even if they’re not able to get everything (there have been a TON of items and customization options in the past decade, spanning many islands and characters), there’ll be plenty to play with. And they own all their artwork, so with more time, even after Flash, they may keep bringing things back.
Classic store items from the Flash era, like the Hot Dog costume, have recently resurfaced in Haxe.
So if you have a Flash account with years of energy put into it, enjoy what you’ve built while it lasts, and maybe save some pictures for the memories.
And if you’re planning to keep playing after 2020, consider starting a Haxe account now to build up your collection of items, credits, and more — just be careful to avoid the app, which would switch it to a Flash account.
What comes next? Stay tuned and join us for the ride. May the Poptropica spirit stay alive in the years to come. ✨
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