Hello Poppie-tropicans! This is Smart Bubbles, and this year I’ll be in charge of organizing the Poppies, our annual Poptropica fan awards in conjunction with the PHB’s birthday in July. 🥳
However, with Poptropica no longer receiving updates in the foreseeable future, we risk getting repetitive with the future of the awards. It’s not a fair event if we do a “Best Island” every year and my bot–I mean loyal readers–all vote for Astro-Knights each time, is it?
Go Go Robot: Just some of the ideas that would eventually become the Steam Robot costume in the Poptropica Store.
So we’re opening up the floor to your ideas! What suggestions do you have for award categories? Should we keep our original focus with a mix of both gameplay topics (characters, islands) and fandom content (fanart, fanfiction)? Or should we shift to a purely fandom focus, with more detailed categories such as splitting fanart into comics, animations, illustrations, etc?
This Google form will be open until July 7to share your feedback, or you can also drop a comment on this post. Act fast — the fate of the Poppies rests in your hands with non-opposable Poptropican thumbs!
Pop Quiz: How do you prefer to talk to your friends?
HELLO THERE! The chains of writer’s block and responsibilities have finally loosened, so I could finish up this last episode! So I have a couple things I’d like to say, but I’ll save it for the end. 🙂 Enjoy! (Or catch the previous one here, or start from the beginning here.)
ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!
A Zomberry Series
Episode Twenty: The Gambit and The Antidote and The End
Mr. Gambit (AKA Samuel Brains) was pacing his study in a controlled sort of panic.His empire—his beloved, powerful empire—was in danger of extinction.
Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but with the fact that all his prisoners escaped and nearly all of his employees were confused and no longer under his command, he felt like it was the truth.At least his zombies hadn’t gotten out of where he was keeping them. At least, that!
But still, Poptropica wasn’t quite under his grasp anymore. Mr. Gambit had to be careful. He had to gather his most loyal followers and salvage this somehow, before it was too late.Mr. Gambit held his watch up to his face, pressed a button, and spoke into it.
Mr. Gambit
All staff, report to my office at once!
He knew, at least, all the loyal ones would come. He had to figure out this mess. If anyone got their hands on anymore antidote—Mr. Gambit didn’t want to think about that. Luckily, he locked it away in a place only he, and a handful of carefully selected others, would be able to access.
Knock, Knock.Someone was at the door! He walked forward and peered in the eyeglass.
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!
Whether it be Poptropolis teams, tribal common rooms, or Poptastic Night Watch Island hats, the Tribes are among the most memorable, iconic traits of Poptropica! Even in our post-Glowbhax years, where you need Steam or Flashpoint to access anything tribe-related, loyal tribe fans everywhere have kept the legacy going.
In addition to the Poptropica Help Blog’s TribalTournaments and dedicated tribe pages, there have been Poptropicans who designed their clubhouses in tribal themes (like Seraphim) and invited other members of their tribe to dress in their tribal colors and join in the fun!
And then there’s me: a guest blogger who shared the legacy of tribes back on Poptropica.com, and has now returned to share about the tribes in a way like never before! …Starting with our friend the Flying Squid.
The FLYING SQUIDis the cephalopod tribe that will never be dismantled… Especially since it was the Poptropolis Games’ default tribe, where newcomers like me were assigned to before they got to choose a tribe for themselves.
TheWILDFIREtribe proved their burning desire to be the best, back when the first Poptropolis Island sank to the sea. It was there that the Poptropicans from every tribe were challenged to swim down to that island and dig it back up, so that the Poptropolis 2013 island could rise… And the Wildfires dug up more of the island than every other tribe combined! “All hail the Wildfires!”
The YELLOWJACKETSare a fearless yellow tribe intent on making their rivals yellow with fear. What makes these hornets even scarier is that the PoptropiCon villain Omegon is said to have originated from an experimental tribal Yellowjacket costume project that Poptropica made long ago…
The BLACK FLAGSwill stop at nothing to plant their flag of victory. My second favorite tribe, and a clear opposite of the White Flag of Surrender. Pirate fans, welcome aboard! P.S. Ye can also find the Black Flag on me PIRATE MOVIE, with the mark of another tribe stamped upon it!
The PATHFINDERS, whom I call the “Lost Poptropicans”, are looking to find their path, and find a gold medal…
…while the SERAPHIMride on the wings of their dreams, for better or worse. In my experience, these two tribes have found much in common with each other, and their members have been known to make friends and form alliances with each other in places like the Hub — Home Island’s first arcade, identical to the Pathfinders’ common room — the perfect place for any lost Poptropicans!
The NIGHTCRAWLERSare sneaky. They only act like pushovers so they can trap you, like the Black Widow, or even the Teen Arachnid! …Why the Arachnid? Let’s just say that Nightcrawler is one of the many tribal names I used as superhero codenames for my PoptropiCon comic saga. (Final comic book still under construction. I must remain vigilant!)
Lastly, the NANOBOTS. This tribe is programmed for victory, and believes that tiny is mighty! …Or maybe it’s a tribe for those who know their way around computers and programming. Who knows?
Which tribe is YOUR favorite? …MY favorite is the Seraphim Tribe!
But when I first chose it as my tribe, I didn’t know any of this tribal information that I know now. (Except for the default tribe, Flying Squid.) I didn’t know the “wings of your dreams” description for the Seraphim. I just thought that a tribe of flaming swordfighting angels was the coolest tribe to be in!
I also thought the Seraphim had the coolest common room. As much as I wanted to switch tribes and check out the other tribal common rooms, I didn’t want to leave the awesome tribe or common room I was already in! My favorite tribe felt like an AWESOME exclusive club to me. It felt like I was part of a union, or a clan, or even an Ephraim Universityfraternity/sorority! Did your favorite tribe feel like that?
Seraphim tribal common room
…If not, that’s ok. It’s possible that none of the 8 Poptropica Tribes were for you, or you didn’t even have the chance to join a tribe before the wave of Glowbhax!
So to wrap this post up, here’s a big question for you: If you were to make your own tribe, what would it be?
…Because if I were to make my own tribe, it would look like THIS.
If you want to design a tribe too, you can find the activity sheet right here. You can even print out a set of your own tribal cards for you to color any way you want. (Note: These tribal fan cards are for your personal enjoyment only, not for public dueling tournaments!!)
Enjoy the activities, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments about your favorite tribes, AND your custom tribes!
That’s all for now. Pop to ya later!
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy watching her full-length Poptropica fan movie, Battle Morale!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!
That’s right—the legend himself, Jeff Kinney, founder of Poptropica and author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books—has recently made another rare public acknowledgement of the game he helped build.
In a radio interview with WRHU from Hofstra University in New York, radio host and college student Jordan Elliott speaks with Jeff about his latest book, his animated films, and starting from the 6:38 mark, about the legacy of Poptropica (transcribed below, or watch below!).
After Jordan mentions Poptropica’s shutdown scare in December 2023 and the subsequent outpour of support from fans that resulted in the game’s recovery to Coolmath Games, Jeff Kinney shares his thoughts:
I love that game, Poptropica, and there’s something really sad about it, it’s that it of course was written in Flash. What happened is that Flash went away. So that put a lot of stress on the product, like we couldn’t convert all the stuff. It’s not often that something like that would happen, because if you made a movie way back a long time ago, you can still watch that movie today. If you wrote a book a long time ago.
You can still play today, it’s still active, and they did convert some islands, they’ve done a bunch of new stuff. But the stuff that I worked on is by and large not there anymore, and it lives on in the memories of people like yourself. It was a really cool game because we knew what a privilege it was to introduce kids to things for the first time, like Greek mythology. It was just crazy that we could get away with real education as entertainment, and I think it formed a lot of really good memories and a frame of reference for a lot of kids.
It’s great to hear from an OG Pop Creator’s perspective in 2024, with the game freshly migrated away from its original website but still living on with a fraction of its content. Thanks Jeff, for your insights! Although much has been lost, we’re grateful to have enjoyed it while it lasted. 🩵
This is a guest post from Brandon K sharing their My Place in Poptropica story, which is all about one’s Poptropica journey. Enjoy!
Hello! My name is Brandon K, and I’ve been a semi-longtime player of Poptropica (started about 2014 or 2016, I don’t remember). I want to write this post to share my experience with Poptropica, because I’ve had some really good experiences with this game, and I still enjoy it now.
I got into Poptropica with my sister, who first led me to this game, and I started off my Poptropica journey on 24 Carrot Island. I spent about 20 minutes just messing around with the drink mixer in the Carrot King Diner, until my sister told me what to do, and I had some more trouble trying to figure out how to befriend the cat. (I was new to point-and-click games.) Eventually I figured it out (albeit with a lot of help) and then she just led me through the rest of the island.
After this, I started exploring things like the Store, and noticed that you could buy costumes! I thought this was the coolest concept ever, and I tried to learn the game a bit better, so I played 24 Carrot until I felt I could do another island no problem.
So, I hopped over to the next island my sis recommended, S.O.S. Island. This island was ok, but at the time, I wish I could’ve played the members’ bonus quest, because the island just felt a little too short.
Flooded: How’s a person supposed to breathe down there?
Eventually, I found that I’d completed every island that the game could offer! I was so overjoyed because I had a whole bunch of credits, and so I went to the Store, and bought some cool costumes that I thought were awesome. (You might see me post some of my costumes as ASGs on the Discord). Out of all of these islands, Zomberry Island was just so good. I liked the storytelling, and all of the mini games it had were really good.
Fast forward a bit to about 2020, and I log on to see that Flash was going away! I was so sad as I watched all of those islands that brought me hours of fun just disappear, never to return again. But it was ok, because I still found fun by hanging around in common rooms with others, and playing mini-games, as well as playing some of the remaining islands.
Breakdown: Looks like a bad neighborhood.
Fast forward again to 2022 — Even more islands were gone! I was devastated to find this out, and at the time, I forgot about the game because it just wasn’t fun anymore.
Then in 2023, I found out about the new islands that were introduced, but they just weren’t the same. The art style just wasn’t like I remember. But I found fun, yet again, when I stumbled upon the PHC and Flashpoint! I had finally found the community of Poptropica gamers that actually cared about this game, and I was finally able to relive those younger years, and play all of those Islands I enjoyed so long ago. I guess you can say it’s nostalgic.
Wonderland: You can’t have more fun under one roof.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
– Brandon K
Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! If you did, you’ll probably enjoy our other MPIP stories here on the PHB.
If you haven’t already shared your story, we invite you to send in your own. Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more!
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 