Guest Posts, My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Brandon K

Slanted Fish

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!

Guest Posts, Poptropica: Legends

Launching the Poptropica: Legends fan game development campaign and website 🗺️

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by HPuterpop. Enjoy!

Hey Poptropicans! It’s been a while since my last announcement, which if you missed, here’s part 1 and part 2 — but I’ve returned with a lot of fun stuff to show you. Poptropica: Legends has officially launched its campaign and website!

There is plenty to explore over there, including character pages, an island tour, and maybe even some hidden secrets… Please note that for the best viewing experience, the website should be accessed on a desktop.

Check it out at www.poplegendsgame.com!

So what can you expect from this game? Poptropica: Legends will be a return to form for classic Poptropica islands – get ready for puzzles, action, detailed locations and beautiful character art! Legends will feature sidescrolling AND top-down isometric gameplay, and buttery smooth overworld combat. We hope to rival the original game’s mechanics (especially the AS3 and Haxe versions 😬), while harkening back to the best of that game engine.

The first four chapters of Legends are heavily inspired by classic islands, with Chapter 1: Pendulum Island being the in-world name of Time Tangled Island from Classic Pop. This island also combines other locations found in Classic Pop, like River City from Shrink Ray Island and Poptropica Towers from Early Poptropica. Pendulum Island was named after Peter Pendulum, who helped invent time travel and put the island on the map, so to speak. But he’s not the only classic character you’ll meet in chapter 1 — look forward to Dr. Hare making a simply hopping appearance, among others!

Before Meridian can begin his adventure on Pendulum Island, however, we’ll need to establish a few locations that will return throughout the game. That’s why our first goal is to release Northern Skydock, a kind of prologue to the Legends saga. Meridian lives here, in this small town that serves as a pit stop for travelers passing through. With shops, restaurants, and colorful townsfolk, this will be your first look at Legends in action. Northern Skydock will also include a visit to the Bureau of Heroic Poptropicans, or the BHP, where Meridian works alongside Poptropica’s brightest adventurers.

We don’t have a concrete date for this first launch, as building Northern Skydock will be a daunting and time consuming task — this is where we will need to build UI, controls, and other concrete parts of the game.

And this is where you come in — all of this is going to be pretty costly to produce! For a full breakdown, please view this spreadsheet for a ballpark of what kind of costs we’re looking at. I’m planning on asking for $16,900 USD to get Northern Skydock off the ground, which is a conservative estimate — every bit helps!

We will be running a Kickstarter campaign to fund this project, which hasn’t launched yet, but will soon. On top of this, please consider contributing to our Patreon, Creator’s Blog! You’ll get to see exclusive behind the scenes previews, get your name in the credits of the game itself, as well as access to developer livestreams (usually with me)!

The game will be free to play, so any funds sent our way will only make Northern Skydock a reality faster.

(PHB editor’s note: All donations are handled by the team at Poptropica: Legends, independent of the Poptropica Help Blog. Donations will only be used for the fan game’s production, pending Poptropica’s go-ahead.)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re excited to experience Poptropica: Legends!

That’s all for now,

Andrew A.K.A. HPuterpop

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by HPuterpop. If you did, you might also enjoy reading his ‘My Place in Poptropica’ story — the first one ever!

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!

Fairy Tale Island, Goofball Island, Guest Posts

Comparing Dream Islands: Fairytale vs Goofball 🧚🤪

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!

Once upon a time, a pauper Poptropican had the honor of writing special parchments for the Kingdom of Poptropica. Among them were two parchments: one comparing Fairytale and Arabian Nights Island, and one comparing Goofball and Jade Scarab Island.

These were the Dream Islands, designed by players in Poptropica’s Create Your Dream Island Contests, and I was that parchment maker. Now, I have returned to share with you two NEW Dream Island parchments, starting with this one: Fairytale vs Goofball.

Comparisons

Fairytale and Goofball were the first two Dream Island winners of the 2020 Dream Island Contest.

Both of these newer islands have astounding, artistic, and colorful new scenery, and both islands also have inhabitants that looked and behaved differently than the inhabitants of any classic island.

Furthermore, they both have teeny-tiny little blimps like the one that was on Shrink Ray Island!

Contrasts

However, when you look below the surface, you’ll find that the quests of the islands are shockingly different from each other.

Fairytale Island is made up of mini-quests, and each mini-quest in question is a fractured fairytale; perhaps the most fractured kind of fairytale anyone’s ever SEEN! …That means it’s quite possibly the shortest, easiest, and silliest island of all Poptropica. How did THAT happen?

Perhaps Dr. Blandston —or should I say Dr. Gramston — got to Fairytale Island just as they did Goofball Island.

In my opinion, Goofball Island lives up to Poptropica’s ancient traditions of action, adventure, and mystery. 

It is not three mini-quests, but one BIG quest, and an original, more challenging one at that. Not just a challenge to play, but a challenge to fully understand, for only when you find the secret subway journal like a true detective do you realize where the Dr. Blandstons came from in the first place!

This brings me to the greatest Fairytale-Goofball difference of all: the villains.

Rumpelstiltskin is the villain messing up Fairytale Island, but he gets away and you never catch him. 

Dr. Gramston is the original villain of Goofball Island, but during the quest, the horrors are carried out by the Blandstons. You see, long ago, Dr. Gramston found a way to transform others into Dr. Blandstons, and it’s spread like a disease since. But the Blandston curse is temporary. So once the Blandstons returned to normal, some of them teamed up and found a way to break the curse once and for all, and fully restore balance (or dullness, or goofiness) to Goofball Island!

…Isn’t that a happier ending than Fairytale?

…I guess Fairytale has kind of a happy ending, too (Rumpel bonus quest aside). But however you slice it, that island’s story never comes full circle like Goofball Island’s does…

That’s why I’m gonna get to the bottom of it in the second part of my legendary pirate movie coming up.

Conclusion

To wrap it all up, my favorite of these two Dream Islands is Goofball Island. What about you? Feel free to share in the comments below!

P.S. I won’t judge if you like Fairytale Island better. I still kinda like that island, too!

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!

Fanfiction, Guest Posts

Fanfic: Stranded 🪵 Part 2

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Fearless Goose. Enjoy!

Log Files: Always be sure to keep a backup.

(Continued from Part 1)

Fearless Goose looked around him. “There must be a way to get out,” he thought to himself. “I know, I’ll pretend I’m sick — that will surely make them come here!”

He then reminisced about his beastly cousin, Slinky Goose, then… it’s better we skip this part, but his plan had worked. The old man let him out and had a look at him.

“You should be better soon,” he said.

Fearless Goose angrily said, “Okay, okay, but why did you lock me up in a room?”

The old guy then proceeded to tell him a long and boring story about how he was lonely and needed friends.

After a fierce negotiation, FearlessGoose was set free. And after what seemed like a while, he stumbled across the remains of the blimp. He examined it.

“Bullet holes? This must mean I’m being hunted! I must get out soon, the old man told me civilisation is miles away. If I will get out, I need a car.” He ripped a piece from where the blimp was shot.

He kept walking and spotted a mansion with three cars. “A mansion in the woods? Never mind that, I must ask the owner to give me a ride to civilisation.”

He knocked on the door of the mansion. The owner came out and Fearless Goose asked to be taken to civilisation. He then proceeded to list what had happened to him. The home owner agreed and said he was heading out tomorrow to town and Fearless Goose could join him then.

The home owner agreed to let him sleep over, and Fearless Goose quietly prayed this home owner wasn’t as crazy as the last one.

When he woke up, the home owner was sleeping. So, like the curious person he was, he explored.

He found out the home owner had a shed outside. He opened the door and found a gun, which he fired at a tree. Then he compared the bullet holes of the tree to the bullet holes of the balloon. They were identical.

When the owner woke up, he searched for Fearless Goose and found him near the shed with the gun in hand.

Fearless Goose asked, “Why did you do this?”

To be continued…

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Fearless Goose. If you did, you might also enjoy their ‘My Place in Poptropica’ story.

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!

Uncategorized

A detour from villainy: The Binary Bard sees an eclipse! ☀️🌑

Agent Bubbles

Subjects of the galaxy! It is I, Mordred aka the Binary Bard. After my triumph with Astro-Knights Island, and my loyal subject Smart Bubbles’s defeat of my opponent who dared to use such underhanded tactics and words, I decided to utilize my newly found freedom on this simple planet of, errr… Earth.

Oh, no need to fear the authorities chasing after me after my escape from Erewhon—I’ve made sure to leave some… gifts in their computer systems as the poor fools try to track me.

Your pipsqueak of an “author” here, Smart Bubbles, as one of my most devout subjects, has given me access to this “blog”, along with this opportunity to travel her homeland…”United States of America.” I suppose I should thank her, although she has yet to betray her land of greasy foods and disgusting carbonated drinks for my kingdom.

(SB: Can I please see my family again.)

The Mississippi River (with quite jarring concrete fences and graffiti)
I can assure you, I am normally NOT the size of those rice bars!

We left and saw some tours of the “Midwest”, which is truly all the descriptor you need for this place. It reminded me a bit of Arturus, but without any grandeur or history or mountains.

(SB: But WITH water purifiers, antibiotics, and a general life expectancy above fifty…)

We stopped at several places called “gas stations”. I do not understand your fascination with them, although I don’t quite have the same need to rest as you flimsy humans. I’m sure the journey would have been cut in half if a certain someone didn’t insist on buying a meager snack at every stop, none of which she ever offered me, of course!

Before we continue on to the main part, I’d like to clear some misconceptions you fools tend to have:

Cruise Control: Things are a-boat to get hectic.

  • “Is looking at an eclipse safe?”

An entire planet’s existence and you still ask this! Much to the surprise of some, staring directly at the sun, even with a SPLINTER of it cut off, will BLIND you. The only time it is safe to stare directly at a solar eclipse is at the point of “totality”, whence the sun is fully covered, the sky has a 360 degree “twilight” appearance, and all of the birds make a cacophony that makes me wish I had thought of a way to turn off my mechanical eardrums.

People with a shred of intelligence will use something to shield their eyes like those little glasses. I, however, do not have this weakness as my left eye is now immune to blindness. If anyone is interested after my writings, I am more than happy to take on subjects for cybernetic modifications.

(SB: Bard, that kills people.)

Solstice: The sun at the center of it all.

  • “Are eclipses really rare if I hear about them all the time?”

There are two types of eclipses—or three, if you count lunar ones, but that does not apply here. Partial solar eclipses, where the moon never fully passes over the sun, are quite common, and you often might miss them if you don’t know of one happening. Total eclipses are when the sun is fully covered, turning into a “black sun”, and are safe to stare at during the totality period. These happen regularly, every few years, but only in different areas around the world. For the same location to experience a total solar eclipse twice, you may have to wait a few centuries—oh wait. You’re humans. You can’t. Pity.

  • Is the world ending?

Somehow, you have managed to barely advance since the Dark Ages…

On the day of the eclipse, I took a chair for myself while my loyal subject spent her time eating sweets she made for the event, and complaining of the quite mild sunlight. At this point, I started to wonder if I had unknowingly made a deal with a vampire. During the progression, the temperature dropped significantly, even when the full eclipse was yet to happen—certain automatic lights turned on as it grew dark as well. And yes, the birds made noise.

Cookies!!! -SB

It was quite pleasant to see the total eclipse without peasants running about in the fields like it was the end of the world—Arturus truly was thankless for the progress I gave it! The sky was clear enough to even see the red flares of the sun around the edges. It’s impressive how such a small change can completely alter the planet—Earth would be incredibly different if the path between it and its closest star was blocked permanently, like so. To most here, planets and moons and the like may seem far too big to be so fragile, but I’m well aware of how tiny they are in the grand scheme of things.

I believe that is all—from what I can see, I think the authorities have finally bypassed my small tricks. I leave you once again to await the coming of a new age to the universe—one that will certainly eclipse a small event like this!

(SB: Booooo 🍅🍅🍅)

Castori honorem ~ Smart Bubbles

Ad astra per aspera – Mordred (the Binary Bard)