PHB Sneak Peeks

PHB Sneak Peeks: the Card-Carrying Gamers (and more)

Hey, Poptropicans!

Mighty Gamer here with a really cool behind-the-scenes post. Credit goes to idk for these sweet sneak peeks you are about to witness straight from the Poptropica files!

Mighty Action Force Card Game Room (whew, was that long)

Home Island will have a room dedicated to the card game from PoptropiCon, and guess what? There will even be new cards added to the deck! Here’s a super cool video of the unfinished room thus far, which you can watch by clicking here.

Also, by opening this xml file, you can find the card names and what group they belong to. Each card also has its own store card, which you can find in the html file, as well.

maf
Utah McDiggs… the Poptropican Indiana Jones?

There’ll also be a card manager popup, which you can view here. I don’t know about you, but the idea of a new room gets me excited! Maybe this’ll be out sometime soon! Here’s the card manager:

2016-05-23_12h27_27
Mighty Action Force card manager

Anywho, enough with this part. Onto some different sneakaroos…

Pearson Flashlight

There’s also the Pearson Flashlight, which you can see the Poptropican below holding. This item sure does scream Zomberry, doesn’t it? At least, it does to me. 😛

This flashlight can turn different colors, and not just 1, or 2, or 3 – but 5 colors! It can turn purple, a green…ish color, blue, white, and the default color – orange. Not half bad for a flashlight, huh?

This particular blue is my favorite out of the 5 colors, what about you? I’ll leave it to you to decide. Here are the colors. Let me know your opinion in the comments below. I’d love to hear them!

Poptropica “Bio”

At one point or another, a “bio” of sorts was being considered for our characters. I don’t know to what extent this would affect the gameplay, but we do have this photo of the short bio meant to be for our Poptropicans:

profile

Yes, we could have filled in information for our favorite food, favorite color, our pets, and hobbies. But what are “score” and “rank” for? As you can see, the rank filled in is “Greenbeak”, whatever that means. We’ll probably never know now, assuming this is an idea that was discarded.

Music Mixer

And then there’s the Music Mixer…

musicmixer

(The colored circles aren’t meant to be there, but there was a glitch.)

The music mixer… who knows what the Creators were initially thinking? As we can see, it was a tool for making music – perhaps like the machine in the Nanobots tribe room, before they came up with the current design (pictured below).

Or it could’ve been for something else, like the Jazz Cafe on Counterfeit Island. It could’ve even been for a room that never came to be. There’s no way to know for sure. Another mystery of Poptropica…

nanobots1
Nanobots tribe room [credit goes to Poptrickia for the photo initially meant for this page]
Onto the final sneakaroo!

Credit Requester

And finally, we have the credit requester…

credits request

I believe this was originally going to be for the “Account Settings” we have before the idea was abandoned. I guess this idea was an old one, because where it says “Earn free credits”, it says “Get 100 free credits for each island you solve!” – and we all know it’s been a long time since those days.

As you can see in the picture, you could send email requests to people (such as parents) asking them to buy you credits. Along with that, it gives an option to “buy credits with your credit card” (which was partially cut off).

One last thing: I’m assuming that this was considered before membership and its benefits, because why would you need to buy credits (with real money) when you can get everything for free with membership? You used to be able to, but the option was removed not long after membership became a thing.

Well, that’s all for this post! What do you think? Like or dislike? Let me know in the comments below.

–MG

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Adventure Pig Through the Looking Glass

Hey Poptropicans!

There’s a new ad on Home Island for Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, a film coming to theaters this Friday. Watch the trailer and you’ll win a Cheshire Cat Follower! Girls will also get an Alice Costume while boys will get the (Mad) Hatter Costume. Creepy, or snazzy? 😸🎩

Anyway, thanks goes to Purple Claw and Cool Dolphin for the pictures.

In other news, pigs can now fly! Wait, what? That is, in Adventure Pig, the latest creation from Poptropica’s new parent company, StoryArc Media. Despite the similar graphics, it seems it is not related to Poptropica after all. This physics-based mobile game can be downloaded on iOS and Android, but only in Ireland and the Netherlands (it will be made available worldwide soon!).

Check out the trailer video, which uses music from Poptropica’s Monster Carnival Island:

By the way, if you’ve been keeping up with our ASG page (Avatar Studio Gift) here on the PHB, you may notice that we frequently add new ASGs to our collection! Recently we’ve added a couple of pieces of Crisis Caverns Clothing (from the upcoming underground island!), Dummy Dress-ups (which are not cloneable ASGs, but dummies you can copy from!), and lots more in other categories! Check it out!

But that’s not the only cheat-ridden way of accessing cool costumes these days! The PHB’s Cheats page now lists another tool that can allow you to easily modify your character’s clothing, account items, and much more – but in the interest of keeping it in the down-low, we don’t want to say too much here. Those of you who use the PHC may already be familiar with it as it’s been around for a while. 😉

If you’re interested, look for it on our Cheats page (hint: it starts with an “i” and ends in a “Pop”).

Until next time – stay popping, Poptropicans!

–🐠🐠

PMFM (Poptropican Meme Face Mondays)

Poptropican Meme Face Mondays: Round 26

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here.

ThisWeekIsGonnaBeAwesome

Welcome to round twenty-six of PMFM (Poptropican Meme Face Mondays)!

PMFM-Round26

The lucky meme-faced Poptropicans this week are Sporty Eel, P̤̮i̤̮n̤̮k̤̮ṳ̮ R̤̮a̤̮n̤̮d̤̮o̤̮m̤̮n̤̮e̤̮s̤̮s̤̮, and Speedy Lizard! And here are the memes:

Feel free to click on the images to view them in their full glory. 😛

Want your own meme face?

Well, it’s simple. Comment on the most recent PMFM post (just choose the one of the list here). Be sure to follow the criteria below:

  • Very crucial: Wear the outfit you want to have in the meme face on Poptropica and keep it on for at least a week.
  • As mentioned, find the most recent PMFM post (it will be at the top of this list)
  • Include your Poptropican username in a comment.
  • Include the meme face you would like on your Poptropican in your comment (a link to an image of the meme is very preferred).
  • Post your comment and wait! (PMFM is operated on a first come-first serve basis, so your meme face will come after all of the ones before are released).
  • Just a note: You do not need to re-comment on newer posts if you haven’t gotten yours yet. Once I reply to your comment mentioning “You being added to the list,” then I have seen your comment and added it to my literal list, so yours will be made after each one before is made.

This completes round twenty-six of meme faces. Tune in next Monday for the next Poptropican Meme Face Mondays!

What do you think about this week’s meme faces? Comment below.

Meme King out. 👑

• Ultimate iPad Expert •

Uncategorized

Unity and the future of Poptropica

Unity. Unity is a hugely popular game engine for 3D games and apps. It has been used to create games like Kerbal Space Program, Monument Valley, I Am Bread, Crossy Road — the list goes on. It’s a huge 3D indie game engine.

So, why do I bring this up?

Oh.

My Thoughts

So, before I chase this rabbit trail, I’d like to clarify something: Poptropica being 3D is not official information. Is it likely? Yes. Is it certain? No. Unity has been used before to make 2D games, but overall it’s known as a 3D engine. With the Daily Pops we’ve been seeing recently with 3D environments, it seems that this is the path Poptropica has chosen to pursue.

With that in mind, this update is bad news, 3D or not. The Unity web player does not work for Google Chrome, which is the main browser of the internet. The main one. Unity was disabled a year ago because of security issues. If Poptropica goes with that, they’re cutting off their audience — big time. With the theme of accessibility that they’ve been pursuing recently, this is a major slap in the face in that regard.

What else is wrong? Perhaps my largest concern about 3D is that Poptropica was founded on 2D grounds. That was their quirk, that’s what made them unique in times when 3D was the online world status quo (and still is). Instead of vague and cheaply made hexagonal 3D models, Poptropica had great art with a distinct and clear style. The controls were fresh, partly because the developers only knew 2D, and it created a unique and rich experience.

treebackground

Poptropica needs to have that edge. Online worlds have risen and fallen, but Poptropica has stayed constant and fresh because of the unique approach.

If Poptropica goes completely 3D, they lose some of that edge. Let me clarify, however, that from what we’ve seen from the Daily Pops, the “New Poptropica” does not appear to be completely 3D. It shows 2D graphics on a 3D plane, similar to popular indie, Don’t Starve. Don’t Starve perpetuates a storybook atmosphere, and it works for that type of game — but again, Poptropica has been built on 2D and it should stay that way.

Those are my two cents. Along with cutting off a large portion of Poptropica’s audience, the switch to Unity could destroy Poptropica’s unique art style and completely sink the company. What do you think of the change? While 3D might sound cool at first, look at it objectively. What are the gains? What are the losses? Tell me in the comments.

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

UPDATE: Poptropica’s Skinny Moon has left a comment on this post addressing some of our concerns! Here is a snippet:

Hi there Poptropicans! Thanks for your feedback! Let me explain something to ease your minds: We’re confident that we are creating a new game experience that will be accessible to you, our current Pop players, which is our most important consideration. And while we’re not ready to reveal any details yet, rest assured that we’re staying true to the 2D Pop experience you love.

Please know there is SO MUCH going on behind the scenes, and we always have you, our passionate, dedicated players, in mind when we’re working on all things Poptropica. Seriously. (…continued in the comments section!)

While she hasn’t given a lot of detail about what to expect, at least we now know they’re sticking to “the 2D Pop experience”!

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Po-tropica and the Map Medallion

Hey guys! It’s a new author here bringing you some (slightly) old news!

In celebration of Kung Fu Panda 3‘s release for DVD, there are two new ad item cards available in your inventory! Po Follower is, well, a Po follower, and Pandas Everywhere makes all Poptropicans onscreen turn into pandas when spacebar is pressed.

Also, some of you may have noticed by now there is a new medallion“Map”.

map
This may or may not be an excuse to show off how many islands I’ve completed.

What does this mean?! Is it a new quest where we must visit every single island? Is it another island based on Mystery of the Map? Can you receive it upon completing every island? Whatever it is, it definitely isn’t the result of classifying the new map as an island in the code. *cough* 😉

Finally, Poptropica retweeted a video from EthanGamerTV, a popular child gamer on YouTube with over 800 thousand subscribers. In his video, Ethan plays Poptropica’s tutorial Monkey Wrench Island (which the PHB recently reviewed here!), for the first time. (He also may or may not be a hot dog.) If you’re interested, check it out below! It’s quite professionally made.

That’s all from me for now.

-Ylimegirl (Emily 2)