PHB Specials

PHB Valentine’s Special, Part 1: Love Zombies

Valentine's-Special

INT. PHB OFFICES- DAY

(The AUTHORS are gathered for their Valentine’s party. BLAKE is sitting on a folding chair, sipping some punch.)

HP: Dude, I can’t believe you brought that thing up three flights of stairs just for this gag.

Blake: Insert funny joke here.

(HP looks at BLAKE with a smirk. A STUDIO LAUGH TRACK plays in the background.)

Fishy: Quiet, everyone! Alright, as you all know, this is our first annual Valentine’s Day party, and of course, this will be the first office party open to the viewers.

Blake: Well, they did say to open up to them a bit more.

(Another STUDIO LAUGH TRACK.)

Fishy: Blake, if you press that laugh track button one more time, you and your folding chair are out of this party.

Blake: Fine, fine! We only chose six of them anyway.

Sam: Yeah, this is some weird Willy Wonka stuff right here.

Fishy: Well, think. There are nine of us. We don’t have enough room in here to have a wild party! Plus, the landlord will kick us out if we get too loud, so..

HP: Yeah, the landlord is pretty scary. Remember what she did to SD that one time she left the door open?

SD: Yeah… I don’t want to remember…

(SD shudders as the sound of a broom swooping in the air is heard.)

Fishy: We all pray for you, SD. Now, let’s get ready! They should be arriving any minute now.

(The door opens, and the six selected partygoers enter. Among them are YLIMEGIRL, POPULAR WOLF, BRAVE SKY, WIMPYKIDFAN, SKINNY ICE and STRANGE MONSTER.)

Popular Wolf: Oh my gosh! Great to be here, you guys! It’s always been my childhood dream to come here!
WKF: All my life I’ve imagined what this place would look like…. This isn’t it..

Skinny Monster: I thought we’d never get here! Stupid bus crash!
Blake: Well, all that really matters is that you’re here now. You guys mingle a bit, while us authors set up the games!

(BLAKE tapes a target to the wall, and gets out a BOW, which is emitting a strange pink glow.)

Brave Sky: Ooh, archery! I’m pretty good at this!
Blake: Yes, this game is basically archery. What’ll happen is, you get two shots, and whoever hits the target will score 10 points!

HP: Pssh, that’s easy, Blake.

Blake: The winner gets this caramel apple I found in the fridge!

(HP snatches the bow and two arrows from BLAKE.)

HP: DEAL! I’m up first!

(HP aims. The arrow slowly drifts right, and HP lets go, hitting SD in the arm by accident. He tries again, only managing to hit the cactus in SAM’S cubicle.)

SD: You know, I suddenly feel the strange urge to go hug that cactus.

(SD runs toward the cactus, leaving the remaining partygoers to ponder what just happened.)

Blake: Well, that can’t be good.
Sam: She’s after Phil! I have to stop her!

(SAM runs off. HP swipes an arrow from Blake’s quiver, and aims, accidentally hitting SAM.)

Sam: Ouch! What the heck, ma-

(The potion in the arrow’s tip takes it’s toll, and Sam is also drawn toward the cactus.)

Sam: Well, that settles it. C’mere, tiger!

(SAM runs into the cubicle with SD.)

Blake: Seriously, what’s going on? I mean, all I did was buy this bow and quiver of arrows from a shady guy with wing tattoos in the back of a van! Nothing wrong there!

Fishy: Wait, did you say wing tattoos? Could this actually be Cupid’s bow?

Blake: Probably! I mean, you know us, always getting into these kinds of situations…

Fishy: This is serious, Blake! We have a group of crazed love zombies running around the office!

Blake: Oh, those are just my fans. Some say my humor makes them dumber by the minute.

(Once again, a STUDIO LAUGH TRACK.)

Fishy: That’s it. Get out.

To be continued…

Surveys, Web Development

2016 PHB Readers’ Survey Analysis – Part 2

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here with part 2 of the 2016 PHB survey analysis! 😀

2016PHBReadersSurveyAnalysisPart2

In case you haven’t seen Part 1, click here to check it out. Without further ado, here’s the final two questions from the 2016 PHB survey.

Please note: Because this post is extremely long (6000+ words!), a “read more” tag has been added so as not to take up too much space on the front page. When you’re ready for a long (but hopefully interesting) read, click below!

Continue reading “2016 PHB Readers’ Survey Analysis – Part 2”

Creators, PHB Specials, Poptropica Portfolio

Poptropica Portfolio: Jordan Leary

Hey Poptropicans!

Last week’s Poptropica Portfolio feature was pretty popular, so here’s another! (Here on the PHB, we’ve previously featured the works of Abraham Tena, Chris Goodwin, and Nate Greenwall.) The lucky Creator to be featured this time is Jordan Leary, also thought to be Dr. Hare.

On his Behance page, Jordan says this of his work with Poptropica: “I’ve been leading the development of Poptropica, one of the most popular online kids’ games in the world, since 2007. I developed the original game engine, the animation system, and hundreds of games, scenes, and effects. Play the game at www.poptropica.com.” The original game engine, we assume, refers to the classic non-SUI (sound updated islands) on Poptropica. This game demo reel also shows a lot of his Poptropica work:

Many of the Poptropica designs Jordan displays on his website are interactive, which we unfortunately cannot embed here on the PHB. Instead, we recommend that you visit his portfolio site directly so you can play around with his designs. We’ll also post pictures below to let you know what to look out for.

When you first land on the site, you’ll be on the Games tab, where you can find a few Poptropica-related bits on the side (including a screenshot of the PHB’s Star Link video!). However, it’s the next tab, UI, that shows the good Pop stuff. You get to make a bunch of Realms “bubbles”, view prototypes of the inventory cards and age picker, play a game of Mancala, the matching game with Mahjong tiles, Fiona’s violin, and more! Check it out on the UI tab on Jordan’s portfolio site!

As foundational as he’s been to the game’s development since the beginning, it appears he’s no longer part of the team – his LinkedIn page shows that he left Poptropica in October 2015. Goodbye, Dr. Hare!

Thanks for all your work in making Poptropica what it is, Jordan – and we promise we’re not 12-year-old stalkers anymore. Maybe a little older now. 😉

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this look into a leading Poptropica developer’s popping portfolio! Stay popping, Poptropicans. 😀

Uncategorized

Announcing the winners of the PHB Valentine’s Special raffle!

Valentine's-Special

What’s popping, Poptropicans? Blake here, and true to my word, the raffle to get a supporting role in our 2016 Valentine’s Day Special is now closed. I received WAY more entries than I thought I would. Anyway, it’s time to announce our winners!

And, since there were lots of responses (and since even numbers are WAY better than odd numbers), I added a sixth spot in the special! That’s correct! SIX people are now going to be able to brag to their friends that they were featured on the PHB to their friends, instead of the five I specified. Without further ado, let’s begin! And the lucky random winners are….

Popular Wolf

WimpyKidFan

Ylimegirl

Skinny Ice

Brave Sky

Strange Monster

Congratulations to our six winners! Go brag to your friends, you’re going to Hollywood appearing in a PHB special! Look out for your big breaks on February 14th! Yes, this special will all be one part, due to the sheer amount of audacity this contest had.

Once again, congratulations to our winners! Well, that’s all for now, Poptropicans! Stay popping.

~Blake

Red Dragon Island, Sneak Peeks

Year of the Monkeying-Around with Dragons and Villains!

Kung hei fat choi, Poptropicans! 🎉

It’s the Year of the Monkey for those of you celebrating the Lunar New Year, and there’s a new update on the Creators’ Blog honoring the occasion. 🙈🐒

Also, we get a sneak peek of a monkey that’s supposed to be part of an upcoming island. (Past sneak peeks indicate this island could be related to the Poptropica comics or the upcoming tutorial update!)

monkey

Captain Crawfish also added in his post: “Plus, if you know where there’s a misplaced Chinese dragon on another Poptropica Island, we don’t want to hear about it anymore.”

Sounds like this pirate is salty. XD

chinese dragon

As someone who’s Chinese, I found the comment hilarious.

In case you’re not laughing yet, there’s a distinctly Chinese dragon dance happening on a Japanese island (Red Dragon, which takes place in ancient Japan) on Poptropica and it sounds like they’ve been getting quite a bit of flack for mixing it up. 😛

(Plus, thanks to Thinknoodles videos for being a source for grabbing quick snapshots!)

Chinese New Year isn’t the only thing happening – Valentine’s Day is coming up, and rather than taking it as a time to feel sad at a lack of significant other, here at the PHB we’d like to deliver you some villainous Poptropica Valentine’s cards! These were created by Poptropicans from our deviantArt community, We-Love-Poptropica.

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Octavian’s is made by JennLikesPie, Black Widow’s is by Slippery Raptor, and salty old Captain Crawfish’s is by Spotted Dragon. Feel the love! ❤

Also, if you’d like to have your name in the upcoming PHB Valentine’s Special, be sure to check out Blake’s post on the subject and leave a comment with your favorite PHB ship (no later than Wednesday, and try not to go overboard 😉 ). Stay popping, Poptropicans!

🎉 恭禧發財!! 🎉

🎈 (紅包拿來~)🎈