Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the islands freely roam
The oceans are immense and it does get intense
It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home!
A new island emerges, and the joy just surges
‘Specially from young Sarah tonight!
Come on down, stop on by, hop on your blimp and fly
To the brand new Arabian Nights!
Arabian Niiiiiiiiiights has just been annouuuuuunced!
Oh yes, the logo and the island’s info has just come arouuuuuuuund!
Arabian Niiiiiiiiiights will have three episooooooooodes!
First is How Bazaar!, and robbed from afar, is the Sultan’s abooooooode!
After the forty thieves ransack his city, a desperate sultan has one request: find the thieves’ lair, and bring back his most cherished possession!
*ahem* Okay, enough with the Disney’s Aladdin references, I have a feeling a lot more will be made in the future by my fellow authors. Ah well, just follow me on my magic carpet and we’ll see what else is on that tour page – which is actually not too much more. The only other things we see are a few scenery images, a picture of 1/40ths of the Forty Thieves clan (seen right), and the desktop wallpaper (which features the entirety 40 thieves, if you count closely enough) and the printable poster, both of which you can see by clicking below.
So I don’t know about you, but I’m intrigued… What will the gold cards be? When will the trailer release? When will it come out? Only time will tell.
Hey Poptropicans! This is going to be another mega-post on the many Poptropica-related things happening recently – but while you’re reading the PHB, don’t miss out on the new BoxTrolls ad, Survival Ep. 5 for members, the upcoming “Home” feature, and more news from the posts below! 😀
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Poptropica: A Story You Can Play
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a beloved story. No wonder it’s been made into two movies and a stage musical (and even other video games). Because we consider story to be the most important part of a Poptropica Island, this, too, was both a challenge and an opportunity when bringing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Poptropica.
How do we re-tell a familiar tale, full of beloved characters and situations, while adding an unpredictable new character: the player? How do we make the player a part of the story without changing the story, but allowing the player the sense of freedom and control that a video game requires?
[To read the rest of Poptropica’s entry, click here!]
Since its third year, every year, Poptropica has celebrated its birthday in the month of September – but never with an exact birthday date mentioned. This year will be Poptropica’s 7th year, and in response to a question from Slippery Raptor, Poptropica revealed over Twitter that Poptropica’s birth took the entire month of September (2007) — hence the celebrations being not on any one single day.
This year, however, they’re planning to have their festivities on the 18th – which is this Thursday! We can probably expect a birthday costume with a “7” b’day balloon, and maybe some balloons in the common rooms. In the past, they’ve also re-released retired items — we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for this year’s party!
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More featured Land creations
Poptropica Land: alpha version 2 may have been around for a while now, but the Creators are constantly being impressed by all the elaborate creations Poptropica members are making. Here are the latest to be featured on their official Twitter(click to enlarge images):
Cool Speck: crystal home
Golden Leaf: ship
Messy Lion: not quite sure what this is, but it’s cool!
The PHB has previously mentioned Jeff Heim, Poptropica’s resident (and very talented) music composer — and while the recent release of Poptropica’s first ever music album may be unavailable to some due to cost, listening to Jeff’s Soundcloud tracks is totally free!
If you haven’t checked out his Poptropica collection in a while, you may now notice that he’s added several new tracks, mostly owing to the recent Survival and Mission Atlantis episodes.
In the comments of the “Science Fair” track, you may even notice Jeff’s response to HPuterpop saying that he “uploaded this track in part because I noticed you used it at the end of your Survival 3 Walk-through video”! Awesome.
One of my personal favorites, though, is the jaunty little tune that is PoptropiCon’s main theme. It just builds up to sound really epic as you get into it, plus it can get pretty catchy. 😀
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Don’t miss out on all the other cool things happening in Poptropica lately — you can catch up with all the PHB posts below! Keep on popping on, Poptropicans.
What’s popping, Poptropicans? Blake here — what? Okay, so the title IS a bit lazily written, but so is the novel based on Disney’s Maleficent. Don’t judge.
Anyway, a new ad has exploded onto Main Streets near you to advertise the new LAIKA and Focus Films movie, “The Boxtrolls“! When you arrive on Main Street (I went on Mythology Island), you’ll be greeted by Eggs (who names a kid Eggs? I DO, THAT’S WHO!) and his stylishly-clothed Boxtroll companions, in front of what I suppose is a Boxtroll hole.
Now, you remember that tightrope portion of that old Open Season 3 ad from a few years back? If you do, the inside of this ad building is going to remind both you and me of that same ad. The game is called Balance the Boxtrolls.
To play, just point your mouse left or right to balance the Boxtrolls, and assist Eggs and the Boxtrolls in changing a lightbulb. (hey, hey guys — how many Boxtrolls does it take to change a lightbulb? FIVE, THAT’S WHAT IT SHOWS IN THE SCREENSHOT! HAHAHA *ok, I laugh way too hard at my own jokes…*)
If you win, you’ll be greeted by a little cutscene of the Boxtrolls changing the light themselves (why did we even bother helping), and you’ll get two prizes, the Boxtroll Buddy and BoxtrollTransformer!Before you ask about the name of the latter – no, this is not Hasbro/Michael Bay CCH CHH CHH CHH Transformers; this is something that turns other Poptropicans into Boxtrolls. This is me showing off the prizes in all their.. um… oil and shoe-iness?
Some Poptropicans have noticed that, in their medallion collections, a new blank medallion has been inserted between those of Survival: Episode 1 and Mythology. If you hover over it, it says “Home not yet completed.” But what exactly is ‘Home‘?
Well, a few recent Daily Pop sneak peeks might give us a hint — and from the looks of it, it’s a “hub” area that involves character customization!
Iconic: Whatever you want, with the press of a button.
One Stop Shop: Say hello to our bundle of joy.
Just a Trim: Or an entire makeover, if you’d like.
Over on Poptrickia, Nice Hawk has uncovered that this “Home” world will be for Poptropica’s mobile app (currently available on iOS), and you can see the design still follows the “sky island” theme of the app’s “tutorial” island. Here are some sneak peeks, courtesy of Poptrickia:
In the first scene with the blimp, the blue box is for the logo of the island you last traveled to, and from here, you can enter the two customization buildings: the Bundles Shop and New You.
The Bundles Shop sells gold card costumes and items from the Store, but whether this will cost real money on the app remains to be seen. New You contains a barbershop with a Colorizer, where presumably you can change your hairstyle and colors. There are also three pedestals — perhaps a costume closet of sorts? We’ll have to wait and see!
Cosmoe on Main Street
Remember Cosmoe from the Funbrain graphic novel Galactic Hot Dogs? (By the way, GHD is publishing its first book in May 2015!) Anyway, Cosmoe has appeared a few times on Poptropica before, but now he’s here on Main Streets of islands like Mythology! If you click on him, you can chat with, Costumize (works for boys only), or friend him. (The Princess Dagger prize pack has also returned in places like 24 Carrot!)
If you chat, you can ask him a few pre-scripted questions: who are you? (Cosmoe) what’s in your hand? (my Goober Sword) and why are you standing here? (I’m waiting for Princess Dagger)
Earlier, we found that Cosmoe’s username was npc:cosmoe, but this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. If you add npc:cosmoe now, you’ll find a random character wearing a birthday cake (was the account hijacked? however, it still shows as Cosmoe on the Avatar Studio).
New PHB page: Mystery of Shark Boy
Remember the PHB posts about the disappearance of Shark Boy? Well, now all the data we’ve collected regarding this strange case has been compiled into a new page, so you can get the whole story all in one place! Click here to check out our new article, also found under the “Cool Stuff” tab!
Poptropica vs. Thinknoodles
Recently, Poptropica has decided to create their own video walkthroughs narrated by Captain Crawfish — but what’s interesting is that, despite advertising on the Creators’ Blog and even the Poptropica homepage itself, the “official” walkthroughs are still not as popular as those of Poptropica player Thinknoodles, who also narrates his guides, but has videos for every island on his YouTube channel. Check out the view counts of both their PoptropiCon Ep. 1 walkthroughs — the numbers don’t lie!
The Creators only have video guides for PoptropiCon Ep. 1 and Survival Ep. 5 so far, and for both, it looks like Think is still in the lead, despite both being released on the same day! Noodle on, I say! 😛 (Also, doesn’t anyone else wonder why Crawfishy doesn’t use his own peg-legged avatar in his videos?)
You may remember when the PHB posted some highlights from Nate Greenwall’s Poptropica portfolio earlier, but over on his Facebook profile(that is his personal account, so be respectful if you choose to contact him!) are a few interesting glimpses into life at Poptropica HQ! (Click to enlarge pics.)
The white board we have at work hasn’t been erased for about 7 years.
Practicing my Hadoken skills.
Lunch with some of my fellow Poptropica co-workers.
Some of our Poptropica merchandise hanging around our office. Now we just need to build a ball pit and fill it with plush toys.
Isn’t that little doodle of Binary Bard cute? And that’s a lot of Poptropica toys – I don’t think some of it has even been released before, like those badges in the corner or the big print of the pink rocker girl! 😮
When you’ve escaped from the dastardly Myron Van Buren, be sure to check out your ranking on the World Champions Map to see how you stacked up with other Poptropican competitors across the globe! Tell us what you thought of the final installment of Survival in the comments and on the PHC!
By the way, there’s nothing new for non-members today, despite hopes for PoptropiCon Ep. 1 (currently out for members only). Sorry, guys — maybe next time! 😛 But if you are a member and need help on the island, do check out the PHB’s PoptropiCon Island Guide! 😀
🦄 Ponytropica 🦄 