🦄 Ponytropica 🦄

What isn’t happening in the world of Poptropica? Prepare to have your mind blown with all the new things happening in the Poptropica universe! 😀

Runner-up #2 in the CYDI contest

The next runner-up of the Create Your Dream Island contest, without further ado, is…

Fashion Crisis Island!

Now, even though I’m not that big on fashion 😆 , I still am pretty impressed and pleased that this girl won. I’ve never heard of the idea being used, and the prospect of an island based on the costumizing feature is pretty smart —

When you’re on Fashion Crisis Island, you must recover a stolen line of clothes for a very famous designer right before an important show.

Is it just me, or is it strange that all the winners up until now have been girls? I’m excited to see a boy’s idea, but in the meantime, I’d like to congratulate Elsa W. of Illinois — or Bronze Fox — for the awesome idea and the impressive ranking. 😀 Here’s why the Creators liked the idea:

Costumizing is one of the most popular things to do on Poptropica, and yet we’ve never made an Island based entirely around using the Costumizer. Elsa’s idea presented a lot of opportunities to let players create new costumes. It was also set in the the 1940s, which we haven’t done before, and featured some famous fashion icons as characters.

More music men

Kyle Fox now has a Soundcloud, and he’s uploaded his few but wholesome tracks that he’s made for Poptropica. I want to give him a shout out for all the music work that slips by as Jeff Heim’s — I personally love the MFB theme. 😀

Another unknown composer for the theme and sound effects of the Forgotten Islands app has now been uncovered: Bob Baffy! The theme sounds great as do the sound effects, and I hope he might do more soundtracks for Poptropica in the future. 😉

Jeff Heim recently posted a Demo Reel for his work on Poptropica, including a new Villain theme for the island Super Power. Sounds awesome!

Mythology SUI offers easier River Styx

As mentioned the recent PCB post, the upcoming Mythology Island SUI is going to have an easier River Styx scene (check it out here), and I immediately had to check and see what it was like. Well, they weren’t lying — all you do is jump over an alligator and you’re home free!

I wonder if they’ve made any of the other hard parts of the island easier — maybe the red eyed snake game and the Aphrodite test. Either way, I’m happy! 😛

Who is Catie?

There’s a question that remains a mystery, and that question is “Who is Catie?”. Written on a wall on Virus Hunter Island, we see “Catie was here” scribbled onto it. Designers often do this sort of thing in Poptropica – for example, in Mocktropica, written on the wall in the Poptropica Headquarters is “Nasan was here”. Nasan Hardcastle is a designer for Poptropica, and he wrote it there. So who is Catie? An unknown designer? There are multiple possible answers.

Catherine Prentice is a writer for Pearson, but it seems unlikely that she would be designing anything. There’s also Catherine Gilliland, a person who strangely liked a Poptropica tour on YouTube, and that was pretty much it. Who do you think Catie is? We may never know…

And did you notice the view count on the tour? Over 5 million hits!

Night Watch book may be coming soon

Here’s some forewarning — a written book for Night Watch Island may be coming soon. Why? First, I don’t think that they will be releasing books for all of the islands — just a select few that have a strong enough story and cast of characters to work with. For sure, Night Watch Island has a pretty good story to begin with, but I’m not just going out on a limb like that. You guys know I wouldn’t do that. ;p

Around mid-2012, around the time that Night Watch Island was being made, multiple preliminary sketches for the illustrations for the book pertaining to Cryptids Island were posted to the Daily Pop. Around the same time, a sketch looking very similar to the drawings for Cryptids Island was posted — showing the rare Cat Burglar costume being worn and the Poptropican posing in multiple positions. I have a hunch that the picture was actually some preliminary sketches for a new book pertaining to Night Watch, where a Cat Burglar contributes to the plot. What do you think?

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How many theories did I fit into this post? XD Quite a few… 😛

-HPuterpop

Daily Pop, Shark Boy Mystery

Shark Boy mystery update: the Daily Pop icon

April 24, 2014April 25, 2014 Brave Tomato

Hey guys, BT here with a quick update on the Shark Boy mystery that consumes us all.

Now, even Shark Boy’s icon on the Daily Pop has been replaced by a grinning Dr. Hare!!

Holy cow, it looks like the Creators are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to Shark Boy (or Shark Guy?)’s disappearance!

What is going on that you’re not telling us, Creators???

Mythology Island

Mythology Island SUI is coming soon!

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 Blake

LONDON, 1930 –

*stumbles out of police box* Woah. I thought I told Timmy to set a course for 2030. He is so fired…

What’s popping, Poptropicans? Blake here, in what seems to be 20th century England. Anyway, my Post Radar tells me that the Mythology Island SUI (sound-updated island) is coming soon! 😀

It may be the most popular Island the Creators have done yet, and possibly one of the more original ones (ahem, Bikers vs. Boards), and now, it’s getting the full treatment: Sound. Music. Oh, and the River Styx will be made easier too. (cue the angelic choirs!) Plus, don’t forget the all-new Mythology desktop wallpaper and printable poster on the remade Tour page!

Also, it seems that Icarus costume was intentional after all!

After so many weeks of mystery…

(Timmy: Uh, Mr. Blake? It’s been like 3 days…)

HUSH, TIMMY, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY DAYS IT’S BEEN!

(Timmy: SORRY!)

So, that’s pretty much it for my rambling today. Stay popping, Poptropicans.

Contests

Create Your Dream Island (CYDI) runner-up #1: Bikers vs. Boards

April 21, 2014May 1, 2014 Samwow5

Hey everyone! This is going to be one of those posts where I compile a lot of people’s opinions in as well as my own. Anyway, let’s get started…

b4e9c-quietberry

The girl who came up with one of the top 10 ideas* for the Create Your Dream Island Contest is Tori V. of Texas, also known as Quiet Berry. You can read about her island idea, Bikers vs. Boards Island, on the Creators’ Blog. (*since the Creators have said that they are posting runner-ups in alphabetical order, she is not necessarily the second place winner)

Remind you of something? Well if it doesn’t, I’ll explain. Here’s a snippet from the Creators’ post:

The pitch: Poptropicans try to stop the constant fighting between the bikers and surfers before anyone gets hurt.

Why we liked it: Tori’s Island idea had a great setting — a beach in the 1960s — and lots of fun ideas for gameplay. (Who wouldn’t want to surf and ride a motorcycle?) We also liked the message about helping two rival groups to understand that their differences aren’t as important as what they have in common.

At first I didn’t see anything wrong with it, but then HP and I were talking to each other later and he said the island was not original. I was like, how so? Turns out, she pretty much copied the storyline of Teen Beach Movie. I was blown away! This is the storyline (with some key words bolded):

Life’s a beach for surfers Brady and McKenzie — until a rogue wave magically transports them inside the classic ’60s beach party flick, Wet Side Story, where a full-blown rivalry between bikers and surfers threatens to erupt. There, amidst a sea of surfing, singing and dancing, Brady and Mack accidentally change the storyline, and the film’s dreamy hero and heroine fall for them instead of for each other!

In her interview, Tori even admits that her idea was inspired:

Poptropica Creators: How did you come up with the idea for your Island?
Tori: I got the idea from a movie I was watching that day.

Also, notice the ’60s beach party & bikers and surfers in the summary? This pitch also mentions bikers and surfers; and one of the reasons the Creators liked the island is because it was in a ’60s setting. Then, Scary Plug also pointed something out that I thought was really worth mentioning:

Remember that post by the Creators with tips to win the Create Your Own Dream Island contest? Tori’s idea may have stood out because of its “interesting time period” – but whatever happened to “no licensed properties”? Re-read what the Creators said about what the entries should include here, and you’ll see what we mean.

This was what Scary Plug had to say about the issue:

The Creators said the phrase above themselves. Yup, read the post over and over again until you find the phrase ‘So make sure that everything in your entry is an original idea!’. Ehem! What about Bikers vs Boards Island, Creators? The island is obviously based on the movie Teen Beach Movie, and you said the island must be ORIGINAL. You guys lied to us; how pathetic. 😦

And here’s my take: I think the Creators messed up and they need to apologize for their mistake. I could have sent in the plot for MIB 3 if I wanted to and I still might’ve had more of a chance than an original island idea someone invented.

I hope none of you are offended by this post, but it had to be said.

~SW5~

Shark Boy Mystery

Shark Boy… is now Shark Guy?

April 19, 2014April 25, 2014 Slanted Fish

(recent PHB walkthroughs: Mission Atlantis & Survival)
or scroll down for updates to the Shark Guy mystery! the plot thickens…

Something fishy’s going on… it seems like beloved Poptropica Creator “Shark Boy” (also known as Nate Greenwall) has changed his name to Shark Guy! When did this happen? And why? That I don’t know, but if you look up SharkGuyCreator on the Avatar Studio, here’s what you’ll get:

Where’s the iconic dead blue fish he usually carries?! Now he’s inexplicably holding a video camera in his hand. (Here’s a far-fetched theory: what if this has to do with Mission Atlantis? A shark, a film device… it might make a little sense…)

Even stranger, if you look up Shark Boy’s old username, SharkBoyCreator, you’ll just get a random Poptropican named Young Catfish who’s wearing the Aztec warrior mask and Tiger Shark body – whereas before you’d get Shark Boy with his name and costume.

Besides, Shark Boy hasn’t posted on the Creators’ Blog in ages (the same goes for some other Creators…) – it’s almost always Captain Crawfish these days. (UPDATE:) In fact, Shark Boy’s previous posts on the Creators’ Blog have been replaced with Captain Crawfish listed as the author! Here’s an example from a cache from the Wayback Machine, and compare that to the current version on the Creators’ Blog. Other posts (like this one) have just outright been deleted.

HP’s theory on this (which you can read more about in the previous post) is that it might be a cover-up for some kid who got access to Shark Boy’s account, because those who had his old username friended but not his new one would see it replaced with Shark Guy (but with the name “Poptropican”).

sharkboyfacts

PHB readers Big Kid and Cuddly Lion confirm that Shark Guy has been holding the camera handheld ever since Back Lot Island came out (it’s the reward from the bonus quest).

Why are the Creators trying to erase all traces of Shark Boy, and what’s up with all this Shark Guy business? Share your theories in the comments section!

~thanks to Massive Raptor for the tip.