Costumizer – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Pop Petition: Bring the Costumizer Back 👕

January 30, 2023 Slanted Fish

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

Longtime players may remember an old feature that allowed one to copy outfit parts from NPCs and other players: the Costumizer. Accessible with a green shirt button, it used to be on every island. But nowadays you can only use the Customizer on a single island, PoptropiCon.

Why was this feature removed? Well, when it happened in 2021 along with the release of the current character customization screen, the Poptropica Creators offered this explanation:

The costumizer was removed because we were receiving many complaints about the feature. Older players had to spend the credits to purchase a costume or they may have had a discontinued outfit from the early days that is unavailable in the store. Meanwhile, a new player would be able to instantly copy and wear the same items from any older profile, sidestepping the other player’s efforts.
Poptropica Creators’ Blog (here)

As many players have pointed out already, the Costumizer was designed not only to allow costume pieces be copied, but also to prevent other, more exclusive pieces from being copied. All it would take to adjust a costume piece’s accessibility was a small change in the code.

Besides, the lack of the Costumizer isn’t fair to new players, who have no access to what were once extremely common outfits. With the new store constantly rotating outfits that I’ve seen a thousand times before, there may seem like many options, but they’re all limited to that pool. Instead, to access more pieces, they would need to turn to unofficial glitching tools like the ASG, which still doesn’t have everything.

Not only are new players left out of old store outfits, but also outfits that were available when a player first entered Poptropica. For example, I loved the pink, gray-striped shirt, but I have no way of getting it anymore on a new account. I lost count of how many times I’ve seen someone else wearing it, but now I can’t use the Costumizer to copy it.

Removing the Costumizer isn’t fair to old players either. Those who enjoyed this amazing feature for years, all of a sudden, can no longer use it, now left as just a memory to reminisce on.

With the slow pace of porting the islands back, having the Costumizer around would have been a nice way for players to pass the time, playing around with outfits from NPCs and other players. You can only replay an island, decorate your clubhouse, and play arcade games so many times without getting bored.

Bring the Costumizer back, Poptropica, and give truth back to the old advertisement that stated the game offered endless customization. Without the Costumizer, the possibilities may be wide for those with a lot of outfits in their closet, but they’re not quite as endless as they could be with the Costumizer.

– Dizzy Feather

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Dizzy Feather. If you did, you might also enjoy other posts of hers, such as her party clubhouse tour.

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!

Baron's Airship, Monthly Costume Contests

Rainbow Pup with Reverts on Pop Outfits 🌈

January 5, 2022 Slanted Fish

Hey, is that a rainbow in the skies of Pop?

Just a hair of one — the Baron’s back in Home Island airspace and carrying goodies including the free winning costume design, Rainbow Pup by Hamburger Hamburger! 🐶🍔

Also in the Cabin of Curiosities, you’ll find three new clubhouse items: Dino Head (75 credits), potted Cactus (75), and Cards and Candles (75). Enjoy the Baron’s visit — it’s only going to last “a short while”!

In other news, the character customization screen has gotten a little update! Now, selecting a costume will bring up its image in larger detail, with a “Costumize” button to begin picking parts from it like before.

This time, though, a new gray “Revert” button will appear when you try something on. You can use it to undo your item selection and go back to the way you looked. Pretty handy! (Thanks to Friendly Feather for the tip.)

We’ve also been graced with a little reminder that Poptropica has been working on bringing back old islands, in the form of a TikTok/YouTube short featuring Arabian Nights, Ep. 1, although the video title references Ep. 2. Either way… yay! Let’s keep the episodes coming for all.

Anyway, that’s what’s up for now. See you in the next one!

~🐠

Clubhouse, Pets, Store

Brand new screen with character and a Costumizer controversy

June 8, 2021June 9, 2021 Spotted Dragon

Hey there, Poptropicans! Yesterday, the Creators gave us a sneak peek of a new “Character Screen” coming to Poptropica, and it is officially here!

With this update, you can mix and match individual costume elements from any costume. Though this may seem similar to how costumes already worked, this new feature allows it all to happen in one place without having to find a new costume each time.

There are three tabs that you can browse: your costumes/items, your closet (members can save up to 30 outfits), and your pets.

Have a lot of items? You can also sort through those items by outfits, powers, pranks, followers, misc, prizes, and gifts if you don’t want to see them all at once. A similar sorting system for your pet includes pet, body, eyes, facial, and hat.

More than that, the Colorizer is now easily accessible on the same page! With it, you can change your hair and skin color without the extra hassle. And it even works on your pet!

The character screen can be found in your drop down in the top right, just above your map. And, as you can see, the items option has been removed.

Messing around with the new features so far, I will say it is nice to have everything in one location. People generally seem to view this update in a positive light, particularly regarding the return of the Colorizer, but it is not without flaws.

First off, the character screen has already been very glitchy for me. For example, most of my closet items beyond the first page are inaccessible, despite them showing up as available when first loading. The screen has also frozen for me numerous times already, and some of my items are totally blank. Was this update rushed like other projects have been in the past? Has anyone had similar issues?

It is also frustrating that some of my most recently purchased items appear at the very bottom/last screen of my inventory, making them difficult to find.

Another grievance I have is the lack of a “cancel” button when choosing accessories. Often times, I will accidentally click on an outfit part or dislike how it looks, but when I take it off I am also missing the accessory I was previously wearing. This wasn’t a big problem for me in the past.

That brings me to another big concern for fans: What about the Costumizer? Will we ever get it back? Unfortunately, chances are looking slim. In their announcement post, the Creators explain that they “were receiving many complaints about the feature,” so it will not be returning. Here’s why:

Older players had to spend the credits to purchase a costume or they may have had a discontinued outfit from the early days that is unavailable in the store. Meanwhile, a new player would be able to instantly copy and wear the same items from any older profile, sidestepping the other player’s efforts.

Alas, some fans are not content with this explanation…

It is true that this reasoning doesn’t feel fully justified. Even when the Costumizer was available in the past, some items were still not fully customizable (such as store costumes that cost other players credits). Was this failsafe not enough? Similarly, what if they just made NPCs customizable and not other players?

Either way, the Costumizer has always been a fan favorite despite whatever drawbacks the Creators may see regarding fairness, so I am sad to see it left behind.

Pop HQ also claims to have “a few special projects in the works,” so maybe we can look forward to other updates in the near future.

In other news, the Creators also announced two new costumes available in store. They include Loose Twirl (250 credits) and Soccer Champ (200 credits with membership, in yellow, green, and blue).

Oddly enough though, these aren’t the only two new outfits I see in the store. On my end, there’s also an Acidic Dinosaur, Volleyball Allstar (in teal, grey, and red), Overall Shorts, Striped Romper, Choose Love Shirt, and Hedgehog Head Rider: all for 0 credits! Is this a mistake on their end?

I also wonder if the “choose love” shirt a subtle nod to Pride Month. Though that’s what comes to mind when I hear that phrase, the shirt is not the colorful spectacle I would expect if that was their intention. Am I reading too much into that?

I also see some returning outfits, and a glitch where the Slice of Pizza Tee and King & Queen Hoodies appear much larger than the rest of the costumes. Moreover, the 5th screen appears completely empty for me aside from a Zomberry character peeking out on the right side.

Such glitches leave me unsatisfied with these rushed updates, but maybe that’s just me.

Lastly, we have a few new clubhouse items to share. For non-members: a hammock chair, instant camera, LED bonsai tree, and LED photo clip. Looks like the Overall Shorts outfit is in this picture too? For members: a Popcorn Maker, Indoor Tent, Egg Chair, Punching Bag, Figure Display, and Salt Lamp.

Not gonna lie, these items do look super cute. I’m totally jealous of the members-only figure display! Who wouldn’t want a little Rumpelstiltskin in their home?

And with that long post, our updates come to an end. How do you feel about this new feature? Do you miss the Costumizer as much as I do? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

~SD

Haxe Javascript, Home Island, Store

Customization in the age of Haxe (or lack thereof)

July 22, 2020July 21, 2020 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, you need look no further for the news—and this time, it’s all about the looks. Let’s pop in.

First, new store items are here! Poptropica actually missed last week, which is the first time that’s happened since they made the store rotations weekly.

The non-costume categories haven’t changed since the last rotation, so only the store’s costumes are pictured above. This week’s items are:

Costumes: Lumberjerk (male and female), Boho Chic*, Furry Monster 4 (two different versions)*, Magician (male and female)*, Friendly Face Masks, Mud Pie, Rockstar, Mech Pilot*, Clown, Pig#, Bottle Cap#, Ringmaster*, Cool Boy Plush#, Shark Plush*, Milk Box#
Followers: Deer, Dryad, Dolphin*, Mini Astroknight*
Powers: Hypno-Powder, (Cinnamon Fire) PopGum, Raven Swarm*, Fireworks*
Pranks: Hypno-Powder, Octo Prank, Silly Streams
Misc: (Cinnamon Fire) PopGum, Coconut Drink#, Cool Boy Plush#, Shark Plush*, Colorizer*

As is the norm these days, about half of the store stock is for members only. Still, both non-members and members have the chance to snag some great deals with several items at 75 credits (marked with #): the Pig, Bottle Cap, and Milk Box costumes, plus the Cool Boy Plush and Coconut Drink.

Interesting detail: the handheld plushie of the Shark Tooth Island character previously known as Shark Boy before his erasure is not called “Shark Guy” as he later came to be known, but now, the item is simply “Shark Plush” despite not being a shark but rather a dude in a shark suit. 🦈

If you’re playing in Haxe, you may also notice that a couple of NPCs have gotten makeovers! The person in front of the store is now a golden-haired girl, and the lady by the New You building has gotten a glow-up.

(You can see what they used to look like in our post about summer coming to Home Island on Haxe.)

That’s not all that’s new in looks. If you head over to the home page to create a new character with one of the default picks, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can further customize your character before diving into the game.

We’ve seen this orange customization screen before, back before “pick a character” became a thing. And new players can still access it by speaking to Amelia, the girl on the Home Island bridge. But it’s interesting to now have it show up right after picking a default character design, when it seemed the whole point of that was to skip the step of customization from the beginning.

However, when the “pick a character” update first rolled out, players had commented on how it took away from the fun of carefully crafting one’s character right from the get-go. For them, this reversion may be a welcome update. But having both a simplified selection screen and a customization screen seems odd—what about the new player who carefully selects a default character only to realize it could’ve been altered all along? Will this inclusion of both features be temporary?

Speaking of customization, there’s been a startling development: the beloved Costumizer tool—the green shirt button which allows you to “steal” clothing parts from other characters—has disappeared from most areas in Haxe. Will it return, or are the Creators sabotaging the fun in yet another way? We can only hope this is temporary, but it’s hard to tell…

That’s all for this post. Be sure to check out our previous posts to catch up on other Poptropica news, and see you at the Poppies this weekend! 🏆

~slantedfish 🐠

24 Carrot Island, PHB Sneak Peeks, Web Development

Curious icons and hare-raising items for Poptropica Worlds

August 21, 2017August 21, 2017 Brave Tomato

Hey guys, my name is Brave Tomato, and I have returned from the post-making dead to bring to you some miscellaneous items and assorted goodies from within the Poptropica files, shared courtesy of Pop glitcher idk.

This collection is all about icon designs for Poptropica Worlds, some of which we’ve seen multiple times, and others that are never-before-seen. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Among the first batch, there’s a strange lightning bolt symbol and crystal symbol. There has not been anything associated with these symbols in menus of Poptropica before, which makes their presence here curious. The closest thing I can associate with the crystal is Realms, but there is a likely chance I’ll be wrong. Only time will tell.

Here we also find what appears to be costumization button. This begs the question of whether the Creators are going to implement a Costumizer feature any time soon. After all, it has been a highly requested feature for Poptropica Worlds since day one, and already, players are missing the ability to steal that nice-looking shirt from some random guy on Main Street. How soon that will be is still up in the air.

There are also some icons that appear to have originally been planned to be used for the home decorating aspect of Worlds gameplay, including an ability to rotate or flip objects. We do have a rotate option in player homes that looks similar, but it’s only two-dimensional: we can’t, for instance, make a couch face the TV.

I feel like the flip aspect would have been very useful for any of the furniture, and the rotate would be cool for pictures hanging on the wall or anyone looking to make a topsy-turvy house. Whatever the case is, what else will come of this completely new aspect of gameplay?

Finally, among a collection of items from the new new 24 Carrot Island, the files also show some unused items. Among these are the curiously absent teleporter to the outside of the factory that was in the original 24 Carrot, and a post-it note with “Command: Eject” on it. The cinema ticket also looks different.

Why these were not included in the game is probably a matter of refining during the creative process of making the island, but it is still cool to see what might have been.

So with these findings, we not only get a high-definition look at some of the icons and symbols within Poptropica Worlds, but we also get to see stuff that did not make it in the game. From there, it allows us to draw our own conclusions on what could have been, or what might become in the future. Although things in Poptropica have been more… spontaneous than usual, there is still an instinctive curiosity to make guesses based on what we know.

Speaking of icons, we’ve recently had a makeover with the one that represents our Poptropica Help Blog site! Taking the iconic Poptropica blimp design to fit the letters “PHB,” Slanted Fish put together this new one, hoping to capture the Poptropican spirit of adventure. Although we’ve been using our classic blue-circle, white-lettered icon for years, it felt like time for a change, and we hope the new one tells a better story!