Ask Poptropica Siri is a Q&A segment here on the PHB where you, dear readers, are invited to send in your Poptropica questions to have them answered with all the wisdom you can expect from a Smart Icicle.
Hello fellow Poptropicans! Ever since I started Poptropica Siri, my dream of being part of the PHB came true. I’m excited that this series has been a hit so far. I had a lot of questions last time, so keep them up! Let’s start.
What do you miss most from when Poptropica was on Flash?~Dangerous Dragon
I miss playing all the old islands. Back then, when I was only a starter, I played all the islands a lot and became an expert at a few. Now since Flash is gone, more islands are gone, and there have been huge changes to the game. The only thing that has really kept going was the PHB. Good thing the PHB held an honorary end of Flash party!
What is your favorite sport from the Poptropolis Games?~Friendly Shell
My favorite sport had to be weight lifting. I just like to watch our Poptropican struggle to lift weights. My second favorite would be volleyball because who doesn’t want to play with a giant squid! 😂 Can’t wait to participate in the next PHB Tribal Tournament!
Power lifting, Poptropolis GamesVolleyball, Poptropolis Games
What are some of the best and worst Poptropica names? ~Slanted Fish 🐠
Some of the best would be Spotted Dragon, Friendly Fish, Lucky Joker, etc. In my opinion, the worst would be Muddy Puddle, Dirty Socks, Chilly Bones, and Super Heart.
How can you send in your questions to Ask Poptropica Siri?
That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:
📧 Send an email to askpoptropicasiri (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
💬 Comment on the latest Ask Poptropica Siri post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.
Hey Poptropicans! The long-awaited announcement for the Design Your Dream Island Contest winner is here — but apparently, it’s only just the beginning. 🏝✨
Dropping in late Monday night (around 8 p.m. Eastern time), the Creators’ Blog finally posted a winner whose idea will turn from fable to reality in Poptropica: Fairy Tale Island by Perfect Crab! But wait, there’s more: blown away by the hundreds of entries they received in the past couple of months, the Poptropica Creators will be announcing multiple winners for this contest. Stay tuned as we await further news this week!
Transported by the magic of the movies.
Meanwhile, Perfect Crab’s idea is sounding like the perfectly twisted fairy tale. Here’s what the Creators had to share about it:
The plot: On an island ruled by fairy tales, something has gone awry. The fairy tales are getting mixed up and no one is getting their happily ever after.
We loved this entry because it had a full storyline, a great set of characters, and intrigue! It also touches on a bunch of classic tales that are rich in storytelling.
Poptropica Creators’ Blog
Congrats to Perfect Crab for this crowning moment, which comes with a one-year membership prize! And, although it’ll probably be a while before the island gets made, we can’t wait to play Fairy Tale Island.
(If you’re reading this, Perfect Crab, we’d love to share more about your island idea here on the PHB. And for everyone else who isn’t Perfect Crab, we’d be happy to share yours too — just contact us!)
Whether you have stakes in the game as a contest participant or just want to hear about other people’s island ideas, you can join us over on our Discord server, the PHC, as we eagerly anticipate the rest of the results of the Dream Island contest. May the greatest islands win — and may we all win when Poptropica pulls up with new adventuresome islands, like Fairy Tale Island, in 2021!
In other news, December 28 was also a big day in Poptropica for one other reason: it was the official end of the Flash era of Poptropica, with all Flash accounts scheduled to smoothly transition over to the game’s Haxe build, which has steadily been updating since February of this year.
So if you’ve been playing on Flash, you may log in to see some changes — most notably, the fewer islands on the map — but rest assured, most of your stuff (from items to islands completed) has made it over to Haxe. Scrolling through my items, I found many classics from the Flash days that haven’t formally been introduced to Haxe until now, like the 8th birthday balloon and even the infamous Fart Gun.
Animated items ran noticeably slower and may have contributed to lag.
Classic items from the Flash days made it to Haxe.
Some players have reported still being able to access the game on Flash via the unofficial Format Loader tool. But with the plug being pulled on Flash any day now, that’s probably not going to last for long — so be ready for the inevitable migration. We know, it’s sad to say goodbye, but at least the presence of Early Poptropica on the map (i.e. all the classic islands for members) might assure us that Poptropica is keeping their promise of making the old islands accessible after 2020.
There are some new store items in Haxe, too. Well, more like one item recolored a few times and being passed off as different—take a look at the jackets of the Boss Babe, Neon Rockstar, and Pretty Tough costumes. New hair, same styles. The other items in the store are similar to last week’s selection, though some costumes were switched out.
Catch you all soon in the next update — we’ll be waiting for the other winners of the Dream Island contest. 🤞 What a way to end the year!
So much has happened in the past 365 days… and we’ve got a lot of it on the record. Tune into the PHB on New Year’s Eve for a look back on 2020 in our upcoming annual Rewind! 🥳
As 2020 draws to a close, we are dreadfully awaiting the end of an era on the internet: the Flash shutdown.
This event will drastically change the internet at large with countless Flash games being rendered unplayable. Not wanting Poptropica to become lost to time, the Creators have been hard at work moving the game to a new platform and preserving it for (hopefully) more years to come. Now to answer the burning question: “What’s in store for Poptropica’s future?”
Players may have seen a new pop-up appear when they boot up the Flash version of the game. This pop-up, along with a more detailed Creators’ Blog post, lets players know what’s going to happen to the game in the coming days.
On December 28, Poptropica will officially make the switch to Haxe as its sole platform. Players don’t need to worry about their years-old accounts being lost to time. The Creators assured players that existing Flash accounts will make a smooth transition to Haxe. You still get to keep your username, inventory, medallions, friends, and more!
What about the islands that have yet to be converted? While the Creators are still converting all of the islands, they are also working to make the old Flash version of Poptropica accessible to players! Sounds crazy, right? Here’s what they said regarding the matter:
For those of you who are members and are playing the Early Poptropica islands – this will stay on the map and can be accessed in the newest version of the game. We’ll keep this access up for as long as possible and recommend not updating your browsers! Newer versions of browsers are starting to block Flash which will keep you from being able to access these.
To summarize, members will still be able to play the classic islands as long as they don’t update their browsers. While we understand why the Creators say not to update browsers as it’s the only readily available way to access the classic islands, there are some notable flaws with this approach.
First, not updating your browser can leave your computer vulnerableto performance issues and security flaws, which is one of the big reasons why Flash is being retired. Second, some browsers automatically update without the users’ knowledge. Some browsers like Chrome have been warning users that Flash is going away after 2020, so it’s unlikely that such browsers will be supporting the classic islands after this year.
Although it’s uncertain if these classic islands will be accessible for long, their memories will live on in the hearts and minds of players. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can watch playthroughs on Youtube or read our island help walkthroughs right here on the PHB.
Man, that was a lot to take in. There shouldn’t be too much left to cover, right? Right?
Anyway, a new item rotation has graced the Poptropica store. Players can buy classic and contemporary items to customize their avatars. A few holiday-themed items such as Tangled In Lights and Snowman also arrived just in time for Christmas. 🎄
The Creators didn’t want pets to be left out of the fashion fun, so the pet store also saw a new rotation of items. There a lot of accessories that we have seen before, though the Blue Sunglasses may be new.
Now let’s take a moment to highlight some awesome stuff from fans. Our most recent fan art features come from Instagram artists quria.kressly, birdswithshoes, and grandmother_duck. We also got a Poptropica merch feature from an unknown fan who bought a Binary Bard phone case.
Our “Video of the Week” comes to us from Zany Ice, who created a walkthrough video for the new Wolfwalkers ad game. I recommend playing the game if you haven’t already; it’s one of my favorite Pop ads from this year.
Aaand now I’ve covered everything! Phew!
How do you guys feel about the upcoming move to Haxe? Nervous? Excited? Nervouscited? Feel free to discuss with others in the comment section below. Though Poptropica’s future is uncertain, we can come together as a community and face the new changes ahead.
Hey Poptropicans—we’re taking another look into Poptropica’s post-Flash future. In case you missed it, we took a deep dive on the subject back in January, and again in February when Poptropica put out their own State of the Game address. And, of course, we’ve been following along with the latest developments in Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build.
The Haxe engine is the future of Poptropica. It looks a lot like the old Flash engine, but it’s kind of starting over from scratch.
Ever since the Haxe build launched earlier this year, there’s been at least one glaring issue: Poptropica accounts on Haxe are separate from the accounts used in the Flash version. So in this post, we’re asking the big question: What will happen to our Poptropica accounts post-Flash? Here’s what we know so far.
Why are Flash and Haxe accounts separate?
Adobe Flash and Haxe Javascript are separate technologies. Flash is the older engine that’s about to have its plug pulled, while Haxe is the newer platform where Poptropica is working on moving the game. So far, Poptropica hasn’t made a way to connect accounts from Haxe and Flash together, perhaps due to tech limitations. So each account can only play in either Flash or Haxe.
However, there does seem to be some continuity available between the two. When Poptropica made the classic islands available to members in June*, players logging in from their accounts in Haxe could (and still can) head over to Early Poptropica to play the old islands in Flash. (*Non-members: check out the Old Island Directory to play the classics.)
Players have to log in again through the old Flash login screen, but once they do, they may notice that their Haxe character’s outfit will transfer over (for the most part). So perhaps a connection is possible… at least for one’s #OOTD.
My character in Haxe. The hummingbird’s wings don’t flap like they used to in Flash.
My character on an old island in Flash, after hopping on the blimp in Haxe!
How do I know if I’m in Flash or Haxe?
If your account was made before early 2020 when Haxe launched, it would be a Flash account, meaning that when you log in, your account would be in the Flash version of Poptropica.
You can tell based on a couple things: (1) there are more islands on the map (stretching back to islands released in 2013, when they were first made with sound and a newer version of Flash), and (2) there’s a daily spin wheel for credits on Home Island. As a bonus, you may also have some items or (especially rare) clothing parts that haven’t appeared in Haxe yet (though many store items have been converted to Haxe by now).
Daily spin wheel in Flash
Daily login rewards in Haxe
If your account was made after Haxe launched in early 2020, chances are, you’re on a Haxe account. As with Flash, you can tell by (1) seeing how few islands there are on the map (as of this writing, Mythology Island is coming soon), and (2) instead of the daily spin wheel, you’ll see a pop-up for daily login rewards of incremental credits. But there is a possibility for a Haxe-made account to enter the Flash dimension…
Can you switch from a Flash account to Haxe, and vice versa?
You can turn a Haxe account into a Flash account by logging in to the Poptropica mobile app. However, you can’t reverse this, and so, on the flip side: if yours is a Flash account, it can’t switch over to Haxe. Unless…
There is a way around this, but the method isn’t from Poptropica: you can idk’s unofficial Old Island Directory’s Format Loader to switch between the two.
How do you create a Flash account? And a Haxe account?
As mentioned above, you can convert an account to Flash just by logging into the Poptropica app. After that, Flash accounts will stay in Flash no matter what platform you use to log in.
When you create a new account via desktop computer on Poptropica.com, it will be in Haxe. Right now, Haxe accounts can only be made on a computer.
Will I keep my username and player name from Flash?
There’s no guarantee we’ll get to keep our usernames or player names from Flash after it’s gone. However, if you try to create an account on Haxe with a username that’s already taken by a Flash account, you won’t be able to. So it seems the collection of unique usernames between both platforms is shared. This could mean that as Flash nears its end, Poptropica may automatically switch all accounts to Haxe, or they may simply purge all Flash accounts (and usernames). Just speculating, though.
As for player names, we’ve previously noted how, with Haxe, player names don’t seem to be an important feature. Unlike the many combinational name possibilities we had on Flash, with Haxe there is only the small selection from the default characters on the home page—at least for now. But right now, there’s no indication Flash player names will transfer.
Picking one’s player name was a standard feature in Flash.
Another detail worth noting is that with Haxe, you can’t save usernames with punctuation marks. It might not feel like a big deal, but some Flash players may recall this as a method to claim an account with an otherwise common name without having to resort to adding a string of numbers.
So, what will happen to our Poptropica accounts after Flash is gone?
The short answer is: we don’t know for sure yet. Maybe we’ll get to keep our usernames, and as mentioned, there is some indication that at least our current outfits can be connected from Flash to Haxe.
As for the other stuff from our Flash days—like lists of friends, island medallions, costume closets—there’s no guarantee they’ll carry over.
The old friends page in Flash, showing off player medallions, costume closets, album photos, other friends’ pages, and more.Its redesign isn’t quite the same.
Poptropica hasn’t commented about this issue yet. But they’re working hard to bring a lot of the items we know and love from Flash to Haxe. Even if they’re not able to get everything (there have been a TON of items and customization options in the past decade, spanning many islands and characters), there’ll be plenty to play with. And they own all their artwork, so with more time, even after Flash, they may keep bringing things back.
Classic store items from the Flash era, like the Hot Dog costume, have recently resurfaced in Haxe.
So if you have a Flash account with years of energy put into it, enjoy what you’ve built while it lasts, and maybe save some pictures for the memories.
And if you’re planning to keep playing after 2020, consider starting a Haxe account now to build up your collection of items, credits, and more — just be careful to avoid the app, which would switch it to a Flash account.
What comes next? Stay tuned and join us for the ride. May the Poptropica spirit stay alive in the years to come. ✨
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