Poptropica has given us a lot of adventures to go on over the years, since the game first began in 2007. To celebrate the game’s legacy, in this post we’re going to go on a tour of its island eras! 🏝️
Compilation of islands on map by idk
This Poptropica Island Eras Tour, as some of you may have swiftly guessed, is inspired by another iconic Eras Tour — the 2023 concert tour of pop queen Taylor Swift, whose music career has also spanned a similar timeframe as Poptropica over the years. An enchanting connection! ✨
Welcome to the beginning! The Classics are the earliest islands to have popped onto the map. These OG islands from 2007–2013 came with small screens and almost no sound. They were built with AS2, a Flash-based programming language, and are now only playable via Flashpoint.
After years of solid standalone stories, Poptropica decided to shake things up by introducing episodic islands, breaking up an island’s story into a series of episodes. This Episodic era only lasted a couple years from 2014-2015, but brought shorter but more frequent releases.
Starting from 2013 and encompassing the Episodic era, Poptropica used a newer (but now still outdated) Flash technology, AS3. These Flashier islands came with more sound and bigger screens. These adventures can be found in AS3 Flashpoint as well as Poptropica’s paid Steam bundle.
With the looming demise of Flash, Poptropica Worlds was introduced as a new platform for the game’s future development. From 2017–2018, Worlds brought a handful of 3D adventures. Sadly, it remained inactive until it was quietly discontinued in 2022, and is no longer playable.
While Worlds went dormant, Poptropica continued updating its original platform. In 2020, Poptropica rolled out Haxe to replace the Flash build. This current era is characterized by islands that are shorter and simpler than in years past, along with a curious trend towards Roblox.
Like Taylor reclaiming her music by re-recording her previous songs, Poptropica has also since re-released some of their old islands after they were lost to Flash. The Flashier era and a few of the Classics are recovered on Steam, but we can only hope that more adventures join them someday. Until then, we also have the unofficial Flashpoint.
Anyway, that’s a wrap for the Poptropica Island Eras Tour! We hope you enjoyed this journey through Pop’s many storytelling eras of 16 years and counting. Share your favorite era with us in the comments! ✏️
Happy New Year’s Eve, Poptropicans. As 2020 comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to take a look back on this strange and eventful year.
These unprecedented times will be remembered in human history for sure — but our focus is on Poptropica as it faces the inevitable end of Flash, the game’s engine for over a decade. Let’s hit Rewind! ⏪
(You might be interested in taking a look back on Poptropica’s previous years, too. We’ve got just the thing over on our Yearbook page!)
This Rewind has two sides: Poptropica, and the PHB & Community. Tune in to both sides of the disc for a nostalgic dive into both the game’s updates and the fandom’s activities over the past 366 days!
🎈 Poptropica 💥
At the beginning of this year in January, when the world was largely pre-Covid (remember those days?), Poptropica surprised us with what would be the first of many nostalgic kicks: bringing back the Costume Design Contest, which first occurred in 2016–2017. 👩🎤 The winner of this contest was Instagram user @bianca_donka’s “Lightning Wielder” costume, which made it into the game in February. ⚡️
Also in February, Poptropica gave a much-needed State of the Game address on the official blog where they addressed various player concerns about what would happen to Poptropica after Flash is gone. 💥❓ Poptropica assured players that the game would go on (and you can read the PHB’s analysis here). They also began rolling out Poptropica’s Haxe build, the newer alternative to the much older Flash engine.
In March, a new pop-up login screen, well, popped up. But a much bigger change to Poptropica’s home screen happened in April, when seven new default characters showed up in a brand-new “Pick a Character” screen! 👨🎤👩🎤 By that point, anyone making a new account would automatically be playing in Haxe, but logging into a pre-Haxe account still took you to Flash. This was an era of two Poptropicas: Flash, with over a decade’s worth of content; and brand-new Haxe, with just a mere few islands as Poptropica slowly works to port them over.
In the meantime, Poptropica continued rolling out cosmetic updates, with a new Husky pet for members and the introduction of weekly (instead of monthly) store rotations for all. ✨ Poptropica also came up with their most ambitious ad yet: American Girl: Joss’s Island, an “island” on the map with various rooms, games, and prizes.
Haxe players gained their first edge over Flash players in May with the introduction of Quippy, a cute little droid who operates a store selling different themed goods in each common room. 🤖 And soon, summer arrived on Home Island, first on Flash and then on Haxe, where the popular feature of player clubhouses made it over as well. 🏠
June brought a major game-changer for nostalgic players: classic islands were back! 🏝 But only for members, because with the old Flash technology, Poptropica’s servers couldn’t handle everyone trying to access them at once. Also, the Haxe build continued to receive some small updates, some short-lived, like a screen where you get to pick your character’s name and a tutorial pop-up screen.
Another indication of island porting progress appeared on the Haxe map in July with the arrival of Escape From Pelican Rock Island for members. 👮♂️ Haxe also got some other updates: new loading screens (mostly promoting membership), a quest roadmap for 24 Carrot (oddly, the only island to get one), a clubhouse starter pack for newbies, and even NPCs walking around on Home Island. But at least one update was met with negative reviews: the removal of the Costumizer (clothing grab feature) nearly everywhere in the game. 🚫👕
Coming up on the heels of that disappointment in August and September was the oddity that was Paradise Island. 🏝 This saga began with some promising sneakpeeks of “Poptropica Airways,” but once some players gained access to this day-by-day feature, the feedback proved disastrous. The “island,” whichplayers have called an inferior version of Animal Crossing, stopped updating after day 8, with no word from the Creators ever officially announcing the feature.
But August did bring a more welcome update with a massive import of clubhouse decor, and we do mean massive, with nearly 200 items for your home, most of which were completely new. At least the Creators are well on their way in creating options for home customization for Poptropica’s future in Haxe! 🏡
As time went on, the island porting continued to see progress, and in September, Time Tangled Island made it into Haxe for members. 🕰 It was also Poptropica’s birthday month, and the Creators celebrated 13 years of Poptropica with a birthday rocket item 🚀 as well as a #ThanksKinney campaign, wherein Poptropicans were invited to send in their favorite memories of the game. The Creators would share some with Jeff Kinney, Poptropica’s founder and author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. We never heard back from him, but let’s hope he liked them!
A new craze took over the Poptropica fandom in the middle of the month: Dr. Beev of Mocktropica trash can fame. 🐿️ We’ll share more about this beloved and enigmatic character in the second half of this Rewind, but to give a couple highlights from Poptropica’s side: the Beev made his first and only appearance as a real NPC in the game and the Creators even hosted a fan art contest for the character on Instagram.
At the heels of an eventful month came a sequel to rival Poptropica’s most ambitious advertising: American Girl: Courtney’s Island. Like Joss’ Island, Courtney’s was filled with games and prizes, this time with an ’80s theme. 😎 Ads in October weren’t quite so creative, though: video ads in-between scenes made a comeback, despite the criticism Poptropica received for this feature back in 2014.
But October did bring better things, like Zomberry Hero, the first of many limited time special events on Haxe (check out the behind-the-scenes, too!). 🧟♂️ A couple promising old-but-renewed features were teased, too: an update to the friends page and new merch, with an open invitation for fan ideas. 🧢 Plus, Poptropica gave players some assurance that their Flash accounts would get to keep their stuff even after Flash is no longer supported by the end of the year.
A major Pop drop landed in November: a remastered version of Mythology Island for Haxe (for all, not just members!), and fans were quick to notice the many challenges from the old version gone in the new. 🌩 Perhaps taking that into consideration, the Creators soon released another Flash classic on Haxe, this time without alterations: Arabian Nights, Ep. 1. 🏜
Also in November, a limited time Fall Festival came to town, offering a giant outdoor common room with fun fair prizes to collect. 🍁 A new message system, which first debuted in the aforementioned Paradise Island, was one place where players could now find updates. ✉️
Decemberbeganwith12DaysofMemberGifts, a Poptropica tradition since 2018, with both warm and cool prizes like the Snowflake Costume. ❄️🎁 A fun little limited-time mini-game hopped its way over to the map: Hoptropica, an 8-bit world of jumping with Drs. Beev and Hare. 🐰
Amidst the holiday season, Poptropica introduced a new Christmas/winter-inspired holiday: Grapple-Pap! 🎄🎁 For the first time in forever, Poptropicans got to experience a new storyline with new characters and places through the short and sweet Grapple-Pap Giftside-quest. Poor Clareta, but hey, let’s remember that we can choose to find a spark of joy even in the coldest times. Happy Grapple-Pap!
But wait, there’s more! With only days to go until the end of Flash, the great migration of getting all Flash accounts over to Haxe officially happened. ⏩ December 28 was also a big day for one more reason: Fairy Tale Island was announced as a winner of the Design Your Dream Island Contest, making it the one of the next fan-inspired Poptropica islands to be added to the game. 🏝 And that’s islands, plural, because with hundreds of entries to pick from, Poptropica decided to go with multiple winners! As of this posting, the other winners haven’t yet been revealed, though they did promise they’d be announcing them this week. Guess we’ll find out next year… in 2021!
Now let’s flip over the disc to rewind and see what 2020 had in store for the Poptropica Help Blog and its surrounding community…
💙 PHB & Community 🌎
We couldn’t have predicted that a pandemic would take over the world in 2020, but we did foresee a different tragedy: the end of Adobe Flash.
In March, with Covid-19 spreading fast all over the world and people sheltering in place, the PHB compiled a list of Poptropica things to do while in quarantine. Topping that list was revisiting the prescient Virus Hunter Island, released in 2013 years before… all this. 😷🦠 We also invited all of you to participate in our annual PHB Readers’ Survey.
We kicked off April with the intriguing idea of a PHB Flash Experience, a Flash game starring our boy Addo B. Flash. Spoiler alert: April Fools! ⚡️ While we were just joking around, though, Poptropica made a rare appearance on Twitter with a puzzling endorsement of Joe Biden for U.S. president, a comical mis-tweet which has since been pulled. 🐦
May was a quiet month besides our usual reporting, but in June, we kept this blog busy connecting with the community: giving a commencement address to the graduating (and other) Poptropicans of 2020 🎓, highlightingYouTubers creating unique Poptropica content 📹, and releasing the results of our PHB Readers’ Survey. 📊
We kept the party rolling in August with the return of the PHB’s Tribal Tournament, a massive month-long extravaganza of fan-run Poptropica Olympics last held in 2016. Congrats again to the Black Flags for winning the gold! 🏴🏅 The competitive spirit got to Poptropica, too, in the unexpected form of a second controversial tweet where they gloated about overtaking games like Animal Jam in the iOS App Store rankings. The head of Animal Jam himself got in on the heat, and again, Poptropica’s tweet was soon deleted.
Another highlight of September was one we touched on earlier: Beev Day! 🐿️ A rise in popularity for a previously obscure character, which started on our PHC Discord server, took center stage when fans decided to host a party in honor of Dr. Hare’s beaver twin—and unexpectedly found him waiting outside the common room. On a different note, the PHB did some updating as well, in the form of a new website theme.
Plus, we lined up an interview with the CEO of Poptropica himself, Mr. Abhi Arya, with an open invitation for fans to bring their questions. Abhi graciously took the time to answer every burning question sent his way, from what will happen to Poptropica in 2021 to whether certain features like the Photo Booth will return to the game. Read the full Q&A here!
Also in November, Purple Paw joined the PHB team — our first new staffer in two years! Then, in December with the end of the Flash era fast approaching, the PHB hosted a “Gone in a Flash” Holiday Party, gallivanting in Poptropica’s Flash-based common rooms for the last time. On Christmas Day, we also shared a huge collection of Poptropica comic strips, compiled by Invisible Ring, from the formerly daily series that ran from 2014–2016. Hope you enjoy the read! 🎁📰
That brings us to now, on the eve of the moment the cord is officially cut for Adobe Flash. What a potent mix of nostalgia and newness 2020 has been for Poptropica, the PHB, and the surrounding fan community! 🎉 Before we take a bow on this long look back, we want to shine a few more spotlights around this amazing Poptropica community…
Community Creations
Now rounding off its 4th year of monthly fan art highlights, the PHB’s Community Creations series is an opportunity to make and enjoy Poptropica fan art with a new theme every month, and we’re always amazed by what this fandom can do. From Pirates to Masks, here’s a look back at some of our faves in 2020. 🎨 (Click to enlarge images!)
“Skullduggery Island” by MissEligon
“Pixel Carnival” by Kid Whom Has a Hat
“Mask Selfies!” by ray-of-flight
“Seraphim for the Win” by happyclonetrooper
“Yellow Star Music” by AdventurersNHunters
“Cowgirl Return” by Nongmind
“Lone Coyote’s Fond Memories” by Perfect Fish (aka jaekelopterus3)
“Staying Home” by Quick Fang
“DnD Night” by BlazingAngel123
“Jorge Dabs” by ANNE14TCO
“The End of Time” by iLeeFont
We’re almost to the end, folks! As you can see from this long post, it’s been quite a year. Maybe it’s all the extra time spent at home in front of screens because of quarantine this year, but we’ve definitely enjoyed an uptick in activity from both Poptropica (whose social media is active again) and the fan community, including on our Discord server, the PHC!
PHB posts you don’t want to miss
Here on the PHB, in addition to the many highlights shared above, we’ve also had the joy of preparing many more fun posts for you all, with revisits to old islands through Ramble Reviews from guest writers as well as Spotted Dragon’s additions to our Pop Places IRL series, which this year has explored Wild West, Mystery Train, Game Show, and Arabian Nights Islands. And we’ve covered plenty more interesting topics (including some wild theories) along the way — check out more of our favorites from the PHB’s Greatest Posts collection! ✨
Dusty Gulch Hotel on Wild West Island
Dodge City (Smithsonian Magazine)
Closing the chapter on 2020
Covid may have restricted the world’s movements this year, but being Poptropica fans, we’re no strangers to finding virtual fun from the comfort of our homes and on our screens. In these strange times, and indeed in all times, let us remember the blessings we have in each other and all around us. Whether we’re discovering what Poptropica is up to next or getting to know fellow fans, may we give and receive joy always. We’re certainly grateful to have you here! 💙
As we close the books on the magnificent storm that was 2020, our greatest goodbye goes to Poptropica’s longtime engine, Adobe Flash. Rest in peace, dear friend, with all the islands, items, and fun features we may or may not get to see on the other side. 🙏
Rest in peace, Adobe Flash.
Thanks to Poptropica’s hard work this year and beyond, Flash’s demise doesn’t mean the end for Poptropica. Together, let’s look forward to 2021 with a growing world in Haxe, the vaccine to our Flash-backs for more than a decade of Flash gaming on Poptropica. 💉💥
Look out for more Poptropica goodness coming up here on the Poptropica Help Blog! 🦋 We’ve got some fun things cooking, including a new interactive series, that we think you’re going to enjoy. Thank you for joining us, and as always, keep on poppin’ on! 🥳
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.
Heyo, Poptropicans! Yet another week has gone by, and that means another store rotation. The holidays have reached Poptropica in this latest store stash!
Many items have remained the same, although there is a good assortment of new apparel as well. Let’s take a look at the newest fashion in stock:
Costumes: Glam Gamer Girl*, Comfy Vibes*, Boss Babe, Neon Rockstar, Pretty Tough, Aqua Rebel, Boho Beauty, Coolin, Cozy Coca, Elf Costume*, Little Candy Cane*, Crazy Candy Cane*, Pop Star, Angel, Robin Hood, Holiday Ball
Followers: Dolphin*, Mini Dr. Hare*, Chick, Atlantis Drone, Dryad, Charlie the Choco-Monkey*, Elephant, Deer
11 items out of the entire store are members-only, with 5 member-exclusive costumes.
Most of the Christmas costumes are for members only, but there’s nothing wrong with sporting a glam pop star look instead! After all, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. 🎶
Going caroling on Home Island.
Apart from the store festivities, here’s a little reminder of the little time we have left with Flash came very recently. PHB staffers Gentle Dolphin, Sporty Boa, and Spotted Dragon reported logging onto Poptropica on their Flash accounts and finding themselves in Haxe instead. I logged on and didn’t experience the same issue, as I was still in Flash. Perhaps it has something to do with logging in on the mobile app before I logged in on a computer? Who knows?
The good news, however, is that whether you show up on Haxe or Flash, the old islands (for members only) will still be available until the end of the year! (And will hopefully be open for non-members too in the future.) Make the most of Flash before it’s gone for good!
Maybe the good old classics will be in Haxe one day…
A final tidbit of news is that the Creators, true to their promise, recently shared a second Video of the Week! This one has been dug up from the archives of 2016, and highlights Pop founder Jeff Kinney showing how to draw a Poptropican on Fox & Friends. (Check out the clip in their post.)
That’s the scoop for today! Has your account been mysteriously converted to Haxe? And whichever format you’re in, is your Poptropican avatar dressed for the winter holidays? Tell us in the comments, and I’ll see you soon!
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 