Hello, everyone! It’s time to spring into action and cover the latest Pop news. Let’s dive in!
The aquatic adventure, Mission Atlantis Island, received two updates on Haxe this week. Members can now dive into Episode 2: Fortress of the Deep, and non-members can finally play Episode 1: Into the Deep, which had been locked behind a paywall for over a year! 🌊🤿
Wait, where’s my island progress?Ep. 2 now out for members!
If you can’t wait to explore all of Atlantis, you can play the rest of Mission Atlantis (and plenty of other islands) on Steam or with AS3 Flashpoint. And for a helping hand, don’t miss our Mission Atlantis Island Guide!
As you might have noticed, in the above photo, my island progress bars are empty! Some players have experienced this glitch as well. Don’t worry; your years of progress haven’t been deleted. Revisiting an island sets its progress bar back to normal, but it empties again the next time you log in. Let’s hope this glitch gets fixed soon. 🤞
Before you dive into the depths of Mission Atlantis, stop and smell the flowers on Home Island. The cold winter snow has melted away, and spring has sprung with a colorful array of plant life. Why not celebrate with a seasonal look from Adventure Outfitters? 💐👗
But wait, there’s more from outside of the game! Here are some recent fan art features from Pop’s Instagram stories. The Creators love all of the fan art they get, even if they forget about some of the things that they made over the years. 😅 Click the artists’ names for the full posts!
Hey Poptropicans! Today I’ll be talking to you about how Poptropica should first work on what we players specifically ask for, before jumping onto something else that they only think we might like.
Granted, this one’s a little obvious, but I feel like someone needs to bring it up. Poptropica often makes a ton of new features nowadays, and I feel like most of it is really unnecessary. Specifically, Poptropica seemingly enjoys replacing and changing perfectly good features. I’ll be addressing some of them here.
Not only are most of the new features pretty annoying and inconvenient in my opinion, they also bring up more glitches than the original version had. This is bad for both the players and the creators, since they have to spend even more resources on fixing the glitches, when they could have avoided all this by simply leaving the feature the way it had been. Here are some examples:
A Buggy New Inventory
New and current inventory
Previous inventory
This one has been brought up a lot. For a long time, Poptropica’s inventory screen has looked similar to the above picture to the right (though the categorization of items with tabs came much later). Earlier this year, it was changed to the one on the left. The original had very few bugs, and there was hardly anything wrong with it, especially once tabs were introduced to help sort through tons of items.
However, once it was changed to the character screen, even more bugs came up. People have been complaining about bugs on the character screen for a long time, but few are fixed. My theory is that the creators hear these complaints, but have already invested so much on changing the inventory setup that they are lacking the resources to fix it.
Loss of the Charming Crate Menu
New and current menu
Previous menu with crate opening up
Remember the crate menu? You’d click on the box in the top corner to open up all the menu options. I know I definitely loved the crate. It was subtle and charming, and it was satisfying to watch your items just spill out across your screen. For another thing, it didn’t take up a lot of space like the new one does.
But when it was changed earlier this year, it was a boring modern 3-lines button. Not very fun at all! Not to mention how much space it takes up when all nine blocks are set out on the screen. I just think there was no real reason to change it. And it’s not like we couldn’t have the original in Haxe, since it had been there in Haxe’s earliest stages. Why did the creators feel the need to change this?
Speaking of new visuals, I’m also not a big fan of the new animation of characters, but that’s getting off-topica.
With all that in mind, this is my message to the creators: Stop replacing good features, and work on what we players specifically ask for!
The game wouldn’t be much without the players, but in its current state, it barely resembles the Poptropica I used to play. Creators, if you listen to our petitions for old stuff, Poptropica will really improve! So please, stop changing what is fine the way it is, and start working on what we really want — specifically, island adventures.
That’s all for this post. Thanks so much for reading about my ideas for what Poptropica should really focus on!
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!
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Incredible Fire. Enjoy!
Hello everyone! Over the pandemic, I’ve gotten really into gaming theorists, so while I was scouring the latest mini quest for a potential “Is Amelia a Villain?” theory, I stumbled onto something… interesting. It may just possibly change the way we think about Poptropica forever. So what is this game-changing theory?
In the top corner of Amelia’s house, we see that she’s been studying Rumplestiltskin. The lipstick flashes purple when you interact with it — and it’s the same purple flashes with white sparks seen in Fairy Tale Island when Rumplestiltskin uses magic.
Also in Amelia’s house, we can see photos of her with her friends. Most noticeably, the girl from the statue on Home Island. We can gather from her statue that she’s studious, and from the picture, can apparently do magic. And what color is her magic? Purple with white sparks.
And that’s not all, folks! If you look at the king in Fairy Tale Island, he doesn’t really resemble his son. That could be for any number of reasons, but guess who he does resemble? Our magic girl. They have the same skin tone and similar bouncy hair.
Perhaps Purple Girl is actually Rumplestiltskin in disguise, or vice-versa. It’s not too far-fetched for our shapeshifting trickster. That would explain her absence from the game and why Amelia is so intent on finding her.
But then again, maybe not. Rumplestiltskin presents as a male, and seems older than the girl in the image. It seems more likely that he’s an older relative. Or perhaps the girl is related to the king, and Rumplestiltskin is a mentor?
And what role does Amelia play in this? Who are the other people in the picture? What about Xavier and Red Baroness?
If I’m actually right, what does this mean for Poptropica? Is Poptropica actually building an extensive lore around the newer islands of the game? Are they being subtle and letting us pick up on the clues for ourselves? Are we getting a part 2 to Fairy Tale Island? And most importantly, is Poptropica gonna be able to pull it off? I don’t actually think I’m right, but I’m excited to find out!
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! 📰✨
Hey Poptropicans! You’re familiar with Home Island, the perennial launchpad of your Poptropica adventures (and home to a brand new store interior!), but are you aware of its storied past?
An early iteration of Home Island in 2016. Yes, before DJ Saturday Nite was whitewashed, she dyed her hair blonde. Welcome to Poptropica.
This week on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog, guest writer Invisible Ringlays out a history of Home Island and how it connects to the disappearance of Monkey Wrench Island, released in 2016 as a tutorial for first-time players. Her main theory is that, as Home Island kept changing with seasonal makeovers, the connection to Monkey Wrench must have gotten cut off. “How could Amelia land her airplane on Home Island if Home Island won’t stay still?”
Monumental: You finally made a monkey out of me.
Ring also gives a shout-out to “Monkey Wrench posts on the PHB” which inspired her to contact the Pop Creators about bringing the island back. (One such post: Purple Paw’s Pop Petition: Bring Monkey Wrench back.) In response, the Creators have confirmed a return for Monkey Wrench, although no dates are set yet.
As for Home Island’s history, in addition to Ring’s guest post, the PHB has captured its evolving stories over the years as well. Before 2015, there was no Home Island — when you logged in, you’d find yourself wherever you last left off on whatever island you were on. Since its release (back when it was briefly known as Hub Island), it’s gone through a lot of cosmetic and functional changes in the past five years.
Did you know that in the first Home Island, you had to find a wrench for Amelia Earhart and medallion shards for an explorer, which was later disbanded into the separate islands of Snagglemast and Monkey Wrench? Anyway, we went through our archives and pieced together some pics from over the years! Do you remember these scenes?
Enjoyed the throwback? There’s much more in the PHB archives!
Anyway, how do you feel about Home Island? What changes do you want to see on it, or have you had enough of its constant facelifts? Do you miss Monkey Wrench, or is Snagglemast superior? Share your thoughts in the comments, and pop on, Poptropicans! ✌️
Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish with a few bits of news, most relating to the new Home Island in one way or another. Let’s pop in and see!
First, the countlessly redesigned Home Island has now rolled out its latest update to all players, so you can find it the next time you log in.
Comparison: Home Island 2020 (top) vs 2021 (bottom), by Capax infini
In case you missed it, check out our Home Island Guide for the lowdown on the side-quest featuring Xavier the self-statue-stealer!
There’s something else new to this Home update, though: carts on the side. Left of the new store building, you’ll find either a pet cart (which takes you to the pet shop interface) or Herc’s snack truck manned by Aeolus, keeper of the winds, who apparently owes Zeus money. Accepting the god’s offer of a bite will take you to Mythology Island.
You’ve seen Adventure Outfitters, the rebranded store building, but it’s not just about the treasure chest aesthetic on the outside. It’s going to get a shiny new interior too! Check out the sneak peeks from the Creators’ Blog (peep the ice skull from the old Pathfinders tribe common room, as well as displays of the reversible octopus and more):
Plus, it’s the start of another week, which means another store rotation! In addition to stuff featured last week, we have a new Prom Princess costume and several more suit-ups. The Creators also really emphasized that tons of stuff is available for non-members this time (11 out of 14 costumes!), which is quite the improvement from before.
Last but not least, this past Monday, March 8 was International Women’s Day! To celebrate, the Pop Creators posted a tribute to our girl Amelia, whom you might know from Home Island (one of the constants in all its remodels). She’s based on a real life icon: Amelia Earhart, the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean back in 1932.
We have Amelia be the first person everyone meets in Poptropica because she was a true adventurer! She was smart, capable, brave, and willing to try things no one had ever done before.
Of course, Amelia is far from the only woman worth celebrating in Poptropica! Here are a few pieces of fan art from the community of various iconic, female-identifying Poptropicans:
Amelia from Home Island by Purple Paw
Daphne Dreadnaught from Spook Central (Ghost Story prequel) by ray-of-flight
CJ from Shrink Ray by Purple Paw
Considering the world’s male-dominated past (and sometimes present), it’s especially important to highlight the achievements and capabilities of women. For all the girls out there, you’re capable of greatness! Let us all take notice, regardless of our gender. 💃🏽💪
That’s it for this post. Share your thoughts in the comments and on the PHC. As always, keep on popping on!
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