minigames – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Hey Poptropicans! Several months ago, an aspiring game developer began working on a Poptropica-inspired game that came to be known as Blimp Journey. Though progress was promising, sadly the project has since been halted. Now you’re invited to continue this work!

Allen Dawodu, also known as Looks to the Moon or mysystemlagz on Discord, along with a small team, has so far released a tutorial and two simple islands which can still be played on BlimpJourney.com for now. Check out screenshots below from the adventure Scorched Complex, which includes Poptropica-like elements such as point-and-click movement, collecting items, and puzzles:

The tutorial, as well as another quest called Dragon’s Claw Volcano, are accessible by going to the map via the hamburger menu in the corner. The latter features more colored artwork and puzzles:

Credit also goes to era for story development, Antonio Raymond for music, Snoopypilots for artwork, and the (now gone) Blimp Journey Discord community for playtesting and offering feedback.

Though Allen has stopped working on Blimp Journey due to limited time and resources, he’s inviting anyone with game development skills and passion to continue his work (built with the Godot engine) using the source code and assets for the project, now publicly available on GitHub. This repository, he says, has everything you’ll need to create character designs and islands relatively quickly. And if you do end up creating something with it, we at the PHB would love to hear about it!

While we’re sad to see the end of Blimp Journey, it’s definitely left an impact for Poptropica fan game development, as there are currently a couple other games in the works that have been encouraged by this project. 💥 Poptropica Legends, led by HPuterpop, is aiming for a demo release in June, while NewTropica, led by FoundOasis, aims to recreate a Poptropica launcher like Flashpoint. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for updates, so stay tuned with us! 👀

~🐠

This post is part of our Poptropica Yearbook series. If you missed the intro, check it out on the 2007 Rewind and browse the collection here.

2011 was like Poptropica heaven. This was a time of peak popularity for the fandom, and plenty was popping!

Poptropicans had some fun times hanging out on our Poptropica Help Chat (PHC) server, particularly during the PHB Author Night sessions we introduced. Plus, we had plenty of reasons to party, what with events like the PHB celebrating 5 million views in May, the countdown to Shrink Ray Island’s release in June, and the PHB’s third birthday in July!

A big new thing was pre-island mini-quests, which were created to promote an island before its release. Back in January, Wild West Island was the first to get one: a little horse-lassoing game called Round’Em Up! Every day, you could play for a new prize, like the color-changing Wunder Tonic.

In March, Wimpy Wonderland Island debuted on Poptropica, which was pretty significant since Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, is the founder of Poptropica! (Another fun fact: Before the first Wimpy Kid book was even in print, it could be read online on Funbrain, a website that also promoted Poptropica from its beginning.)

Each island came with its own map, where you could hover over an area to see its name. The PHB would put together fully labeled versions like this.

Other games and islands released this year were: Prepare for Impact! for Red Dragon Island, DC Diner for Mystery Train Island, Money Ladder for Game Show Island, and Spook Central for Ghost Story Island.

Money Ladder, the preview game for Game Show Island

But the general consensus as to the most exciting mini-quest was not a pre-island game. Instead, it was an out-of-this-world (literally, you leave Poptropica for a distant planet) experience filled with mysterious robots and sword fights: Legendary Swords, released on the momentous date of 11/11/11 (November 11, 2011).

A small but helpful feature was also introduced: the pause button. This allowed you to freeze time on Poptropica, which was good for lingering on dialogue or scanning the scenery just a little (or a lot) longer.

Poptropica also released a wide selection of toys, each with a special code that would give your in-game character a bonus item! There were three-inch and six-inch figures, plushies, and even a big ol’ inflatable blimp.

And that’s not all the Poptropica merch. The first ever Poptropica book, The Poptropica Guide, made its debut in October 2011. Poptropica even had a few scavenger hunts from the book to unlock prizes in-game — but of course, the book’s got nothing on the PHB, where we have guides for all the islands that have been released since then… and plenty more!

To round off the year, Ghost Story Island came and gave us a spooky yet sentimental story, making it the 23rd island. Poptropica had released an impressive 7 islands in 2011 — their most yet, and that’s not even counting all the mini-games! Poptropica was really on a roll with this year!

You’ve reached the end of the 2011 page of the Poptropica Yearbook! Stay tuned for the next chapter, and to view the entire collection, check out the Poptropica Yearbook in our Pop Plus collection.

While you’re here, sign the yearbook by commenting? ✏