Tips, tricks, and cheats for Poptropica

Galactic Hot Dogs out for Members!

1/31/2015

GHD was originally supposed to release yesterday, but pushed forward to today because of technical problems. Well, it's finally here for Members (update: it's now here for everyone) -- the first full island published since Monster Carnival! The written guide is complete; click here to view. The full video walkthrough is also complete, click here to watch!

Click here for the GHD walkthrough page. You can also watch the video guide straight from this page:

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Poptropica Realms is Here!

1/22/2015

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Poptropica Land has finally graduated out of its alpha phase, and out of it came Poptropica Realms! At first, when you land on it, you'll notice nothing much different from the Poptropica Land of old (except that your Poptanium number and levels have been reset to 0 -- trust me, crashing down from 570 and crawling your way up is not fun.) But there's something new. Realms is a totally new take on the idea of Land.

Instead of being limited to the three biomes of Asgard, Snow and Desert, you have an entire multiverse of worlds at your disposal that you can create, destroy and traverse at will. In essence, you've got as many biomes as your imagination will allow. Not to mention that it's got a kicking soundtrack now, something you can really relax into. Unlike those FREAKING ENDLESSLY LOOPED SONGBIRDS. Alright, sorry for shouting, but those birds had me on the edge.

And there aren't just three world types, either. You've now got your selection of Forest, Ice, Desert, Swamp, Lunar (not quite one-sixth gravity), Fire, and Crystal. The latter four are new, with new hazards and basic land/sky types, and the latter two are members-only. You can also give it a name and specify the size (which only determines the number of scenes it starts with -- you can always expand it by exploring).

As far as I can see, space is unlimited. So create away!

Poptanium now works very differently. You mine it the normal way, but you get 10 Poptanium points each time you get one piece. Building is no longer free; you spend 1 Pop point for each block. And the act of spending Poptanium, not hoarding it, makes you level up. I can't yet tell if this is encouraging or discouraging more creation.

Oh, and there are also now ad spaces in Realms. Bummer.

Something else. One of the early features of Land that the Creators had touted was the ability to download a copy of your worlds, serialized into a POP file, which you could then load in again. Of course, the main problem with this was that it was really easy to hack (I feel bad I never got to release my image-to-Land converting app). So that functionality is now gone. However, the Creators now promise that in the future, we'll be able to share individual lands directly with our friends! Possibly (and now I'm just being optimistic) we might even be able to collaborate in a friend's land.

The best part: many irritating bugs, especially the one where you could fly around the scene by going through platforms, have been either reduced or eliminated. Yay smoothness!

Hope you have fun with Poptropica Realms! Nice Hawk out for today (but watch this space this weekend, when I'll be announcing the winners of Hide & Seek!)

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Poptropica's New Homepage

1/12/2015

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Since the beginning of Poptropica in 2007 (or at least as far back as I can remember), Poptropica's homepage has stayed more or less the same. The classic blue vines creeping in, the two buttons popping out, and you start playing. Well, guess what -- Poptropica.com has got a complete makeover!

The main focus is now a slideshow of recent Poptropica news, very similar to the slideshow in the bottom left of the Home screen. Above that is the new Poptropica logo (which, in my opinion, looks great surrounded by the clouds and blimp) and the various links have been moved up there too. You now have to click the Play Now button, and the old login screen replaces the slideshow (albeit in a dark blue border.)

Everyone has an opinion on this, but what do I think about it? Well, the new design undoubtedly looks quite clean and modern, while still maintaining that kid-friendly appearance. But when you go to Poptropica.com, you're not really looking forward to a slideshow of Poptropica news, you want to get straight to the game! And honestly, it took me a while to figure out how to start playing (after the initial shock wore off). If I wanted the news carousel, I could check out the Home slideshow after logging in and playing for a while.

Similar reaction to the bar on top with the links. These links used to be in the "fat footer" of the old homepage; you know, that cluster of tiny links at the bottom? Problem is, I rarely needed to click those links, and having them up-top seems wrong. This looks more like an advertisement for Poptropica than Poptropica.

There's no doubt that the reactions to this drastic change are going to be strong. I really would have expected some advance warning from the Creators on the Blog or on Twitter. It's strange how they've been leaking upcoming island sneak peeks liberally, but then they suddenly spring this on us. All in all, I think the new update would be great and non-alientating, if not for the huge unnecessary slideshow obstructing us from the game. Perhaps they could keep the old home screen up there but have a smaller slideshow below it?

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2014 In Poptropica

1/1/2015

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Welcome to the end of 2014! Among other things, it's officially too late for us to get our hoverboards and flying cars now. Now that the year is basically over, I want to go over the things that gave this year its reputation for Poptropica. Not to mention Poptropica's 7th birthday this year and that epic costume!

Survival and PoptropiCon went on to be some of the most popular islands ever released, and pretty much every review of Survival is a rave review. Myron Van Buren turned out to be a spine-tingling and iconic villain, and PoptropiCon went meta by making costumizing an actual part of the quest. Still unexplained is the connection between the aliens shown in Lunar Colony and Mission Atlantis. And of course, that underground adventure island that we thought was Legendary Swords revived, might become a new island.

Poptropica's been growing up a lot and changing in ways that the first players in 2007 could have never imagined. First, the most infamous of all -- episodic islands. Introduced with Survival Island this year and continuing through Mission Atlantis, PoptropiCon, and Arabian Nights, this is the system of breaking up an island into smaller sections that are released over a longer time period.

Though the intentions of the episodic island system were good, and it personally didn't bother me very much (it actually made it easier to create guides and videos), it caused quite a bit of dissent among the majority of Poptropicans. Maybe that's why, starting next year, Galactic Hot Dogs Island (and following islands) will return to the full-length style!

Of course, one of the most amazing things to happen in Poptropica's history happened in February this year -- Monster Carnival Island was released! Monster Carnival was actually one of the oldest islands to be designed; it was announced that it would release some time in 2008, after Time Tangled, but was mysteriously pulled and replaced by 24 Carrot Island. Well, six years later, it returned in all the glory of the new Poptropica engine with a soundtrack and some of the best animations of any island before! One of the oldest mysteries of Poptropica put to rest -- you can read about it on the Wiki and also the Creators' explanation.

The next thing isn't something that comes and goes like episodic islands and the Monster Carnival mystery. This year, Poptropica finally went mobile with the iOS app early this year and the recently released Android app! For the first time, you can play full islands and episodic islands that are SUI's. (On that note, Mythology and Shrink Ray Islands were converted to SUI form this year!)

Lately Poptropica has also become involved in social media, Twitter especially, and taking an interest in the activities of Poptropica fans online. They're also releasing sneak peeks and other fun stuff on their Twitter. You might want to follow them (and me)!

My favorite thing from this year -- Poptropica Land! Very early in this year, Poptropica Labs was released for Members, in which you could drag around pre-made props, adjust the sea level, and blow things up in small themed sandbox-like scenes. It was an experiment that would lead to the more full-featured Poptropica Land. It's a world that constantly generates randomized scenes as you explore, and with the help of a magical hammer, you can build and destroy the world at will. For a couple weeks, it was open to the public during the land contests, but next year it'll come out of beta and everyone will get to have a piece of Poptropica Realms (the new name)!

Let's see, what else... Oliver and Jorge of course! This year Poptropica started its own online comic strip starring two boys, Oliver and Jorge, who hop from island to wacky island and generally destroy each one in hilarious fashion. Next year it's returning with a new season as well as a real comic book!

And on to some of the saddest news from this year. Shark Boy, the longtime Creator, slowly had his identity peeled away from Poptropica. Creators' Blog posts he made were either deleted or transferred to Captain Crawfish, His username was changed to "Shark Guy," and all references to him on the game have disappeared (except for the man in the suit on the lowest floor of the Shark Museum). Even though I'd love to see him back, it seems that this was caused by a legal dispute with a wrestler named Shark Boy. Oh well, stuff happens, but at least that mystery is cleared up.

And that covers the major events of 2014! It was a fun year, full of crazy changes and brilliant islands, and already it seems like we can expect even more from 2015 -- Galactic Hot Dogs Island, an old island idea being revived, Poptropica Realms, and so much more. Plus, Poptrickia is going to turn five years old in April! Let me know if you have any party suggestions. This year, I resolve to post frequently and make island guides within 36 hours of the island's release. I also want to maybe find some other voices from the community to post on Poptrickia some of the time, just to shake things up; we'll see about that later. Happy new year!

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Happy New Year!

1/1/2015

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I'm back from vacation in time to wish you all a happy new year! Thank you so much, Poptropicans and readers of Poptrickia, for helping me make 2014 one of the awesomest years in Poptropica history! Tomorrow I'll post a recap of the things that made this year epic, but until then, party on!

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Galactic Hot Dogs out for Members!

Poptropica Realms is Here!

Poptropica's New Homepage

2014 In Poptropica

Happy New Year!

That's Me!

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