The last iteration of Poptropica Labs had a survey that you could take at any point while building, which the Creators seemed to have listened to as they designed the newest version. Now the survey is back! You can take it by clicking here or getting an invitation from within Land. I really encourage every Member to take the survey because the Creators have shown that they do listen to us, so this is our chance to make Land even more awesome!

And it is possible to get rid of an irritating monster. Most of them follow you around (even the nice ones, which are a minority), so all you need to do is lure them into lava (water works weakly as well for some types of monsters). They flash red like you and eventually fade away. Failing that, you can always try TNT (though the latest update makes it so TNT actually hurts you now, so watch out!). (Gosh, it feels weird writing a tutorial on how to kill animals :(

PoptropiCon has just released to Members today, and it's a pretty unique island in a few ways. First of all, the Creators have released an official video walkthrough of it, for free, at the immediate second that the island released. Which they are advertising on the homepage and in tons of other places. Doesn't that somewhat kill friendly competition on their own player maps? Hmm, this is making things tricky for us fansites, isn't it? (Check out Poptrickia's PCon guide too) Anyway...

PoptropiCon itself is a pretty awesome island (which I'm proud to say, I beat without the official video guide). The full written walkthrough is complete; click here to read. In it, you actually have to costumize specific items from different people in order to advance in the island, as well as do a lot of negotiating. The goal is to get into the sold-out PoptropiCon by any means necessary! I got #283, but hey, I was in school at the time it released *grumble*.

Monsters are back in Poptropica Land! If you'll remember, the last iteration of Lands had little "pets" that would be automatically generated and bounce around the land. These monsters are similar, but much more elaborate and Poptropican-looking. And some of them do bite!

Even more things are yet to come, though. So far, there's no sign of the knight, table and dresser shown in the picture to the right. Could we soon be getting more building materials? You can use them in the Poptropica Land contest if you choose to enter (come on guys, I know you've got cool stuff to share for prizes!)

In other news, the final episode of Mission Atlantis also released for non-Members today, and the penultimate episode of Survival has been out for a while. Check out our walkthroughs!

Well, school is starting tomorrow *gulp*, and it's gonna get pretty crazy. So this will be my last post of the summer. Some pretty awesome things went on at Poptropica this year, especially this summer! I took a look through Poptrickia's and the Creators' Blog's archives to refresh my memory. Here are the highlights, which are a mix of Poptropica, Poptrickia, and my personal happenings:

• Survival Island episodes 3 and 4 released! Can't believe it took a whole summer, but that's the magic of episodal islands. On a similar note, Mission Atlantis episodes 2 and 3 released. It was not as wildly popular as Survival, but I loved the mood and storyline nonetheless. I got (in episode order): Survival #223 and #69, and Mission Atlantis #26 and #15 on the Player Maps.
• My series of top-secret sneak peeks of unreleased islands kicked off with Survival 4, and continued into PoptropiCon and Arabian Nights, and even Poptropica Land and Legendary Swords. By the way, there are two more that I haven't released yet!
• The World Cup and 9 awesome costumes were released, and sadly taken away from our inventories recently.
• The flying glitch reborn!
• New pages for Tribes and Apps. (And there's one more on the way)!
• I deleted the old home page of Poptrickia and made the Journal the home page. I guess I'll have to make an about page to hold the information that used to be there.
• More Poptropica Lego plans?
• My birthday!!!
• There's a poll still going on in the sidebar on whether you like episodal islands. I myself love them because of how much more suspenseful and non-frustrating they are. It'll end at the end of the summer, so vote fast!
• Ads appeared on the iPad app and we wondered if desktop ads would be upgraded too. The Creators' Blog also got a wider layout and an ad space.
• Poptropica Land guide and video tutorial.
• Upgraded costume closet, and the Creators mention Shark Boy (sort of).
• The Ice Bucket Challenge goes viral and even Zeus + friends get in on the fun.
• The Poptropica Land Obstacle Course Contest! You submit your world file of an obstacle course made in Poptropica Land, with something awesome at the end. And there's a cool prize; check it out!

Maybe something I missed? Comment if I did! Anyway, I've got a considerably sadder announcement to make. Since I'm old (well, not that old, but some would say too old for Poptropica), school has gotten to be kind of serious now. As I said, tomorrow, my school starts, and I can reasonably expect 2 hours of homework, as well as being in school for more than half of the day. Terrible, I know, but this is the time that school is really important. So that means I might not be able to spend as much time on Poptropica and Poptrickia.

Don't get me wrong, I love working and playing here, but the updates might come slower, that's all. I made 21 blog posts and about 45 tweets this summer, after a pretty bad slump that I'm not proud of, but I might not be able to help it. Thank you readers and viewers for getting Poptrickia its all-time high number of hits and Youtube views this summer! And I'll see you here soon. 4 years of Poptrickia isn't gonna to stop for this.

The ALS Ice Bucket challenge is, according to Wikipedia, "an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on one's head or donating to the ALS Association." Basically, once you're nominated, you have to dump a bucket of freezing ice water over your head and donate $10, or instead just donate $100. The money goes to help people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that slowly destroys a person's ability to control their muscles (that's the best I can understand it). Stephen Hawking is a brilliant physicist who has lived 72 years despite only being able to move one cheek muscle, even though he was given 2 years to live when he was 21. Stephen Hawking->me as Marie Curie->C.J. Anyway, moving on.

In other news, another three Land creations have been featured: a house by Mad Tiger (who has done cool stuff before), a haunted house by Hyper Drummer, and my personal favorite, a train by Striped Fox. All of them would look awesome to enter in Poptrickia's Land Contest (which got a shout-out from the Creators, by the way!). If you're a member, please enter your creations!

Not awesome enough yet? The info page for Poptropicon episode 1: Line forms Here is now online, click here to read. Here's the promo-speak:

That supports my theory that you spend the episode trying to get into the convention. PoptropiCon is going to have 4 episodes: longer than Mission Atlantis (which was too short in my opinion) but shorter than Survival (which is awesome but feels like it's dragging on now). Sounds like the Creators found a good middle ground. (By the way, have you answered the poll currently in the sidebar to the right?)

Meanwhile, here's the awesome wallpaper. If you need more than the Creators' teasers can provide, head on over to my post that shows all the items and scenes from the episode. Hang tight, PoptropiCon is in sight!

Poptropica Land, which re-released to Members last Thursday, has been nothing but awesome so far. But there's just been one thing missing from it. To quote Spotted Dragon, ATP blogger, "you could share the world, but not the experience. What do I mean by that? I mean that it would have been even more amazing if you could join the world with your friends." Well, you can't have a multiplayer Land with your friends, but you can have the next best thing: a Land that hundreds of others will load and play and judge you on!

So Poptrickia is going to hold a "construction contest" for Poptropica Land! The theme of the contest is Obstacle Courses, but you can really do whatever you want. Keep reading for the rules and prizes!

Nothing too fancy today, just informing you that you can now access the Costume Closet from the modern islands now! Go to the costumizer and there will be two new buttons on the right; the green one will add your current look to the closet, and the other button will let you browse your closet, including delete costumes. Maybe this is related to PoptropiCon? It's heavy on the costumizing, we hear.

Pretty cool! The new costumizer is almost complete; only thing left is "send to T-shirt". Anyway, the Creators recently recommended playing Shark Tooth Island. Check out the exact wording:

WHOSE NAME YOU NO LONGER REMEMBER?! They're referring to our beloved Shark Boy, of course. Ironically, this post was made by Captain Crawfish, who was the one who took over Shark Boy's Creators' Blog posts and is widely responsible for his downfall. We can't even say his name anymore? Click here if you missed the Shark Boy story from a few months back. To keep alive his memory, I'll be wearing the Shark Boy costume in my next YouTube video.

Anyway, done raging. How many times have you beat this classic island? Tell us in the comments, or if you haven't beat it, you can use our guide. Strangely, the TT guard is still there. See ya on Shark Tooth!

Since I made this post, Arabian Nights has been confirmed by the Creators! Here's the info page. Keep reading though, there's a lot more sneak peeks here than you'll get from the official site.

What's with the title? you're probably thinking. How Bazaar is going to be the name of the first episode of Arabian Nights Island. If you'll recall, Arabian Nights was the winner of the Create Your Own Dream Island contest, and by my predictions, it's going to come to life right after PoptropiCon! Warning: spoilers ahead. This is another one of Poptrickia's exclusive sneak peeks of unreleased islands, which I got by looking at Poptropica's files. By the way, what do you think of these sneak peeks? Awesome? Interesting? Creepy?

So far, the only official word on the island is below; let's try to figure out how it fits with the first episode.

First off, you start inside a cave. Definitely can't fly a blimp in there, but the blimp's been dead since Survival. I find this unlikely, so let's assume that you actually start in the desert. From the desert, you can get to the Cliffs, and from the Cliffs, into the Cave (or vice-versa). Here are the notes for the cliff and the cave:

UPDATE: The near-complete versions of the Cave and Cliff scenes has been uploaded as well! Check them out:

(Click to zoom). As you can see, it's not very complete, but an interesting insight into the Creators' design process. Zoom it in and you can get some hints for the island. Watch for the quicksand when the island comes out for real!

Now it gets exciting: there's also a palace! Your goal for this episode seems to be to get into the palace, because it's guarded by two guards. Inside the palace is the sultan. As you can see in the picture, all is not well...

The sultan's palace has been ransacked! Lots of precious things are gone (like his bed), but most of all, one very special lamp. Here's a conversation you have with him:

And now, to explain the title of this post. A bazaar is what you'd call a market in the Middle East (read: Arabia). There's going to be a Skullduggery trading post-style bazaar in Arabian Nights 1, with an inventory and everything. Check out these images, which show the items from the island inside images of the three different bazaar stalls you can visit. In the episode, you need to trade items you find for bazaar items.

Notice the salt bag? You can find that in the Cave, seeing from the image above. And the telescope can be found on the palace minaret. So here's the deal. You start off with only the sultan's orders and the jewel, and go back and forth between the bazaar and other places to try and trade the lamp away from the bazaar people. In the meanwhile (or maybe this will tie in with a later episode), you try to find the hideout of the Forty Thieves in the Cave, Cliffs and Desert. Sounds like an exciting island, especially if it has more than the usual 3 episodes! UPDATE: It doesn't.

I also found the Desert scene. It connects the Bazaar and the Cliffs. Here it is:

Comment if you can draw even more connections from this ragtag collection of sneak peeks. The official sneak peeks can help you a ton as well.

Anyway, those are the preliminary findings! There's one item, the Camel Harness, that hasn't been uploaded yet, and obviously the Desert, Cave, and Cliffs need some work, so I'll keep this post updated until the day Arabian Nights 1 releases. In the meantime, you can play Survival 4, Mission Atlantis 3, PoptropiCon 1, and Land. Have fun!

P.S. Guess what I just made? A Daily Pop Sneak Peek gallery! It automatically fills with the latest Daily Pops, lets you browse by month or date, loads fast (I mean really fast, considering it's 900+ files), and makes things a whole lot more convenient. Check it out!

First of all, Members, get the new Poptropica Land from the Store this instant. It's too awesome to miss, and free! (If you already got the Prototype version of Land, it's already in your Store Items). Click Launch on the card to start creating!

I created a guide for Poptropica Land! Click here to read it. It's going to have a full reference guide soon, too. There's also a tutorial.

In Poptropica Land, you use a magical hammer named Svadilfari to create and destroy the landscape. The Creators listened to us and removed the ludicrous coin-mining part of the game; instead, you have to mine Poptanium (looks like blue bubblegum). Every 15 pieces of Poptanium, you level up, getting more building types or biomes, until you collect 150. Building and creating is now free.

Strangely, going underwater causes you to lose health rapidly, as does lava (which is always under water). Even stranger, the only way to remove water and lava is to put TNT near it (to trigger TNT, switch to Mining Mode and zap it for a half second). The pic to the right shows the even stranger consequences of that.

I recommend disabling sound. The incessantly chirping birds will drive you mad.

Pretty awesome, right? The Creators seemed to have made good on their promise to listen to the survey results from the prototype version of Lands, and the new one is a lot more enjoyable, not to mention polished. Some parts are still mechanical, like the arrangement of leaves (PLEASE, Creators, you should randomize them), and how you can actually slide into the landscape and then get slowly pushed up. The selection of creating tools is awesome, Poptanium never gets in the way after everything is unlocked, the max jump height is pretty reasonable, and I'm satisfied.

Also, did you notice the label in the top left: "alpha v2.0"? Obviously, the Creators still have ongoing plans for more versions of Land. Tell me how you liked it in the comments! Click here for the Lands guide!

Mission Atlantis episode 3 ("Out of the Blue") just released for Members, and Survival Island 4 ("Cabin Fever") is also here for non-Members and the Poptropica app. Atlantis 3 is the last episode of one of the most intriguing and exciting islands yet! I wonder if Poptropi-con will be this short? UPDATE: Mission Atlantis guide and video complete!

Poptropica Land alpha 2 is also here, and it's... just... amazing. Can't put it into words. You can literally build or destroy anything in the world --- and it's a MASSIVE world -- and it SAVES! Excuse me, give me a couple hours or so to play it. By the way, I got #15 on the Player Map for Atlantis 3! That's my closest yet!

So, Survival Island episode 5 is in development now. It starts off with a chase scene, where you try to escape from Van Buren, and this guy helps you. His name is Merc (or it may be Max McGullicutty, from the Survival 3 plane manifest -- it would explain why he's wearing a tie), and he's your true rescuer in Survival. The one who isn't trying to hunt you. He's the one who wrote the message "Meet me in the woods" and "You are not alone" on the tapestry in your room from Survival episode, and signed it "M.M."

He's might be a very superstitious fisherman. Here's a conversation with him (where Neptune is, of course, Hades -- creepy) that you will have with him in Survival episode 5:

UPDATE: Changes in the files suggest that this is actually dummy dialog that coincidentally seems to fit with Survival 3. Equally likeley is the fact that Merc/Max is actually from the plane and is in a similar situation to you. (Click the image to zoom).