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:

0 Comments

Poptropica Realms is Here!

1/22/2015

9 Comments

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!)

9 Comments

Poptropica's New Homepage

1/12/2015

0 Comments

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?

0 Comments

2014 In Poptropica

1/1/2015

1 Comment

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!

1 Comment

Happy New Year!

1/1/2015

1 Comment

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!

1 Comment

Hide & Seek Winner & Island Sneak Peeks

12/22/2014

0 Comments

Congratulations to Barefoot Sky, who won the Hide & Seek challenge for the second time in a row! Here's the image that she successfully guessed:

It's never too late -- if you want to race Barefoot Sky next time, take a shot at this week's challenge!

The Creators haven been working full force on Galactic Hot Dogs Island recently -- I'll just link to the Sneak Peeks archive for you to check them out. As we can see, the art style is definitely very different from classic Poptropica. The last time they did that was for Wimpy Boardwalk Island, way back in 2012. This is also the first time in a year that they'll be making a full island, too. Here are some of the interesting scenes released:

Meanwhile, the Creators are currently on break. So for the past week, they've been releasing some concept art from very old islands. It's kind of interesting. Can you guess which island each of these images is from?

Over on Twitter, there's some even more exciting news going around. Although this is all speculative and not officially announced, there might soon be an island based on the Poptropica Comics! They've been proven successful, there's a comic book coming out sometime soon, why not a whole island?

These two tweets give some hints about an island not previously announced -- and very closely connected to the comics.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES at Poptropica. What's going on? For when? (Link is a hint.) http://t.co/6Rjj8Thc0G pic.twitter.com/PhrEGaJinm
— Poptropica Worldwide (@Poptropica) November 18, 2014

Escape balloon on Poptropica? ??? A Behind-the-Scenes moment. pic.twitter.com/KVXoaIwOV9
— Poptropica Worldwide (@Poptropica) December 18, 2014

Moving on... Arabian Nights is on everyone's mind right now, what with the second episode released, but the Creators are already planning out the third one. Check out this sneak peek; it depicts the bazaar spire from the first episode, but at night. This could be the first time an episode has returned to the scenes of a previous episode!

And wait! Before I go, one last thing. The Creators have also given us the name and logo of the final version of Poptropica Land! It's going to be called Poptropica Realms, and the logo looks not too different from the original.

Whew, what a long post. And it reminds me -- I'm going to be off on vacation for a few days as well, so I won't get to make a New Year or holiday-themed post. So: happy early holidays and have an awesome new year!

0 Comments

Arabian Nights Ep. 2 Released!

12/11/2014

0 Comments

Lair of Thieves, the second episode of Arabian Nights Island, has just released to Members today! To recap: In it, you've been captured by the Forty Thieves while on a quest to recover the sultan's magical lamp.

In the den of the forty thieves, danger lurks around every corner. To outwit the most dangerous thieves in the desert, you'll need a little help evening the odds — and you'll find it in the form of an incredible magic power!

Check out the written guide and video walkthrough on the Arabian Nights page! Members can also get the Shield and Scimitar items pictured right, as well as the Plundered Armor outfit, from the Store while it's in Early Access. Non-members, you'll love to check out my sneak preview of the episode.

0 Comments

Hide & Seek, Arabian Nights, and Creepiness!

12/7/2014

1 Comment

If you've been wondering about the winner of Poptropica Hide & Seek, don't worry, I haven't forgotten; I have you guys 2 weeks instead of the usual 1 because it was a much harder challenge than the ones I normally do. Anyway, with out further ado... last week's winner of the extra-hard challenge was Barefoot Sky from the U.S.! Here's the image she correctly guessed!

Think you could have gotten it? Well, there's another challenge up on the Games page, so give that one a try! It's not an extra-hard one this time, but they're not supposed to be easy either ;) And don't forget to contact me if you want to suggest a location!

Shout out to Poptropica Inside and Out by Trusty Biker and Incredible Flame ! It's a new Poptropica blog that (besides having a really catchy name) is just starting up and growing pretty fast. Trusty asked me to tell you guys about it, and I suggest you check it out! :)

Remember, the second episode of Arabian Nights (Lair of Thieves) is coming out on December 11th. That's on this coming Thursday! The guide will be up not long after that, but until then, check out my sneak peek post on it.

The Creators are getting a lot more social online lately. Check out a comment they made:

So yes, that tells us approximately when Galactic Hot Dogs is coming out, but also... They've got a bunch of islands in development? That's some pretty exciting news right there! Kind of makes sense considering the long time it takes to create one and how much creativity the Creators seem to have :). Anyway, I'm pretty happy to have full islands again!

And before I go... Best. Twitter thread. Ever:

@hillstagram Well, to be honest, several of the Poptropica Creators are difficult and creepy. Could explain it.
— Poptropica Worldwide (@Poptropica) December 5, 2014

Have a nice December, creepy and difficult people!

1 Comment

Shrink Ray Out for All & GHD Island!

12/4/2014

0 Comments

Shrink Ray Island, first released in 2011, was recently upgraded to have sound and a bigger screen! Starting today the the new and improved Shrink Ray is released to everyone, not just Members! Shrink Ray was one of my favorite islands from the day it released, and I love the remake (a lot of glitches seem to have been ironed out by now). If you get stuck, check out the guide and the video walkthrough!

And now, on to some speculation. The Creators tweeted a picture of what the Members-only store item for Galactic Hot Dogs is going to be, the F.R.E.D. Follower. It gives us a nice look into the art style of one of Poptropica's first sponsored island in ages. They also released an awesome-looking full scene:

Behind-the-scenes at Poptropica. Something's happening. pic.twitter.com/wlhrbYVT0P
— Poptropica Worldwide (@Poptropica) December 4, 2014

Here are some of the recent Daily Pop sneak peeks relating to Galactic Hot Dogs. (Check out the Sneak Peeks page for even more, and it's updated daily). To someone who isn't familiar with GHD -- myself -- (I'll have to start reading it soon, it's an online comic book on FunBrain, Poptropica's sister site), they make no sense on their own, but perhaps it rings a bell for avid GHD readers? I'm just as excited as you are!

Speaking of comics, the Poptropica Comics app had a rather sudden and unexpected release last week. It's a free iOS only app (for now, we hope) that lets you browse through the comics released so far. If you can't get it, remember to check out the most up-to-date ones on FunBrain or the Creators' Blog!

0 Comments

Arabian Nights Ep. 2: Sneak Peek!

11/24/2014

0 Comments

The second episode of Arabian Nights Island has been uploaded to Poptropica! In case you forgot, in the last episode, "How Bazaar," we enter the lair of the Forty Thieves while on the lookout for the Sultan's magical lamp. The episode won't be out for Early Access until Dec. 11, but I've discovered the episode's files, scenes, items and probable storyline. Spoilers ahead! But first, here's the official description of the episode:

Lair of Thieves
In the den of the forty thieves, danger lurks around every corner. To outwit the most dangerous thieves in the desert, you'll need a little help evening the odds — and you'll find it in the form of an incredible magic power!

Hmm, what could that "incredible magic power" be? One possible answer is hidden among some of the item files. These items go together and suggest a recipe for a bomb of sorts -- except the bomb is called "magic sand." That sounds right, although a quick search reveals that those items don't commonly appear together.

Either way, the sand is not technically magical. According to the dialog files, you are thrown in the thieves' jail and meet a fellow prisoner, the Vizier, who guides you to craft a bomb that turns solid ground to sand, use it to take the key from a guard unseen, and unlock him. Following that, he will help you both to find the Sultan's magic lamp and then escape. But then, we're back to square one: what's the "magic power"?

Vizier: Why are you here?
You: The Sultan sent me to recover his lamp.
Vizier: Ah... what did he tell you about this lamp?
You: He just said it was "like no other."
Vizier: I see. Well, I may be able to give you something to aid in your quest, but I can't pass it through the wall. You'll need to find a way to my cell door without being seen.

The way you get to his cell without being seen is by dying your white prisoners' robe black to match that of the thieves'. We know this because of two of the items, White Robe and Thieves' Garb. Now by this point there have been a few action scenes, but I won't spoil their secrets just yet.

Vizier: Quick! take this formula, you should be able to find the ingredients around here and assemble them at a crafting table. ... You made the magic sand, great! try to use it to get the key to my cell from the jailer upstairs!

Now let's look at another dialog file. The only way to escape from the prison is to accept the Master Thief's challenge: place the correct lamp onto the altar; if you place the wrong one, you get "destroyed," whatever that means. And the correct lamp is, of course, the Sultan's magical one, which you and the Vizier aim to run off with as soon as it sets you free. But there are so many lamps! Which one is it?

That's a secret that I'll allow the episode to reveal. The answer is very obvious once you see it. Hint: staring at the picture won't help, use your mind! Now, let's get to the juicy part -- images of all the scenes from the island! There are only four:

(Sorry about the Entrance scene. I haven't been able to fully decode it yet, possibly because it's not finished. I've posted the parts that are intact). That's not all. Have a look at a few choice Daily Pop sneak peeks from the past month or two. They're often better quality than the stuff I've just hacked together, but focus on mystery rather than spoilers. Oh well:

I hope these sneak peeks have got you excited about the next episode of Arabian Nights and got those imagination neurons in your brain firing (I'm fairly certain that's a real thing). I really enjoy making sneak peeks like these, just as much as you enjoy reading them. Happy Thanksgiving week, and keep an eye on the horizon for another sneak peek from Poptrickia... about Galactic Hot Dogs Island!

0 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

Galactic Hot Dogs out for Members!

Poptropica Realms is Here!

Poptropica's New Homepage

2014 In Poptropica

Happy New Year!

Hide & Seek Winner & Island Sneak Peeks

Arabian Nights Ep. 2 Released!

Hide & Seek, Arabian Nights, and Creepiness!

Shrink Ray Out for All & GHD Island!

Arabian Nights Ep. 2: Sneak Peek!

That's Me!

Archives

Tags