2016 Rewind: What Happened This Year?

Hi, everyone! Slip here, and it’s time for the PHB’s 2016 Rewind!

The year is coming to an end, and it’s our tradition to reflect and recap the year’s big Poptropica events! Time flies really fast, and a lot has happened. As we walk down memory lane, let’s see how much of these things you still remember!

We’ll be going month by month, and at the end, there are tributes for all the PHB authors who have left us this year. Let’s flip the yearbook, shall we?

2016 marked new things and new projects for the PHB. It began with HPuterpop announcing a new project called Orb Legend, a fan-game inspired by Poptropica. While its production is currently halted, you can browse the OL blog for any updates to come.

A new PHB series called Popspiracy took root, in which we would explore Poptropica conspiracy theories. We also added the Custom Name Genie (currently on our Glitching page), a new way to make awesome customized names on Poptropica!

Slanted Fish wrote an open letter to Poptropica, and much to our surprise, a Creator responded! We also conducted a Readers’ Survey which received tons of responses from you guys, and which UiPE analyzed quite thoroughly (see results part 1 and part 2).

We decided to change the schedule of our magazine, The POPCORN, to be published four times a year. And at the end of the month, we received a sneak peek for a new island, which soon came…

February came with a brand new page on this blog: An Overview of Poptropica Glitching, which discusses how the glitching community came about and how not all glitches are bad.

We also celebrated Valentine’s Day with a PHB special that included community members! You can read it here: Part 1 and Part 2. Our Poptropica crossover series, now known as Pop-overs, also made a comeback this year with the Gravity Falls-inspired Poptropica costumes.

Then came Poptropica’s only island for this year, the new tutorial for new players: Monkey Wrench Island! Towards the end of the month, the PHB’s chat server, the PHC, moved away from Xat over to Discord, where we currently chat. (It’s always open, so pop on by!)

March began with the release of the first Poptropica graphic novel, Mystery of the Map! In celebration of the book, as well as the new tutorial island, Poptropica hosted the Monkey Madness event (in which we got some monkey followers) along with sweepstakes (membership giveaways)!

Poptropica also hosted a Periscope livestream for the first time with Poptropica’s original creator, Jeff Kinney, as well as the graphic novel’s illustrator, Kory Merritt. Check out the book launch recap here.

In addition to Monkey Madness, we also had March Madness — not the NCAA, but a month-long poll in response to 7 islands becoming members only in 2015: the winning members-only island would be made available to all players again!

Rumors started to fly regarding Skydock Island coming to Poptropica, based on some sneak peeks. And two authors bade their farewells on the PHB – Blake and Sam.

April kicked off with our April Fools prank: the PHV, or Poptropica Help Vlogs! It all started with Fishy “leaving” the blog and turning the blog over to the rest of the team, who decided to turn the blog into a vlog! We even fooled Skinny Moon for a moment!

There was also the re-opening of Red Dragon Island to everyone, as the winner of the March Madness event. Some of us thought it was this year’s prank by the Creators, but they didn’t pull any pranks this year. Also not a prank: Giant Hawk decided to step down from being a PHB author.

Poptropica glitchers also made their way inside the development testing rooms and showcased never-before-seen items, features, and unused files! We also found some rumored Zomberry minigames, though we don’t know whether they’re ever being released.

This was also “Wimpy Kid Month”, which unfortunately was poorly done. We even had a rant about it on the blog, and to our surprise, Skinny Moon apologized for the mishap and hinted towards a bigger news later that month.

Also in this month, the Feats of Speed event began, though it continued onto the following month. We were given the first-ever wearable sneakers (of various colors) on Poptropica!

Though there were no upcoming islands being announced by this time, we got the biggest announcements of 2016: New Poptropica and StoryArc Media! A brand new game experience teased by a short gif, plus Poptropica became part of a new parent company.

In May, following the news of New Poptropica, StoryArc Media announced a mobile game called Adventure Pig: not related to Poptropica except for the similar graphics.

On the PHB, we had a raffle for some rare costumes, hosted by Cobalt, who soon left the blog. We also welcomed two new PHB authors: Ylimegirl and Mighty Gamer! What a coincidence: they’re both Emily.

The biggest update of the month was the in-game Map, which was updated to look like its mobile counterpart and is now SUI format. It’s got handy features showing island plot, progress, and others.

Later, it was discovered that Poptropica is going to be built on an engine called Unity, and HPuterpop speculated the future of Poptropica on said game engine. We’ll have to see what happens!

June wasn’t all that eventful, which was a bit disappointing for all the kids just out of school. Well, Poptropica made their membership page more mobile-friendly, so that’s something, eh?

Also, we threw our very first party on Discord to celebrate the coming of summer (well, winter for the southern hemisphere) as well as the PHB reaching 25M hits!

July was quite a busy month for both the PHB and Poptropica. Poptropica announced their first ever official Poptropica art contest, which went until September, wherein many familiar community members and PHB authors were finalists!

We celebrated the 4th of July with a special ASG from WimpyKidFan. Along with that, this month we also witnessed on the arrival of the Wheel of Fortune that we can spin daily!

Poptropica also created a new trailer video for the game, showcasing many different islands in one video! (I guess they’re not making an animated show, for now?)

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We also had our annual Poppies awards event, and you can view all the winners here – plus we had a party to announce all the awards! In the midst of the celebration, Mighty Gamer left the blog, and Koi (formerly Cobalt) returned for an encore.

August was filled with awesome activities, thanks to the Tribal Tournament, a month-long event that puts all the tribes of Poptropica to test! From the Medal Marathon to Artistic Athletes to Tribal Thinkers, you all have proven that you are more than amazing! The Seraphim took the lead, followed by the Wildfire and Yellowjackets! Check out the full recap here!

The second Poptropica graphic novel, The Lost Expedition, released this month, along with an interview with author/Creator Mitch Krpata. Right before its release, we found details on Book 3, which will be called (SPOILER ALERT!) The Secret Society, and it’s set for spring 2017.

This month also gave us our first sneak peek on the New Poptropica: houses! Soon, we’ll have our own houses on Poptropica, but for the time being, we had five choices on which house would make it into the real game in the future. The Tudor house (the one in the lower left) won the poll!

As the month concluded, Koi (Spencer) left community once more, and the spot for the next PHB author was given to Lucky Joker, who was the MVP of the Tribal Tournament.

September came in with the breeze blowing, leaves falling, and seasons changing. We began with Search Party September, which was part of the Stolen Snapshots series, wherein for 14 days, a snapshot was posted on the PHC for guesses. I’m quite happy to say it was a success!

This month also gave rise to the Islands of the Month (IotM), which promotes certain islands by offering extra credits for their completions. We also had a particularly big PHB Special: World Geography with Poptropica Islands!

This month would never be complete without celebrating the 9th birthday of Poptropica! Although there were no balloon hunts this year, we still got birthday balloons, and more importantly, CAT HATS !

October began with Kory Merritt signing his Poptropica graphic novels at the NYCC (New York Comic-Con). Plus, Skinny Moon had her birthday, and some of us even made her memes when she dropped by the PHC.

And of course, it has been a PHB tradition to host an annual Halloween costume contest, and this year was no exception. Well, except for the part where we added a Fall Fashion segment, plus Poptropica offered to sponsor the contest with memberships for the winners! Plus, Poptropica poured down tons of new items in the spirit of fall/Halloween, from creepy doll costumes to new Halloween accessories and even new pet followers!

Aside from all that, we had a noteworthy PHB Special that caught the Creators’ attention: Pop the Difference! But the biggest thing that happened this month was what everyone was waiting for: a sneak peek of the New Poptropica! Along with some commentary from Poptropica artist Jon Pitcher, an ominous monster worm inched its way to the Creators’ Blog.

November was slow in the beginning, but things picked up. They say good things come in small packages – especially when you win third place in the Poptropica art contest, as Slanted Fish did! Along with sharing the contents of her prize package, she also gave away a toy code from her new Dr. Hare plush to a lucky winner.

In the middle of the winter season, the movie Moana came along, bringing with it an unexpected transformation of the advertisement extending to the Home Island itself! That wasn’t all: also out of the blue, the store received some new beach party outfits! At least it’s a fit for the people living in the southern hemisphere.

Aside from those weird summer shenanigans, Poptropica Meme Face Mondays (PMFM) celebrated its 1-year anniversary. May the dank memes to live on!

We also had a Thanksgiving party in celebration of the occasion! Anyone want a turkey leg?

Last but not the least, Poptropica popped their next big competition for all players: the #MyPoptropicaCostume Contest! Similar to the Create Your Dream Island contest, winning this will make your own creation come to reality! The contest ends on December 31, so hurry! January 2!

December brought some cold times to the PHB with the departure of two authors: Ylimegirl and HPuterpop (the latter has decided not to write a farewell). However, we were soon warmed up by two new additions: Perfect Sky and Happy Lobster!

Over on Poptropica, it started snowing on Home Island. Plus, we threw a Holiday Party, and it was tons of fun! Thank you all for coming and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

 Noteworthy Highlights of 2016

• Two Poptropica official contests: #PoptropicaArt and #MyPoptropicaCostume!
• The Lost Expedition graphic novel released!
• The announcement of New Poptropica, which kept us all waiting for the better part of the year (at times impatiently!). Since Monkey Wrench was the only new island we got this year – and a short tutorial one at that – we have all been hoping for something more.
• “My Place in Poptropica” series: Just about every weekend, we had a new MPIP post from someone in the community writing about their Poptropica story, which many enjoyed! The series began with the PHB staff at the end of last year, and in 2016 we began to publish stories sent in by you guys – and it’s lasted the whole year! As of now, we have no new MPIPs scheduled, but if you send in your story, we’ll continue the series!
• “Poptropican Meme Face Mondays” series: Another regular series we had this year was PMFM, which came out just about every Monday and never failed to amuse with the many meme faces put on you guys’ Poptropicans. It’s gone on this long thanks to your support, and the dankness will continue in 2017!
• Parties: In total this year, we hosted 6 parties – the Summer Kickoff, Poppies Awards, Tribal Tournament Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Thanksgiving, and the Holiday Party – all on our new Discord server! In particular, the Tribal Tournament contained three competitions in one!

What were the best moments for you? Let us know in the comments!

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Tributes

On this blog, it is typical to see authors come and go. However, this year we saw a lot of authors saying goodbye from blogging (seven, to be exact). For this year, we’ll be having a tribute to them!

 Samwow5 (Tough Icicle) — 2013-2016

Sam is known as one of the PHB’s walkthrough writers, as well as the zealous party thrower! He is also the founder and the creator of Tough Icicle’s Blog, has been a top-ten finisher on a number of islands, and is overall an awesome person! He sadly left the blogging community in order to focus more on his personal responsibilities and to move on to future endeavors. However, he can sometimes be found on Discord, so feel free to talk to him! XDDDD

Blake (Lone Ring) — 2013-2016

You may say that Blake is one of the most random PHB authors there ever were, but to be honest, he’s the most hilarious I’ve ever met. Blake was once was a huge fan of the PHB Author Nights, where he met MT (his favorite author at the time), and joined every PHB party since then. Like Sam, he has left the blogging community but not the gaming community. You may still catch him logging in on Discord – and probably not talking about Mixels anymore.

Giant Hawk (Joshua) — 2015-2016

Although his stay on this blog was quite short, Giant Hawk has left his mark on the Poptropica community. He is best known for launching the discontinued project of Giant Hawk Adventures along with its prequel story, An Afternoon at Queequeg’s, and he’s also the older twin of current PHB author Ultimate iPad Expert. He sometimes stops by the PHC as well.

Mighty Gamer (Emily) — 2016

Mighty Gamer’s stay as a PHB author was also short-lived: we were shocked by her sudden departure after only two months. What makes it really sad is that Mighty Gamer decided to leave the gaming community as well. As a testament to her blogging skills, she nabbed the Best Former Author Award in this year’s Poppies. We hope to see her and her future undertakings as a success someday.

Cobalt Spinner/Koi (Spencer) — 2016

A community member for a long time and later a blogger, Cobalt/Koi/Spencer became a PHB author this year – twice! He is known for having started many series on the PHB, including Pop 5, Popspiracies, Cobalt’s Corner, and Pop-trope-ica. Although he has since moved on from Poptropica blogging, we wish him all the best in his future artistic endeavors. May his talent be placed in something useful.

Ylimegirl (Emily) — 2016

There are only two words to describe Ylime as an author overall: simple & cool. Her nickname may be tricky to pronounce (ee-lime; ye-lime?), but that doesn’t matter. Ylimegirl has made a decent legacy for herself, and besides blogging, she is known for standing up for what she believes in and even making it humorous at times. She is always on the PHC ready to chat, and is now blogging on her own site.

HPuterpop (Andrew) — 2013-2016

HPuterpop joined the blog three years ago along with authors Sam and Blake, and dreamt of being the next “Codien” of his time. I believe he has succeeded in this, considering the countless contributions he has made for the community, such as the Poptropica Wiki, Orb Legend, and rekindling the PHN — just to name a few! I hope that wherever and whatever he’s doing next will bring him happiness.

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…And that’s a wrap for 2016! Maybe it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was. Things may have been rough at times, but I’m sure it’s all paving the way for a better 2017 for us all. Another chapter in the PHB’s life has closed, and we thank you all for that! This year wouldn’t be the same without you all.

As 2017 comes, we have a few aspirations we want to see next year:

• A stronger and united gaming community, bracing for the New Poptropica!
• Better connection with the Poptropica Creators to bring you more news about the New Poptropica!
• More PHB readers, commenters, and more viewers! You guys are what powers us to continue.
• More community events and contests for you all next year!

We, the staff at the PHB, are always doing our best to bring you the best as we can, whether it’s Poptropica news or fun posts. Hope you enjoyed our recap this year! You are all so awesome!

  happy new year!

-from the PHB ❤