List of Great Horror-Comedy Films

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The following is an alphabetical list of the greatest movies in the horror-comedy genre. What is horror-comedy? It’s a genre of film that employs a horror theme—aliens, monsters, serial killer—but doesn’t take itself as serious as a traditional horror film such as The Ring (2002), Insidious (2010), or The Ritual (2017), instead going for a comedic tone. I’ve provided a pair of meters for each movie. The meters (horror and comedy) are balanced, but separate for easy and quick understanding, so when one goes up the other goes down. If you’re not a traditional horror movie fan, perhaps wade into this list starting with the films that possess higher comedy scores such as Elvira or Dracula: Dead and Loving it. For everyone else, feel free to dive right in. The pictures and titles have been linked to Amazon for your convenience. Looking for kid friendly movies? Check out my list of Horror movies for youths here. Feel free to follow me on Twitter:

Altered (2006)

Altered (2006) – [R] Altered starts with an A making it number one, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best movie on this list. However, for alien enthusiasts, this may very well prove to be their favorite, as it does the alien genre well, with some jump scares and a healthy probing of humor. The action starts immediately in a forest with a spear gun, a need for revenge, and an arsenal of alien traps, and doesn’t let up except to allow a hearty laugh here and there. On the horror-comedy scale it falls more towards the horror camp, with an 8 in horror and a 2 in comedy. Its alien costumes, manners of death, and feeling of the unknown instill dread. This alien film is sure to please, unless you’re a non-believing skeptic, like X-files’ Dr. Scully.

HORROR 08
 COMEDY 02

Army of Darkness (1992)

Army of Darkness (1993) – [R] The kings of Horror-comedy, Director Sam Raimi and leading man Bruce Campbell, team up for this masterpiece of the genre. Transported to 1300 AD with a chainsaw-hand and a shotgun, Ash (Bruce Campbell) must teach a group of villagers to survive an approaching skeletal horde attack. More intentionally humorous than its predecessor Evil Dead, Army of Darkness lands itself an 8 on the comedy scale, and a 2 on the horror for the classic Raimi scares.

HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Babysitter, The (2017) – [TV-MA] Cole, a young boy, discovers his beloved longtime babysitter is in a satanic cult, which will stop at nothing to silence him now that he knows too much. A collection of humorous stereotypes make up the cult and Cole must do whatever he can to survive the night as the group attempts to kill him. The suspense and gore provide a good amount of horror and the characters themselves provide a good dose of humor. Overall, the film finds a balance between horror and comedy.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Bad Milo (2013)

Bad Milo (2013) – [R] A horror-comedy centered around a man who comes to learn that a demon living in his lower intestines is the cause of his stomach pain. The movies illustrates the man’s attempts to tame the demon, and stars a great cast including Peter Stormare in an unusual role. As the Demon, Milo, is ten times cuter than E.T., and the protagonist’s mother pitches some awkward table talk, Bad Milo gets a 8 in comedy and a 3 in horror, mainly for the blood and idea of that thing crawling up somebody’s ass.

HORROR 03
COMEDY 07

Barbarian (2022) – [R] A double-booked home rental leads to a deeply disturbing tale. This film is best gone into with as little knowledge as possible. The setting, tone, and subject matter are scary, but the characters’ reactions and comedic timing add a sense of laughable fun.

HORROR 07
COMEDY 03

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) – [R] And you thought Elvis was a goner. Not in this film. He’s alive and residing in a nursing home. Together with a man who claims to be JFK, they fight for the souls of their fellow residents, battling an ancient Egyptian Mummy. Bubba Ho-Tep maintains a good amount of tension granting it a 5 on the horror scale, and is humorous to boot, landing it a 7 on the comedy scale.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

cabin

Cabin in the Woods (2012) – [R] A group of young adults spend a weekend in a secluded cabin, but something’s not quite right. One of the few horror-comedies that was met with massive mainstream attention and praise. I can’t say much about the film without ruining it, other than it’s a group of horror cliches doing not so cliche things. You’ll just have to take my word for it and watch it.  5 in horror and 5 in comedy.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Cursed (2005)

 Cursed (2005) – [PG-13] A brother and sister find themselves cursed with the mark of the beast. The sound track is great, with an opening cover by Bowling for Soup. The werewolves are incredibly agile and surprisingly scary, but there is definitely comedy mixed in with this one. Overall, this has your typical werewolf movie aspects, such as new found strength and sensitivity, but Wes Craven keeps it feeling fresh, interesting, and altogether satisfying. There are a few twists to keep you guessing, as well. More horror than comedy, the film gets a 6 in horror and 4 in comedy.

HORROR 06
COMEDY 04

Dead End (2003)

 Dead End (2003) – [R] A family car ride takes a turn for the worst. Ray Wise and Lin Shaye play a great bickering couple in a car with their two adult children and their daughter’s boyfriend. On their way to a holiday dinner, Frank (Ray Wise) takes the scenic route, but it seems to never end. The longer the family travels the more apparent it becomes something is terribly wrong. The twist ending rivals The Usual Suspects (1995) and Psycho (1960), and the feeling of dread is palpable. However the cast delivers believable, yet hilarious performances as well, and there are plenty of genuine laughs to be had at their expense.  Dead End lands right in the middle of the scale, half horror, half comedy.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Deadstream (2022) – [NR] An internet personality with a tarnished reputation attempts to win back his followers and sponsors with a live stream of himself locked in a haunted house. This film puts a fun and updated spin on the found footage genre. While the Blair Witch Project had a single camcorder, the protagonist here uses a series of high-definition, motion-activated, wireless cameras and a body rig to film his night in the haunted house. It’s a clever production and a great commentary on the modern YouTuber culture.  While there are some genuine scares, the lead’s endearingly obnoxious personality keeps the movie in the realm of hilarious comedy.

HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Detour (2003)

Detour (2003) – [R] In search for cannabis a group of attractive teens find cannibals instead. Ignore the opening scene that looks as if it were shot on a handheld camcorder. The production value of the rest of the film eclipses this tarnish on an otherwise awesome film. This movie has surprisingly well done character arcs, if you can roll with the ditsy girls and the gangster white boy for the first half. The gore and deaths are well done, and the cast of characters are a fun group, so the horror is balanced out by their comical reactions with lines like “That girl’s got a ba-donk-a-diezzy,” and of course the eye candy that is the majority of the cast. As such the film receives a balanced horror-comedy score of 5-5.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Dog Soldiers (2002) – [R] A military exercise in Scotland goes to the dogs. These are the best looking werewolves on this list, and the terror is intense with all the action in this film. Paper beats rock, Scissors beats paper, Wolf beats automatic weapon. There are some great moments of comedy in this film, as well, for humor is a way of coping with the horrors of the world. And the dog soldiers top that list of world horrors. Mostly horror with a bite of comedy, Dog Soldiers gets 7-3 horror-comedy score.

HORROR 07
COMEDY 03

Dracula Dead and Loving It (1995)

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) – [PG-13] A classic Mel Brooks parody, this time a lampoon of Bram Stocker’s Dracula, starring Leslie Nielsen as Count Dracula. This remains one of Mel Brooks’ most underrated films, and i think it is one of the best comedies of the 1990s, far better than the more modern spoof movies, such as Superhero Movie and (2008) and Epic Movie (2007), although i must admit Vampires Suck (2010) made me laugh. The jokes in this work are timed perfectly, and Leslie Nielsen is on top of his game. The only horror this film contains is the vampire theme, some enthusiastic bug eating, and the suggestion of death. It’s mostly humor not horror, thus it gets a 1-9 on the horror-comedy scale.

HORROR 01
COMEDY 09

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Drag Me To Hell (2009) – [PG-13] A young loan officer evicts a gypsy from her home and finds herself the recipient of a curse. Director Sam Raimi delivers another masterpiece with Drag Me to Hell, starring not Bruce Campbell but the beautiful Alison Lohman. There are quite a few disgusting and horrific moments in the movie. The horror in this movie is both an immediate searing, followed by a slow burn when days later you’re still wondering if a gift is really a gift or perhaps someone is trying to curse you. The film has comedy as well, though most of it has to do with Lohman’s desperate choices and animals. Drag Me to Hell scores a 7-3 on the horror-comedy scale.

HORROR 07
COMEDY 03

Elvira (1988)

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) – [PG-13] Horror hostess Elvira drives to an uptight town when her Great Aunt dies, in order to claim her inheritance: a haunted house, a poodle, and a witch’s cookbook spellbook, but her creepy uncle proves to be a problem. As do some local prudes. Cassandra Peterson delivers a pun filled, fun performance as Elvira, and the whole movie is lighthearted and enjoyable. Some implied horror is all this movie provides, so like Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Elvira get a 1-9 on the horror-comedy scale.

 HORROR 01
COMEDY 09

Evil Dead (1981)

Evil Dead (1981) – [NC-17] Five friends plan to spend the weekend at a cabin in the woods, but they unwittingly release demons. The special effects in the 1981 Evil Dead are laughably bad, and yet there is something to be said for a movie that  takes it to level Evil Dead does, especially with a lack of resources. Probably the weakest of the three Evil Dead movies as far as humor goes, and while it does have scares,  the real humor in this one is that it pretends to take itself seriously, and mocks the horror genre of its time. For a real good time, Watch this, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness consecutively and see how Bruce Campbell really develops the Ash character. An even 5-5 on the horror-comedy meters.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Feast (2005)

Feast (2005) – [R] A deadly family of monsters attacks the patrons of a seedy bar. The patrons must fight for their lives. What makes this movie great is that it pokes fun of the horror genre, much like Evil Dead. It leads viewers to think the classic horror movie tropes are going to take place, then flips the cliched events on their heads. It’s an unpredictable gore fest, with plenty of creative deaths. The entire trilogy is worth a watch, but the original Feast is the best of the bunch. This would be higher on the horror meter if it weren’t for the constant lampooning of the genre. So while yes, it does provide plenty of scares, it also delivers a monster amount of laughs. 6-4 on the horror comedy meter.

HORROR 06
COMEDY 04

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Ginger Snaps (2000) – [UR] Two gloomy sisters must deal with the fact one of them has been bitten by a deadly werewolf and is acting a bit strange. This remains my all time favorite horror-comedy. It’s got  an interesting take on werewolves, beautiful scenes and lead actresses, and the best opening montage of any movie. The film met with some success and spun off both a sequel and a very loosely tied prequel, but the original Ginger Snaps is the sharpest film of the three. The events of the film all take place around Halloween so it really captures the feel of the season, and there is blood and gore enough to satisfy horror movie fans, and enough laughs to keep the rest entertained. 7-3 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 07
COMEDY 03

I Sell the Dead (2008)

I Sell the Dead (2008) – [NR] An 18th century grave robber recounts his often times bizarre crimes before his execution. This is really a creepy, Odyssey-like adventure, with unbelievable encounters, and a journey of discovery. There are certainly some scares to be had while watching, but the charming cast and whimsical sound track tone even the scariest of events down into mostly humorous time. You might “never, ever trust a corpse,” but trust me when i say, this is one of the greats in the Horror-comedy genre. 2 on the horror scale for the depiction of otherworldly beings, and 8 and the comedy scale for the fantastic humor.

HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Idle Hands (1999)

Idle Hands (1999) – It’s that awesome movie you saw that one night on the SyFy Channel and could never find again (until now). You know, that one with a beautiful, young Jessica Alba, and a hilarious Seth Green as a zombie, and the clever title you couldn’t remember for the life of you. More specifically, Idle Hands is about a lazy stoner’s hand becoming  possessed by a murderous spirit. “Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings.” See, it is a clever title. And a clever movie at that. It does have some truly horrific moments, but is mostly funny… Unless you watch the alternate ending, then just bump that horror bar up to a 7 from its 3. It will suck the humor right out of the rest, which probably explains why they changed it. 7 on the comedy meter, as is.

HORROR 03
COMEDY 07

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Jennifer’s Body (2009) – [R] After being separated by a terrible concert house fire (inspired by true events) and an even more terrible pop-rock band, best friends Jennifer and Needy are reunited, but Jennifer has a new found hunger for young men. A totally different appetite than the promiscuous cheerleader flaunted before the accident. If you saw Transformers and didn’t really care for Megan Fox, this movie might very well change your view on the young actress. The performances are all great, the effects too, and the story is well written. If you’re anything like me, and didn’t even realized this was not a porno but rather a clever horror-comedy, definitely give it a shot. There’s no nudity, but the entertainment value is top notch. 7 on the horror meter for the demonic nature, and 3 comedy for the narration by Needy (Amanda Seyfried).

HORROR 07
COMEDY 03

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) – [PG-13] Aliens disguised as creepy clowns come to earth in a circus tent space craft and terrorize a small town. It’s easy to see why this movie would score so high on the horror meter: it’s killer clowns! Clowns! You can’t ask a group of five people to name their top fear with out three of them hollering out “Clowns. Definitely clowns.” This movie is made of nightmares, with cotton-candy cocoons for their food, like spiders.Spiders! And their food just happens to be people. Supposedly a sequel is coming to theaters in the near future, so get your washing machines ready to clean your whitey-tightys. 9-1 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 09
COMEDY 01

M3GAN (2023) – [R]   M3GAN (short for Model 3 Generative Android) is designed by a group employed by the toy company FUNKI. When the lead designer’s niece is orphaned after a car accident, prototype M3Gan serves as a friend and confidant. It soon takes its role of protecting the young girl too far. A satirical commentary on an over-reliance on technology, M3Gan is a smart film that delivers on both laughs and scares.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

nigh

Night of the Living Dorks (2004) – [UR] Three loser friends get into an accident, but when they wake up on cold metal tables at the morgue, they aren’t quite dead. German with English Subtitles, and an English dubbed version if that floats your boat. This movie provides an interesting twist on both the origin and nature of zombies. Overall, it has only a few spooky moments, making this lean far more to the comedy side of things with a 2-8 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Return of the Living Dead (1985) – [R] When a couple of warehouse employees accidentally release a strange gas into the air, the vapors lead to the raising of the dead in a nearby graveyard. Not part of George A. Ramero’s living dead series of films, despite what the name might lead you to presume. At best it’s an unofficial sequel to the 1968 Night of the Living Dead, but really it stands alone as a great horror-comedy. It falls right in the middle of the horror-comedy scale.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Satan's Little Helper (2004)

 Satan’s Little Helper (2004) – [R] A young boy, obsessed with both a video game and his older sister, unwittingly helps a serial killer on his night of Halloween mayhem. Also features Katheryn Winnick of the The History Channel’s Vikings (2013), in a revealing Halloween wench costume. It’s a one of a kind gem in the horror-comedy genre, and also has a great poster.  I have it in my living room, as a matter of fact, and it’s a great conversation piece. The sheer degree of murders and and the methods of each are what make this movie more horror than comedy, thought there are still plenty of laughs. You might feel a little urge to punch the lead kid as well, but that will pass. Eventually. A 7-3 on the horror-comedy scale.

HORROR 07
COMEDY 03

Serial Killing 101 (2004)

Serial Killing 101 (2004) – [R] To impress his Gothic-beauty crush, Sasha (Lisa Loeb), Casey Noland wears Marilyn Manson shirts, acts aloof, and submits serial killer at his profession of choice in class. Together they plan out his perfect first murder, until something else comes up: a real murder. This is a dark but charming movie about young love and feeling lost as far as direction in life goes. Thomas Haden Church appears in the film, as well, as a hilarious gym teacher and bane of Casey’s existence, as he’s not athletic. The film gets an even 5-5. Of course 5 is an odd number… Odd like this film. There. Salvaged that slip up.

HORROR 05
COMEDY 05

Shawn of the Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead (2004) – [R] Shaun wakes up to a world of Zombies and journeys to save his mother, ex girlfriend, and her roommates, then holds up in the Winchester pub. Most everyone has at least heard of this one, if not seen it. After all Simon Pegg went on to do the popular movies Hot Fuzz (2007), Paul (2011), and The World’s End (2013). As such, there isn’t much more to say other than there is a gratuitous amount of blood and gore, but far more humor to outweigh the heaviness of such imagery. So grab a pint, and watch this fine film.

HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Slither (2006)

Slither (2006) – [R] A small town is plagued by a horde of slug-like parasites, which turns residents into all forms of mutants. Nathan Fillion of Firefly (2002-2003) costars in this fine horror-comedy. There are plenty of disgusting moments, and many scary ones, with humor sewn throughout. You’ll never be able to ask your uncle Clevis to pass you that possum (bowl of mashed potatoes) without laughing ever again. As most people are afraid of body disfigurement and gruesome deaths Slither scores an 8-2 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 08
COMEDY 02

Stitches (2012)

Stitches (2012) – [R] A clown rises from the grave to seek revenge on those who took his life during a fatal party accident. Don’t judge a movie by its cover, or description for that matter. This proves to be good advice, at least for this movie. At first glace it appears to be another generic slasher film, but the pulpy content within is something far better. This film has a unique sense of humor, and while featuring a clown like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Stitches the clown is far more earthly and relatable, while remaining frightening. The used of the clown nose is particularly good. 6-4 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 06
COMEDY 04

Suck (2009)

Suck (2009) – [R] A horror-comedy centered around a rock band, which will do anything to become famous. Anything. This film features some very interesting camera techniques and music, as well as travel transitions, and has a fascinating cast. While not jump out of your seat scary, the lengths the band members go to, along with the blood and gore that entails, lead this to have a real horror aspect to it, especially with the “What happens on the road, stays on the road” mentality they all adopt.  Alice Cooper, Moby, a Iggy Pop make cameo appearances. 2-8 on the horror-comedy scale.

 HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Trick ‘r Treat  (2007) – [R] Four loosely interwoven stories, which all occur on Halloween: 1.) A high school principal has a skeleton (or a few) in his closet; 2.) a young virgin girl might just lose the big V; 3.) a group of kids pull a mean prank on a handicapped girl; 4.) a bitter old man faces his past, and a little something more while he’s at it. This is perfect film to play at an adult Halloween party if music just isn’t enough, or you have a room of movie lovers. As it’s four fully encapsulated parts, there’s no need to miss the plot points of a typical linear movie in order to use the restroom, or to grab refreshments, or mingle. Great acting and great fun. 8-2 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 08
COMEDY 02

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) – [R] Tucker & Dale are on vacation at their newly purchased  mountain cabin when a group of college kids stumble upon them and think them dangerous. While there’s plenty of gore and blood in this movie, there just happens to be a lack of a true hacking-and-slashing antagonist. Stereotypes and paranoia do all the work. This is really a full on, roll on the floor with laughter, comedy wrapped up in a horror movie skin. The funniest film on the list, but again very bloody. 1-9 on the horror-comedy scale.

HORROR 01
COMEDY 09

Warm Bodies (2013)

Warm Bodies (2013) – [PG-13]  A still-living girl and a zombie boy form a relationship that sets in motion events that might transform the dead infested world as they know it. A reflective, introspective zombie with a heart… you know, a heart actually capable of love, not just a shriveled up organ, makes even the scariest moments funny with his comments. 2-8 on the horror-comedy scale for the bonies.

HORROR 02
COMEDY 08

Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland (2009) –  When a zombie apocalypse happens, a shy young man teams up with a shotgun-toting tough guy, and joins him on his quest to find Twinkies until they run in two sisters and a large horde of Zombies. Features an all-star cast, including Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and possibly the best cameo of all time. This is the theme-park to the carnival of all other zombie movies, and a must watch. 3-7 on the horror-comedy meter.

HORROR 03
COMEDY 07

    A Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    This Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween themed compilation is comprised of a list of songs intended to get you started in creating a list of the greatest horror-punk and psychobilly songs. While the genres are inherently tied to the themes of classic horror monsters (swamp monsters, Frankenstein, vampires, werewolves) some songs are more closely tied to the Halloween season and were thus prioritized. There are, of course, plenty more bands and even more songs that are great for Halloween in both the horror-punk and psychobilly music genres; these are simply the top thirteen that made the list. The Brains, Nuke & The Living Dead, HotRod Frankie, Dr. Chud’s X-ward, Kitty in the Casket, The Creepshow, Horrorpops, The Meteors, The Quakes, Calabrese, Nim Vind, The Matadors, The Hillbilly Moon Explosion, and Dick Dynamite and the Doppelgangers are a few others that nearly made the list. Those bands are certainly worth looking into if you want a longer playlist. Again this list is meant to get you started. If you have any others you think deserve to be on this list, please feel free to post in the comments. The following are not in alphabetical order, nor in order of least-greatest to greatest or vice verse. The list is in completely random order:
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    Zombie Ghost Train – RIP

    Zombie Ghost Train is an Australian Psychobilly band. The band formed initially with members  Stu Arkoff on vocals and guitar, Azzy T on drums, and Captain Reckless on bass guitar as well as backing vocals. In 2007, JM was replaced when he left to pursue other musical ventures. The band released an EP and the two albums, Glad Rags & Body Bags and Dealing the Death Card, the former of which RIP is a part of. The song RIP is one of the band’s most well known songs and more importantly, it’s the quintessential psychobilly song with references to the horror movie genre, such as Frankenstein and ghosts. There are plenty of other gems from the band, including Graveyard Queen and Step into my Coffin, but RIP is best suited for this list, since it is perfect for sitting back on Halloween and resting in peace.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    Blitzkid – October 31

    If the name Blitzkid rings a bell, it’s because they are not the new kids on the Horror-punk block. In fact, they formed in 1997 and played their great music until 2012 when they disbanded. Blitzkid released five albums and also made appearances on numerous punk compilations, plus they toured both in the United States and internationally. Argyle Goolsby  provided vocals and played bass, TB Monstrosity played the guitar and provided vocals, and Ricko Mortis beat away on drums. While many of their songs outshine October 31, October 31 is perfect for Halloween for obvious reasons and it is great despite, perhaps, not being Blitzkid’s best. 
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    Corpse Show Creeps – Werewolves

    You can’t have a howling good time without a song about werewolves. Corpse Show Creeps have just what we need to remedy that potential problem. The four member psychobilly combo hail from the corpse cold land known as Minneapolis, MN. Blackblood Call is there debut album, and with the quality of their songs, it’s clear they have a talent for producing some great psychobilly music.Click the album cover image to the left to have a listen on the Amazon page.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    Misfits – Halloween I & II

    You couldn’t have a Horror-punk list without including at least one song from the Misfits. Strangely enough, the Misfits fit. So here’s two: Halloween and Halloween II make the list not only because of their incredibly relevant titles, but because they’re such incredible songs in general. Great enough to be covered by other, newer, big names in music, including AFI, Alkaline Trio, Cradle of Filth, Drop Kick Murphys, and Samhain. Whether you’re in the Danzig or Graves camp, or if you side with neither vocalist, you’ve got to admire Danzig’s voice and idea for the band. Personally,I think Danzig started something amazing and Graves polished it to perfection. The Misfits would not be what is has become today without either vocalist, nor without Jerry Only or Dr. Chud.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    The Koffin Kats – Vampire’s Curse

    Just as a Halloween song list would bite without werewolves, it would suck without vampires. This can help explain why Vampire’s Curse appears on this list over the other psychobilly masterpieces composed by the talented Koffin Kats.  These cool cats currently consist of Vic Victor on the upright bass and lead vocals, Johnny Kay on guitar and backing vocals, and Eric “E Ball” Walls on drums, and began near Detroit, Michigan with Vic and founding members Tommy Koffin (Guitar), and Damian Detroit (Drums). The band has put out several albums and played far more shows. As for Vampire’s Curse, it offers some of the best instrumental work of all the songs on this list, certainly some of the most expressive upright bass playing, and the vocals are unique as well.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    The Lurking Corpses – Maggots ate her brain

    When it comes to The Lurking Corpses, they’re really hit or miss when it comes to the horror-punk genre. This is likely because half their songs seem to be in a different genre of music altogether–perhaps best labeled as Horror-Metal? That doesn’t stop the the slower tempo half of their songs being more punk and even psychobilly. Whatever genre they fall in, the band is great, and Maggots Ate Her Brain incorporates all the best aspects of the band. Plus, we’ve all witnessed the Halloween food scares of “Brains,” “Worms,” and “eyes” which were really only Jell-O, cold spaghetti, and peeled grapes.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

     The Murder Weapon- Walking with the Dead

    From their Facebook: “Since 2004, these 3 broke musicians from Mid-coast Maine have been performing their unique blend of punk, rockabilly, and horror that is unlike anything else you’ll hear or see in New England. Their lightning fast speed and precision will melt your face and kick your ass.” The Murder Weapon certainly stays hidden from mainstream sight as most murderers would hope their murder weapons would, but the only screams The Murder Weapon summons are not those of terror but of delight.With their unique songs The Murder Weapon could soon be a common name in the psychobilly scene. Walking with the Dead brings zombies to our list and a music so good it will turn listeners into mindless shells as they enjoy the song. Download the song on band camp here: Walking with the Dead and help spread their name (click the image to the left). Their other songs are a delight, as well, such as Dead Light and East Bumfuck.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

     Nekromantix – Haunted Cathouse

    Many consider Nekromantix to be the kings of psychobilly, having recieve international attention and success, and whether or not them being the king of psychobilly is ever objectively proven, the band is certainly worthy enough to make the list of some of the greatest Psychobilly Halloween bands/songs. Nekromantix songs are as well crafted as Kim Nekroman custom built coffin upright bass and the pompadours and quiffs of the band members including front man Kim Nekroman.  The Danish-American psychobilly band formed in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1989. The band’s music is generally structured around monster and horror themes, as is considered a staple of the genre. Haunted Cathouse is one of their softer songs, but it also best incorporates the horror genre monsters in one monster house party. The song is in someways reminiscent of the classic Halloween song, Monster Mash.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

     12 Step Rebels – Banshee’s Wail

    12 Step Rebels have a younger sound to them, much like Blitzkid, especially in comparison to to some of the deeper voices of bands such as the Koffin Kats and Nekromantix, but they are no less skilled in the art of making music. The Horror-punk band utilizes the legend of the uncommonly used banshee for their song Banshee’s Wail. It’s a real scream! The whole Go Go Graveyard Rockin ablum is great, but Banshee’s Wail mixes things up with a haunting song about a horrific creature that feels right at home on Halloween.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

     Reckless Ones – Dead and Gone

    While perhaps more rockabilly, the lyrics do bring this band into the haunted realm of psychobilly. Even the video of this particular song screams psychobilly, but it’s comes down to opinion, really. There’s no denying that the Reckless Ones are talented though. From their site: “Reckless Ones hit the ground running in 2009 with the vintage style and modern sound of their debut record, “Make Your Move.” Following the album’s release, the band took to the road — in a big way. Touring extensively across much of the United States and as far as the UK, Reckless Ones gained themselves a reputation and loyal set of fans within their first year as a band.” The song Dead and Gone is one perfect for pulling your ghoul-friend close and is a great addition to any Halloween playlist.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    The Howlers – Watch the World Die

    The howlers are one of the lesser known bands on this list. As such, they’re perfect for any hipsters reading… Really though, most everyone will love this band. The song Watch the World Die was good enough for the band to make it the title of their debut album and it’s more than good enough to make this list of the best songs for making a perfect Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween. The band falls in the horror-punk category and the song Watch the World Die is perfect for anyone angry at the injustices of the world or those who simply want to get the blood pumping.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

     Dead Vampires – Closed Casket

    The Dead Vampires know how to ham it up and how to do so in the most fun ways. From their stage costumes to their lyrics, the band has completely embraced the horror aspect of their music. This particular song is on an album that is a duo effort with Harley Poe, but is well worth purchasing if you want a full album and not just a song, and both Harley Poe and the Dead Vampires have plenty of great songs as well. Closed casket nods to the darkest moments in most every decade while creating a motivating song. If you never want your party to die (and lay down in a closed casket) then add the song Closed Casket to your roster. Harley Poe is a great artist as well and you shouldn’t be disappointed in buying the half-and-half Dead Vampires/Harley Poe album as both groups are talented.
    Psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween

    Bathory Boys/The Nasties – Wolfman

    The Bathory Boys / The Nasties (two names for the same band) are perhaps the most obscure band on the list and certainly the hardest to track down as far as their music mp3s go, but if all else fails just type “The Nasties – Wolfman” or “Bathory Boys – Wolfman” (or click the image to the left) in on YouTube and the video should be the first result. The horror-punk band has a more rugged sound to them, but that’s likely from less production opportunities, and yet the music is still wonderful. Their sound is akin to Blitzkid and The Howlers, and Wolfman is a fantastic addition to a psychobilly & Horror-Punk Halloween song list.

     That’s it for my list. Happy Listening, boys and ghouls!

      Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures (DEMO)

      logo_2016_1

      A new Felipe Femur game is in the works. Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures–this time in the vein of No Proper Thief. The game will be reading base, and not rely as heavily on graphics. Guide Felipe Femur through three spooky choice-enabled stories. A reading based game for kids and adults, made in cooperation with Choice of Games LLC, that has gif images throughout. Choose from three classes: Fighter, Detective, or Jack of all Trades, buy weapons and ponchos, wage battle on a variety of enemies, and then lead Felipe Femur the introverted skeleton through a carnival, a haunted bathhouse, and through a creepy neighborhood for a night of tick-or-treating. Enjoy three interactive stories in Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures. Help Felipe Femur the skeleton make choices and proceed through each nightmare. Explore Carinval Caper, Trick or Shriek, and That Old, Haunted Bathhouse as either a detective, a fighter, or a jack of all trades. Each class allows you to explore stories in a different way. So try all three classes and get exploring!

      Professions

      In Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures, Felipe will have the choice between three professions, Detective, Fighter, and Jack of all Trades. Before one of these is chosen, Felipe will appear in his base form with a black sombrero and poncho. The detective class was based on the famous Sherlock Homes, the fighter off a lucha libre wrestler, and the Jack of all Trades a construction worker. See below:

      felipefemur_nomal

      Base

      		 sherlock_250

      Detective

      		 felipefemur_lucha

      Fighter

      		 jackoat_250

      Jack-of-all-Trades

      		 felipe_femur

      Bard

      Detective: Skilled in uncovering secrets. Wise, cunning, and perceptive in addition to being skilled in talking to people. Asks questions first and fights only as a last resort. The detective class grants increases in the Intelligence, Luck, and Perception stats; and decreases in battle stats such as Attack and Defense.

      Fighter: Skilled in combat. Fights and asks questions later… or maybe never. The fighter class grants increases in the battle oriented stats such as Attack and Defense, but also decreases in Speed, Luck, and Perception stats. Has access to Heavy Attack ability.

      Jack of All Trades: Master of none. The Jack of All Trades (or rather “Traits”) class grants a complete balance of stats. Where as the Detective and Fighter class are highly skewed to promote different play styles, the Jack of all Trades track allows for the participation in both worlds, without being able to fully excel in either.

      Bard (Tentative): Not yet in the game. This would be an expansion pack if anything that would allow players to join forces with Felipe “The Artist/performer/musician” Femur. Would be able to distract enemies with music, earn money with performances, and empower allies as that is something that is planned for the Trick or Shriek adventure.

      Join the Adventure

      Click the buttons below to play the demo in your browser or head over to the Choice of Games Forum post where you can discuss the game. Likes, dislikes, suggestions, typos, and bugs. There is also a link to play the game on the forum post.

      Play Demo

      Discuss the Game

      This is a copy of the original forum post for Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures. It explains a little bit about what I wanted to achieve with this game and how it is different from both my first Hosted Games project, No Proper Thief, as well as most Choice of Games / Hosted Games projects.

      Hello everyone,

      I’m the author of the Hosted Games story, No Proper Thief. I’m making this post about a new project that I’m working on called, Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures. It’s directed towards a younger audience, but should also appeal to adults who want a light-hearted adventure. It currently doesn’t have a romance aspect to it that I know many of you enjoy (sorry) and expect with the Choice of Games productions. Instead, I wanted to add something new to the Hosted Games selection: A fun, family-friendly series of text quests that might encourage children to read. I may add a mild romance option for the Trick or Shriek and Ole Haunted Bathhouse quests, as I will be adding a character creation section to those two storylines, but not in Carnival Caper.

      Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures (WIP) currently features a mystery in a carnival that readers have to collect three clues to solve. They guide Felipe Femur the skeleton around and choose if he’s to be a Detective, Fighter, or a Jack-of-all-trades. Each profession offers a slightly different series of events and each has a different culprit to increase replay value. This project has taken me quite a bit longer to make than I originally anticipated, but it’s been a fun experience so far. Rather than be linear–as was a legitimate complaint about my first project, No Proper Thief–I made this game a closed circuit that you need clues to escape from and finish the quest. I think of it as an almost physical map of the carnival setting that players can guide Felipe through. With Felipe, readers can search sections of the fairground, go on rides, play carnival games, explore the circus tent, food court, and speak to other characters to gather clues. Two other features that added to this project taking me a long time are the “random” features and the fight sequences. I placed random selection code in things such as name generation, Felipe Femur’s responses in conversations, carnival game results, and generation of Clowns, Tall men, Strong men, and Ringleaders appearing to fight Felipe Femur in various locations and after various events. By random I mean an average of 10+ outcomes that the code selects. There are options to fight certain characters and each fight has many possible outcomes, including Felipe getting injured. He can also run out of energy and go home. But, no worries, one stop at the traveling caravan and you can heal him right up, so stock up on those Mortal Energy Drinks and Slender Tenders.

      Overall, I think this project is quite different than most on Hosted games, including my first game (NPT). It still provides a story, but it is more of an open arena than a straight track to run on.

        Skeleton in the Closet Now an Audio-book

        Skeleton in the Closet and Other Scary Stories, my collection of twenty-three tales of middle-grade horror,  is now available on Audible, Amazon, and  iTunes. Read by the talented Gene Blake, the stories really come to life. While listeners lose out on seeing the creepy illustrations that are available in the print and e-book versions, they get an eerie reading instead. The audio-book runs at 2 hours and 47 minutes and includes all twenty-three scary stories and creepy songs/poems. If you enjoy it, please leave a review. Thank you and I hope my tales will chill you to the bone, make your skin crawl, and spoil your appetite.

        AMAZON
        AUDIBLE
        ITUNES

        What people are saying:

        “In the tradition of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz, Skeleton in the Closet aims to spook with folklorish lessons and succeeds. Recommended for fans of Alvin Schwartz’ Scary Stories to tell in the Dark and Shel Silverstein’s darker poetry and songs.” – Grotesque Quarterly Magazine

        “Wonderful read to scare the bejesus out of a horror fan!”  – Voracious Life, Amazon

        “Great campfire stories. No one will be sleeping.” – Wanda, Audible

        “Skeleton in the Closet was such an awesome listen. The stories were scary but not too scary.” – Teresa, Audible

        “Chilling! Treat Yourself to an Early Halloween” – Myztikal, Audible

        “Perfect collection of tales that would be good for younger kids to be told around a campfire or maybe right before bed.” – Muraenidae, Audible

        “This was a great set of short stories for kids. I’d say best for 4-10 years old.” – Mary, Audible

          Money Grubber

          Money Grubber

          This was back when live burials were common. Bells would often be placed above a grave with a string leading into the coffin so a person could ring for help should they wake up from a deep sleep, buried. Alive. Bells were made of metal, though, and not so easy to come by—and it certainly was not cheap in those days as there were wars going on and metal was needed for bullets. John, being a stingy man, refused to pay for a bell in the case of his burial.

               “I’ll be dead,” John said gruffly to the attorney helping John write his living will. “What need would I have of making music?”

               “Very good, sir,” the attorney said looking oddly pleased as he jotted a note down.

               With that, the two finished for the night. John’s office was all but buried in paperwork because of the time he had taken off to work on that blasted last will-and-testament. By the time he finally got out of the office the sun had set. He realized he hadn’t seen the sun all day, being cooped up in the office as he was, discussing the grim topic of his inevitable death.

                John decided to walk home since the trains had stopped running for the night and he refused to pay for a carriage. He passed a hungry looking child and though his pockets were full of more coins than he could spend in a month, he didn’t give the child any money with which to buy food to eat. John simply flicked a coin in the air and caught it again. The boy’s hungry eyes followed it as John placed it back in his pocket.

                John laughed and said, “Get a job, boy.” He passed closed businesses and dark houses until he heard a gathering just ahead. Just down at the bottom of a very large flight of stairs there was a party going on. Wasting coin on food and drink for rotten company and music—John scoffed. He’d never spend a penny on entertainment.

                 The city bells tolled to signal that it was midnight. The sound startled John. His loafers had little grip, so when he came upon a puddle just before a steep set of stairs, he slipped, distracted by the loud bells. He stumbled and tumbled and plummeted down those stairs. For so long he fell that he was met with the blackness before hitting the bottom. He was knocked out cold.

                Those who saw and the doctor, too, must’ve thought John was dead, for he awoke in a small wooden box. It was too dark to see that it was wood, but he could feel it with his finger tips: the grains, the knots, the solidness of it. He’d picked the coffin out himself just the week before, so he knew it at once. It was cheap and bare.  Suddenly it set in: the realization that he had been buried alive!

               Hours passed, or so it seemed. It felt like so very long with so very little to do. Every now and then, John would shout for help, but thought better of it after a few tries. No one would hear through six feet of dirt and he’d just waste his air. The only sounds John could hear were his breathing and the twiddling of his thumbs. Besides this there was only silence.

                He thought the silence was the worst part—worse than the cold, worse than the hard walls that hugged his shoulders too tightly—that is until he heard the slinking of wet bodies and the nibbles of toothless mouths at the coffin walls. As time wore on, he heard more of the sounds. Wet, disgusting sounds and nibbling. Every so often John heard the loud crack of splitting wood. He feared that the earth would collapse on him at any moment.

               After a particularly loud crack he heard a light, soggy slap on the coffin floor. Then another, then two more, and so on. He felt small, slimy bodies climbing up his arms and onto his chest, and then, to John’s great surprise, they spoke.

                “We are the worms and we’ve come to feast on your flesh!”

               “Please don’t!” John said, terrified, for he could not move in so tight a space. “I’ll give you money.”

               “Money! Money! What use have we of money?” they sang in chorus.

               “I’ll give you my time, then.”

               “Your time?” they asked, confused. John could hear one stifle a laugh.

               “Yes,” he said. “I’m a lawyer, an important man up there.” He tried to point up, but couldn’t in the tight space. “If you wish to sue someone I can lend you my ear and my advice. Time is money after all!”

               “Pff!” The worms spit mouthfuls of dirt and wood on John’s face. “Money! Money! We have no use of money!”

               “What, then?” John asked the worms. “What do you want?”

               “We want to devote our time to your soft flesh. It’s the only thing of any value that you have left down here.”

               John had saved a lot of money—never being charitable, never paying for luxury or entertainment, or even a hot meal with friends—and now it would do him no good. He hadn’t even fond memories to look back on to distract him as he was devoured. He wished he had spent the money on the coffin bell after all. At the very least.

               He screamed a few times before he realized once more that no one would hear. It was then that he heard it: the bells. Tiny, muffled tings. The whole rest of the graveyard seemed to be resounding with the bells. They pealed with their calls for help. It was a lot of graves to dig up and the gravedigger wouldn’t think to unbury John with so many bells all ringing out at once. Perhaps the bells wouldn’t bring help at all. Perhaps the others had wasted money on them. Perhaps, John thought, not without a little cruel pleasure, the others were just making music to fall on deaf ears.

               No, that wasn’t quite true. The worms would have music to eat to. In any case, John thought, the bells tolled for him.

          Did you enjoy this story? If so, you’ll probably enjoy the other twenty-two stories in the collection, as well as the creepy illustrations for each. Find the e-book on Amazon. Please leave a review if you enjoy the e-book. It would greatly help us out. Thank you.

          amazon-icon-21118

            Tongue-In-Cheek Monster Characters for Children

            Felipe Femur website monsters universal kids

                      From the 1910s to the 1950s, many of the classic movie monsters, such as Frankenstein (1910), Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), The Wolfman (1941), and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1953), made their first mainstream appearances. Few would consider these fiends or the horror genre in general appropriate for children. However, over time and in a society of relative safety, fear can become alluring. In fact, for the Millennials who grew up on Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, Tales from the Crypt, and The Addams Family movies and cartoons, the horror themes that used to terrify generations before now bring mostly nostalgia and delight.

                        This same generation is beginning to raise children of their own.  Many of these new parents seek out books, movies, and various other forms of children’s entertainment that invoke a sense of delighted dread in their kids while avoiding the true horror aspect of it. Perhaps one of the largest forms, and certainly one of the newest, of this sought-after entertainment today is web pages. While movies will live on for a long time, websites offer something they cannot: interactivity. With the ease of access, social aspect, and often free content, many hours can be sunk into or drawn away from websites. The content both engages and educates. Felipe Femur is one such website.felipe_femur

                        Hotel Transylvania is a prime example of monsters evolving from the antagonists to the protagonists, but a lesser know protagonist is Felipe Femur.  Felipe Femur is both the name of the website developed for children and the main character. Felipe Femur, the skeleton with a lot of heart, and his ironic monster friends, including a sun-loving vampire, a down-to-earth alien, and a banshee who happens to be mute serve as the focus. Grimm brothers meet SpongeBob SquarePants, the website utilizes the horror motif and excludes the adult themed matter, offering instead things such as an aquaphobic lagoon creature and a welcoming skeleton. In other words, the monsters are friends not fiends.

            The creative minds behind these characters, twin brothers, offer everything for free.  Using their respective art and writing skills, the two create all the content for the website and its tongue-in-cheek characters. The website presents craft ideas, games, music, printable coloring sheets, as well as original stories and articles intended for a young audience. The monster characters each have a bio page that highlights their unique personalities, and most can even be spoken to in the browser based game Felipe Femur & Friends. Several mobile apps for kids have been developed by the pair, as well, under the name ZebraFox Games, including a Felipe Femur side-scroller and a toothless werewolf Thanksgiving whack-a-mole. The new ‘Postcards from Felipe’ series on the website offers a nice mix of education and fun. Each postcard is ‘sent’ from a different city in the USA and comments on local landmarks, activities, or haunted history in that area, while also providing an overarching tale about aliens.

                        With a fresh and inventive take on werewolves, vampires, banshees, lagoon creatures, and other monsters, the cast is a unique one and something children and parents will love. The website is one that has been buried under a mountain of big names like Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse. Still, being free and with more content to come, the Felipe Femur website proves to be one worthy of a  bookmark. To find something that both parents and their children will like is a formidable task, but Felipe Femur will likely tickle everyone’s funny bone.

              Combating Suicide in the Nevadan Youth Population with Aquaponics

              DEATHGARDEN

              [linebreak]

              Background information: Suicide is the third leading cause of death for Nevada youth, between the ages of 10-24. In fact, according to the Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 survey, it was found that 34,955 Nevadan youth attempted to commit suicide one or more times, annually. Overall, every sixteen minutes someone in the United States attempts suicide, and a large number of those attempts take place in Nevada [1]. There are more casualties related to suicide than the number of Nevadans who are inflicted with HIV/AIDS, or are victims of homicide and automobile accidents. On top of those discouraging statistics, Figure 1 details the fact that Nevada’s average suicide rate is more than double than the Country’s average.

              graph1

              To take a step back from the emotional aspect of this, the financial cost of suicides and suicide attempts is immense. The United States as a whole could save an average of one million dollars in medical expenses and lost productivity for each suicide [2].  Thus costs are heavy on economy stimulating corporations of 100,000 or more employees. In fact, PhD. Paul Quinnett calculates that corporations of this size 1.) lose one employee or family member of said employee every seven days, decreasing productivity; and 2.) deal with an average of three suicide attempts every day in that there are about approximately 25 nonfatal suicide attempts for every reported suicide.

              Depression has been determined to be closely tied to suicidal tendencies, and several methods have been employed to deal with depression in children. The Office of Suicide Prevention has teamed up with the crisis Call Center to provide twenty-four hour support to anyone who calls their Suicide Prevention Hotline. However, many do not call, as is clear with the high rate of suicide. Suicide Prevention Awareness training has also been offered to over 900 Nevadans. Furthermore, using the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Act federal grant award, the Office of Suicide Prevention has partnered with Nevada PEP to provide youth mental health screenings in schools and primary health care settings. And while Screenings have proven somewhat effective at identifying many youths at risk of suicide, and protocol ensures referral to, and follow up with appropriate mental health service, many are still misdiagnosed to have ADD or go completely undiagnosed. Moreover, this method of therapy is expensive, often unaffordable, and more often than not, not fully covered by insurance. Children affected by depression have little to no idea of the Suicide Prevention Hotline, have likely had little to no contact with the small ratio of trained Nevadans, and have little energy, let alone the experience, to seek help.

              Those who are identified as children affected by depression are typically sent to therapy or placed on expensive medication. The preferred treatment for severe depression is both medication and psychotherapy [3], as psychotherapy alone is unlikely to prevent suicidal individuals from attempting to kill themselves. In addition, the FDA warns that antidepressants may pose risks that are not worth the benefits when prescribed for children or adolescents affected by depression, with adverse side effects of aggression, further withdrawal, or even an increased risk of suicide.

              While recognition of childhood depression is growing, the majority of the attention is on teenagers fifteen years and older.  This is reasonable as the risk of suicide is higher in this age group, however children still suffer from neglect in the lack of effective treatment.  The entirety of the symptoms, ultimately including suicidal efforts, does occur in these groups as previously mentioned.  While the prevalence isn’t as great in children as it is in teenagers, it is reasonable to assume that many teens suffering from depression also suffered undiagnosed episodes of depression at an earlier age—at an age when treatment may have been more effective, as it is the time coping skills are best learned. So, while the Crisis Call Center’s Suicide Prevention Hotline continues to increase in call volume with 28,051 calls in 2009 to 29,370 calls in 2010, perhaps signifying victims slipping through the cracks, there remains an opportunity . For as figure 2 demonstrates, the number of Nevadan youth that turn to suicide is tragically inflated.

              graph 2

              Solution: To combat this growing issue of suicide and its underlying contributor depression in Nevadan youth, I offer a solution that will nip the problem in the bud: the use of aquaponic greenhouses on elementary school grounds.

              Starting in fifth grade and continuing to sixth, students will be given access to a greenhouse on their school’s campus in which to grow plants from seeds and raise fish. This would ultimately provide children with an opportunity of increased access to sunlight in an age with an ever stronger reliance on indoor computers, and with a chance to grow something that relies on them, as this will help the individuals feel more important utilizing increased responsibility, including those who go undiagnosed as affected with adolescent depression. In addition, the calm, group environment will better allow them to attain the ability to manage their stress and emotions.

              The reasons: Sunlight has been shown to balance moods and keep sleeping patterns stable as has been proven with those suffering from seasonal affective disorder. While children spend more and more time indoors, with video games, TV and computers, sunlight exposure naturally decreases. In this vein, the lack of exercise they practice with be supplemented, too, which in itself is highly effective and recommended way of preventing depression (Carnacho, 222). Diet is a third basic issue that will be address as studies have shown that growing one’s own food helps with depression and will encourage healthier eating habits. In fact, one study found that thirty minutes of gardening decreasing cortisol (stress hormone) levels more than staying indoors and reading (Van Den Berg, A.E, 11).

              Children will be given the chance to grow their own maize, beans, and squash. The idea of this also lends itself also history class learning, and offers hands on learning at that. The agricultural methods of The Three Sisters or the companion cropping of these three aforementioned vegetables will be utilized, in which the maze stalks serve as the climbing frame for the beans, the beans add nitrogen to the soil, and the squash block sunlight to avoid unwanted weeds (Phil Dudman). To be a lucrative venture, local demand of produce such as lettuce could be grown as well, by the younger age groups of the first through fourth grade. In fact, an aquaponic owner, Rob Goodier had stated that, “One five-foot tower can produce more than 200 heads of lettuce per year. And it uses a small fraction of the water needed to grow crops in soil.” This can be sold for approximately $0.50 a head. Meager, perhaps, but the real values come in with that saved with the prevented suicides.

              This companion gardening in conjunction with fish tanks, in which the plants and fish form a symbiotic ecosystem, will minimize water need, eliminate soil completely, and the only real cost after initial construction with be fish food. But growing tilapia can pay for this if as an agreement with restaurants and retailers in the local market can purchase the fish and the vegetables. The time needed is a brief thirty minutes a day and the program can be utilized by both the science and history departments varying classrooms responsible throughout the year, leaving lasting knowledge on ways to cope with stress and emotions.

              The blanket approach of this method eliminates the issue associated with misdiagnoses and those that elude identification, as all children are involved, not just those children affected by depression. It also gives more chances for socialization in a calm environment, and can ultimately fund itself after the initial construction of the greenhouse.

              Costs:  The cost for the initial construction of the greenhouse is approximately $25,000, including labor. With the construction of solar panels, crop output would increase, electricity cost would disappear, and energy could be sold back to the city. In addition with a 30% federal tax incentive, as well as state and local incentives, the cost for the panels drops significantly.diagram1

              The consumption per kWh of power in Reno, NV is $0.15 taken from of average of summer peak, summer off-peak, and the pricing for October through May. No more than 4,500 kWh are expected to be consumed annually, as the average household consumes, 8,900 and are much larger in square footage and furthermore, more diverse and plentiful in their electrical appliances. Thus only $56.25 would be expected monthly to pay for the energy consumption of the greenhouse to run the aquarium pumps and the strip lighting which the profit of selling fish and crops to local markets would more than cover. Thus this cost can be eliminated all together, and at the same time protect crops from over exposure to the sun. The sun provides 1,000 W/m² while plants only require 250 to 350 W/m². This excess inhibits plant growth rather than lending itself to it. The solution to this problem is the Chinese lean-to greenhouse with partitioned solar panels. Figure 1 illustrates the set up of the Chinese lean-to style greenhouse.

              Staffing costs are not a concern as while the children learn and benefit from the greenhouse, they are tending to it. Teacher will provide supervision just as any P.E. teacher would. As mentioned the program has ties to both science and history classes, and can also be utilized to demonstrate healthy eating habits in health classes, and serve as subject matter for writing projects for English classes.diagram1

              [linebreak]

              Cost of cabbage towers and larger system organics: Addition towers could be constructed to grow heads of cabbage rapidly to keep up with the demand of local markets and create more monetary flow. The breakdown cost of these system’s initial construction follows along with the starting seed costs and fingerlings prices. Ultimately the Tilapia will breed new generations and the crops will produce more seeds.

              Conclusion: With the construction of an aquaponics greenhouse on elementary school grounds, a strong foundation will be laid for every child that participates. The project will eventually pay for itself and these funds could go to create additional greenhouses at surrounding schools, or into other non-profit programs.  No participating child will fall through the cracks as too often happens with mental health screenings, as all will be given equal access granting a sense of equality, a calm environment, and a sense of responsibility.

              Children will be cutting crops rather than their lives short.

              [1]Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
              [2] Research America, www.researchamerica.org/uploads/factsheet21suicide.pdf
              [3] Cytryn &McKnew, 143

                Beneath the Bathtub

                Beneath the Bathtub

                Thomas enjoyed baths—the water, the bubbles, the toys! With his duck float around his waist there was nothing scary that could grab him, unlike in the deep water of an ocean, lake, or even the deep pool at school, which was said to be home to a great white shark. Thomas was safe. He thought that, at least… until it happened.

                It was a school night and Thomas was taking a bath after finishing all of his homework. He was playing with his favorite toy pirate ship and a new rubber duck. In his imagination, Captain Bluebeard was exploring the bubble islands with his first mate, a rubber duck.

                Thomas’s mother and father had gone out to do some grocery shopping, so he was all alone. He likely wouldn’t have been as frightened as he was if his parents had been home. He’d have probably thought it was his parents calling him from downstairs when he heard the muffled voice. But it wasn’t from downstairs. The voice that said, “I want to play,” came from the bathtub drain! A wet and longing voice—it was muffled by the plug and the water, but Thomas heard it again.

                It said, “Please let me play.”

                Thomas scooted to the far side of the tub, furthest from the drain plug and the voice.  He was too scared to do anything. The smart thing to do would have been to get out of the tub and hide under his bed covers, he thought, but he stayed in the fast cooling water, paralyzed with fear.

                “I know you can hear me,” the voice said. “I want to play, too.”

                Finally, Thomas worked up the courage to speak. He said, “Where are you?” It was the more important question at the moment; more important than asking who it was beneath the bathtub.

                “Down here, silly,” said the muffled voice. “Shh! Don’t tell mommy.”

                “Down where?” Thomas looked, searching madly for a speaker or some other explanation for the voice. Surely this voice was not in the drain. It was then that he heard scratching along the bottom of the tub.

                “Come play,” said the voice and it sounded scary now, like a fountain of water came out of its mouth when it spoke instead of air.

                “I’m done playing!” Thomas cried. “Who are you?”

                “Why, I’m Tommy,” said the voice, thick with water. “Mommy didn’t like me playing in the tub.”

                “But my name is Tom. Thomas. My mom calls me Tommy.”

                “We’re both Tommy, silly,” the voice said and laughed.

                The scratching at the bottom of the tub moved towards the drain plug. After a moment of quiet, the drain plug moved up. The thing under the tub was poking it! Poke. Poke. Poke.

                Thomas wanted to rush over and push it back down, but he was still frozen in terror. Water suddenly started rushing down the drain. Captain Bluebeard steered his ship into the whirlpool and disappeared down the drain, and the new rubber duck followed. After the water had drained completely, Thomas stood up. It appeared the owner of the voice, Tommy, had disappeared just as quickly as he came. Thomas grabbed his towel to dry off.

                Then he heard the squeak from the new rubber duck.

                Squeak, squeak, squeak.

                His heart dropped into the pit of his stomach.

                “We haven’t finished playing yet,” said the voice and it was clearer now that the water was gone. “Mommy didn’t like me playing.”

                “Maybe we shouldn’t play then,” Thomas said and since the voice cared very much what its mother thought, he added, “Mommy wouldn’t like it if we did.”

                “No. Mommy doesn’t like playing,” the voice said, sadly. “Is mother there?”

                “No.”

                “Then we can play!”

                Thomas moved closer to the drain and peeked down it. He saw blackness and the faint shine of light reflecting off of water, and an eye. Yes, an eye was looking up at him!

                “What if she catches us?” Thomas said, very much not wanting to play with the thing beneath the tub. He thought if he scared the owner of the voice into thinking its mother would find out, it would just leave him alone.

                “There’s no water left,” the voice said. “She can’t drown you if there’s no water and she can’t kill me twice. So we can play all night!”

                “She drowned you?”

                “She didn’t like me playing in the tub,” the voice sobbed.  “Wait—” The voice paused as if it heard something. Thomas too heard something. The front door. His father and mother were home. At least he hoped it was them… It could be the voice’s mother.

                The voice said, “Mommy says to go to bed. I’ll give your toys back next time you take a bath.”

                A knock at the bathroom door made Thomas jump. His mother’s voice called through the door, “Don’t be playing around in there, Tommy.”

                Thomas never took a bath again despite his parents and friends pleading him to. His mother wanted him to bathe most of all.

                “Better dirty than dead,” he’d always say until he got an infection from the filth and died.

                Read More

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                  A Midnight Snack

                  A Midnight Snack

                  When summer came along the heat came with it, and Jacob would go to camp where he could swim to cool down. There, he bunked with his best friend Chris, and a heavyset boy named Andrew, in the cabin furthest from all the others. Their cabin was nearest the local graveyard, which was actually quite pretty in the daylight with all the grass and old trees. Still, it was scary with all the rumors of ghouls making it their home. Ghouls like to eat little boys, you see, so you can understand why this might scare Jacob, Chris, and Andrew. It would scare you, too, if you had to sleep there.

                  At night the cabin got hot with the windows closed, but the boys were too scared to keep them open for fear of a ghoul slipping inside as they slept. The heat bothered Andrew even more than it did Jacob and Chris, for his mother only packed him sweaters to sleep in. No T-shirts, just lumpy, thick sweaters. To combat the heat, Andrew lay on the floor between the bunks. He was a nervous eater and would snack on jerky and fruit to soothe himself. Jacob didn’t mind the sound of lip smacking too much. Chris though would sometimes get so annoyed he’d go for a walk to get away from the sound.

                  The hottest day of the year proved too much. The boys’ discomfort beat out their fear of ghouls and they opened a window. Jacob strung up a cord strung with tin cans to serve as an alarm in the case of an intruder came in through the window. With the wind, though, they served more as wind chimes. Still, Jacob managed to fall asleep to Andrew licking his lips and eating jerky. He awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of clanging tin cans, but it seemed it was due to a gust of wind and he went back to sleep to the sound of Andrew’s growling stomach.

                  Perhaps an hour passed before Jacob woke once more. This time to the sound of Andrew’s stomach growling very loudly. Jacob thought he’d might tell Andrew to not eat too much, but he was too tired and quickly fell back to sleep. If Andrew got a stomach ache, it was his own fault.

                  It wasn’t long after that Jacob was woken once more, this time to the sound of a peach being eaten. Sounded like a peach, at least. Very wet and sloppy. Jacob heard Andrew’s stomach growling and knew he’d be eating for a while longer yet. He stood to use the restroom.

                  He thought he’d have to step over Andrew and felt around in the dark, but he didn’t feel him on the floor between the bunks. He wasn’t in his bunk either. Jacob figured he must’ve slipped into the space beneath the bed where it was cooler and thought nothing more of it. He felt his way to the restroom in the dark.

                  There was a window just above the sink and, when he was washing his hands, Jacob looked outside. In the moonlight he saw a figure and became very afraid. A ghoul! A ghoul! He felt like screaming, but he didn’t want the monster to know he was in the cabin and it already seemed to be heading in his direction. Jacob ran to the open window and shut it. Just as he did, he heard a bang at the cabin door. The ghoul was trying to get in!

                  Jacob jumped into his bed and covered himself in a blanket. He felt around for Andrew as he didn’t want to make a noise, yet he needed to wake him. Then he felt fingers. It was a comfort to hold Andrew’s hand thought he’d never normally do such a thing. He wasn’t alone. Andrew heard the ghoul, too. He was prepared. More prepared than he would be fast asleep, at least.

                  “Chris!” Jacob whispered to wake his friend. It was more of a hiss than anything resembling a name. “Chrissss!”

                  Chris stirred in his bed. Hearing the rattle of the door, he sat up. The door knob rattled. Then the door opened. The shadowed figure in the doorway was huge and lumpy, like the boys were always told a ghoul was. Jacob held his breath as Andrew held his hand, limply.

                  Then the light in the cabin suddenly turned switched on. After Jacob’s eyes adjusted, he saw that it wasn’t a ghoul at the door at all, but rather Andrew holding a bunch of food he’d just raided from the cafeteria, wearing his lumpy sweater.

                  Andrew’s eyes went wide as he followed Jacob’s arm down to the hand he was holding. If Andrew was at the door, then whose hand was he holding?

                  Looking down, Jacob saw why the hand he held felt so limp. It wasn’t attached to a body! Something huge and lumpy scrambled off Chris’ bed before Jacob could get a good look at it, but he knew it wasn’t his friend. It had to be a ghoul. A ghoul with a full stomach.

                  It left only Chris’ hand and a set bloody sheets behind.

                  Read More

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                    Audio Stories

                    With the help of Keely’s narration, my brother videos and art, and my scary stories for kids, we have produced a couple of audio stories that were uploaded to YouTube. Each audio story runs about six minutes long and showcases some scary, immersive sounds in addition to Keely’s character readings. Basic animation and opening are included. Take a listen if you’re not chicken. If you enjoy them, please consider thumbs upping them on YouTube and perhaps leaving a comment. I’ve included the text stories below each video. The text might be slightly different in some places as this is the text I’m using and have edited for the new Monster Under the Bed & Other Spooky Stories anthology, a collection of scary stories for children. It will serve as a lighter, less scary companion to our first book, Skeleton in the Closet and Other Scary Stories.

                    The Voice Beneath the Bathtub

                    Jericho the Scarecrow

                      Skeleton in the Closet Released

                      3dbook-1I’ve released a Kindle E-book consisting of twenty-three stories and twenty-three images to accompany the narratives. My brother David made the cover and half of the illustrations inside. I wrote the stories and created the other half of the illustrations. David’s illustrations are his unique blend of children friendly illustrations and pure horror with blood and flesh and guts. Several can be seen below. Mine are more inspired by Stephen Gammell. Though no one can compare to the creepiness of Gammell’s illustrations, and my pale in comparison, I did my best to leave things to the imagination and utilize shadows. My illustrations are digital and use public domain images Frankenstein’d together and edited heavily to create eerie pictures. The stories are a mix of short stories and long poems. Below is the Amazon store description.

                      If you like tales that will chill you to the bone, make your skin crawl, and spoil your appetite, Skeleton in the Closet and Other Scary Stories is the collection of horror stories for you. These twenty-three tales of terror are sure to thrill, as are the eerie illustrations created for each narrative. Find out what happens when you try to keep the skeleton in your closet a secret, when you clown around too much, and when you are too loud in the library. Included here are stories about getting too much sun, finding yourself in the dark surrounded by water, listening too closely to the whispers in the walls, as well as the fate of those who take candy from a stranger when it isn’t Halloween. What happens when you’re buried alive? What if you were to wake up as a giant bat? What if a person were to cross paths with a witch in the woods or a pirate crew of skeletons on the sea? Read about these frightening dilemmas and find out what’s really in that plum jelly. All this and more is here in Skeleton in the Closet and Other Scary Stories. Are you brave enough to read all these horror stories?

                      Below are a few of David Vincent Dorn’s illustrations for the book, Skeleton in the Closet and Other Scary Stories:

                      extra_skin library2 clown

                      The bloody skeleton is for the story Money Grubber, about a selfish money hoarder who is buried alive. The woman in the middle is The Librarian from the story, The Library is Awfully Quiet, a tale about what happens to children who break the rule of silence. The clown on the right is from the closing story titled, Clowning Around, about a boy who takes his pranks too far.

                      The book is $2.99, but we will have periods of it being available for free. It is also available for free trough the Kindle Unlimited program. Eventually, we hope to have a print version as well.

                      BUY THE BOOK:
                      amazon-icon-21118

                        New Scary Stories for Kids

                        Scary stories to tell in the dark, chilling tales, more Halloween horror

                        I’ve been writing a good number of scary stories and poems for kids to prepare for Halloween 2016. ZebraFox Games is developing a new Halloween app: Felipe Femur: Scary Stories for Kids 2, and I wanted to really flesh it out with a healthy volume of new stories. The biggest complaints of the first edition of Scary Stories for Kids (for Android) were that there were too few stories (only three) and they weren’t scary enough. I’ve strengthened the new app on both fronts.  The new Halloween/ campfire story app will have nineteen brand new scary stories in addition to the original three, bringing the total to twenty-two. While the original scary stories app only had three characters tell a story (Felipe Femur the skeleton, Sunny the vampire, and Gummy the werewolf) the new campfire boasts a company of eleven monster characters. Twelve if you count Choral the musical crab. Each character delivers two stories or poems. Each story has already been uploaded to the Felipe Femur & Friends website. As a special treat, I have created a scary image for each. Click on any of the images below to be taken to their corresponding stories. Below are ten of the twenty-two stories. Some old, most new.

                        The Chilling New Tales:

                        New Scary Stories for Kids Scary Halloween stories  Wet, Toothless Mouths

                        Sunny the sun-loving vampire’s original tale of clammy terror. Appeared in the original scary stories app; is making its return. Read as Sunny tries to worm his way out of a tight situation.
                        Vampire story for kids scary

                         Emergence

                        Sunny the sun-loving vampire’s new tale of terror. Inspired and written in Kafka’s Metamorphosis fashion, Sunny wakes up as a giant bat beast. Read how he keeps from going batty.
                        how to hang a witch scary story for kids

                         Wind in the Tree Tops

                        Runny the witch is one of the original four characters, but she was sadly left out of the original story app for lack of room and data resources. This is her first of two tales that is wickedly eerie. ‘Beware the wind that blows towards home!’

                         
                        captain no beard and skeleton crew of pirates  Captain No-beard and the Skeleton Crew

                        One of the lighter of the new scary stories, this one follows newcomer Oscar Burlin, the mundane magician, as he serves as a ship’s potato peeler in his youth. A run in with the infamous captain No-beard leaves him rattled.
                        Dentist horror stories  The Depraved Dentist

                        Gummy the toothless werewolf served up a tales about slender tenders and a cursed can-opener the first time around. This time he explains his fear of dentists in a tale inspired by unfortunately true tales of greed and horror.
                        Spider poems for kids creepy  In a Room Thick with Darkness

                        In a Room Thick with Darkness is one of two scary poems/potential songs included in the lineup. This one is a bedtime story Melody heard going up, recited by Choral the musical crab as Melody the banshee is mute. The poem is supposed to have a bit of a twist at the end and leave reader’s skin crawling. It’s a quick read.
                        Killer vacuum vaccum story for kids children  Dust Destroyers

                        Dale the profitless salesman is so consumed with the acquisition of money and being shady that he can be hard to relate to. In this tale of inanimate horror he plays the hero… sort of. See if Dale can clean up his act and save the world.
                        Bathtime stories for children and kids bath time  The Voice Beneath the Bathtub 

                        Perhaps the creepiest of the new tales, The Voice Beneath the Bathtub is story from Gilli Fishel’s perspective. Now knowing how to swim is a problem, but he thought he was safe in the bathtub with his duck float Tate.  He was wrong. This story has also been narrated by Keely Nesbit and uploaded as an audio story to YouTube. You can listen to it here: The Voice Beneath the Bathtub.
                        Scary campfire stories to tell in the dark ghoul cabin  The Sound of a Hungry Stomach

                        Felipe Femur’s second story shares a theme with his first: being eaten. While his first story ends with a twist, on a humorous note, this second story is far more grave.  Read about Felipe’s experience at camp in the cabin nearest the cemetery.
                        on the menu scary story cat can we do it now?  Is It on the Menu?

                        Wesley Richards (Wes Noyer – in the noir series, La Chat Noir) serves up a creepy tale of foreboding. Is it on the menu and what exactly is ‘it?’ Find out in Wesley’s story and check out is earthworm of a song, as well. Read all these and many more in the scary stories section of Felipe Femur & Friends.

                         

                        The Spooky New App:

                        The new app version of these scary stories to tell in the dark (for kids) is now available for Android devices. It is avaible to download on SlideMe and for browser play on Gamejolt, Newgrounds, and Felipe Femur, where it seems to be faring better than it is on GooglePlay. We have very few download on Google Play for now, but hopefully with Halloween coming and the new screenshot on the original, more popular app directing attention to the new app, we will get more downloads soon. Below is the trailer video for the new Scary Stories for Kids 2 with a little parody of the Nightmare Before Christmas to start it off. Download the Android version here: Scary Stories for Kids 2.

                         

                          Felipe Femur: Postcards

                          postcards

                          I’ve started a new series for kids on the Felipe Femur & Friends website called “Postcards from Felipe.” Starting from Toonstone, the fictional hometown of Felipe Femur the skeleton, Felipe and a crew of monsters will set out into the mortal world, traveling to Nevada and moving through Arizona, California, and beyond. Each postcard will be a short letter addressed to “friends” and tell readers a little something about the area, as well as a brief story concerning the RV crew’s exploits and adventures. I’ve started writing about places I have personally been so a lot of my personal experiences serve as inspiration. Nevertheless, I will eventually move on to places I have not been and rely more on factual research to craft the stories. I hope to have fans send in places they want Felipe Femur to visit.

                          As of now the crew consists of Felipe Femur the skeleton, Sunny the vampire, Runny the witch, Gummy the werewolf, Joe Miller, an average Joe, and Melody the banshee with her pet crab Choral. Other Toonstone characters will likely show up throughout the series, and new friends will be made. There is an overarching story related to aliens, so many of the places Felipe and his RV crew visit will be know for UFO sightings, such as Rachel, NV, the mortal world starting place. Several of the bigger cities will see several postcards dedicated to them. Below are the nine postcards that I have for the launch:

                          FelipePostcardgreen

                          Rachel, NV

                          		 FelipePostcard_grand-canyon

                          Grand Canyon, AZ

                          		 FelipePostcard_ROADSTOP

                          Beatty, NV
                          FelipePostcard_shark

                          Las Vegas, NV

                          		 FelipePostcard_VEGAS_2

                          Las Vegas, NV

                          		 FelipePostcard_ufo

                          Nowhere, CA
                          FelipePostcard_Baker, CA

                          Baker, CA

                          		 FelipePostcard_Cecil_hotel

                          Los Angeles, CA

                          		 FelipePostcard_universal

                          Los Angeles, CA

                          Clicking on each will bring you to the related post on the Felipe Femur & Friends website. The banner above is linked to the main Postcards from Felipe post on the same website. If you enjoyed these postcards, stay tuned for more. Felipe Femur and his RV crew of monsters have lots of places to see and plenty of adventures to have. We have also developed an Android app version of the postcard stories that has postcards 1-13. Fore the Android app click here: Felipe Femur:Postcards. The app provides vacation-esque music, a smoother interface, and a great title screen that you can see in the demo video of the app below:

                            Social Media Links

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                            The following is a set of Twitter accounts and website links that I have had some involvement with. This involvement ranges from being the primary holder of the account, to being the creator of the idea such as Felipe Femur, to being a staff reviewer, to simply serving as editor/photographer/logo artist/or providing some other small contribution. Beside each image is a brief description that gives a link to the account or website, as well as an overview of what the link might provide to viewers. Click any image to check out the related Twitter account or website—they have been linked as well.

                            TWITTER

                            WEBSITES
                            Russell_500 Personal Twitter account: @DornRussell. RT. Literary fiction focus with elements of the horror genre. Mostly retweets of literary magazine Twitter accounts, with occasional posts about personal stories, projects, or interests. wordsofwolfman3 Personal website. Gives information on myself, my work, and my future projects. Post work from Felipe Femur, ZebraFox Games, as well as academic papers and literary fiction writing work.
                            UcoZK0hz_400x400 Twitter account of Indie Game Designer and Artist (Graphic Design, UI Design, 3D Development, Animation) David Dorn: @daviddorn Artistic director of ZFG. Posts and RT only ZFG, Felipe Femur, and Personal interests. UcoZK0hz_400x400 Personal Website of the Indie Game Designer and Artist (Graphic Design, UI Design, 3D Development, Animation) David Dorn: http://hugyu.com/life/ Artistic director of ZFG. Links to all his previous work for Felipe Femur, ZebraFox Games, 5000 Ft, and freelance work.
                            MhVr8veP_400x400 App Apes app review account: @Appapescom. Only original content. Updates on current reviews, information about App APes articles, and calls for submissions. MhVr8veP_400x400 Free app review website: http://app-apes.com/ Provides free reviews of iOS, Android, and Windows game and apps. Uses unique rating system and free platform. Produces articles and compiles lists of indie game developers and other app review websites.
                            sIhTdBpT_400x400

                            Felipe Femur the skeleton with a lot of heart, character account: @FelipeFemur. RT. Children/cartoon focus. Posts crafts, stories, and updates, as well as retweets humorous and educational tweets from other kid friendly Twitter accounts.

                            sIhTdBpT_400x400

                            		 Felipe Femur & Friends children’s website: http://www.felipefemur.com/. Provides children with free games, stories, word searches and other puzzles, meet and greet, character bios, contests, coloring sheets, articles, and craft ideas.
                            LOGO ZebraFox Games App development company Twitter account: @ZebrafoxGames. Posts only original content, including ZFG game news, promotions, and throwbacks. Also posts content related to the Felipe Femur game line. LOGO ZebraFox Games is a two man production. Website: team http://www.zebrafoxgames.com/ offers information on the creators, their projects, and press received, as well as upcoming projects and ideas. Links to all developed games can be found on the front page.
                            KAKE Kake cosmetic and hygene startup company Twitter account: @Kake_Co. RT. Retweets and posts content about related products, promotions, and updates. Products include salt scrubs, soaps, lotions, lip balms, and candles. KAKE Etsy shop page for Kake an upcycling canadle and hygiene startup company with products such as soaps, candles, and lip balms. Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KakeCo. Two longtime friends hand-making products for you!
                            msQWr58k_400x400 어패럴, 패션잡화, 쥬얼리를 비롯한 다양한 품목의 트렌드를 주도하는 컨템포러리 브랜드 악토눈. Twitter account: @Actonoon. Not very active given it’s a Korean company and doesn’t use Twitter. msQWr58k_400x400 South Korean e-boutique website: http://actonoon.com/. Posts jewelry products, including necklaces, braclets, and rings, as well as Korean celebrities wearing said products, published in professional magazines.
                            logo (1) Twitter account of the company Choice of Games LLC.: @choiceofgames Produces and hosts high-quality text-based multiple-choice interactive fiction games Android, iOS, PC, and Amazon. logo (1) Website for the company Choice of Games LLC./ Hosted Games: www.choiceofgames.com. Produces and hosts high-quality text-based multiple-choice interactive fiction games Android, iOS, PC, and Amazon.

                              Making Kombucha with Keely

                              I decided to try making Kombucha at my girlfriend Keely’s suggestion. Kombucha is any of a variety of fermented, fizzy sweetened black or green tea that are commonly intended as functional beverages for their supposed health benefits. Kombucha is produced by fermenting tea using a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast otherwise known as a the acronym SCOBY. Contributing microbial populations in SCOBY cultures differ, but the yeast component generally includes Saccharomyces, a probiotic fungus, and other species. The bacterial element almost always includes Gluconacetobacter xylinus , as this oxidizes yeast-produced alcohols to acetic and other acids. We named our first SCOBY Scoby-doo in a play on the famous name, Scooby-doo, the talking great Dane in Mystery, inc. To start, we purchased a SCOBY and a couple cheese cloths from Amazon. While we waited for this colony and cheesecloth to arrive via the post, we stopped by the store and picked up two 1-gallon jars, opting for the kind with the faucet built in for ease of draining. I liked the turquoise one as it was like that of the Mystery Machine. We had plenty of tea and raw cane sugar already, so once the SCOBY and cheesecloth arrived we had everything we needed to begin the two-week process.

                              Making Kombucha

                              We started by boiling a dozen black tea bags on the stove. We chose to use distilled water, but tap water supposedly works just as well, and since you boil it, all bad bacteria should be killed off regardless of what water you use. Once it was well steeped, we added a cup of raw cane sugar. After we made sure the sugar had dissolved into the tea, we took the pot off the heat, fished out the tea bags, and allowed the tea to cool to room temperature. This took around an hour. Once the tea was cool, we opened our packaged SCOBY and placed it in the bottom of the one gallon jar, followed by the sugar tea we just brewed.

                              IMG_2677

                              Placing the cheesecloth on the lip of the jar, we secured it with a rubber-band. It’s important to make sure nothing (flies, pets, etc.) can get into the jar, but also important that the pressure created during the process has a way of escape. Thus the cheesecloth rather that the secure metal/plastic lid. Tucking this mixture away in a dark cupboard, we allowed it to ferment for a week. By the week’s end, the SCOBY had feasted on the sugar in the tea and grown two fold. Where it started as a same circumference as a can of soda, it now stretched all the way to the walls of the glass jar.

                              Making Kombucha

                              After a week of fermenting, we were ready for stage two. We used a juicer to make a about a half gallon of kiwi and orange juice. (You can use pure fruit juice from the store if you wish). Using a dozen mason jars we added the kiwi and orange juice to the jars, and filled them about a third of the way. We then used the built in faucet to fill the jars an addition 50% with the fermented tea. As we had a batch of strawberries, we added a whole strawberry to each of the jars, as well.  We screwed the lids on, making sure not to seal them completely, as again the fermenting process produces gases that could cause the jars to crack or even explode if there is no escape for the gases. We let the jars sit for another week before trying one. After chilling a jar in the fridge and then straining it, we tried it. It has a very vinegary taste to it, with a light, fruity flavor.

                              IMG_2711

                              We strained the remaining jars and added them all together in a large jar, which we refrigerate to prevent further fermenting, as this could lead to a higher alcohol level. For fun, we had everyone at a party take a shot of the stuff and had no complaints other than the unique, abrasive flavor. Below is the final product. It’s quite red as the strawberries we striped of their color.

                              IMG_2713

                              It is also interesting to note that each mason jar seemed to form a new mini SCOBY and we decided to add all these to a second 1-gallon jar with more sugar and tea to see it it works out. You can see a pile of the new SCOBYs two images above on the right side. The original SCOBY, Scoby-Doo, will produce new layers that are actually new SCOBYs, which is why we bought the second 1-gallon jar to begin with. The second SCOBY is to be called… I can’t remember, actually. It was something related to Lord of the Rings, I believe. Another pun, no doubt.

                              IMG_2664

                                The Making of ‘Carol’s Song’ – Music Video

                                 

                                 

                                Lyrics:

                                Verse one:
                                She takes love, and warps it,
                                inks you in next to her scribbles.
                                Names her child for you, and hits him.
                                I squeeze the memories from my pores,
                                and she precipitates acid rain.
                                Chorus:
                                For she never loved you until she had use for you,
                                see we’re always waiting for something.
                                Even a beautiful song anticipates its crescendo.
                                Was that sky always so dull?
                                Verse two:
                                I fear that a soulless house is not a home.
                                Holidays are gone now, never to return.
                                Television never stops.
                                Please don’t let my Bee fly away.

                                  Felipe Femur Contests

                                  We’ve decided to run two contests for the Felipe Femur website: a fan art contest and a design your own character contest. Both are open worldwide and to all ages. We wanted to raise awareness of the Felipe Femur website and hoped a contest with prizes might encourage people to visit the site and see what it has a to offer. The Felipe Femur Fan Art contest has one prize of a $50.00 gift card and a $127.00 Budsies® stuffed Felipe Femur. The Monster Maker: Design Your Own Monster prize is less tangible but the winner also receives a $50.00 gift card to Toy “R” Us. The winner also gets their monster transformed into a Felipe Femur universe character with a bio page on the website. This contest opens up more space for creativity so the two will be judged slightly differently. The two Felipe Femur contests are free to enter. Click the banner below to learn more on the official contest page on the Felipe Femur website.

                                  Fanart_Contest

                                  Felipe Femur Fan Art Contest

                                  The Felipe Femur Fan Art contest is here!  Participate from April 9th, 2016 to October 31st, 2016 for your chance to win the grand prize of a $50.00 Toys “R” Us gift card and one of a kind 30″ Felipe Femur the friendly skeleton Budsies® plushie. To enter, simply submit an original work of art based on the Felipe Femur universe, and you’ll be entered in the contest for a chance to win the 30″ Felipe Femur Budsies® ($127 value) as well as the $50.00 Toys “R” Us gift card. Send us your best effort at coloring one of our many character sheets found below or try your hand at free hand drawing, painting, sculpting, or utilizing any form of artistic media (film, writing, photography, cooking, etc.) to depict one or more of the characters found in the character corner of this website. All ages are welcome to participate; children are encouraged to. After all, Felipe Femur the skeleton believes that age shouldn’t matter when it comes to making art and using your imagination. All entries must be received by October 31st, 2016 and meet the image formatting guidelines. Check out the prizes below or read the official rules for more information. By submitting you confirm that you have read and agree with our Official Contest Terms and Privacy Policy. For children under the age of eighteen (18) in the USA or under the legal age of consent in their country of origin, a consent form must be filled out by a parent or legal guardian and submitted with entry. Find out more and submit your entry/entries here: Fan Art Contest.

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                                  Monster Maker: Design Your Own Monster Contest

                                  The Monster Maker: Design Your Own Monster contest is here!  Participate from April 9th, 2016 to October 31st, 2016 for your chance to win the grand prize of a $50.00 Toys “R” Us gift card and the opportunity to have your monster made into a Felipe Femur universe character in the Monster Maker: Design Your Own Monster Contest with a bio page in the character corner section. To enter, simply submit an original work of art based on the Felipe Femur universe, and you’ll be entered in the contest for a chance to win a $50.00 Toys “R” Us gift card and opportunity to have your monster creation made into a Felipe Femur universe character. Try your hand at drawing, painting, sculpting, or utilizing any form of artistic media (film, writing, photography, cooking, etc.) to depict your original creation. Feel free to include a a brief bio and name for your monster. All ages are welcome to participate; children are encouraged to. After all, Felipe Femur the skeleton believes that age shouldn’t matter when it comes to making art and using your imagination. All entries must be received by October 31st, 2016 and meet the image formatting guidelines. Check out the prizes below or read the official rules for more information. By submitting you confirm that you have read and agree with our Official Contest Terms and Privacy Policy. For children under the age of eighteen (18) in the USA or under the legal age of consent in their country of origin, a consent form must be filled out by a parent or legal guardian and submitted with entry. Find out more and submit your entry/entries here: Fan Art Contest.

                                    The Evolution of Felipe Femur

                                    The Evolution of Felipe Femur - original sketch The Evolution of Felipe Femur The Evolution of Felipe Femur

                                    I’d like to think that Felipe Femur has come a long way from being a mere idea in my head for a Halloween themed children’s story character to a developed set of bones with a cast of friends, a website, and series of mobile games. I’d also like to believe that he still has a long way to go. The introverted skeleton with a lot of heart, I think, remains an interesting character and an anchor for his ironic and quirky friends. As such, there are many stories to be told with him and his friends. But Felipe’s future would be nothing if not for his past.

                                    It is perhaps best to begin with a description of Felipe Femur for those who are new to the character: Like most skeletons in the closet, Felipe tends to stay hidden away. In other words, he’s usually a lone wolf, as his friend Gummy the toothless werewolf likes to say. In his closet he loves to build things: forts, houses of cards, and he also loves to solve puzzles, but sometimes he grows bored of these things. On occasions he yearns for time with his friends.  And so he invites them over to pull up a coat hanger and hang out, or he walks to find them. Being the health nut he is, Felipe loves to walk, and in doing so, he meets many new friends, and he meets up with old friends, too. Maybe someday, if you’re out and about, he’ll walk into you! When Felipe doesn’t feel like walking, he’ll sometimes use his magical closet door to travel. The door’s origin is as elusive as Felipe’s past. All that is known is that with a couple twists of his skeleton key, his closet door can open in any location where a closet is found. He never does this uninvited for he has accidentally scared people when they open their closet in search of a sweater and find a surprise skeleton. Felipe loves music and can often be found playing a pair of maracas. He also sometimes plays the bongos and sings in his band, The Skeletones.

                                    We at ZebraFox Games chose to create something that would better the lives of those who stumbled upon it, no matter how small that betterment might be. This was the idea behind the website, but also the original story.  The theme of Felipe Femur came naturally for I’ve always loved the theme of monsters, the thrill of reading spooky stories starting with R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps series, and the ironic nature of things such as Alanis Morissette’s song Ironic ironically not being ironic and physic medium conventions being canceled due to unforeseeable circumstances. With an initial idea of an introverted skeleton living in a closet, I brainstormed with the artistic director of ZebraFox Games, David, to get a general idea and the desired direction of the work. With this base idea, I went about writing, struggling with rhymes, alliteration, and the length in order make the original story appeal to children, but making sure to avoid dumbing it down by any means. I believe the original story still carries a very real message: Felipe is an introverted, not shy, protagonist, who shouldn’t be afraid to rely on others once in awhile. In an extroverted world, introverts often struggle. Felipe is all bones with nowhere to hide is inner self for his inner self is his outer self. With the absence of a stomach, nose, and skin, Felipe and his friends illustrate that no one person can do, or at least not be great, at everything, and we must all rely on one another. Making it clear that Felipe has friends challenges the stereotype of introverts as being antisocial weirdos, and depicts them as those that still need social interact, but simple recharge in private, and have solitary hobbies. Felipe Femur was and is intended to be the base upon on which many more related stories may build upon. The original story itself follows Felipe as he helps three of his friends: Gummy the toothless werewolf, Runny the woozy witch, and Sunny the sun-loving vampire. While I had initially imagined it being a print and picture children’s book, it evolved during production to be an interactive bedtime story. The story was paired with a jumping platformer game and made into an Android app. The original title screen for this app can be seen below. It was changed slightly before release, using less colors and showcasing Gummy’s crescent moon shack more than Felipe’s face. This was a decision made by artistic director, David Dorn (I was a fan of the colors myself).

                                    title Screen The Evolution of Felipe Femur

                                    Early on, Felipe Femur had three friends with rhyming names as rhymes are a tool used to get a child’s interest and encourage them to read. Rhymes can be fun, but this became a bit of a problem when we decided to expand the Felipe femur universe to include new friends. I’d already run out of rhymes, save for Mummy. Thus the rhyming friends became Felipe’s inner circle and the new ones settled to be more acquaintances or fair weather friends or even adversaries. Several of these friends made appearances in other ZebraFox Games productions, such as Wesley Richards the cat mayor in City Blocks, as a human nicknamed Zebra in No Proper Thief, and the upcoming Blame (which began before the idea for Felipe Femur was ever conceived). Clyde Lamm the ghost was the protagonist in No Proper Thief, and Oscar the main character of Rock, Paper, Wizards! Dale the profitless salesman makes an appearance in the upcoming Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures app. Perhaps the first character to really get back to the ironic motif of the Felipe Femur universe was Gilli Fishel, a young lagoon creature who has a fear of water. Gilli appears in the Digital Dreidel app, and a couple stories were written from his perspective: The Yawning Deep and Surf Session Lesson. He also appears in the Felipe Femur & Friends neighborhood meet and greet app along with all the others. Melody the mute banshee followed Gilli and became a love interest to the charming Clyde Lamm, making her first appearance in the poem The Theremin’s Melody and a subsequent appearance in Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures. Beyond this, David and I have several characters in mind that includes an idiotic disembodied brain, a humorless clown, a hydrated mummy, a down to earth alien, Joe Miller, who makes his first appearance in Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures, Dale’s competitor, Lucy and the Unicorns, Lurking Larry, and a vegan wendigo.

                                    Since the release of the original Felipe Femur story app, we have released several other games. The popular scary stories app, Halloween Campfire Stories, that features spooky tales from Gummy, Sunny, and Felipe; Dr. Sweet Tooth that is both sweet and gross; Rock, Paper, Wizards! that showcases Oscar Burlin’s story and cameos Runny the witch; Present Danger that has cute plushies of Felipe, Dale, Runny, and Gummy; Digital Dreidel with Gilli Fishel; and Gummy’s Thanksgiving Feast with a very hungry Gummy the toothless werewolf. I took care to make each character have an ironic nature. The four originals have been mentioned, as have the ideas for upcoming characters and Melody the mute banshee, but the newer, presently available, characters are equally ironic. For example, Oscar is a mundane magician. It’s ironic because magicians are all about showmanship and excitement and Oscar is dull. Another is Clyde Lamm who is a spirited spectre, which is unusual as he’s full of life but also dead. Dale is a profitless salesman, and was one of the more difficult characters to think of an ironic quirk. He was a character created by David Dorn long ago for a 100 day 100 painting challenge. He was a good character, but needed something ironic to fit into the Felipe Femur world. After many hours of thinking, I finally had something that worked. He’s profitless because Lurking Larry, a behind the scenes type of character who is never seen but always present, is always stealing Dale’s clients and sales by undercutting his prices.

                                    Below are several of the characters introduced in the original or after. From left to right: Gilli Fishel the lagoon creature, Gummy the toothless werewolf, Clyde Lamm the spirited spectre, Runny the woozy witch, and Oscar Burlin the mundane magician. After Felipe, I’ve found that Sunny the sun-loving vampire was always my personal favorite. David took a particular liking to Gummy the toothless werewolf, as do many people.

                                    gilli gummy Character_Clyde_front runny Oscar

                                    As we had a large and growing cast of ironic monsters and quirky weirdos, we thought it would be a good time to do a meet and greet. Thus the idea for the Felipe Femur & Friends Android app and HTML5 file were born. David and I spent hours visiting children’s sites to see what would be engaging to children and found that besides games, videos, music, that explorable settings like the Beverly Cleary website’s Explore the Neighborhood section were engaging. We wanted to go above and beyond that simple point and click neighborhood; however, and make something where kids and parents could really get a feel for the characters we created. This project was admittedly more in the hands of the artistic director, David, as it is heavily art based. I simply had to write scripts for each character and find voice actors to voice the characters, submit ideas and suggestions for residences, mini games, and touch ups throughout the three month period it took to complete, as well as compile sound effects, promote the app, and write up a press release and app store description. It came out better than expected in my opinion. Now children and parents and even curious adults can hear Felipe and his friends speak, play several mini games, learn more about each character, get links to other free games, and discover plenty of craft and recipes related to the Felipe Femur universe. I must say I was also quite impressed with the voice actors. Felipe Femur and Clyde Lamm, voiced by Dave Soltura, came out particularly well, I think. Check it out in the video below.

                                    Beyond Felipe Femur’s neighborhood, we have plans to expand the music section for the Skeletones and Melody on the website. We frequently update the website with crafts designed by our craft and recipe coordinator, Keely Nesbit, as well as new holiday word searches, coloring sheets, and stories. Educational articles and character corner updates also appear frequently. In addition to the website, I have been working on a word based Felipe femur game titled Felipe Femur: Choice Adventures. This began with the title Felipe Femur: Choice Scares, but I learned from my mistake with the Halloween Campfire Stories app that I shouldn’t imply it’s scary as players are prone to exclaim that they weren’t scared and rate it poorly as such. Even though it’s clearly for kids, as the Halloween Campfire Stories app was, I didn’t want to imply that the game will impart a universal feeling of fear. This new word and choice based app has proven to be quite time consuming. The coding is far more complicated than my sophomoric effort in No Proper Thief, especially given that the first of the three stories is open in exploration rather than linear. On top of the upcoming games, crafts, and activities, we are considering a Felipe Femur Fan Art competition with a small but considerable prize.

                                    60897_126650090719100_2151469_n Felipe_classic dfgsadfg

                                    In conclusion, I believe it’s clear from the images presented alone that Felipe Femur has matured. From a mere sketch in my journal, to a computer painting done by David Dorn, to a more rounded and kid-friendly face with eyeballs in the original Felipe Femur story app, to the short and cute skeleton he is today with a boyish voice (David Soltura) and a library of games and stories, Felipe Femur has grown. In a literal sense he has shrunken two fold, sure, but as far as depth and approachable appearance, he has developed greatly. Above from left to right: myself during an early brainstorming session; early depiction of Felipe Femur; the current official portrayal of Felipe Femur courtesy of David Dorn. Play the new Felipe Femur & Friends app; enjoy free crafts and recipes; print free coloring sheets, bingo cards, and word searches; play games; listen jazz music; and read articles and stories on the official Felipe Femur website.

                                      Felipe Femur’s List of Kid Friendly Websites

                                      bestkidfriendlywebsites

                                      The Felipe Femur website has been updated with a comprehensive and alphabetically sorted list of great kid friendly websites. Felipe Femur’s List of Kid Friendly Websites includes the big household names such as Club Penguin, Cartoon Network, Disney, Dr. Suess, Neopets, PBS, Sesame Street, as well as some less well known educational websites, with knowledge, crafts, and/or fun to share. Here is the updated website description without mention of the Zebrafox Games umbrella name, as well as the kid friendly website list blurb:

                                      Felipe Femur Website Info:

                                      Felipe Femur is a website devoted to providing kids with fun, free, and fascinating activities on the web.

                                      Felipe Femur the friendly skeleton knows the internet can be a scary and dangerous place, so he and his friends created a safe hub where children can play games, listen to music, print activity sheets, read recipes and articles, and find recommendations on movies, TV shows, books, and even other kid friendly websites all in an ad free environment. Felipe loves to share, after all–share time with his friends in character corner, share spooky stories, share free activities, share knowledge, and share fun and creative websites outside his own home page. That’s why he provides an alphabetical list of the greatest kid friendly websites. He believes the internet should be used to learn and have fun, for the betterment of everyone, and he knows that goal is better achieved with everyone working together.

                                      The Best Kid Friendly Website List:

                                      Most parents understand that the internet can be a dangerous place, especially to those who are still quite impressionable, such as children. If it exists, the internet most likely has a page dedicated to it, after all. And there are plenty of terrible things out there! Even typing in seemingly innocuous URLs can lead to unsavory and unwanted images and content, spam, and computer viruses! Felipe Femur and his friends want to help parents make healthy, safe choices when it comes to their children’s web surfing activities. Therefore they have compiled an alphabetical list of fun websites that provide wholesome, educational content to children. Enjoy the following list of approved children’s websites, and make surfing carefree and easy again! Felipe Femur always loves to learn new things, so if you come across a cool website on your own wanderings, send him an email and he and his staff will review it. If it fits within the guidelines of safe, fun, and educational, he’ll add it to the list of The Greatest Kid Friendly Websites.

                                      Take a look at Felipe Femur’s List of Kid Friendly Websites by clicking the link provided or the image above. If you know of any kids that might enjoy such a thing a list of fun websites, please let them know. And please let me know if you find any other lists that felipefemur.com might be a good fit for, or any websites that might make a nice addition to Felipe’s list, for that matter.

                                        No Proper Thief Now Available on Android

                                         

                                        No Proper Thief Now Available on ios and Android

                                        No Proper Thief

                                        In cooperation with Choice of Games, or more specifically their Hosted Games division, we at ZebraFox Games present: No Proper Thief. The gamebook is now available for download on Android and iOS (see below for the links). There are obviously some changes in the game in comparison to my previous posts on the topic. The biggest change is perhaps the user interface, including the audio that has been removed. The game now has a more readable, basic off-white back and black text interface, as is typical of the Hosted Games (HG) productions. It also has a different, less visual-heavy set up for the stats. I have also added many of the HG forum users’ suggestions to the game, including the option to run off without the team. You can check out the HG forum post by clicking the link. I did ultimately decide against the gender option after getting a mostly working option to choose gender, as I felt the choice distracted more than it added. I wanted Clyde to be a unique and memorable character as he will continue on in the non-game-book sequel, BLAME. Adding gender options also opened up a can of worms. The issues aren’t worth going into, but collectively they made the game less fun and memorable according to myself and those who tested the gendered version. On top of this, being a short story and novel writer, I fall in the camp that readers are capable of putting themselves in the protagonist’s shoes even if the story is written in second person and the character is not exactly like them. Fear not, those who are adamantly for gender options. I have learned a lot from writing a coding No Proper Thief, and though it will not have gender options, I do expect to work with Hosted Games again in publishing my ongoing project Gone Pockets. In Gone Pockets, I will make the protagonist more flexible in appearance and gender, to cater to those who really desire such choices.

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                                        Game Description

                                        Attempt to survive your first bank heist in No Proper Thief! Befriend or betray your team of bank robbers (Zebra, Marlin, and Stag), make difficult choices, survive, possibly go insane, fall in love, and get rich if you can, where every choice you make has a consequence. You never wanted a life of crime, but it’s all you know. That doesn’t mean transitioning from a life as a cocky con artist to a rookie bank robber doesn’t scare you.  In No Proper Thief you are Clyde Lamm, the Rooster, and you have a choice to make. In fact, you have plenty of choices to make throughout your upcoming adventure. Every choice has a consequence, too. You and your team, consisting of the leader Zebra, the muscle Stag, and the heart Marlin, have many obstacles to overcome. Still, in the midst of all the dark chaos of the initial robbery, there is a flame of positivity: an attractive young bank manager. Sure you stole her gold heirloom ring a while back, but it’s a fair trade because that fox is stealing your heart. Can you  make the hard choices and survive your first bank heist?

                                        lin

                                        Above is the opening animation and song we had originally intended to use for the opening of the game with the animated title screen (scrolling drops of water, flashing police lights, as will as the sound of sirens and dripping rain): Danse-Macabre Violin Hook by Kevin MacLeod.

                                        “Danse Macabre – Violin Hook” from Danse Macabre by Kevin MacLeod. Released: 2008. Genre: Classical.

                                        We at ZebraFox Games decided to go with Hosted Games for their audience, as we feared that with our thus far very limited audience, we wouldn’t have the chance to share the game with as many people as we wanted. With Hosted Games we have a dedicated, supportive audience. Anyway, I hope you get the chance to check the game out, especially if you are interesting in the ZebraFox Games upcoming project, BLAME.

                                        No Proper Thief available now on Android, Amazon, Chrome Store, and the iOS App Store:

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                                          House Arrest (Game/App) in Development

                                           

                                          house_arrest

                                          House Arrest:

                                          House Arrest / (House Unrest?) is a new smaller scale project that I have begun work on. Smaller scale than Blame, that is. Note: I am still polishing up NPT, and have temporarily taken down posts related to it, but I will update on that soon. House Arrest is a game with three major components. 1). A forum style dialogue and story – players follow a member of the Sleuths Without Suits forums, ocTOPus-8, as he/she (probably keep the gender ambiguous) deals with being under house arrest for stealing maracas as a birthday present for his/her younger sister at a Felipe Femur themed party. ocTOPus-8 is left alone as the rest of the family goes on vacation and that’s where the story picks up. in boredom, ocTOPus-8 begins talking on the Sleuths without Suits forums, a forum for amateur, non-official detectives and mystery lovers. Component 2). of the game is a grid for walking around the protagonists home and the alley/ditch just outside. There he/she stumbles upon a dead body, and returns to the forums for help on how to solve the mystery (can’t call the cops because he’d/she’d go to jail for leaving the house). Also utilizing this grid walk will be the night mode in which the protagonist astral projects and has to battle spirits. This leads to component 3). a battle system. This component will be mainly based on what David wants to do with it, but I’m imagining something similar to either Rock, Paper, Wizards or Frenzy Fighter style.

                                          Also in development is Dr. Sweet tooth 2, a sequel to Dr. Sweet Tooth. You can learn more by clicking the House Arrest IN DEVELOPMENT banner above. Here is a brief description I wrote up for House Arrest on the ZebraFox Games new In Development section.

                                          House Arrest Description:

                                          A forum, a finding, a fight for freedom. House arrest is a game that follows forum user ocTOPus-8, who is under arrest for trying to steal maracas for a birthday gift. Left alone over the weekend, ocTOPus-8 recruits the help of the other members of the forum Sleuths Without Suits to help solve a mystery. Alone, ocTOPus-8 explores home and a small perimeter, has conversations on the forum, and fights spirits during his nightly astral travels.

                                          I other news, ZebraFox Games finally got a game accepted on the YoYo Games showcase. David had gotten the game Pacman Pachiko accepted years ago, before the company really got big, but our others have all been rejected since. Until Rock, Paper, Wizards! You can read more by clicking the link I provided or clicking the image below. We also won the Indie Game round up #68 on Super Game Droid with Rock, Paper, Wizards! winning a front page add on their website. This is the same reward we received in round up #65 with Dr. Sweet Tooth. 

                                          Rock, Paper, Wizards! Marketing:

                                          yoyo_page
                                          YoYo Games Showcase Post

                                          SGD_RPW
                                          Super Game Droid Review

                                          Super Game Droid Review:

                                          From the makers of previous round-up winner Dr Sweet Tooth comes a bizarre new arcade puzzler called Rock, Paper, Wizards, that takes the classic playground game to fantastical heights. As a down on his luck children’s magician who’s become disillusioned, players will embark on a wacky quest for redemption as they compete for ethereal glory in the local wizards and magical creatures tournament which in this case takes place in the form of a rapid fire rock, paper, scissors tournament. In order to survive players need to react on a dime to the moves their opponent makes with each progressive magical foe upping the challenge even more.

                                          Other Rock, Paper, Wizards! ratings and articles around the web:

                                          I will keep you posted on progress with House Arrest. It is mainly just a story as of now. David is leaving for South Korean soon, so graphic and programming work will be on hold for a bit. This gives me time to finish up the new House Arrest story–make it really surreal and great–NPT, and also work on some literary short stories, as well as send them off to publishers.

                                            Rock, Paper, Wizards! Released

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                                            Rock, Paper, Wizards!:

                                            If you follow me on ,Twitter, you’ve almost certainly heard me mention ZebraFox’s new game, Rock, Paper, Wizards! It’s a simple game that takes the original classic that we’ve all played to either resolve a disputes or or have a little fun on the playground, and puts a new mythical face to it.

                                            David had the initial idea for Rock, Paper, Wizards! as he’s always been keen on the idea of making a rock, paper, scissors game, hence the Rock, Paper, Scissors the Card Game that the BLAME battle system is to focus on. After creating a few possible stories for Rock, Paper, Wizards!, I wrote one that we both agreed would best fit the game, making Oscar, once the villain, into the burly mustached hero. Everyone loves a good mustache, after all. The surname Burlin is a mix between Burton and Merlin, as in the stage magician of modern day, Lance Burton (2010), and the legendary wizard figure, Merlin (1136). Plus it just sounds like Burly, which Oscar Burlin is. I wrote an app store description, and did a short one page story board for the origin story of Oscar Burlin’s quest to prove himself which will most likely appear in the release of the app. I’ll post the store description below.

                                            SS_003 SS_001 SS_004

                                            App Description:

                                            In Rock, Paper, Wizards! players follow Oscar Burlin, a loving father and magician who lives modestly and literally pulls rabbits out of a hat to make ends meet. An unfulfilled, gentle and hairy potter during the day, but a magician at heart, it seems only natural that he perform at his daughter’s birthday party, and provides the entertainment to save a buck, rather than hiring another entertainer. Unfortunately, he is shamed and humiliated when his daughter, Bellatrix H.P. Burlin, and her friends claim he is not magician at all and is rather a hack who relies on cheap parlor tricks and a beautiful mustache to “entertain.” Echoing in his head are his daughter’s words, “Mom, can we get a real magician?” Oscar is truly haunted by his spoiled daughter’s words, but rather than turn to bad habits, he decides to cope another way–by proving himself. In an effort to regain his daughter’s respect, and prove to himself he’s a true wielder of magic, Oscar enters a contest of magic, the main event for the annual magical carnival: Magicians, the Gathering.

                                            Oscar’s power of split second foresight was never enough to allow him to dodge a punch, but it might be enough to give him the edge he needs while playing rock, paper, scissors.

                                            How far up the ranks can he climb? The number of contestants seems endless, and seeing as it’s a magical contest, it could truly be never ending, but Oscar will stop at nothing to be the best and make his embarrassing failure at his daughter’s birthday party all but disappear.

                                            HOW TO PLAY: Players battle an endless stream of mythical creatures, such as will-o’-the-wisps, goblins, gnomes, hippalectryons, tiny minotaurs, tarot card people, enamored rabbits, smiling spiders, wicked witches, and pint sized wizards.

                                            Players choose (tap) either rock, paper, or scissors and wage battle against opponents with the same options. To their advantage, Oscar’s power of foresight shows players what their CPU opponent will choose three seconds to a split second before the reveal, decreasing in duration as the player climbs the ranks. The challenge lies in recognizing what the opponent will choose (Rock, Paper, or Scissors) quickly and choosing the correct option to defeat it in the time allowed. When the red health bar drops to zero from its five ticks, the game is over and the player must restart from level one.

                                            Health can only be gained by defeating a goblin king and looting his treasure chest for a single health bar segment. Stingy like Scrooge, yes, but it adds to the challenge. The goblin king is also randomly generated.

                                            If you like challenging games such as Anicrush and HexaLines, and would appreciate a world a fraction of the adventure of Oceanhorn and Panthera Frontier, then pocket this wizard adventure where all kinds of monsters are throne together. A 2D style similar to Skelly Rider and endless as Kalpana-Incas lost city, there are infinite possibilities of new monsters to come–an evolution such as in phage genesis of a virus, if you will. Use your imagination, enter your creative mind and comment on what you’d like to see. Maybe something with tentacles, tiny wings, long legs? Cthulhu?

                                            Leaderboards allow players to see where they stand in the ranks of the fellowship of other talented magicians and wizards.

                                            FEATURES:

                                            • A Beautiful Mustache
                                            • An Animated Cast of Characters
                                            • Crisp, Paper-Like Graphics
                                            • Fun voices and Motivational Phrases
                                            • Leaderboards
                                            • Many Mythical Creatures
                                            • Music by Kevin Macleod
                                            • Power Of Foresight
                                            • Professional Voiceovers
                                            • Story of Betrayal, Defeat, and Love (of Magic)
                                            • Super Challenging Game Play
                                            • Three Magical Powers (comet, gale winds, blades)
                                            • Updates with New Enemies to Come

                                            Language:

                                            The app has also been translated into Korean. Apparently Rock, Paper, Scissors is even bigger over there than in the United States.

                                            korean_RPW

                                            mock_up_SS mock_up_SS2_korean

                                            If you’d like to give it a try, it’s free on the Google Play marketplace. Give it a download, and if you like it, please rate it. Thanks for reading and good luck unlocking all the achievements in the game. It’s much harder than you would think.

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                                              No Proper Thief – User Interface Update

                                              ZebraFox Games took inspiration from the popular Zombie High choose-your-own-adventure games, amoung others such as Necklace of Skulls, but mostly Zombie High when deciding to make a similar type reading game, however we wanted to improve it anyway we could, as well. Now, we are aware the stories of the Zombie High series cater to teens, as they follow a teen girl as she attends school and fights zombies, plus there is a lot of love interest going on in the angsty broth of the tales. I’ve written my fair share on love, but the relationships in my stories tend to be more dysfunctional, yet still more mature than teen romance, so i wanted to avoid that to some extent when writing No Proper Thief. I believe I’ve stayed true to my style with the story, but it’s more about staying a free man, than it is about love. There is still a love interest, but I tried my best not to make it seem forced.

                                              The main aspect i wanted to talk about in this post, however, is that of the user interface (UI). The title screen shown in the top left will likely stay that simple. It is animation, with music and sound effects added as well. We might decide to add a social media share button, an options button, and perhaps an achievement tab, but the simplicity appeals to use, and the game has not sound besides the title screen so as to not distract those reading. The other options can be added to the end screens that have yet to be fully developed.  The top right image was the original user interface for No Proper Thief. it is similar to Zombie High in it’s simplicity, but with purple instead of black and colored stats. I was never happy which this, and after some pestering, I got David to re-imagine the UI with what i had in mind. The background is not textures, as you can see in the bottom two images. The states each have an icon that is hopefully easy to understand at a glance. if not, we plan to have each icon open a brief description window when clicked. David went above and beyond my expectations with the animation of the chains linking the stats, which represents hope if even only stat falls to zero–the weakness link–they all go down. The icons themselves are also animated and flash as if hit by a light every fifteen seconds or so. Overall, the new user interface is much cleaner, and far more professional.

                                              User Interface

                                              No Proper Thief update
                                              Title screen (subject to change)

                                              Old User Interface
                                              Old User interface

                                              No Proper Thief User Interface
                                              New user Interface

                                              NPT UI
                                              New user interface (glare)

                                                No Proper Thief – Progress

                                                No Proper Thief - Progress

                                                Here is a little bit of the progress on the reading based game I’m working on titled No Proper Thief. I’ve written most of the story, added the choices, deaths, and so on. Meanwhile David has been busy working on an animated title screen. The first two images below will give you an idea of that title screen. Upon loading the game, two gunshots are heard, and the Os in “No” and “Proper” become bullet holes. Immediately after the word Thief appears on screen, written in red blood. This blood leaks from the H, I, and E of the word Thief until it stretches to the position in the second image. On top of this, there are slowly flashing blue and red lights in the background to give the impression of police sirens. The water blobs that look to be on a window slowly rotate down giving the impression of a forever rising view of an endless window.

                                                I collected royalty free sounds for the gunshots, a passing police siren, rain, and a short musical piece by the talented and generous composer Kevin MacLeod. I also collected quite a few other songs, and David and I are still unsure which one we want to use. We lean towards a jazz lounge hall vibe, for a noire feel, but have inserted the shortest song (26 seconds) to save space, and it falls more in the classic genre of music.

                                                Below you can also see our initial set up of the text pages. It is subject to change, but it will be similar to what you see. The Identity, Health, Trust, and Conscience sections are also visible.

                                                No Proper Thief - Progress NPT_title_2 No Proper Thief - Progress - layout

                                                 

                                                I’ve written a Google Play description for the ZebraFox Games website that you can read below:

                                                You never wanted a life of crime, but it’s all you know. That doesn’t mean transitioning from a life as a simple, cocky con artist to a greenhorn bank robber on your first bank heist, doesn’t scare you. In No Proper Thief you are Clyde Lamm, the Rooster, and you have a choice to make. In fact, you have dozens of choices to make throughout your upcoming adventure. Everything has consequences, too.

                                                You and your team, consisting of the leader Zebra, the muscle, Stag, and the heart, Marlin have many obstacles to overcome. For one, you have to convince them, as the new guy, that you’re trustworthy, and that you’ll watch their backs, for if one of you goes down the rest of you will too when the cops come knocking at your doors. Still, in the midst of all the dark chaos of the robbery, there is a flame of positivity: Bonnie Loren, a pretty young bank manager with flowing red hair. Sure you stole her gold heirloom ring a while back, but it’s a fair trade because she’s stealing your heart.

                                                As a reading based game, No Proper Thief encourages the quickly vanishing pass time of reading. It’s a choose your own adventure style with plenty of choices to be made, making it an interactive story. With plenty of ways to lose and only one way to win (if you could call it winning) it’s sure to keep players on the edge of their seats. If any one of the player’s four stats (Identity, Health, Trust, or Conscience) fall to zero it’s game over. After all, you can’t get away with a crime if everyone know you’re face, if you bleed out, if your team turns on you thinking you’re a rat, or if you can’t live with an awful choice or choices you’ve made.

                                                Written in second-person, making the player the protagonist, Clyde Lamm, No Proper Thief serves as a prequel to the ZebraFox Games upcoming project, BLAME, which will pick up where No proper thief leaves off, but over a different medium.

                                                This, too, is subject to change.

                                                I’ll share with you an in development banner with the app icon that’s in the style of the up coming game and sequel to No Proper Thief, BLAME. We has first thought to release no proper Thief with this logo, but thought it too cute later on, and instead decided we should try using the old art work for Clyde Lamm. The new (old art) icon is in an anime style, which some will love and some will hate, but it comes across much more serious and not as a kids game and fits with the transition from No Proper Thief to BLAME. As the material and situations in No Proper Thief are adult in nature, we thought this important seeing as the rest of our games are aimed more towards children. This icon is still bloody, but obviously has a cartoon, kid like look to it:

                                                No_Proper_Thief1

                                                Finally, here is a side by side comparison of the tone and look of No Prper Thief (left) and the subsequent RPG game, BLAME (right). All art by David Dorn:

                                                Clyde Lamm - No Proper Thief
                                                Clyde Lamm – No Proper Thief

                                                Clyde Lamm - Blame
                                                Clyde Lamm – Blame

                                                Stay tuned for updates and keep an eye out for Twitter posts. No Proper thief should be in the the Google Play store very soon. See more at ZebraFox Games. Learn more about BLAME by clicking the banner above or clicking HERE.

                                                  Dr. Sweet Tooth Design Process

                                                  The mobile phone and tablet game app,Dr. Sweet Tooth, was designed by ZebraFox Games. While the game is simple and fun to play, it is as difficult to master as it was to design and create. Many hours went into the first brainstorm session and concept designs, and many more went into story-boarding, programming, creating the art, and writing the story. On top of these efforts were the efforts of testing, tweaking errors, adding sounds and music, formatting for the Android marketplace, marketing, and there are even plans to translate the story into Korean.

                                                  The unique square style of the game echoes the look of the game’s predecessor, Zombie Diggers. As is clear from the following screen shot, Dr. Sweet Tooth continues the line of square characters from Zombie Diggers, and before that, City Blocks, both early creations of ZebraFox Games.

                                                  ZOMBIE DIGGERS

                                                  FELIPE FEMUR
                                                  011 07-Copy

                                                  As is apparent from some of the following note pages, skins that would cost money were considered, but ultimately ZebraFox Games chose to make the game completely free with to pay-to-win features nor pay to look good options. As apparent in the following images of original Dr. Sweet tooth notes is the change in story mid way through production. We wanted to make the name Sweet tooth fit better and what better way to do that than with a character with the ironic profession of a dentist. On top of this, we wanted to tie Dr. Sweet Tooth in with a previous game, Felipe Femur. In the Felipe Femur story, the werewolf Gummy tells the protagonist that the dentist took his teeth. This dentist was Dr. Sweet tooth. In fact, in the finished comic style narration, one can make out Gummy the toothless werewolves home just behind Dr. Sweet Tooth’s office building.

                                                  The original story board shows a mere mad scientist with a ray gun invention that cloned food and would clutter the world with sweets. But to the dismay of Dr. Sweet tooth a group of competitive eaters stand in his way of the world’s destruction by sugar. In the second iteration, Dr. Sweet tooth is made a dentist, a victim himself to cruel judgement, and he also has motivation for targeting a competitive eating contest. While he is a victim of circumstance, Dr. Sweet Tooth makes the awful choice to seek revenge by teaming up with the shady King roach. In this way, the roaches that appear on the rotting tiles in the game are accounted for.

                                                  STORYBOARD & NOTES

                                                  COMPLETED STORY

                                                  GAMEPLAY SCREEN SHOTS
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                                                    Felipe Femur is Out!

                                                    Felipe_Femur_Banner_2

                                                    Felipe Femur is out and free to play now at felipefemur.com, or you can go directly to the Google Play Marketplace and download it to your Android device.

                                                    The interactive story book follows an introverted, selfless skeleton named Felipe Femur, and illustrates how he helps his friends, but never thinks to ask them for a thing. I wanted to have the protagonist be an introverted individual–participating in hobbies that did not require a social group–in that the real world, as we know it, is an extroverts’ one. People who recharge with alone time, play video games, watch movies, write, etc., alone, are often perceived as socially awkward, shy, and sometimes creepy. I believe this is a misconception. Most introverts crave social interaction, the same as extroverts do, simply to a lesser degree, and this is clear with the introduction of Gummy, Runny, and Sunny, Felipe’s friends. Felipe sets out when boredom overstays its welcome and seeks out his friends. So while he is an introvert, he remains a friendly, likable character.

                                                    russells_site_banner
                                                    (Image: Sunny the vampire. Felipe Femur’s good friend.)

                                                    Clearly the story has a Halloween theme to it, with characters such as a skeleton, a witch, and a werewolf, but the story remain cheery and positive, to the contrary of popular opinion that such themes should represent dreary material only. The challenge to opinion is particularly clear with the character Sunny, shown above. According to popular culture, and myth, vampires detest the sun. Typically sunlight destroys vampires, or at least, in certain stories, makes them glitter horrifically, and even then the vampires avoid the light. Not Sunny though. He loves the sun, and though somewhat sensitive to it, he enjoys its warmth. This confronts the stereotype of vampires in the same way the introvert protagonist does the notion held by many. So in the end, the story develops these anti-norm ideals, and places a small stone in the cobblestone path to acceptance for introverts in society.

                                                    On the Felipe Femur website, there are several fun activities for kids, including hangman printword search jpeg outs, bingo, and also word searches I create myself.  Some small, such as the one to the right, and some much larger. All of it is free to download and use, so please feel free to throw a Felipe Femur or Halloween theme party, even if it’s in July.

                                                    We, at ZebraFox Games, plan to make more extensive additions to the activities section in the future, including a “Runny’s double-the-batch,” matching game which will have colorful graphics and a computer based, interactive interface, with a boiling cauldron, and a dozen or more ingredient card that need matching. We also want to have an animated Felipe teach simple Spanish words, and provide praise while users complete computerized puzzles and hidden object pictures.

                                                    Keep an eye-socket out for updates, enjoy the game, and spread the word if you want to help Felipe Femur get noticed. Be a true Femur Friend.

                                                      The Evolution of Dokémon (2.0)

                                                      CCI05142014_0023CCI05142014_0027In an earlier post, i explained the start of Dokémon, and how my brother, David, and I used printer paper, cardboard from toilet paper rolls, and an arsenal of pens and markers to create cards depicting family members and friends in more bestial forms. For example, in the Dokémon world, the Russell Squirmy represented me, and the Wild David represented my brother.

                                                      As time went on, we got our hands on actual Pokémon cards. Real, tangilble, impossibly beautiful Pokémon cards! This only occured after an early blunder, in which we bought Pokémon info cards at a 7-11, instead of the Pokémon playing cards we desired. But we finally got a starter set each, spearheaded by a holographic Machamp.

                                                      Before getting our hands on the playing cards, we had the Pokémon television show, which aired every Saturday. Using the show proved to be an effective, but much more strenuous way of collecting information about each of the characters, for at the end of each episode a segment played, which flashed each of the 150 original Pokémon. David and I had our pens and lined paper ready for this segment. When it aired, we plucked various types of Pokémon eyes out, hacked off limbs, wings and tails (figuratively, of course), and jotted as many as we could down.  The two images of line paper, shown above, illustrate a small portion of the notes we took froHollow_Shellm these sessions of butchery. From these sheets we selected pieces and Frankenstien’d them together to create new Dokémon.  The image of Hollowshell to the left is an example of one of the many early Dokémon that came from the combination of pieces taken from the notes we made. You can see the turtle-like shell, the jagged teeth, the beaver tail, and the claws, each of which came from a different Pokémon.

                                                      These earlier Dokémon continue the genetic line of the original toilet paper Dokémon. However, by the time we upgraded from hand crafted 2X3 cards to 3X4 index cards, we had exhausted our list of relatives and friends in which to name them after. SticeButter_SlugThus we came up with literal compound names such as Hollowshell and Butterslug, as he looks to be a mix between a butterfly and a slug, and variations of descriptive words that portray the particular Dokémon, such as Stice, from the English word Slice, as the Dokémon is very sharp and able to slice victims, which its basic 40 damage attack attests to.

                                                      After this period of using parts of Pokémon, as well as the animals of our world, to make unqiue Dokémon, David and I entered a period that i like to describe as the dark ages of Dokémon. We took a step back with the knock-off card game, as it became exactly that: a knock-off–a clone of the popular Pokémon franchise. This period in time came with the introduction of real Pokémon cards. As i mentioned, after the 7-11 mistake, we received real Pokémon playing cards, and began to make copies of them. We often changed the creatures’ abilities, and letter of their names, but the look of the creatures changed little when being translated from the polished Pokémon cards to the matte index cards of Dokémon. sarasardcandraAs you can see, Sarasard is a copy of Charizard, even having a very similar name, and Candra is a clone of Ekans, except with antennae and cartoonish eyes. In these early Dokémon we also used not only odd numbers, but obsure ones, such as Sarasard’s 51 HP (Health Points), and 45 Flame tail, as well as Candra’s 36 HP. During this time, David and I, also fine tuned the look of the cards. Comparing just these two cards you can see the plainer Sarasard solid red border, in comparison to Candra’s two toned blue one, with the gray thumb slot. Both cards illustrate the simplicity of early Dokémon with the very basic names for their skill sets. Flame tail and Fire breath for Sarasard, and Tail whip and Vangs for Candra. In addition, Candra’s card includes a box for its weakness to fire, which is ironic, in a way, for though Sarasard is a fire Dokémon it remains a weaker card in terms of aesthetic design.

                                                      As time went on, we slowly crawled out of the Dark Ages of Dokémon and into the golden age of Jokémon.  Jokémon brought  Dokémon back to its comedic roots, but clung more to the  Pokémon franchise than to the family members and their representative creatures such as the Russell Squirmy. Ratitape RapetrashJokémon were largely based off puns of  Pokémon names. For example, Rapétrash (Rap as in rapid, not rape) was a play on Rapidash. Rapétrash is also a fire horse, like Rapidash, but with half eaten pizza and candy wrappers stuck to his coat. While perhaps not the knee slapper you would hope, it gave us a laugh at the time. Similarly, Ratitape is a play on the name Raticate. Ratitape, too, is hamster/rat-like, but he has tape stuck all over him. Surely, puns were not comedic gold in comparison to SNL and The Hangover, but the Jokémon represented a positive shift in the Dokémon evolution.

                                                      After the Jokémon period, David and I, continued with a mix between Pokémon pun characters and more unique original Dokémon creatures. During this period we experimented with different, colorful backgrounds, and more complex functions of attack abilities, such as Macroc’s  Zap that required the flip of a coin. Many abilities now had the risk of self harm, but the HP values went up consistently, which offset the effect of the self destructive abilities. As you can see, even these two basic Dokémon have higher HP values than the final evolved forms of the earlier Dokémon, such as Hallowshell. Macroc ElectpickElectpick represent the continuing line of Jokémon, being a “funny” version of Voltorb, while Macroc was likely pulled form a real world alligator/eel, if not a dream I had.

                                                      It’s clear that David and I figured out that odd and obscure numbers in HP and attack power did not work, by this time. We rarely actually played the game, but when we did, we did not like feeling we were in a math lesson. We wanted it to be fun, though we spent the majority of the time feverishly churning out card after card. The cards lost their novelty with our parents early on, so the rare occasion that we had to show a new friend our work became the only reward we received. And yet we continued making hundreds of the cards.

                                                      One day we got our hands on a collection of patterned foil. I forget if they had been a gift, or part of some delectable treats wrapping, but seeing as we loved holographic Pokémon cards, we did not miss our opportunity to create holographic, or foiled, Dokémon cards. Cutting and gluing squares of the patterned, colored foil to an index card, we then clipped out the Dokémon we had drawn on a separate piece of paper and glued it on top of the foil before laminating the whole thing. It added a lot of time to each card we made in such a fashion, but the result seemed worth it. Clebeary and Spearaghost are two examples of Holographic DokSpearaghostémon cards. ClebearyIt seems that Spearaghost‘s foil might even be run-of-the-mill aluminum foil, perhaps the first or last of its kind. The first if the idea of foil struck us before the colored foil came into our possession; and the last it represents the exhaustion of our colored foil resource. The characters, as you can see, are clipped from  printer paper and pasted on the foil, which in turn it pasted to the complete index card. Clebeary’s tail even hangs over the edge of the foil, illustrating perfectly the multiple levels of these cards.

                                                      Also clear from these two foiled cards, is the continued growth in complexity of the Dokémon. Spearaghost again illustrates the use of a coin in its first ability, and Clebeary furthers the decent into darkness with the suicidal ability Double edge, which may damage an opponent a whopping 80 HP, but also does the same to itself.  Furthermore, Cleabeary is clearly injured, as is made clear with the scuff marks and the Band-Aids. This demonstrates the ultimate path Dokémon took, which is far different than the kid friendly Pokémon franchise. In Pokémon nothing ever died, nor did anything ever get as injured as Clebeary even. Perhaps these minor injuries hint at the ultimate downfall of Dokémon, for the cards became far darker and more violent in the end.  GorgSnowcane With additions such as the murderous Gorg, and the vulgar Snowcane, i wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t capture our parents attention once more, only not in a good way. It’s clear the wounds were deeper, requiring stitches even, and the kind nature of the early Dokémon had been replaced with a malevolent one. By this time the HP counts had risen to the maximum 100, even for the basic Dokémon, so we no longer had room to grow, only stagnate, and create morbid shadows of the once fun, humorous card game cards. I imagine hormones were beginning to brew deep within us, angst too, and puberty crouched on the horizon.

                                                      In the end, we put Dokémon away, as we all must do with childish things. The cards remained in a toolbox, in the crawlspace beneath a house, until just recently, when I retrieved them in order to share them with the world.

                                                      If you’d like to see a more complete gallery of Dokémon cards please visit my brother’s website at Hugyu.

                                                        Dokemon Cards

                                                        As an earlier post on the nameless card game mentions, Dokémon (Dokemon) is a parody of the popular Pokémon anime and card game. My brother, David, and I  watched the the show religiously every Saturday taking notes on the different features of the original 150 Pokémon, and used the various arms, faces, legs and tails to create parody versions of the characters. While influenced strongly by the Pokémon franchise, most of the early Dokémon we created have names that relate to our family members. For example, there is the Russell Squirmy, which was supposed to be a Dokémon in my image; and the Wild Garth that related to our uncle Garth. When we ran out of family members to name Dokémon after we moved on to friends, such as the Wild Clifford, and also our stuffed animals, finally creating characters like Can and Supreme Can from everyday objects. Each of these cards was constructed with the cardboard of a toilet paper roll sandwiched between two pieces of printer paper. Approximately 2X3 inches the original Dokémon cards that you see below are roughly the size of the real Pokémon cards. Eventually we moved on to using 3X4 index cards and laminating them rather than go through the effort of flattening toilet paper rolls to utilized their rigidity. We continued making more than 300 3X4 Dokémon cards, including holographic foil cards, while the below gallery is the the entire collection of the  67 original toilet paper roll Dokémon (Dokemon) cards.

                                                        dokemon dokemon CCI04232014_0017 CCI04232014_0013
                                                        dokemon dokemon CCI04232014_0015 CCI04232014_0016

                                                          Children’s Card Game

                                                          [ezcol_1half]

                                                          A children’s Card Game. The following pictures are a few examples of the many cards my brother, David, and I designed for fun in our childhood. We had started with a parody on the popular Pokémon franchise, using the name Dokémon, in which the D came from our surname Dorn.  After creating a good handful of Dokémon cards, we realized that Jokémon would have been a better choice name given that the cards were a joke version of  the Pokémon card game, but we had crossed the point of no return: we had laminated them. After literally creating hundreds of 3X5 Dokémon cards we moved on to more original card games.

                                                          Card_Charm

                                                          David had the idea for this particular nameless game during a family vacation to Florida. The first card he created was that of the white cat Charm. It reads:

                                                          CHARM

                                                          You will have good luck until you see

                                                          a black cat cross your path or

                                                          if you get the bad luck card.

                                                          The use of the fractions as representation of the the card’s health and attack damage potential eludes both of us in the present day, but at the time of creating this game, we played one another effectively and understood it perfectly. [/ezcol_1half] Also, there is in fact a Black Cat card, but as to what luck entails, we do not know that either. The diamond and, later on, the star indicated the imagined rarity of the card. “Imagined,” because we only made one of each, so they are all equally rare. All one-of-a-kind.

                                                          At the time of creation, I had no interest in helping David use a heavy hand to marker in the index card, then lick and tear printer paper and fashion it into the base of the cards, only to then come up with a non-Pokémon like character and tidbit of information on the character.The fractions and cards suits looked complicated, and I was busy fearing for my life. For before returning to the hotel (where David crafted the first card on a letter desk near the front door) a pair of young men, with backwards baseball caps and driving a black truck, slid their thumbs across their necks while glaring at me. Stuck at the light with the two idling in the next lane,  I imagined they had plenty of time to memorize the rental car’s plates and general look. I trembled as they saw my dad pull into the Holiday inn. I didn’t swim, want to eat, or do anything that required leaving the safety of the room with the curtains drawn. And I didn’t feel like making cards with my life on the line, feeling like a fragile 1/1 in game statistics.

                                                          Eventually the fear passed and I did help created many of the hundred or so cards for the nameless game. As is clear looking at the difference from the the original Charm card, to the other, and finally the far more polished and partly computer manufactured Debris Shield card, we evolved the ascetics of the game as we went along, lightening the background and bettering the art.

                                                          A fully collection can be found at my brother’s site. Check out David Vincent Dorn’s portfolio here and see how much further he’s evolved his style beyond childhood card games.

                                                          Here are a few more:

                                                          Card_Sand Card_fight Card_Time_Base
                                                          Card_debris Card_Orge Card_Worm

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