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).

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.

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.

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.