PurFUNple Interactive e-Book is in Production





Johnny & Cindi prep Pigston for his photo session

I'm happy to share with you that The Land of PurFUNple interactive e-Book is officially in production.  Cindi and Ray have spent countless hours building a detailed shot list for more than 130 images for the primary scenes in the story.  Over the last two days, Cindi, Ray and Johnny have been shooting both still images and video (see photo) of the 3D clay models that Cindi meticulously created. 

Pigston image used on Welcome Page

With these images completed, the storyline and images can be merged into the e-Book software. Ray used one of the images shot in the photo session shown above and placed it into an Welcome page, showing one of the ways these images will be used. The e-Book will be interactive which means story will come to life using sound effects, limited animation and options for the child to either read the story or listen to a pre-recorded narration.  Optionally, a parent or grandparent can record their voice reading the story, so the child can hear a loved one reading to them. 

Our hope is to have the e-Book completed and ready for distribution through i-tunes and Amazon by the end of this year.  We are excited about the possibility of introducing the Land of PurFUNple to thousand of young people.  Of course, we will promote the e-Book using press releases, Youtube videos and learning platforms for teachers and home schooling parents to increase interest.

Purple Predicament E-Book Is Being Development

As we reported earlier, Cindi has been hard at work creating 3D clay models of all the characters in our story titled, Pigston & Penelope's Purple Predicament.   Last count she is up to 38 models. The photo on the left shows a few of the 38.  As a part of our effort to bring attention to the Land of PurFUNple and the characters that live there, the Click Bug team is developing an electronic (e) book version of the story for distribution prior to the launch of the virtual world.   Cindi, Ray and Johnny along with our talented voice talent, JD, are working hard to create a fun, interactive version of the story including animation, voice characterization and sound effects for kids and their parents to enjoy.   Our hope is to have the E-book completed before the Christmas season so it can be given as a holiday gift.

3D Model Help Accelerate Animation of Characters

 

As we continue to move toward the completion of the Alpha phase of The Land of PurFUNple, one of Click Bug Studio’s founders, author of our story line and lead graphic artist, Cindi Blandford has dug into the creation of all     the characters in the kingdom.  Working from her original sketches, Cindi has created 3 dimensional clay models of all the characters including meticulous painting and accessorizing of each.   As you can see from these photos, the characters are starting to come to life, taking on a personality of their own.  

One of the advantages of creating these models is the elimination of a lot of hand created animation.  Johnny Carpenter, founder and Director of Audio & Video Production, is going to put each character on a turntable and index the turntable to move 360 degrees, taking a still picture every 5 degrees.  The result is the creation of files that can be used to animate the character movement instead of creating them in other software.  That saves us time and money.  Brilliant!   

New Home Page Artwork Feature PurFUNple Characters

Work is moving along nicely on the Alpha phase of the Land of PurFUNple. One of the first projects we have tackled is the creation of new home screens that will greet kids when they sign in to the site.  

Each screen features key characters in the kingdom and will rotate every five seconds so each player will see all five screens and, hopefully, be attracted and select one character screen as their favorite. Just in case you aren't familiar with all of the characters, I'll give you a run down starting with the top image and moving down.

 

Pigston, the Purple Prince, greets players at the entrance to the kingdom.

Our new and improved heroine,Penelope, makes you feel welcome as you enter the garden.

Slade and Gnat hang out in the swamp.

Patches the Pack Rat recycles in his tunnel below the kingdom.

The mischievous Possums go for a joy ride on Pigston's boat.

Players will be given the option to select their favorite screen and each time they log in subsequently that screen will be shown each time they log into the site. 

Alpha Production Phase of PurFUNple Started March 1

We are excited to announce that work has begun on the Alpha phase of production for The Land of PurFUNple. "What does that mean," you might ask. Well, after months of work on the complete virtual world design document, Ray and Cindi have determine which key elements of the site we can start working on now. After determining what can be built right away, Ray, Cindi and several independent contractors have begun developing the most basic components of the site.
   

In the production cycle of PurFUNple, the Alpha phase is strictly an internal process that will take about 4 months and allow the team to develop and test components including the main feature set, navigation through the 3D envirnoment and more.

"It feels great to finally get started on the Land of PurFUNple after working on the concept for a long time." Commented Ray Shingler, New Product Development Director for Click Bug Studios. "The hope is that by July 1, we will be able to start on the Beta site which will include more of the games, activities and missions for a limited number of kids to test." Shingler continued.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support. We will do our best to keep you in the loop as more exciting news comes out of our work.

Click Bug Studios Partnering with Elevate Ventures

In order to develop our initial product, The Land of PurFUNple, as quickly as possible, we are working with Elevate Ventures, Inc., a venture development organization with management responsibilities for the State of Indiana’s venture capital funds. Their mission is to nurture and develop emerging and existing high-potential businesses into high-performing, Indiana-based companies.  They accomplish this by providing access to capital, rigorous business analysis, and robust advisory services that connect companies with the resources they need to succeed long-term. As a not-for-profit organization, they are able offer unbiased, in-depth perspective and recommendations. 

Click Bug is working closely with the Northwest Indiana Region, Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Charlie McGill, to make sure we are able to qualify for additional funding through one of several programs available through Elevate Ventures.  As we continue to develop The Land of PurFUNple, we will be working with Charlie in order to position Click Bug Studios as a worthy investment candidate.  

Testing Our Ideas

While we think the characters and artwork for The Land of PurFUNple are great, we know that it is important to ask our target audience, children ages 5 - 9 and their parents, to see what they think. On Saturday, January 14, Click Bug Studios will be holding a focus group session to get first-hand reactions and suggestions. Parents and their children will all receive a general overview of The Land of PurFUNple. Then we will divide the participants into separate groups, boys, girls and parents, and videotape their responses to the characters, storyline and activities. Based on their feedback, we will determine if anything needs to be "tweaked" as we move forward. If necessary, additional focus groups will be held prior to our launch date of June 1, 2012.  

New Gnat Artwork Completed by Intern

Our internship program with the Art Institute of Indianapolis has proven to be very valuable to Click Bug Studios and the student interns.  One example of the talent level of the AI students is shown below. We challenged an intern to redesign one of the key characters in the Land of PurFUNple named Gnat.  Comments regarding the original Gnat artwork was that the character wasn't "cute" enough.  So, Cindi Blandford, Click Bug founder and Creative Director, worked closely with one of the interns to come up with the new and improved version of Gnat and here it is.  We love him! Hope you do too!

Design Document Being Developed for Phase One Content

As you can imagine, when it comes to creating a 3-D virtual world, the devil is in the details.  Ray has spent much of his Christmas holiday writing the Design Document for the Phase One launch.  The challenge is to write out every detail of each activity, game or function within the site that children will encounter.  No small task, but an essential one. With the phase one document completed, Ray and Eduardo can pull individual projects out and provide the detailed explanation to appropriate knowledge workers.  Consequently, the Design Document becomes our yardstick for the progress we are making, as well as functioning as the quality control standard. 

Leveraging Social Media to Create Buzz

As we consider how best to create a "buzz" about The Land of PurFUNple, we are in the process of setting links to all the popular social networking sites.  So far we have set up a Twitter account at http://twitter.com/#!/purfunple, a Facebook account at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Land-Of-PurFUNple/190968874278899.  And, of course, this blog site http://clickbugnewsletter.blogspot.com/ for our on-going newsletter. 

Please "like" our Facebook page and forward it to your friends as well.  As we get closer to the June 1 launch, our public relations efforts will accelerate including efforts to secure endorsements  for The Land of PurFUNple from Scholastic magazine, Partner Teachers Associations and Home Schooling Assocations. 

PurFUNple Phase One Launch Targeted for June 1, 2012

With the opportunity to be on the Evanced Solutions Summer Reading Program software, our focus is to get the first phase of The Land of PurFUNple completed by June 1.  The challenge is to create a series of sophisticated activities and games with little or no money to hire the necessary talent.  Being resourceful entrepreneurs, we have created an incentive program that offers Flash programmers, artists, UI designers, and animators to earn a small percentage of our net income before taxes.  This deferred compensation package is being finalized by our lawyers now. We will use our contacts in both Chicago and Indianapolis as well as our LinkedIN account to circulate the projects. 

Distribution Partner Provides up to 750,000 Potential Users!

Over the past six months, Click Bug has been in conversation with an Indianapolis- based company that provides administrative software to more than 2,000  public libraries across the country.  One of their most popular software packages is a Summer Reading Program that libraries use to enroll and track each participant's reading progress over the summer.  We are currently in the progress of finalizing an agreement that will allow a link to The Land of PurFUNple to be added to the Summer Reading Program home page.  This program opens gives Click Bug Studios access to a potential audience of 750,000 to 1,000,000 end-users.  This agreement hold tremendous potential to get The Land of PurFUNple in front of a huge market that can then jump-start our viral marketing efforts. We hope to finalize this contract in the next few weeks and will require Click Bug to have phase one of The Land of PurFUNple completed for the June 1 launch. 

Director of Technology Added to Staff

Exciting news: Eduardo Moreno has agreed to come on board as our Director of Technology.  In lieu of direct payment, Ed has agreed to provide 1,000 hours of development work for 10% stock equity in Click Bug Studios. Ray and Eduardo worked together in Chicago for 4 years and through that working relationship we have been able to negotiate this agreement.  Ed has been working in the field of information technology since 1994 and has been writing computer programs since the late '80's. He received a degree in Computer Science from The University of Illinois in Urbana and a Fine Arts degree in the field of Multimedia Communications from the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago.  Currently he is a Software Engineer for UBM Studios where is he involved with the development of several large websites, including Innovation Generation, which is an online virtual environment for children interested in pursuing a career in Engineering.

The Land of PurFUNple - An Overview

The Land of PurFUNple's virtual world provides essential lessons in moral behavior for children ages 5 - 9. The strong storyline, fun games, entertaining characters, and original musical score are all controlled by parental administration tools. The Land of PurFUNple differentiates itself by providing families with a safe, engaging environment that nurtures children's understanding of the various outcomes of moral and ethical decisions.