About this project

Welcome to our project!

Puppet Masterpiece Theater: The Circus is based on a story I created many years ago with my sister when we were children spending a summer on our oma’s farm in Holland. Our original paper puppet show is now coming to life in a new form as an interactive iPad app with all new illustrations and an interactive story with character voices and games to play along the way.

About me:

I am an artist, illustrator and designer living in Brooklyn, NY. I love to work in many mediums: collage, painting, graphite, digital media and fashion design. In 2011 I illustrated The Supernatural Kids Cookbook by Nancy Mehagian, which teaches kids and their parents the essentials of cooking natural foods and contains 70+ recipes. The book was a finalist in the USA “Best Books 2011” Awards. 

I am partnering with a publishing company, Organa LLC, in Los Angeles.  They are funding the initial production costs and willing to match the amount raised here on Kickstarter!  Organa’s CEO also founded The Criterion Collection and The Voyager Company, known for quality entertainment and ground-breaking multi-media. In 1995, Organa released the innovative “The Book of Lulu,” a story that mingled animation, text and live action. Beloved around the world, it won multiple awards.

About the app:

Puppet Masterpiece Theater: The Circus is designed for children ages 4 to 7. In this interactive puppet show the player touches and plays with the characters to advance the story. The distinct and engaging original art evokes the feel of a handmade show. The interactions are simple in order to be easily understood by young players. The curtains open and the show begins! At several points the animation stops and the player explores the scene by touching the set and characters. These touches trigger animations that continue the story.

The story pauses for 10 exciting games. These activities are integrated into the plot of the puppet show. Successfully playing them also advances the story. At the end of the puppet show the games are available for open play and the player can return to his or her favorites to play them over and over again. The player can also return to the beginning and start the show again.

We have put together a fantastic team for this project. Our programmer Josh DeBonis of Sortasoft Inc. http://www.sortasoft.com/ will be bringing all of my artwork to life.  Michael Colombo (NYU ITP, www.pushtheotherbutton.com) will be creating the fantastic theme music and audio to accompany the game.

We have a lot of work ahead putting the finishing touches on the artwork, animating, recording all of the audio and character voices, programming the entire game, debugging, beta testing and promoting...we thank you in advance for your contribution because it helps support us through this entire process. Our projected release date is April 2012.

We need at least $16,000 to see this project to its full potential.  Organa has agreed to match up to $8,000 of funds raised by Kickstarter so we can produce the project we dreamed up. We need your help to raise $8,000 so that the project can be fully realized - every bit will count towards making a beautiful, fun and engaging app!

Don't forget!

If you decide to back our project but we don't make our goal, you don't pay a penny! So what do you have to lose? Please help us out.