Rock, Paper Fox.

[PUBLISHED TO FNP.COM ON / ABOUT 10/30/13]

A.A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh, once said, “You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

Though profound in it’s meaning, it’s message is clear: it never hurts to venture out into the unknown in order to see what adventures lie in waiting. Meeting new people, conquering your fears or even learning a new skill - getting out of your own comfort zone is healthy from time to time as it enables us to write a new scene or even a lengthy chapter in our own story.

The dilemma of being too comfortable in one place and even too confident as to the ways of the world are the two prominent characteristics that are conveyed to the reader when you first meet a rather unique Fox in the interactive story for iOS devices entitled The Paper Fox.

Created by Jeremy Kool and Bento Box Interactive, Paper Fox is an interactive, children’s storybook that let’s you control the Paper Fox as he journeys to discover the reason behind a series of earthquakes that are destroying his world.

Although this well-written tale has been made digitally interactive for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), the art style is definitely the centerpiece of this work. The 3D-rendered animals and environments are vividly presented in such a way that they bring paper origami shapes to life - an interesting and yet poetic way to present a story “book” world.

Unlike other storybooks, Paper Fox is non-linear; it is a story that plays to the choices that you make as you guide the Fox from place to place. Will he get past his ego, listen and learn about the ways of the world from those that he meets along the way and, most importantly, will he find the source of the earthquakes to save all of the creatures that live in the forest? Actually, it’s really up to you.

For how it is written and presented to readers, Paper Fox pays homage to such author’s Roald Dahl (Fantastic Mr. Fox) and A.A. Milne (Winnie The Pooh) and to such television shows as “Quaq quao” - which followed a paper duck on his adventures.

Although The Paper Fox has been featured in such industry periodicals as Computer Arts Magazine and 3D World for it’s unique art style and overall presentation, I sat down for a few hours and played through the entire story on my iPhone. Needless to say, I wanted to know more about how this interactive experience came to be. Thankfully it’s creator, Mr. Jeremy Kool, answered my call.

>>IT’S KOOL IN HERE

In Berlin, Germany there is an interactive company called Wooga that has over 200 creative individuals that make great games for Facebook, tablets and smartphones. I encourage you to visit their website and review their impressive games catalog because ever since 2010, Wooga has earned the title of “Biggest European Social Games Developer”.

But with this honor aside, there is one other important thing that I learned about the company from my discussion with Kool - it’s where he now calls home, professionally.

So what of his new home? Like Paper Fox needing to leave his burrow to solve the mystery of the earthquakes which led to his growth as an individual, I wondered if Kool had become too familiar with his previous job and needed to venture out in order to find new adventures:

“I was a graphic designer and illustrator for many years and wanted to challenge myself by learning something new. I downloaded some trial (game development) software and started to play around. Very quickly I found that I derived a lot of enjoyment from it and that lead to me eventually quitting my day job, going back to school and changing careers.”

Reinvention! Nothing can be more rewarding and more frightening than taking a chance. Thankfully, it appears that it has paid off for Kool. Speaking highly of his new role at Wooga as a Senior Artist, as well as, about the industry at large, Kool had this to say:

“It’s an exciting time to be a creator and consumer of games. It’s never been easier to get your idea made and on to the marketplace, and there are so many cool apps and games being produced right now it’s really invigorating.”

His enthusiasm for development is undeniable with his attention to detail with The Paper Fox. The crisp, sharp, but expressive shapes that make up the creatures that you encounter throughout the Fox’s journey, as well as, the kind voice of the narrator that presents the story to the reader all present a world that is somehow familiar to our own - if only through a quick, glint of sunshine or through the sounds of the river flowing by in the forest.

>>FUNCTION TO FORM

Wondering about the familiarity of the world and creatures that exist within this tale, I asked about Kool’s development process:

“When I’m trying to create new works, I work freely, messily, and without much scrutiny of my process. I definitely prefer pen and paper because I can scribble ideas wherever I am, and I find that I’m at my most creative when I don’t have to think about the technology I’m using. Once I’m happy with a result, I take a more pragmatic approach to work out how I got to the end result.”

Anyone who writes, draws or creates anything artistic (no matter the complexity, size, etc.) knows one, simple fact: the idea that you had at the beginning is usually not what ends up being created. For endless reasons, creative projects are just that, and they need to be approached organically. So as is the case with how Kool designed The Paper Fox (pen and paper to, eventually, digital), there’s always a need to take the “old school” way of designing with pen (or pencil) and paper because random inspirations which can lead to fantastic creations never come at a convenient time.

Personally I can attest to this because even though I do not use pen and paper as much as I used to, I always have some manner of jotting down story ideas or scribbling character and setting concepts while I am going about my daily travels. If I didn’t have a way of getting my ideas out of my head, I know that I would be missing out on an idea that might have been hiding behind another one that I had only moments before.

>>SOFTWARE AND FAMILY

Numerous developers and artists that I’ve interviewed in the past have had access to tools that ranged in price and functionality. To create The Paper Fox, I inquired as to what Kool and the team used and why:

“I wanted to create something that featured a set of paper, woodland creatures that I had created. Coming from a background in games, it made sense to me to create something that used my skillset. I used a relatively cheap (in price), flexible and powerful game engine called Unity 3D to build the prototype of the app.”

“I used both MAC and PC for the production. Most of the artwork was created on the PC and I used a MAC to build and test when pushing to iOS.”

Unity 3D has been used by countless developers around the world to bring their creations, whether they are games or interactive storybooks, to life. Even if you just want to play around with an idea that you have for an app, Unity is a great, free way to do so on both MAC and PC. Checkout the website here, and good luck with your creations.

Taking a step back from the technology side of things, I got the understanding from Kool that he wasn’t the principal writer on the project. But I was pleasantly surprised to hear who was - his sister:

“The Paper Fox is an interactive storybook created by myself and written by my sister, Amanda Kool - who has written three novels and is working on a fourth. This is her first children's book, but she usually writes adult fiction novels - nothing like The Paper Fox! This was our first project together and we're both incredibly proud of it.”

I find that more often than not that a lot of indie developers tend to be siblings. They’ve grown up together, had their good and not-so-good moments over the years and come out the other side as a collaborative team that has a bond like no other.

>>FREE FOX

When I first heard of The Paper Fox, I learned that like many other successful apps it was “Free-to-Play”. For those that don’t know what this is, Free-to-Play means that the overall app is “free to download” to your smartphone, tablet, desktop or gaming console. But then within the app, there are real-world ($$) purchases that can be made in order to add to the overall experience.

As Free-to-Play enables publishers to get their apps out to a wider audience thanks to the ‘free’ price point, I asked Kool why he chose to distribute The Paper Fox in this manner:

“We decided to let people download it for free to see if they enjoyed the first two chapters. If they enjoyed the first two chapters, then they could purchase the whole book. If not, then they haven’t lost anything!”

This, in my opinion, is the true meaning of Free-to-Play. It’s not that you’re just downloading an app or game ‘because’ it’s free, it’s because you want to try it out to see if it’s worth playing to the end (if there even is an end).

Games and interactive storybooks are about conveying a unique experience to people that will help them to either learn something new or provide them with a release from their hectic lives. The Paper Fox does this as well as the writings of A.A. Milne or Roald Dahl, but in a much more compact and interactive way.

So when you have a few moments to spare, download the first two chapters here and see if you and the Paper Fox can solve the mystery to save the forest.

Thanks for reading.