Meet the Dashing Sir Nighty Knight: He Needs Your Help This Mother's Day!
Still looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift? Why not give a donation in your mum's name to Mark and Lee Fullerton and their interactive picture book creation, Sir Nighty Knight?
-Lucia Peters, BettyConfidential.com
Bettys, we'd like to introduce you to someone. His name is Sir Nighty Knight, and he is-in his own words, of course-indescribably magnificent. As Knight of The Kids Table, Keeper of the Magic Word, Member of The Order of Snooz, and general do-gooder, Sir Nighty Knight is the quintessential knight in shining armor-but right now, he needs YOUR help!
Sir Nighty Knight, you see, is the creation of Mark and Lee Fullerton, the two brothers who make up the Pixel Boy Studio. Illustrators by trade, Mark and Lee came up with the exciting idea to develop a 22-page interactive picture book app intended for children aged one to four. Sir Nighty Knight is, of course, the star of their story. Together with their programming friend Dan Newman and writer David Sherman, the Brothers Fullerton's goal is to release the picture book on the iPad and the Kindle Fire; however, if funds allow, they're hoping to release it on other tablet devices like the Nook-AND to publish a hardback print copy of it as well. How exciting!
The "if funds allow" bit is important, though. The story has already been written and given the thumbs-up from a professor of children's literature, and all the book pages with illustrations have been drafted. The characters have been developed in 3D, and the cover and two full pages are complete. But in order to make this dream of a project come true, Mark and Lee are relying on a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money needed to finish it.
Where did the inspiration for the project come from? Lee Fullerton tells us exclusively, "My brother and I have been collaboratively illustrating for 5+ years now and we wanted to tell a fantasy story about a knight for kids to enjoy. We also wanted to do an iPad format to incorporate some interactivity." About Kickstarter, he says, "Kickstarter has been in the news a lot lately and we did our research and realized that it could be a great way to help fund our project and get some visibility." He goes on to describe the interactive portions as "simple animations that will help the characters come to life and enhance the story as you read along: The dragon wags its tail when you touch him, or the sworf sings a tune, fairy dust swirls around, etc." There will also be an option to have a voiceover narrate the story. A book that reads aloud to kids itself? Genius! Obviously the print edition won't have any of the digital interactive features, and Lee tells us, "The illustrations may differ depending on the interactive features;" but overall, the story will be the same.
As for Lee and Mark's favorite books when they were kids? "We loved Dr. Seuss, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter Pan, and of course Where the Wild Things Are. And many, many others," he adds. Natch!
Mark, Lee, and their team have carefully budgeted everything out: In order to complete the app for the iPad and the Kindle Fire, they need $7,500. To release it on additional platforms and as a print book, they need $19,000. They have until Tuesday, May 22 to meet their minimum goal; if they don't get there, however, they don't any of the money pledged to their project, leaving Sir Nighty Knight in a place of dire distress. Kickstarter: Such a cruel and fickle mistress!
Won't you help Sir Nighty Knight out? Mother's Day is coming up, and if you're still in need of an adorbs gift with which to present your dear old mum on the day, why not make a contribution to the project in her name? In addition to bringing Sir Nighty Knight's adventures to kids around the world-a noble gift, indeed!-she'll get a bunch of fab goodies, as well. Donating anywhere from $5 all the up to $500 or more (if you're feeling extra generous!) will net you a royal bow from Sir Nighty Knight for the team's gratitude and a PDF copy of the book; and of course, the bigger the donation, the more goodies there are. Pledging $20, for instance, gets you the finished app and your name on the "special thanks" page; pledging $100 gets you all of the previously mentioned pieces of swag plus a special wallpaper of the gallant knight and a harcover copy of the printed book; pledging $250 also scores you the chance to beta-test the app; and... well, you get the idea. Neat-o, right? We certainly think so!
To donate, head on over to Mark and Lee Fullerton's Kickstarter page here.
Happy Mother's Day!
XO,
The Betty Editors
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