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Kerrville-based dobooks interactive releases "spooky" children's book [Kerrville Daily Times, Texas](Kerrville Daily Times (TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 24--Just in time for Halloween, Kerrville-based dobooks interactive has released its latest interactive children's book: "A Hide & Seek Halloween Tale: The Adventures of Jacques & Missy in the Spooky House." The interactive book, which has a branching system that enables the reader to explore different paths and experience alternate endings, features three characters, Jacques (a cat) and Missy (a mouse) that like to go on adventures together with their friend, looca, a mysterious and magical blue ladybug. The book was released on the App Store for the iPad in English last week ($2.99), and is being ported to the iPhone platform. "After their summer adventure in 'The Mystery of The Lost Red Scarf: The Unique & Magical Adventure of Jacques & Missy in Costa Rica,' our three companions now go visit a spooky house on top of a hill in Ireland," said Daubas, who founded the company with his wife, Michele Ilich-Daubas, their longtime friend and business partner, Jean-Michel Daniel, and international renowned artist Vigen Sogomonyan, who provides artwork for the books. "Because this adventure is Halloween-driven, sneaky pumpkins are hiding inside the house, and it's up to the reader to help our friends find them." The book is filled with adventures -- but it also plays an important role in showing children that what goes bump in the night is not always something to be feared. As Missy and Jacques explore the empty, "spooky house," they discover what appears to be a monster. But is it really? With one click, they discover it is just an oven and some old pots and pans that frightened them at first. "One of the very neat concepts for this interactive adventure is that the Spooky House has dark and spooky rooms you can visit, where shapes and shadows might be a bit threatening at first, but where when light is brought in -- by opening curtains, turning on the light, etcetera -- things are fully revealed and turn out to be not so scary after all. In a way, we are trying to show children to not be so afraid of the dark and accept that what you sometimes think you see in dark places is more than often not what actually is." The book offers three reading modes allowing flexibility for the parent and child: --Story mode: the default mode in which children and parents alike can enjoy a casual read by way of charming adventures --Pop-up words mode: for the curious little ones; they allow young readers to learn the spelling of visual elements within the story --Fact mode: offers three levels -- toddlers, kids and grown-ups -- providing the reader with interesting cultural aspects about Halloween and the country of Ireland, as well as learning fun educational facts about the world and other elements encountered within the story. Melanie Bishop downloaded the app and said she and her daughter, 6-year-old Vivian, have had loads of fun exploring the rooms, reading the pop-ups and facts along the way. "Viv just loves the book -- both books, in fact. She sits for hours exploring the different rooms and finding hidden treasures, like a doorknob needed to open a door and enter a room, or a ladder in order to climb to the attic," Bishop said. "In several reading panes, there's a pumpkin hidden in the room, and if you find it, it's thrilling -- and it means something at the end. It's a lot of fun." Bishop said her daughter challenges herself to find all the surprises the story offers along the way. "I won't spoil it for anyone -- I don't do spoilers -- but I will say that it's worth the hunt." Daubas said he's delighted parents are enjoying the interactive books with their kids, because that's what he and his partners had in mind all along. "Our dobooks are meant to be shared experiences between a parent and a child. We want parents to take the time to sit down and read to their kids instead of keeping them at bay and busy with what I call 'single-serving' apps," Daubas said. "Plus, our apps are illustrated with original watercolors and are just gorgeous to look at; that alone should inspire parents to share with their kids and invite them to discover beautiful artwork and magical storytelling." The stories also can be used as a tool for English as a second language for children and adults. "First and foremost our stories are very simple and quite beautiful. While they are written in simple English, the wording is carefully chosen and indeed can be used as a tool to learn the language," Daubas said. "We also, of course, offer our great 'pop-up words' feature, which is another great tool for children and adults alike to learn simple words associated with elements seen on the screen. For more advanced readers in search of a bit more of a challenge we offer our 'fact mode' feature, it's a double win. The reader can learn some advanced English and at the same time some interesting facts about our world." Since unveiling its first book earlier this year, dobooks interactive has worked to improve its menu system and navigation system, "and we polished a few things, in particular in the audio area, to improve the experience and be able to deliver each and every time a truly beautiful product." Daubas said the third interactive book in the series -- a market adventure where we learn how the cat and mouse met and became best friends -- will be released in Spring 2015, and it will be Easter-egg-hunt driven. "Our fourth storybook, which we will, hopefully, be able to release by the end of the summer 2015, is a wonderful Christmas story centered around our ladybug looca, our company's mascot, and which will deal with the acceptance of being different. Our ladybug looca is, after all, a blue ladybug." Daubas said the big picture plan for the business is to become a publishing studio that produces charming, beautiful and educational interactive apps for children around the world. "We have many projects in the pipeline, in particular a few ideas where we will be able to do things otherwise completely impossible via paper publishing," he said. "We always want to offer our apps illustrated with original art -- no 3-D gimmicks -- but we also want to widen our audience and create offerings for older children. The 9- to 12-year-old market is still very weak right now, as most apps are targeted toward children under 8 or adults. We know we could do fantastic things for kids 9 and older." Like Missy and Jacques, who rely on help from looca to find their way through their adventures, Daubas said he is looking for investors to help grow the business -- and keep the stories coming. "We are at a fragile state right now where we have proven we can do these apps very well. The feedback and reviews have been extremely positive, but where we now need to drive sales. Of course higher sales demand proper marketing and exposure and it's a tough road to navigate, because there is so much already out there," he said. "The competition is fierce, and it takes money -- and patience -- to make money." Like the books' characters, who seek out answers through clues and hints, Daubas is listening to consumers to help his company's story proceed. "Our customers asked us to make the apps available on iPhone, as well, because these days screens are much larger. It seems everyone has an iPhone, but maybe not yet an iPad. iPhone versions of our two apps are in the works and should be available before the end of the year," he said. "We are also looking at translating our apps, so they can be offered to markets in Asia, Europe and South America. It's easy, but it just demands funding, as localization costs can get pretty high and rather quickly." Daubas said dobooks interactive offers an educational discount -- an arrangement with Apple on the App Store -- for its downloadable apps, and the company also offers the app free to local nonprofits that work with children, including the Families & Literacy program and the Medina Children's Home. "We are very keen on trying to make a difference in a child's life, no matter how small of a difference it could be," Daubas said. "If a child reads one of our adventures, enjoys it and remembers it, and maybe years later passes on the torch to his or her own children because of fond memories, then we have succeeded." ___ (c)2014 the Kerrville Daily Times (Kerrville, Texas) Visit the Kerrville Daily Times (Kerrville, Texas) at www.dailytimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |