Trilogy Studios, a Van Nuys-based video game development company, this month is launching an interactive storybook division under Trilogy Touch Studios. The company is releasing a host of children’s books titles on digital devices, said founder Michael Pole. The books allow readers to interact with the story by touch on iPads, iPhones, Android Tablets and NOOK color, he said. Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson, is the first of many children’s books series the studio will be developing. Harold will go live this month, but there are plans to develop six books in Johnson’s series within the next few years, Pole said. “With Harold, it’s only the tip of the iceberg,” he said. Trilogy Touch also will include as part of its interactive storybook collection the animation movie “Despicable Me,” a product of Universal Motion Pictures and Illumination Entertainment. Other titles include children’s books Ladybug Girl by Penguin Books, Olive the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh, The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Ellen’s Lion by Johnson. By the end of this year, the company will develop six titles, Pole said. In 2012, there will be about 15 titles, and in 2013, Pole said he expects to develop 30 to 50 titles. “We really want to create this true collaboration of technology and content where the best of technology meets the best of content,” he said. Mobile applications are growing in all different kinds of categories, said Roger Lewis, vice president of sales marketing for Alliance Tech in Austin. “If you look at the growth of iPads and tablets, it’s exploding,” he said. Incorporating the use of these devices into a child’s world will be a wise move, Lewis added. “Kids are leading the way,” he said. Trilogy is known more for its online game developments, including one based on a major motion picture for children, and its virtual world creations, such as Virtual Sports Network and one centered on a popular MTV series. Pole said as more project partners approached him with business opportunities, he realized there is potential to market the company’s content in another market niche — where the goal is bringing to life books that have been around for generations. “Other companies have made nice applications, but I honestly don’t believe they are tapping the potential of what exists there,” he said. Digital distribution gives young authors and illustrators the opportunity to self-publish, said John Carls, a Sherman Oaks-based independent producer and writer. Carls said he is in discussions with a motion pictures studio to bring Harold and the Purple Crayon to the big screen. But in the meantime, he is working closely with Pole on the interactive storybook project. “Moving into the digital era, I saw it as an interesting opportunity to try to fulfill my mission to create high-end content for young children,” he said. Carls has produced popular children’s movies such as “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Rango” and children’s television series “Little Bear.” When developing movies based on a children’s storybook, the movie has to be “much bigger” than the book itself, Carls said. That’s different from working on digital storybook projects, he said. “We can be truer to what the author was hopefully intending, or even what was running through his or her mind when they were creating the book,” he said. Moving forward, these new developments will allow Trilogy to continue to test the boundaries, Carls said. “We are on a new hybrid,” he said.
Trilogy Draws Opportunity from Digital Storybook Titles
