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The Interactive Fiction Machine
The Choosatron Deluxe Adventure Matrix is a Wi-Fi connected Choose Your Own Adventure®-inspired story printer, blending digital and analogue storytelling. It is designed to be easily assembled by kids into a small interactive fiction game box, and encourage social reading, learning, and play.
About the Choosatron Platform
Make

  • Powered by a Spark Core.
  • Quick to assemble.
  • Inkless thermal printer (takes standard paper rolls).
  • Program over wireless or USB.
  • Store games on internal memory.
  • Open Source design files.
  • Includes an RGB LED, piezo speaker, and micro-sd card slot for custom applications.

Read

  • Facilitates “interactive reading”, keeping kids engaged.
  • Choosatron invites social reading.
  • Portability makes it perfect for social gatherings, coffee shops, or bars!
  • It’s tactile; and you get to keep each adventure!
  • For the young (at heart): Have you ever read a story twice and had it change?

Write

  • Write and share your stories on the Choosatron or online!
  • It encourages burst of creative writing for arcade-like experiences.
  • Explore any topics from meaningful, to frightful! Express yourself.
  • Beyond a book: Allows conditions, variables, randomization, and more!
  • Near instant feedback as you write, test, and play your story in print.

Learn

  • Great for STEAM learning. Contact us for help!
  • Teach through interactive historical adventures, explore Pompeii before its catastrophic end!
  • Interactive quizzes with instant feedback.
  • Improve literacy or foreign language comprehension.
  • Inspire students to create together.

Beta Release by January
Beta Images
Cross-Platform Interactive Writing With
ChoiceWright
The Choosatron is only one part of something greater. We have been working on creating a new interactive fiction writing platform to fill a gap we’ve seen in available tools. It also allows you to manage and send stories to your Choosatron, but having the device isn’t required at all! Here are some of the current features:

  • Cross-platform Chrome application.
  • Offline writing.
  • Clean, unobtrusive interface.
  • Designed to be usable by any age.
  • Doesn’t require the Chrome Browser open to use.
  • Can import stories from other popular tools (like Twine).
  • Can export stories to other popular tools (again, Twine!).
  • Can import/export to JSON, never be locked in!
  • Supports variables and conditions.
  • Keep up with progress by joining the Mailing List!

the Choosatron
Our Team
Faces to Names
megan@monkeytheater.com
Megan Dowd
Project Manager
jerry@monkeytheater.com
Jerry Belich
Founder / Developer
Monkey with a Mustache
About Us
The Choosatron project was developed through Monkey with a Mustache, a creative development company founded by Jerry Belich. Megan Dowd joined the modest ranks in 2013 in order to help manage the success of the Choosatron.

The company was originally founded 2000 as Astral Entertainment, releasing collections of what would now be considered retro arcade games. Two of the original members, Brian Quarfoth and Jerry Belich, started Monkey with a Mustache in 2006 as they shifted to digital animation and videography work. Jerry continued his software development, ultimately leading a mobile development team, and moving back into game design, precipitating a shift once again to storytelling and interactive entertainment projects, including the Choosatron.

Choosatron And Beyond
Whether you want to use the Choosatron as is, commission custom modifications, or even completely original hardware and software game designs, we’re here.
Game Design
  • Hardware Games
  • Digital Games (+Mobile)
  • Hybrid Games
Writing
  • Interactive Story Consulting
  • Commission Original Stories
Talks
  • Hardware Game Design
  • Writing & Interactive Fiction
  • Digital Stories in Spaces
Workshops
  • Building Choosatron Kits
  • Interactive Story Design
  • Original Hardware Games
Hardware
  • Choosatron Installations
  • Custom Choosatron Software
  • Custom Choosatron Hardware
Progress
What’s Left
Kickstarter Funding ($75k Funded) - 100%
Hardware Kit Design - 100%
Choosatron Firmware - 100%
Interactive Writing Platform - 90%
Progress to Shipping - 100%
Testimonials
What People Are Saying
"Beyond brilliant."

John Polson, Editor - IndieGames
"The simple experience that the Choosatron promises is completely fascinating to me."

Jeff Penner, Journalist - Wasabi Mountain
"Projects like these are championing the right to a 'mental breath of fresh air', where concepts of childhood openness and curiosity combine with the application of play and self-expression."

Josephine Hatch, Journalist - The 405
"I love knowing stuff like this can exist in the world thanks to the internet connecting creators + backers."

Alexis Ohanian, Journalist - Without Their Permission
"It's tactile, it's never-ending, it's amazing, it's stories made by you—in a box."

David Allen Ibsen, Journalist - Get The Five
"It's like Zork without the 8" floppy discs and all the typing. Exposing kids to a mix of tech and art–exactly what they need in their sugar-enriched diets."

Josh Mings, Journalist - SolidSmack
"All hail the descendant of the choose-your-own-adventure book."

David Cornish, Journalist - Wired UK
"It is, you see, an utterly amazing thing. A thing of beauty and a properly wild idea."

Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Journalist - IndieGames
Choosatron Portfolio

The Choosatron has been a catalyst for ideas all over the world. It has attended numerous events, integrated into permanent installations, and opened up opportunities for education,changing the way we use writing and games with kids.

Gotland Game ConferenceEvent
Science Museum of MNEvent
Loft Literary CenterEducation
Game Developers ConferenceEvent
Game Connection EuropeEvent
Bakken MuseumEducation
Game Science CenterInstallation
Bit Bash FestivalEvent
A Maze FestivalEvent
Choosatron KickstarterVideo
Contact
The Choosatron is still an evolving project. Please sign up for our newsletter below, or contact us to discuss putting on a workshop, talk, or even integrating the Choosatron into a project of your own devising!
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