The series first started as a comic, then morphed into a video game, then a Webtoon Original, and is now an illustrated novel. To read the full series, visit the website below.
Project Summary
The Masked Fables is a long running original project about a young wanderer named Ari who is struck with an unknown illness, and a lost spirit named Hadley who is looking for his body. Both hope to find what they’re looking for by solving a mysterious riddle, which inevitability thrusts them into familiar, but twisted fairy tales.
Current Iteration
First Iteration
The first iteration of the series was a college comic project called Ariadne. The short story contained the first appearance of Ari and Hadley and revolved around a town that repeated the day over and over again.
Video Game Version
In 2012, I assembled a game team and we christened ourselves as Tiny Spirit Studios. The video game, renamed to Echo Fortuna, was based on a time loop mechanic where our hero Ari, and her spirit companion Hadley, had to repeat the day to nudge characters into a their fairy tale happy ending.
Tiny Spirit Team
Ebae Kim
Julia Blackwood
Zach Sherin
Jim Walsh
Richard Gould
Yudi Chen
Anita Tung
Greg Kusumi
Elle Jacobson
Sharon Wang
Olivia Luo
Creative Director
Programmer
Programmer
Programmer
Audio Designer
Artist
Artist
Designer
Marketing
Producer / QA
Graphic Designer
Prototype
Early prototype created with Google Slides. To make full screen, click the three dots and click “Enter Full Screen”.Game Soundtrack
I worked with composer Richard Gould to help direct and flesh out the tone of the game soundtrack through a series of audio sketches.
UX Mockups
Concept Art
After a 4 year run making concepts, mock ups, and prototypes, ultimately the team was dissolved as the project evolved back into a linear narrative medium to accommodate limitations in budget and availability.
Webtoon Version
On August 2019, the project, now called The Masked Fables, was picked up as a Webtoon Original Series. To transition for a site-wide relaunch of the series, the art and story were reworked with the help of editor Bre Boswell.
ABOVE: Desktop landing page. RIGHT: Mobile landing page.A proof of concept for the series was created as a storyboard animatic at the creative studio, Cinesaurus.
By this point, the concept of the time loop was replaced with masks, which eventually became the Lores, representations of narrative archetypes. Story-wise, all but Ari, Hadley, and the idea of twisted fairytales finding happy endings were completely reworked.
The series as a comic was voluntarily discontinued in 2022, but currently continues on as an illustrated novel at http://maskedfables.com. By the end of its run, the series garnered over three million views and 150,000 subscribers. To read the Webtoon version of the series in full, click the link below.