An account of the early history of Flix Productions, written in December 1996:

About Flix Productions ---

My name is Tom Guthery IV, and I am the President of Flix Productions animated educational software. We are a small company - I handle most of the design, animation and programming chores, my wife Debbie (who in a previous life was an executive secretary) handles most of the administrative chores. Our three children, Tommy, John and Kelly, serve as our primary "beta testers" (they also get paid for stuffing envelopes and formatting disks as needed). My mother has been my primary educational consultant - she has been teaching 1st and 2nd grades for over 20 years.

In the last six years we have released over 20 educational programs for the PC ranging from core curriculum for pre-schoolers to CD ROM games. The company began as a shareware ("try before you buy" software found on on-line services, the internet, etc.) and has since branched out to include 11 retail products - although shareware is still a very big part of our business (as a self-publisher I keep 100% of the money, not just 15% of the net). The programs are part of an "Animated Series" ("Animated Alphabet", "Animated Shapes", "Animated Math", etc.), and are priced in the $6 to $15 range.

How I ended up doing children's software ---

I have been involved professionally in computers and animation for over 20 years, but until recently, not simultaneously. I made my primary income working with main frame computers, first in the Air Force, then for the State of Texas. During this time, I also did classical hand-drawn animation using cels and film or video. I had done several TV spots, but decided for various reasons, that it was not a field I wanted to pursue full-time. I was able to secure several National Endowment for the Arts grants in order to work on personal animated films.

When we bought our first PC in 1990, we also bought some children's software (we had two children at that time). As an animator used to working with film, I was not too impressed - the resolution and color depth of CGA wasn't very good (320x200 pixels, 4 colors). Further, what passed for animation was magnitudes poorer than even Saturday morning fare - a character would indicate pleasure or displeasure by moving it's head using two drawings - it takes at least 8 drawing for a decent head turn.

When PCs matured - basically when EGA came out - I felt that the capability must be there to do full screen high resolution animation on them. This turned out to be quite a challenge for an XT with 1 Meg of RAM, and after 6 months of attempts I was able to achieve this goal using a language called GRASP (GRaphical Animation System for Professionals), written by John Bridges. The latest version of this language (which I still use) is called GLpro, published by G-Media (http://www.usgmedia.com). It was if I had trained for 14 years for a field that didn't exist at the time.

Before I had children, I would have probably exploited this ability to do silly or strange cartoons (most of my grant films could be described this way), but after reading "Mother Goose" to my children several hundred times, and playing innumerable games of "Uncle Wiggly" and "Candyland", I suppose something must have rubbed off. I decided that since I couldn't find any children's software I was happy with for my own kids to use, I would write my own. The humor that I used in my animated films became a big part of the animated children's software I eventually developed. Years later, I read about a study Children's Television Workshop had done when they were preparing to develop "Sesame Street", and among it's findings were that children were engaged by humor, especially humor derived from incongruous situations (an elephant jumping out of a compact car, for instance). I had stumbled across the same universal truth by watching the reactions of my own children as I developed my first program, "Animated Alphabet", and the element of silly comedy has remained a mainstay of all my programs.

Flix Productions software ---

"Animated Alphabet" owes it's functionality to the limitations of both the PC and the capabilities of the language at the time. The child sees a picture to represent each letter of the alphabet. When the child chooses the correct letter, the picture turns into an entertaining animated sequence. The novel aspect of the program was that the graphics were all high resolution (640x350 pixels with 16 colors), and that the animation ran quickly (about 10 frames per second) on an XT. It also took four 360K disks to deliver, which was huge for it's time. The program is still being sold and I still support it; it has found new life via the internet. A lot of schools have been donated old PCs and it is very difficult to find software to run on them. We have sold more copies to more schools in the last year than in the previous five. Previously, the program was available as shareware on CompuServe, shareware catalogs, and BBSs - forums which most schools were not very aware of. Since the program became available on the net (on our home page at http://www.eden.com/~flixprod), it has been located by many more schools. This has come as a great surprise to me, and something that would certainly not happen via retail channels - retail shelf life averages a little over 100 days now - certainly not 6 years!

The graphics used in "Animated Alphabet" were created using the same techniques I had been using for film and video - they were drawn on animation paper using an animator's drawing table (light box). I have never been particularly interested in computer generated imagery - most of it looks too sterile (Disney's "Toy Story", and other animations by Pixar are notable exceptions). I believe that children will respond better to something with a more "organic" look to it. After producing the pencil drawings they were scanned (using a video camera and animation stand) into the computer, and then painted using a paint program. Using the computer to assist in art chores has had several benefits. Of course computer assistance has been a great time-saver (hand painting cels is MUCH slower than pointing a mouse and clicking to fill and area with color!). Equally important, the computer's ability to edit animation in real time (make it go faster or slower, have a cycle of images move across the screen from one position to another, make the images larger or smaller, change the colors of the drawings, etc.) has meant that the animation can be refined much more easily. With film, it is very tempting to look at the amount of work required to make a simple change (re-shoot an entire sequence), and decide that the original shoot was "good enough".

Soon after "Animated Alphabet" I completed my next program "Animated Shapes". It teaches shape and color identification using a colorful menu system designed for children. Each shape that is correctly identified combines with other shapes to create a picture. Upon completion, the picture becomes an entertaining mini-movie. Reaction to "Animated Alphabet" strongly confirmed that the parts of the program the children enjoyed most were the silly bits, so this was emphasized more with "Animated Shapes".

Next, I produced "Animated Math". It's description reads: teaches counting, addition and subtraction with animated rewards every step of the way. Not just a drill, but a tutorial that gives graphic help as needed. The game room can be visited after completing ten questions. Includes MOUSE SUPPORT! (mouse support was not very common in 1990).

This was certainly my most ambitious program to that date - it included mini-animations to reinforce number concepts (6 dump trucks dumping, 7 flowers blooming, etc.), plus a game room with dot-to-dot dinosaurs (I got the idea when my oldest son brought a dot-to-dot dinosaur book from school, and would immediately work on it every day when he got home - for days, until he had completed it), animated characters that would "sing" songs (they could be played from a songbook, or the child could compose their own), a build your own rocket game, and a coloring game (the child could change the colors used and make it animate).

The decision to separate the learning activity from the gaming activity was a deliberate one. The program is designed for very young children (pre-K through K), and I felt that they would be too distracted by arcade elements to be able to concentrate properly on the educational elements (although "stealth" educational elements were built into the game room). The child gets a small reward (a random animation) for each success, but must complete 10 problems to visit the game room. This design decision has had unexpected impact, especially for mentally disabled children (and even more surprisingly to me, for head injury patients) - since there is no "hurry and do this" aspect to the program, the child can take all the time they want to complete an activity. I remember receiving an amazing letter from the parent of a child with Down Syndrome - they had been told that their child would never count past the number five, they tried using the program, and came back to find their child busily building his own rocket - an activity he could only get to by being able to identify the numbers 0 - 9. This kind of impact on people's lives is incredibly gratifying!

Another design element I felt very strongly about was in regard to incorrect responses - if the child chooses the wrong answer the first time, they are asked to try again, if they are incorrect a second time, they don't get a WRONG! and moved along. My feeling is that, if they do not know the answer, they need to be shown how to get the correct answer - depending on the type of problem progressive help is given. For instance, for a problem like 3+2, they would be shown two boxes with dots (3 and 2), in a large size so that they can count them on the screen with their fingers, the fourth incorrect response will reveal a box with 5 dots - the answer, the fifth incorrect response will tell them that the answer is 5. In this gentle way they can arrive at the correct answer, however, the fastest way to get to the game room is to give the correct response the first time, and this seems to be sufficient motivation to try to give the correct response.

My mother's extensive experience teaching children was of great assistance during the development of this program - I especially recall how she told me to group the number counting dots in 5's, as that is how children counted - using their fingers.

"Animated Memory Game" came next. (Well, actually "Animated Mother Goose" came next - several short animations of Mother Goose Rhymes - I had done some animation for a children's video and couldn't stop myself, so I released the additional animations in this program). It is a concentration type game that uses animated pictures to test memory skills. By matching hidden pictures in pairs you win the game and get animated rewards. I did this one mainly as an excuse to do lots of animation. I have found that my programs that do not have recognizable core curriculum content do not sell as well, but every now and then I will do one just for fun. It was about this time I quit my computer job (which I had held for 13 years), and began doing children's software full-time. I thank God that my wife and I have both been able to be home with our children.

By this time, PCs had gotten to the point where decent sound quality was available (Macs have had this for some time), and I wrote a program to take advantage of this - "Animated Words". It's description: a spelling program for children from pre-school through first grade. The child is helped to match a word with it's picture. When the word is correctly matched, pieces are added to a puzzle; after five correct words the puzzle becomes animated. Even so, I had to use "Real Sound" drivers to produce speech on the PC speaker, because sound cards were still not very common. The program has been updated to include support for over 20 sound cards since then.

By popular demand, "Animated Multiplication and Division" was written. It followed the same model as "Animated Math" (help for incorrect responses - using a progressively annotated multiplication table, and a game room). Description: a program aimed primarily at children from first through third grades. Based on the multiplication table from 1 to 10, it teaches "mental math" in a painless way. Progressive help is given as needed when the student is having difficulty with a particular problem (not just a Wrong! response from the computer). As rewards for successful completion of a sequence of ten problems a game room with several build-and-color-your-own animated games are given. The student can create and select a color scheme for their own dinosaur, car, face or fashion model.

Both programs (Math and Multiplication/Division) are what would be considered "drill" programs, this type of program has sometimes been referred to disparagingly. I believe there is value in this approach, as well as others ("stealth" learning through gaming or exploration, etc.). One of the things a computer excels at is being infinitely patient, and it strikes me that it is a waste of valuable teacher (and parent) time to have to engage in activities with a high repetition count (such as memorizing the multiplication table), inversely, I feel that they are in a much better position to teach concepts effectively than a computer could. Part of the reason I wrote this program is that I recall as a child absolutely hating having to memorize the multiplication tables - perhaps a program like this would have made it a more enjoyable activity.

"Animated Clock" was written largely at the suggestion of my mother. She told me how children had a very difficult time learning this skill. When you think about it, analog clocks are slightly crazy - each big number is 5 minutes, 12 of them are one hour, etc. No wonder children have trouble with this! It has turned out to be a surprise hit (out-selling "Animated Multiplication and Division") - apparently a lot of other parents, teachers, and students are facing the same challenge!

The program's description: a program for children from pre-school through third grade that teaches them to tell time in a variety of ways. This life skill program helps them convert digital time to analog time and vice-versa. Difficulty levels can be selected to provide practice in increments of hours, half-hours, 15 minutes, 5 minutes and one minute. Animated rewards "pop out" of the cuckoo clock's doors for each correct answer, and 10 correct answers are rewarded with a full-screen silly animation. Graphic help is given as needed to help the student learn the skills. Cedric Meza assisted me in the programming of this and "Animated Multiplication and Division" - he did a lot of the curriculum programming, which freed me up to concentrate on the animation and games.

"Animated Money" is a program for teaching coin recognition and math skills. U.S. and Canadian versions of the coins can be chosen. The coins used in the program are photographically scanned in, so they appear very realistic (and recognizable). There are three types of games. First, a money recognition game where the child matches the coin to it's amount, both the front and back of the coins are used. The other two games have levels of difficulty that can be adjusted to the child's needs. One game has the child match a group of coins to it's amount (2 dimes and a nickel matched to 25 cents), the other game matches equivalent groups of coins (2 dimes and a nickel matched to 1 dime, 2 nickels and 5 pennies,for instance). Context sensitive help is available for the boxes with coins in them which shows the cumulative values of each group of coins (but does not add them all up - that is left to the child). When 10 matches are made, the child receives a ticket to a short animated movie. There are 10 different animated movies using techniques like clay-animation, full-motion video, stop-motion, and morphing. Sound effects and music are used throughout the program.

This was the first program I did using VGA. It allowed me to have high-resolution graphics so that the coins could be very identifiable and 256 colors (in low resolution) for the animations. Consequently, I was able to use more techniques (clay-animation, etc.).

"Animated VGA Memory Game" This program also features Super VGA support. A concentration-style game that uses animated 256 color tiles. All kinds of animation are used including: clay animation, stop-motion, morphing, tweening, 3D, cell, and full-motion video. In VGA (320x200) mode, 10 or 20 tiles can be used for a game, in Super VGA (640x480) mode up to 64 tiles can be used. A wealth of options are provided including 2 player mode (with score-keeping), changing tile backs, and a mini-movie theater. Silly cartoon sound effects are given for a wrong attempt and a harp is played for correct matches. Keyboard and mouse support are provided. This program requires VGA (Super VGA version needs at least 512K VGA card) and a mouse. Support for SoundBlaster & Clones, PC Speaker & 20 more.

Even though I knew this one wouldn't do as well financially as the core curriculum programs (and it hasn't), I wanted to do it to play with the new SVGA technology, and animation. It did have a very unexpected benefit - it won the Ziff-Davis Shareware Award for Best Puzzle Game from Computer Gaming Magazine. I attribute this largely to the fact that the game industry is very "gee-whiz" technology driven, and "Animated VGA Memory Game" used the latest technology (although I hedged my bets by making it work, with fewer tiles, in low resolution VGA mode as well).

"Animated Bugs" is a board game for young children that is full of color (256 of them), sound (effects and voices), and of course, animation (there is over 1.5 meg of graphics and sound). The child can choose from five different garden backgrounds. The game play involves two bugs - "Red Bug" and Blue Bug" - that move along a path to the end of the board. The players can be two people, or the child can play against the PC (the computer can even play against itself, which can be fun to watch). Along the way the bugs can encounter squares with A's in them - which give a mini-animation with sound, or a ? symbol which can cause the player to move forward or backward several spaces. The number of ?'s is adjustable to set the level of "trickiness". Movement is determined by a spinner that can be either numbers, colors, or shapes. At the end of the game, one of five different animated movie - rewards are shown. Children can get upset if they don't win, so I made the game such that the bug that is behind at the end says "Wait for me!" and flies to catch up.

I did this one in response to too many games of "Uncle Wiggly" with my son John. I just couldn't take it any more, so I designed a program that would play a spinner game with him. The problem was that whenever he "lost" he claimed the computer cheated...

"Animated Addition and Subtraction" is for children from 1st through 4th grades. It provides exercises in addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. Problems can involve up to 9 digits. More than just a drill program, progressive help is given as needed to instruct the child to solve the problems. Once ten problems are completed, the student gets to visit the game room. There they will find a 256 color build your own rocket game, an animated train game with sound effects, and animated puzzles with silly cartoons.

This was a follow-up to "Animated Math" - I had gotten numerous requests for a program that handled larger numbers. I didn't want to simply add this capability to "Animated Math" as I felt the games and curriculum wouldn't match - the games in "Animated Math" would not be age appropriate for older children (they would get bored with them), and the games in "Animated Addition and Subtraction" would be too difficult for K and pre-K children. I have always eschewed a "one size fits all" approach to educational software as I have seen for myself the huge difference even a few years makes in a child's attention span, interests, etc. Designing programs for a narrow age range has financial drawbacks however - they take just as much time and effort as a program (like a game) that is designed for a larger age group, but, by definition, is going to have a smaller market.

As well as the shareware programs I describe in this article, I have done a number of retail-only products including: Dino's Live at the IQ Zoo, ABC Fun at the Magic Zoo, Multimedia Learning Funhouse CD-ROM, Jurassic ABC Coloring Book CD-ROM, Tom Guthery Multimedia Anthology CD-ROM.

My latest program is "Animated Beginning Typing" for Windows and Win 95. It is designed for young typists, and teaches proper typing technique for the letter keys. Sound effects and animation are used to make learning to type fun (and funny). Help is given with an animated tutorial, a screen to show proper fingering, and an on-screen keyboard which highlights the correct key when needed.

There are three games in the program. "Jumping Letters" is designed for very young students, and can be played at any pace. Each correctly typed letter is rewarded with the letter being removed by an animated "critter" chosen by the pupil. When 10 letters are completed (context-sensitive help insures success), the child gets a silly cartoon.

"Letter Drill" allows students to choose between 20 and 120 letters to practice. A report is generated at the end of the practice showing words per minute, errors, and time. The last letter in the sequence is removed in a silly way by a "critter", then the pupil is rewarded with a cartoon.

"Flying Letters" is an arcade style game for advanced typists. The speed of the game is determined by the player (and can be changed at any time during the game). A report is generated at the end of the game, and a funny animation is displayed.

All three games allow the student to choose a group of letters (such as left hand home keys), or to practice all 26 letters. The animation in the program is achieved using stop-motion animation, as well as other techniques.

The road to "Animated Beginning Typing" was paved with delays - mostly due to the selection of a language to use. I had begun work on the program as a DOS program, but market reasons made that impractical (when is the last time you saw a non-"bleeding edge game" DOS program in a store?). I then began working on the program using Visual Basic, but it did not have the wonderful animation capabilities I had been accustomed to (fast animation that in many cases be generated "on the fly" saving tons of disk space over "canned" animation). I then tried using Macromedia Director (which would have had the ancillary benefit of enabling me to produce a Mac version as well as a Windows version), and probably would have used that to author the program if my favorite language had not been given new life by G-Media. The fact that I had used the language for so many years returned my programming/animation ratio back to a position where I spend the majority of my time animating rather than coding.

The future ---

The marketplace has changed drastically since I began doing shareware and later, retail software. Most of my programs in shareware were marketed via catalogs and BBSs - alas, they are largely gone now - replaced by CDs and the internet. While the easy access to lots of shareware at a low price is a boon to consumers, it can be problematical to producers - there is the very real danger of "getting lost in the noise" - buried with 100s of other programs on a CD, or buried with 100,000s of internet sites. The retail market is very different as well - when I was first published there was a lot of demand, but not much supply of educational software, now, the demand is flattening, and the supply is huge (due largely, I think, to the published reports of the +200% growth in the educational market - everybody started releasing educational software). I remain optimistic however. When I wrote my first few educational programs I never expected that it would turn into a full-time endeavor (I didn't even include an order form with the shareware), so I expect that this business still holds a few surprises for me...

Written 12/3/96

Back to bio page