Show that outgrew itself

'BATTLE FOR DREAM ISLAND': FANS BUILD GAMES BASED ON YOUTUBE SERIES

- Hein Kaiser

It began with a maths assignment and a folded piece of printer paper with cartoons on it. This was how twin brothers Michael and Cary Huang from California set off on the path to creating Battle for Dream Island (BFDI).

It's a YouTube animated series that has kept millions of kids, teenagers and even some grown ups tuning in to their screens for over a decade.

It was an unlikely beginning. "Cary had to create a fake catalogue for an algebra class in 2009," said Michael Huang.

"Inside it was a comic about how rock, paper and scissors, the hand gesture game, could be improved. He replaced them with water, sponge and fire."

The idea simmered and eventually characters became a cast. The cast became a story. And the story became a show.

"We were travelling when we decided to animate some of these comics," Michael said. "I was getting into digital animation at the time. It made sense to combine that with Cary's characters. That's how BFDI was born."

In the early days, Cary was also drawing his own version of a Cartoon Network show called Total Drama Island on folded paper booklets. He called it Total Fiery Island.

It was, in a way, pastimes that foreshadowed it all.