Art. Physics. Code. One impossible world.

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Uncle ShriftUncle Shrift / Your host ↗

Ten years of drawing.
Now the machines
have caught up.

The GraveRobbers, Brett Clements’ authored 10-level big-house ghost-train attraction.

Welcome to Carny Island. My Halloween party game takes place inside The GraveRobbers, a ghost-train attraction in Crookwood cemetery: a 10-level “big house” on Bogan Bros’ Carny Island, an imaginary amusement park on a real New York peninsula.

Crookwood is run by Uncle Shrift, a mortician and closet cannibal who drinks Black Dog according to the phases of the moon. His dogs Mongril, Ferret, Scrotum and Bastard moonlight as the rock band The DogGones, who provide Carny Island's soundtrack.

The ride has broken down. You are on foot: a 3-foot villain in a glow-in-the-dark skeleton suit. Rob graves for body parts, flog them through the black-market economy of Necronomics, and build a Stein—a nod to Frankenstein—or a zombie. You can “win”, but never actually win.

Because video games need absolutes, Carny Island runs on natural engines. Real New York weather changes how hard the ground is to dig. The sun and moon cast moving shadows through the graveyard. JooJoo, the game’s conscience and moral operating code, is based on Mongrilism. And all of it happens on a film set.

This is a video game and a tabletop game at once: up to 12 inebriated adults gather around a dining-table-sized poster, using their phones as playing pieces, portals and weapons.

I invented it. Now one maniac and two machines—OpenAI and Anthropic—are coding it. What could possibly go wrong?

“We never know how high we are until we are asked to rise.”— Emily Dickinson
Now / The daily journal

The last 24 hours · Brett's field note

41.000 stars

How the Big Dipper replaced wallpaper over Crookwood.
Low Crookwood camera beneath a dense Northern Hemisphere star field with Brett's authored Moon over the graveyard.
Night over Crookwood. The field is driven by measured catalogue positions over New York; the Moon remains Brett's authored drawing.
The challenge

Replace oversized authored night stars and a generic procedural scatter with a recognisable Northern Hemisphere sky over New York, while preserving tiny bounded pins, Brett's colour script, the authored Moon and moving shadows.

The finish line

Across the complete six-minute sweep, the Big Dipper and northern sky rotate correctly over New York, progressively fainter stars appear with darkness, the Moon reads as round and phase-correct, and the 69 authored world casters retain moving shadows.

Now

The 41.000 stars Journal entry is being published while work continues on Crookwood's finite studio envelope.

Inside CrookwoodThree viewsCrookwood Stage 1 / Basement
Crookwood world builder showing the hand-drawn graveyard, the purple entrance and the tower beneath a blue sky.
01 / Yard orbit / blue skyThe yard: Crookwood assembled as a walkable hand-drawn world.2026-07-23
Crookwood world builder at sunset showing the graveyard surface and the Graveboxes extending into the basement beneath it.
02 / Yard orbit / sunset cutawayThe cutaway: the cemetery above and the machinery of burial below.2026-07-23
Crookwood Stage 1 basement builder showing rows of authored Graveboxes on the timber floor inside the purple perimeter wall.
03 / Basement orbit / GraveboxesThe basement: 69 graves becoming a theatrical machine under the yard.2026-07-26
01 / What the game is

What is Carny Island?

An adult Halloween party game invented by Nightmare creator Brett Clements. A physical cemetery board links to smartphones used as playing pieces, portals and weapons inside Crookwood.

Up to 12 adults gather around Crookwood, rob graves for body parts, valuables and anomalies, build zombies before sunrise, and use their phones to attack, defend and survive nine lives while Uncle Shrift runs the yard.

01

Sugar

Donuts become energy. Energy makes action possible; depletion creates vulnerability and death.

02

Excavation

Each grave is a tactile sequence of touch, reveal, reward and consequence.

03

DOGMA

Dogma judges deliberate tool misuse through damage, excess and proportionality. JooJoo remembers the player's sustained pattern without becoming a running score.

12adult players
9lives in a run
PHONEplaying piece + portal

New York time, KJFK weather, NOAA tides and the lunar calendar feed the theatre. The world outside the game changes the world inside it.

Enter the full game file Explore 73 authored artworks
02 / The philosophy

Systems before spectacle.

Carny Island makes death, danger and decay playable. Its humour can be grotesque and its theatre excessive, but the world must remain legible, cumulative and internally consistent.

Systems before spectacle

The joke, shock or flourish must emerge from rules the player can understand. Spectacle is strongest when it has mechanical consequence.

Irreverence with structure

Nothing is sacred by default, but provocation is deliberate. Carny rejects random chaos and empty shock.

Death as resource

Death and the dead are inputs to the island's economy, memory and play—not merely a failure screen.

Cumulative escalation

Actions leave residue. Pressure builds, damage persists and the world remembers patterns rather than erasing them for convenience.

Physical and digital belong together

The tabletop board and mobile phones form one game. Phones are playing pieces and video portals, so physical and screen-based play must obey the same world law.

Coherence over comfort

Continuity outranks novelty. The world may be hostile or absurd, but it cannot casually contradict its own laws.

The Bibles describe a rebellion built through systems: consequence without sermons, humour without nihilism and a handmade world whose machinery has a point of view.

03 / Beyond the graveyard

The institutions of Carny Island

Crookwood is not an isolated graveyard. It is the front counter of an economy, a religion, a media system and a very badly supervised entertainment empire.

Brett Clements' authored Shrift In Your Face gameplay plate, with Uncle Shrift framed by the Carny Island interface and tool tray.browser-safe web display derivative of authored Shrift gameplay plate · exact authored paths
Host / antagonist / theatrical controllerCanon established; voice performance pending

Uncle Shrift

Shrift is Crookwood's host, antagonist and master of ceremonies: a functioning alcoholic whose mood moves from sober calculation at the New Moon to peak chaos at the Full Moon.

He cues theatrical weather and escalates danger at the top of the Chaos ladder. Rope creaks and ground shadows warn the player before his overhead threats arrive.

Shrift is a form of TheShapeShifter. Brett performs his voice. On this website he operates the customer-service desk while his approved mouth-chart animation and recorded performance await intake.

Still open

Phase 1 commentary format and final cottage treatment remain Brett decisions.

Open the full file
Bigwhan, Brett Clements' authored depiction of Mongril in his crate.
Sound-first law / graveyard alarmSystem defined; Game 1 build not started

Mongril & The DogGones

Mongril, Ferret, Scrotum and Bastard are Shrift's dogs and the graveyard's living alarm. They moonlight as the rock band the DogGones, who provide the soundtrack for Carny Island. They are not introduced as a melee threat; they listen, judge and tell the rest of the island where you are.

Their escalation is audible and learnable: head-cock, growl, bark, howl, attack. Silence protects the player. Noise feeds shared pack distress and can eventually summon Shrift.

Mongril is one of Shrift's dogs and one of the DogGones. The legacy Bible gives him a magnificently unstable history: a Holy Man and former rocket scientist reincarnated as a dog, fortune teller, sword swallower and founder of Mongrilism. Black Dog is what Shrift drinks; Shrift is a closet cannibal whose drinking rises and falls with the phases of the moon. The dogs' other job is music: the DogGones provide Carny Island's soundtrack.

Still open

Dog count, patrol shape and which parts of Mongril's legacy biography enter Game 1 remain Brett decisions.

Open the full file
Brett Clements' authored POX News logo.web display derivative of authored PNG · exact authored paths
The island's narrative broadcastNarrative surface established; implementation pending

POX News

POX News reports Carny Island back to itself. It turns deaths, prices, scandals and new threats into an in-world broadcast instead of a detached menu of updates.

Johnny Prime anchors the news. Existing story anchors include the death of Marley The Bobster and heart prices going through the roof.

The news system can carry world consequences, introduce killers and make the horror economy feel public, ridiculous and alive.

Still open

The current canon preserves the anchors and schemas while episode format and live delivery remain to be built.

Open the full file
Brett Clements' authored vector drawing of the Crookwood Chapel above a winding white path and orange and purple flowers.source SVG · exact authored paths
One mercy / JooJoo recoveryCanon and authored vector established; gameplay not started

The Chapel

The Chapel is Crookwood's public ritual node: a Pandora destination, a working part of the death economy and a place where confession can alter JooJoo.

The Bible connects the Chapel to confession, redemption, JooJoo recovery and bargaining with Shrift. The exact current lifeline count is being reconciled rather than invented here.

Bodies and coffins pass through its ceremonies. Jesus speaks with an Australian accent, and the bodies are timed to explode on the second joint or glass of wine.

Still open

The archived V2 Chapel file says two lifelines per run; Brett later ruled one lifeline in two religious framings. The current contract needs his explicit final confirmation.

Open the full file
Brett Clements' authored vector drawing of the crooked grey Crookwood County Morgue with its blue sign and freezer door.source SVG · exact authored paths
Body intake / timed marketCanon and authored vector established; gameplay not started

The Morgue

Crookwood County Morgue is a plain government dead-intake building where bodies become inventory and fresh organs enter the necro-economy.

Four nine-drawer cadaver coolers hold bodies and organs. Blackouts can turn intake and extraction into torch-lit navigation.

Best-Before organs are the exceptional loot whose value decays. Pandora gateway stones are intended to route players here.

Still open

Interior interaction, extraction risk and exact gateway assignments remain unspecified in the archived V2 file.

Open the full file
Brett Clements' authored vector drawing of Muma Maria's Pizzeria with red and green lettering, a meal deal and a meat lovers window poster.source SVG · exact authored paths
Visible Crookwood landmarkAuthored vector established; gameplay role remains open

Muma Maria's Pizzeria

Muma Maria's Pizzeria is a meat-loving shopfront that doubles as Crookwood's working crematorium.

Current high-authority build notes describe the Pizzeria as visible but non-playable. Its value is orientation, tone and the uneasy proximity of dinner to disposal.

The same ovens serve takeaway and cremation. The Bible calls the facility Mama Mia's PIZZA & Crematorium; Brett's current authored sign reads Muma Maria's Pizzeria. Both names are preserved until Brett rules on the final wording.

Still open

The name discrepancy and any Game 1 interaction remain open. The Bible places the working burn-and-takeaway facility in a future build.

Open the full file
Premeditation market / economic predatorBible implementation framework established; Game 1 build not started

Gweedo's

Gweedo's is a black-market shopping assault run from a shipping-container elevator: flashing prices, bells, sirens, bad bargains and absolutely no refunds.

Players can buy tools, weapons and body parts, sell organs, take credit and even pawn lives. Buying a weapon is not a crime; deliberate misuse is where Dogma begins to judge.

Gweedo is a pawnbroker and economic predator. His shop exists to tempt poor decisions, exploit desperation and make the necro-economy feel like a rigged carnival midway.

Still open

Final Game 1 inventory, prices, interface and exact debt tuning remain implementation work.

Open the full file
Brett Clements' authored purple GITCOIN artwork for Carny Island's economy.web display derivative of authored PNG · exact authored paths
The business of the deadCore economic doctrine established; detailed tuning remains open

Necronomics

Crookwood is not a crime scene. It is an industry: acquire the dead, process the dead, repurpose the dead and profit from the dead.

Time, biological viability, handling risk and market pressure turn bodies into decisions rather than a generic loot table.

The Morgue, Crematorium, Chapel, graveyard and Gweedo's form a single grotesque supply chain. Death is embedded in the island's economic order.

Still open

Viability tiers, market regimes and their final coupling to JooJoo and Chaos remain specification work in the Bible.

Open the full file
Freedom, excess, consequence and memoryCanon world law

The Law of the Jungle

Carny never stops the player. It remembers them. Its law creates consequence without sermons and punishment without moral finger-wagging.

Dogma has one hard breach: deliberate misuse of a tool. No object is sinful and possession is not a crime; the use, damage, excess and proportionality matter.

The law begins with free will. Carny responds when restraint was possible, excess was chosen and commitment was sustained.

Still open

Exact thresholds and timing windows remain implementation details; the governing principle is locked in the Bible.

Open the full file
Brett Clements' authored Joo Joo Index faces.web display derivative of authored PNG · exact authored paths
Moral temperature / remembered stateCanon world state; implementation details remain open

The Joo Joo Index

The Joo Joo Index is Carny's moral accounting state. It rises and falls, remembers behaviour and judges patterns rather than isolated incidents.

Joo Joo appears as a face that changes only at meaningful thresholds. It communicates temperature, not a running number, and can carry across lives.

You can live with bad Joo Joo. You may even enjoy it. What you cannot do is pretend the island failed to notice.

Still open

The final face states, thresholds and exact Chapel recovery values remain to be locked for Game 1.

Open the full file
Soundtrack / Track 01

The DogGones

The DogGones. The Hits Keep Comin'.

The DogGones provide the soundtrack for Carny Island.

01
The Claw1:29 · doom metal / black metal
Open the Suno recording
Brett Clements' authored Carny Island artwork of The Claw.
Brett Clements' authored Claw / The DogGones' first hit
Lyrics / The Claw

The Claw.Never look under the bed kids.Cause you’ll get a dreadful fright.A terrible fright in the dead of night.Just a glimpse of The Claw, The Claw

The Claw wants more.Its coming for you.Its coming from me.In the dead of night.Its a terrible, terrible terrible sight.The Claw. The Claw wants more n’ more.

The slash; the gash; watch you thrashAs death rattles and rollsYou gasp.They call it The Claw. The Claw., Storytelling

04 / The story

Carny Island is not a point-and-shoot game. It explores the operating ideas of traditional entertainment genres and fuses them into a single playable performance.

Most games begin with technology and search for an idea. Carny Island began with a worldview, then waited a decade for production to become possible.

01

The world existed before the code

The drawings, Bibles, characters, rules and machinery came first. The code arrived later.

02

Death is not a reload screen

The player has nine lives. Every death changes the pressure. The island does not ask whether you can avoid the end; it asks what story you create before it.

03

The cemetery is a machine

Crookwood is timber, chicken wire, painted flats, engineered graves, live weather, moving shadows and a lethal pendulum. Scenery is never just scenery.

04

Build the studio by building objects

One grave. One floor. One beam. One character. Each element is authored, tested, approved and allowed to join the world.

05 / Today in the workshop

The roof was wider than the grave

The measurements were right. The art still crossed the wall.

The problem

A nominal four-by-seven-foot footprint said every Gravebox was contained. Brett's packaged-app inspection showed one authored roof hanging outside the purple basement wall.

What was really wrong

The authored roof and rafters are wider and asymmetric. A physical footprint was not the visible silhouette.

What changed

The perimeter gate now measures and rotates the union of the authored yard-floor support and chicken-wire roof. Four Graveboxes moved inward. The other 65 stayed exactly where they were.

Why the player should care

The basement can remain a believable enclosed stage without trimming, scaling or redrawing Brett's Gravebox art.

Close view of a Gravebox roof extending through the purple perimeter wall.
BeforeBefore: the nominal footprint passed, but the authored roof still crossed the wall.
Top view of the Crookwood basement floor and Gravebox layout.
AfterTop view: the correction moved four boxes and preserved 65.
06 / The build ledger

Make the invisible work visible.

Every figure declares its scope. Cost is a conventional-production scenario, never a pretend invoice.

69authored Graveboxes
15SVG surfaces in each
182independent floor sheets
4,063lines in the declared C# subsystem
39/39real-input checks green
$63,000–$150,000conventional production scenario

12 dedicated C# builder, visual and test files for Graveboxes, floor, beams and wall.

A conventional specialist team spending 3–5 weeks across technical art, Unity engineering and QA at a blended A$175–A$250 per hour.

07 / Making of × gameplay

The stage is not scenery.

It is a machine that teaches the player how to be afraid, how to read space and when to move.

Brett Clements' authored Carny Island artwork: The Rocket Witch.
WHEN?
The Friggin' Pendulum of Fickle Fate

Navigation changes from where to when.

The pendulum is a three-dimensional danger field. Graves, trenches, paths, flats and headstones exist in relation to that moving volume. The player learns rhythm instead of memorising a corridor.

The crooked trick

A robbed grave can become a bunker: the Villain is three feet tall and the trench is four feet deep.

08 / Carny principles
01

AI is the colleague, not the inventor

The imagination, philosophy, rules and artwork remain Brett's.

02

Build objects, not promises

Every element earns its place through evidence and use.

03

Physics authors the architecture

In Crookwood, the pendulum's danger envelope tells the stage where it can exist.

04

The rendered line is the authored line

No silent retracing, smoothing or raster substitution.

05

The installed app is the truth

Build counts are evidence. Brett's eyes and hands are the final gate.

09 / The human in the machine
Artist · Writer · Director · Game inventor

Brett Clements

“The carbon side of carbon-meets-silicon: the game inventor who knows what story, performance and cinema are for.”

Brett Clements has spent more than forty years turning stories into pictures, productions and playable systems. He began as a teenage newspaper journalist, became a filmmaker on Simon Townsend's Wonder World!, built television and tourism campaigns, and co-founded A Couple 'A Cowboys.

He created, designed and directed Nightmare and ATMOSFEAR, the pioneering video board-game phenomenon that sold more than four million units across 32 territories and 12 languages. Carny Island continues that lifelong collision of theatre, games, film and audience participation.

After ten years drawing Carny Island by hand, Brett is using OpenAI and Anthropic as a production studio around his authorship. The machines write code and test systems. Brett remains the inventor, artist, director and final judge of what appears on screen.

40+years making stories
4M+Nightmare / ATMOSFEAR games sold
32international territories
12languages
Read Brett's full story Brett's full professional record Brett on LinkedIn
11 / Previous day

Why Use Two AIs?

Machines need a finish line.

2026-07-28field noteRead backward through the diaryOpen every diary entry
Brett Clements' authored Carny Island artwork: Kart Cockpit POV.
Kart cockpit / authored Carny Island artwork