We Ghosted Media—a fledgling studio fronted by Jaclynn Demas (Peg + Cat producer) and Chris Jammal (assistant director on Bob’s Burgers)—has teamed up with a metaverse-like platform called Lamina1 to launch their new kids series as a virtual world. 

Billed as a cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation and The Munsters, Owen Nowhere is in development for a six to 11 audience. This 2D-animated comedy series stars a pre-teen influencer (named Owen B. Gloom) who lives life on the road with his retired vampire parents. 

The show’s format is still TBD, but a typical episode will see the family travel to unusual real-life locales, where they meet new people and deal with unexpected problems. For example, when the family sets out to see the world’s largest ball of twine in Kansas, it unravels on their watch and they have to figure out how to roll it back up. 

Under the partnership with Lamina1, Owen Nowhere will eventually launch as a Roblox-like virtual world with spaces where kids can watch the series, meet its characters and access behind-the-scenes content. Demas and Jammal are also planning for fans to be able to buy digital collectibles based on places the characters will visit, and there will be opportunities for them to access exclusive content with non-fungible tokens and suggest where the family travels to next. 

The creator duo decided to launch on Lamina1 because it has become so challenging to finance and deliver new content for kids in traditional ways, say Jammal and Demas in a joint statement to Kidscreen. “We were attracted to Lamina1’s mission—creative freedom, monetization and maintaining 100% ownership of our IP,” they said. “With Lamina1, we have an opportunity to bring Owen Nowhere to kids & families directly. We want the fans to be part of the experience, and we want them to feel invested in the characters and their stories.” 

Owen travels with his family to unusual real-world locations in this comedy series.

Founded by the sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson in 2022, Lamina1 has more than 400,000 users, 99,000 of whom are active on the platform daily, according to a spokesperson. Creators can monetize their content in multiple ways, including memberships/subscriptions, NFT access and crowdfunding from fans. 

The platform is open to all forms of content, including games, films and art. “Early adopters can also become foundational brands or worlds on the platform—benefiting from long-tail discoverability and cross-promotion, as well as early audience growth and incubation that can be leveraged in pitches for more mainstream distribution,” the spokesperson added. 

For example, Owen Nowhere will be the flagship family series on Lamina1’s upcoming Spaces feature, which creatives can use to build their own virtual worlds when it launches later this year. 

We Ghosted Media has a bible, character designs and some storyboards and scripts completed, and the team is currently working on animation. 

Parties interested in working with Lamina1 should contact ecosystem@lamina1.com or apply directly to the platform’s Partner Program.