More progress on Yorick

Well, Yorick is starting to come along nicely. This interactive Halloween puppet is going to be much better than the original Magic Mirror:

• Higher-polygon count than the original Magic Mirror
• Easier configuration (see screenshot below) than the old edit-a-text-file approach used before
• More lighting controls
• Easier microphone input setup
• Easier script recording and simpler playback options
• ...and it's a skull, which is probably the most-requested new head type I've been asked for.

Here's a screenshot of the new configuration console:

Now I'm trying to decide what (and if) to charge for it. I'd really like to have some way to offset the cost of presenting Carnival of Souls every year, since it's not exactly cheap, but I don't want to charge for the actual event - I'd hate to see some heartbroken kid who gets taken away by his parents because they felt whatever I was charging was too steep.

Since the home haunt community seems to be supportive of each others' work, and because I feel that these digital puppets would really pay for themselves in terms of the enjoyment, good will, and word-of-mouth they generate, I think it's okay to charge for Yorick. I'm still going to leave the original Magic Mirror as a free application, because I want to ensure that there's an alternative for the home haunter on a budget - my primary goal is to promote Halloween and get people building fun interactive haunts for kids in their area - but the requests I've gotten seem to indicate that there would be a market for a more advanced version.