About
Twenty years in the making.
It started as homework nobody was supposed to be doing, took a three-year detour into a 400-page pirate epic, got shelved by the iPad, and came back.
Origins
Traded under desks.
Page Players began as a series of hand-drawn game books Brett Miller made in middle school. Inspired by video games like The Legend of Zelda, Choose Your Own Adventure books, mazes and puzzles, each one was an interactive story where you'd flip through illustrated pages, solve challenges, and collect items to use along the way.
They were simple but surprisingly addictive. Friends traded them during class. He made dozens.
Then the iPad happened.
In college he decided to go bigger: hired an illustrator and spent nearly three years building a 400-page pirate-inspired epic. Just as they were finishing, the iPad was released. Books were over, everyone said — so he started turning the project into an app.
It lost something. The magic of holding a story in your hands just wasn't there any more. The project went in a drawer, and the original artwork went into a flat file.
The screen-time alternative.
Almost twenty years later, the world has changed. We've learned that too much screen time can hurt focus, sleep, creativity and mental health. Kids are spending an average of seven to nine hours a day in front of screens, and adults aren't far behind.
It felt like the right moment to bring this idea back. Page Players is finally here, offering a hands-on, screen-free way to explore epic adventures — starting with Patrick and the Magic Spyglass.
The making
A web diagram the size of a wall.
It took months to map the entire story across a sprawling diagram, tracking every location, puzzle, character and twist across 400 pages. With over 100 collectible items, each with its own function or secret, the world had to be tightly woven — no dead ends, no broken paths, no wasted pages.
Once the map was done, every single page was rough-sketched to plan how the visual navigation would work. Then the pages went to illustrator Paul Nowak, who brought the world to life in a combination of inks and oils on textured paper — a rich, tactile look unlike anything in comics or traditional game books.
Every page has a distinct mood, layered with hidden details and visual clues. And Paul hand-signed and dated each of the originals. Nearly twenty years later, those originals still exist.
Creator
Brett Miller
Wrote the story, designed the gameplay, drew the story map and rough-sketched all 400 pages. Based in Brooklyn, NY.
Illustrator
Paul Nowak
Illustrated every page in inks and oils on textured paper, then signed and dated each original by hand.
All artwork on this site is his.
What's next
Game 02 is already on the table.
Twenty years of story ideas, and Patrick is the first one out. Some completely original, others inspired by the worlds and legends we already love.
The goal is a library of stories that spark imagination, invite curiosity, and give readers something genuinely tactile. Get on the list and we'll tell you when the next one is ready.
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