Karland Universe

The Karland Universe (sometimes known as the KRA Universe) is the setting of the Zackulback and Laser Industries games. It is a shared universe that consists of the majority of imaginations and stories that I created during my childhood. Essentially, almost everything that I created before 2009 would fall into this setting.

About

The world of Karland is the first ever shared universe I created; its initial foundations dating back to 2002. The main idea behind it was to have a website where one could read about the video game characters I created. This was long before I ever knew how to make games or websites, so I would draw sketches of my own made-up levels for them to inhabit.

Over time as the Karland universe took shape, it included more than just pencil sketches. It grew to include Microsoft Paint drawings, animated PowerPoint cartoons and written stories in Word documents. Starting in 2005, Karland saw its first representations in video game form using Clickteam Fusion. The original Zackulback Adventures marked the start of a new era for not only the Karland setting but Krayfish Entertainment itself.

Karland originally did not have a solid continuity. While characters were commonly reused between stories, most of them were placed in one-off situations. Starting in 2021, I made an effort to to organize everything into a consistent, coherent timeline. I’ve also been doing another pass at the overall writing quality, especially given the fact I originally came up with most of this at a very young age. That effort is still ongoing as I still have hundreds of documents and pictures to go through that haven’t been represented yet.

While I still have a bit of a ways to go in terms of documenting all the different storylines and characters, this section of the Krayfish Entertainment is pretty much exactly how I initially envisioned the Karland Universe to look like in its website form.

Content rating

Most of Karland should be fairly family friendly, but the recommended age rating is 12 and up due to crude humor and comic mischief. This was a world that was thought of by a child during the late 1990s and early 2000s after all.

Media

Zackulback series

Zackulback is a cat that more often than not finds himself on many adventures. He protects the peaceful citizens of Mamphibireptile from the evil mouse Luggsina who repeatedly tries to invade and take over the world.

• Zackulback Adventures Classic (2005)
• Zackulback 2: Revenge of Luggsina (2005)
• Zackulback 16 (2006)
• Zackulback Adventures Deluxe (2006)
• Zackulback: The Tail of a Cat (2007)
• Zackulback Adventures (2014)

Rusty series

Rusty is a brown ragdoll cat and the monarch of an ancient kingdom. He is a strange, yet wise ruler. In his spare time, he plays with Karl, a demi-god and creator of the Karland Universe.

• Talking Rusty (2006)
• Rusty’s Animalistic Quest (2025)

Laser Industries series

An important power plant on planet Mamphibireptile known as Laser Industries comes under attack by a hostile race of Gophers from another world. As Lazer-743 and Dr. Scroorup fight back, they discover a conspiracy that puts the entire universe at risk.

• Laser Industries (2006)
• Laser Industries 2: The Depths (2006)
• Laser Industries 3: Gophertopia (2006)
• Laser Industries 4: The Planet Graveyard (2008 – Indefinite hiatus)

Trophy Tower series

The Middle Ages of planet Mamphibireptile was a time of knights, magic, castles and dragons. The evil king Jamgem has come close to conquering the world and only Henry, the last hero of medieval times, can stop him.

• The Trophy Tower (2005)
• The Trophy Tower: Top-Down Version (2005)
• Ultimate Quest (2016)

Cyberworld series

The Cyberworld is the computer network that the citizens of Karland use to log onto the Internet. With it coming under threat with spam and viruses, a few brave programmers must stand up to the task.

• Spam Zapper (2005)
• FireWall (2006)

Miscellaneous

These games are set within the Karland Universe continuity but are not part of any series.

• Gweeky’s Journey Through the Sky (2005)
• River Cannons (2006)

Myths of Karland

See also: Myths of Karland

These are a series of short stories about Karland’s various myths. They were originally written when I was very young, so they have been updated with better grammar and sentence structure while keeping the story themes mostly identical.

• A Modern Fantasy: The Origins of Candy Corn (2003)
• The Legend of the Unicorn (2004)
• Why the Octopus Has a Big Head (2005)
• How the Big Dipper and the World Came To Be (2005)

Cow Wars

The No Milk Empire is trying to take over the galaxy…except they’re really bad at it. It features a standalone comic.

• Cow Wars (2005)

Getting started

• Karland
• Zackulback
• Luggsina
• Mamphibireptile
• Gopher
• Gophertopia

Lore

Karland Universe

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