Literature / The Family Gaming Team

The graphic novel adventures of the FGTeeV family, spanning across four books in collaboration with the family themselves and illustrator Miguel Diaz. Each book stars the fictionalized family, consisting of Duddy (Vincent), Moomy (Samantha), Lexi, Mike, Chase, and Shawn, as they undergo various wacky scenarios brought forth by a glitched out game console.

The series consists of four graphic novels, which are as follows:

1. Into the Game! (released March 2021): The FGTeeV family gamers have played hundreds of games together. Which is why Moomy decides to make a new game called My Pet Fish. Just one problem: the game is SUPER boring. And one other problem: Moomy and Duddy accidentally got sucked into it—and now they’re trapped!

It’s up to the kids, Lexi, Mike, Chase, and Shawn, to jump into the gaming console and rescue their parents. But first, they have to battle their way through their favorite games until they find the one their parents are stuck in. Can the kids take on a vicious pack of vampire prairie dogs, flying doody diapers, some spooky ghouls, and one incredibly dull fish before Moomy and Duddy are bored to death?

2. Saves the World! (released April 2021): The FGTeeV family gamers really, really love playing games! But for Duddy, one game is by far best: Super Realistic (And Totally Not Made Up) Zombie Battles from the War of 1812. Even though in Duddy’s opinion the updated version doesn’t stand up to the classic original, it doesn’t mean that he can’t quickly rack up all the power-ups, bonuses, and achievements to show the kids—Lexi, Mike, Chase, and Shawn—how it’s done. That is until the game freezes!

The family heads to the Shady Acres Mall to fix their controller, but while at the game store, one wrong click causes all the characters from the Zombie Battles game to explode into the real world. It’s total mayhem! Now Duddy, Moomy, Lexi, Mike, Chase, and Shawn have to fight their own avatars in order to save the world—but will they be able to stop the army of world-conquering video game villains before the bad guys level up?

3. The Switcheroo Rescue! (released April 2022): The FGTeeV family have survived their fair share of glitchy gaming consoles! But now their luck has taken a decidedly strange turn-for-the-worse when Duddz bonks heads with Cecil and boom, the switcheroo happens. They wind-up flip-flopped into each other’s body.

Now Cecil has Duddz’s lightning fast reflexes and mad gaming skills, while Duddz is stuck with Cecil’s stubby fingers and really bad banana allergies. But the two frenemies have no choice but to work together if they want to get back into their own bodies and stop the mayhem-wrecking ghost that their antics has unleashed!

But when their plans backfire and Cecil turns them power mad, Moomy, Chase, Lexi, Mike, and Shawn have to step in to try to save the day. Can the family find a way to stop Cecil, save Duddz, banish a nasty ghost, and get everyone back into their rightful bodies before it’s too late?

4. Out of Time! (released May 2023): The FGTeeV family gamers have survived their fair share of glitchy gaming consoles and weird goings-on. But when Duddz can’t stop gaming on his fancy new eWatch, the whole family winds up sucked into the watch and on a perilous adventure across space and time!

To find their way home, Duddz, Moomy, Lexi, Mike, Chase, and Shawn are going to have to avoid being eaten by a T-Rex, win a joust against a brave knight, and fight angry space invaders! But when they meet a familiar face (ANOTHER Duddz?!), will they be able to return everyone to the right timeline before it’s too late?

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The FGTeeV book series provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: Pretty much the entire family.
• Big Bad:
  • Into the Game: The fish from My Boring Pet Fish.
  • Saves the World: Colonel Corn and the family's avatars.
  • The Switcheroo Rescue: The ghost from the family's old game console.
  • Out of Time: Despite not having a concrete Big Bad, King C-VIII/Future!Cecil technically counts as one here.
• Broken Pedestal: Duddz always viewed Colonel Corn as his childhood hero, but he doesn't take too kindly to the realization that the latter is the Big Bad in Saves the World.
• Brother–Sister Team: The four siblings, with only sister Lexi as the leader. Mike seemingly takes over as leader as of The Switcheroo Rescue.
• Evil Twin: The family's avatars from Saves the World.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Duddz and Cecil in The Switcheroo Rescue.
• No Antagonist: The main conflict in Out of Time mainly stems from the E-Watch device sending the family to different time periods.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Vincent and Samantha are only referred to as "Duddy/Duddz" and "Moomy" respectively in this series.
  • Subverted in Out of Time, as Future!Duddz refers to Present!Duddz as Vincent a few times.
• Overly Long Name: The name of Duddy's childhood game; The Super-Realistic (And Totally Not Made-Up) Zombie Battles From The War of 1812.
• Shout-Out: The game hub within the family's console in Into the Game contains doors to games with familiar-sounding titles. Some examples include;
  • Super Nunzio Brothers - Super Mario Bros.
    • Rassle Kart - Mario Kart
  • Mister Mega Mac-Man - Pac-Man
  • Furry Hurry - Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Banzo-Jazzu - Banjo-Kazooie
  • Terraprisma - Minecraft (or maybe Terraria)
• Talking Animal: Oreo the family dog.
• Time Travel: The main plot of Out of Time, naturally, revolves around this.