This is an update for our backers and players, covering where we’re at with Storium’s public launch.
Since my last update, we’ve been working on our task list pretty much non-stop. We’re making great progress but there are still some outstanding design and technical issues to address. We’ve also been getting a lot of helpful feedback about our plans for paid memberships, and based on that feedback we’ve decided to make a few course corrections to ensure that Storium is financially accessible to as many people as possible. That’s all for the best, but it means a bit more engineering work is needed on that front, as well.
The net of all this is that we won’t be ready to launch in January as I had hoped. We just need a few more weeks, and a February launch looks very doable. Josh and I are sorry for the delay, and we both hugely appreciate your patience. We’re working as fast as we can (while also preserving our sanity).
Here’s what you can expect to see included in our initial launch:
Right now, Storium is only visible to people who have logged in. After launch, anyone on the Internet will be able to browse Storium without being a user or being logged in. This means you'll now be able to share links to your stories and people will actually be able to read along. This will also make it a lot easier for people to get a sense of what Storium is about without having to sign up. (Private games will still be private and visible only to their participants, of course.)
Free play and annual memberships
As discussed in more detail on our forums, after public launch anyone will be able to sign-up for Storium and play for free. Free users will be able to play characters in up to three games at a time. They will also be able to host as many games as they like, but those games will be limited to a single narrator, the “short story” format, and a maximum of three characters. Users who decide to become paid members will get unlimited access to Storium, with none of the above restrictions.
(As a reminder, every backer at the $20 level and up already has their first year of Storium membership, at no further cost. Backers at the $10 level will need to upgrade in order to become members, but we’ll apply their $10 contribution towards the purchase. If you decide not to become a member, that’s OK, too — you’ll become a “free” user, but your existing games will be grandfathered in.)
Kickstarter-funded worlds
Our initial public launch will include roughly 40 of the 60 worlds funded by our Kickstarter. Our work with authors and editors and artists has been a long and complex process, and is still ongoing. We don't want to hold up our launch by waiting until every single world is ready, so instead we’re going to move forward with what we have and then get you the rest of the worlds as they become available. Forty worlds is still a huge amount of content, and we think you’re going to be very happy with what you see!
As also discussed in more detail on our forums, game hosts will be able to pick from three different licenses when they create their games. Our hope is that providing these options will help us even better balance protecting users’ rights to the things they’ve written with giving them flexibility in what they do with it.
There are a few things that will not be in the initial public launch, but will come as soon as we can get them done:
As noted above, not all of our Kickstarter-funded worlds will be ready at the time of launch, but a large number of them will be. Everyone who has purchased "The Deal" will see every available world immediately after launch. As new worlds become available, they'll automatically be added! We'll send out notifications so everyone knows when that happens.
Our library of avatar and story card art is close to finished but not quite ready. That said, every available world will have a banner (i.e. cover art) right out of the gates.
Storium’s planned "world marketplace" is a major project for us and isn’t quite ready yet. This means you won't be able to share (and sell) your own custom worlds with other users at first. Rest assured that the marketplace is one of the things we’re most excited about, it’s a big priority, and we’ll be putting everything we’ve got into it.
Does public launch mean that Storium is “done?”
Not at all! Far from it, in fact.
Our public launch is an important milestone because it will allow us to grow the Storium community and generate revenue so that we can expand our team and accelerate our progress. But it’s not the end of the story.
We have much more planned for Storium, and our work continues. In some sense, Storium will never be “done.” We’ll always be working to improve it. There are many things still to come, including but not limited to enhancements to the game itself, better game/player matching capabilities, search, support for other languages, and our "Storium for Schools" project (which we feel has tremendous potential).
If you have any questions about the above, please head over to our forums for more in-depth conversation.
We appreciate your support as we approach this big moment for Storium. We couldn’t have done any of this without you.
—Stephen, Josh, and the rest of the team
