Storygrounds

TLDR, We’ve been deep in alpha testing and learned some important things! One of the biggest moves we’re making is that we’ve decided to remove GenAI from the Storygrounds platform in its entirety. Watch the video or read below for the deets. 🌼 ~~~~~ Thank you to everyone who has followed along with our journey of creating Storygrounds, an interactive space that connects creators with their fan communities through webcomics. Since last November, we’ve been in Alpha mode (testing and research phase), while working & listening closely to creators, artists, writers, and fans of webcomics. We’ve learned A LOT which has given us a strong path towards making something that is not just fun but truly in support of creators and this space. Some Learnings:  - Readers are enjoying visual quests, sharing their ideas, and getting feedback from creators. - Readers want quests to have even more impact on the story. - Readers want to be able to submit their own hand-drawn creations.  - Readers wanted more organization of the actions they completed and still have available. - Making the quest experience smooth and easy to understand is key. - There are still very different opinions on GenAI (positive, negative, and indifferent). With the consent of our creators, we tested GenAI as a visual communication tool between creators and their fan communities. We’ve gotten quite mixed feedback. Given our stance towards ensuring creators are first, we are taking action on the feedback by removing GenAI from our product in its entirety. We didn’t start building this platform for AI. We didn’t make this decision to remove GenAI from the platform lightly, but it was an easy decision for the type of space that we wish to create alongside you all. As for what’s updated and new, this is how we have and are integrating what we’ve learned. More Interaction! - We’ve added Polls as a simple but high-impact option for communication. - We’ve added a new Question Type that allows readers to submit Text-Only Responses, which truly allows creators & readers to collab in a more “wordy” way (sorry that was lame). 🤭 - We’ve added Commenting and 💖-ing that allows creators and readers to provide immediate thoughts, feedback, and support throughout episodes and Quests. More Organization - Our new User Feed now shows our readers the most relevant & recent stuff, front and center. - Our new Quest - Storyworld navigator, now allows readers to easily find the Storyworld Questions that they wish to participate in the most. Everyone Gets Rewards! - We’re working on our Rewards System, which will allow new ways for creators to have more streams of revenue that are aligned with their goals. - Tied to this, we’re building new ways for Readers to get rewarded while having fun doing things that are directly related to what they enjoy… which are webcomics. GO AWAY ADS!! We don’t need a new vacuum. We’re all eyes and ears. Excited to continue building this space with you all!

Still can’t believe how fast time is passing! It’s my 1 year anniversary at Storygrounds today🐰🎉 Thankful for the job to let me turn my interest into a career, and feel blessed to be able to work with such lovely people on this team✨ #webcomic #webcomics #illustrator #artist

🍟 ☕ Welcome to Storygrounds Cafeteria 🍔 🥤 Today, we are talking with Linda, the creator of "My Boss is Ghosting Me". Be a fly in the room with us while we munch on coffee, the cloud, writing, graphic novels, and more! 🌼 ✨ Follow us✨ for stuff that's less profesh, more de-stress. 😚 🐤 Twitter: x.com/storygrounds 📺 YouTube: youtube.com/@Storygrounds 🖼 Instagram: https://lnkd.in/gT72puD3 #webcomics #anime #podcast #writing #comics

🥤 Welcome to (another) Storygrounds Cafeteria 🥪 Today, we are talking all things tv shows, cartoons, anime, frontal lobes, and UX with our Product Designer: Tammy Hu! 🍀 Bee a Fly on the Wall with us! 🐝 ✨ Follow us✨ for stuff that's less profesh, more de-stress. 😚 🐤 Twitter: x.com/storygrounds 📺 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gNEVuezT 🖼 Instagram: https://lnkd.in/gKTgM72J P.S. choking on water is not recommended #webcomics #anime #productdesign #ux #netflix #tvshows #genz #podcast

🥤 Welcome to the Storygrounds Cafeteria. 🥪 Today, we are talking all things video games, webcomics, and storytelling with Senior Webcomics Producer: Hayden Robel! Come hang out with us! 🕸🕷 <-- I swear this makes sense. Just watch. ✨ Follow us✨ for stuff that's less profesh, more de-stress. 😚 🐤 Twitter: x.com/storygrounds 📺 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gNEVuezT 🖼 Instagram: https://lnkd.in/gKTgM72J #webcomics #videogames #animation #anime

Started a new animated podcast series with the highly talented Amy M., where we talk webcomics, art, creative, stories, and more. 😱 Amy's the illustrator, animator, and host (hot dang! she just does it all)!! I'm just the weird Ep 1 guest in what is all Amy's world. 😂 Enjoy me being awk. 😅 More eps every week. 🌼 https://lnkd.in/gM98APRN

**UPDATE** WOW!!! Thank you to everyone who commented, emailed, DMed, and/or reposted this post. Not gonna lie... I wasn't expecting this type of response and feel terrible that I'm unable to answer you all. 😅 Know, I've read your msgs and am taking your thoughts with me as we go through portfolios & work samples. We're hiring on a rolling basis and will reach out for initial convos if there is a project match. 💛 ~~~~~~~~ Hello Games Friends who are Writers. 😊 As some of you may know, I now work in the webcomic space! Having been a video games recruiter on highly narrative-driven games, I know for certain that skills from game writing and narrative design are extremely transferrable into webcomics. 💛 We have a handful of webcomic projects that we're springing up between now into next year. Would love to bring some games (or film) folks into the webcomics space on our Original IPs. 🤗 Immediate Openings (Freelance) - Lead Writer, Action Fantasy - Lead Writer, Mystery/Thriller Deets Here: https://lnkd.in/ghXqfQuV *More opps w/in other genres in the near future. 🌸 As always, sending lots of love. 💛

Sometimes you have to make extremely hard decisions as a founder and team. We have made the decision to REMOVE all AI features from Storygrounds. Since last November, we’ve been in Alpha mode and have learned AN ELEPHANT LOAD. 🐘 Some Learnings: - Readers are enjoying visual quests, sharing their ideas on stories, and getting feedback from comic creators. - Readers want quests to have even more impact on the comic story. - Readers want to be able to submit their own hand-drawn creations. - Readers wanted more organization of the actions they completed and still have available. - Making the quest experience smooth and easy to understand is key. With the consent of our creators, we tested GenAI as a visual communication tool between creators and their fan communities (never part of the comic making process). We’ve gotten quite mixed feedback, its clear that a lot of creators and readers don't want AI in their creative platforms. Given our stance towards ensuring creators are first, we are taking action on the feedback by removing GenAI from our product in its entirety. We didn’t make this decision to remove GenAI from the platform lightly, but it was an easy decision for the type of space that we wish to create alongside creators. The speed and proliferation of GenAI is incredible, I think there are going to be some amazing breakthroughs and people are developing incredible tools and products for the next gen of consumer. I just believe that flying 4,000 mph headlong into the AI revolution isn't necessary to fix a lot of problems for content creators and their fans today and deliver the best stories possible, and that is where we are going to be focused. There is time to do a lot and grow a lot and see where things go, and to see how creators and readers feel about the content that is created with AI and the tools themselves. We continue to ship awesome features, sign amazing creators, and create incredible stories with mind-blowing art. I am excited for our definitive product release soon, and starting to scale. Thank you Linda Giang for being an amazing voice to our community. Thank you to the entire Storygrounds team for being the best team in the business, and thank you to our partners at Makers Fund and Fabric Ventures (and others) for being incredible partners.

Webcomics are going to be HUGE! Webcomics are visual stories formatted for your phone. They are a $7B market. The largest Webcomic company is going public this year on NASDAQ. Currently there are an estimated 230M readers worldwide, mostly in Korea and Japan. They are currently a younger audience and trend and trend more for young girls and women. There are TONS of issues with the current Webcomics industry. Mostly in regards to retention and monetization. Storygrounds team have built some of the most engaging story-driven games products of all time. We know how to retain and monetize. We are going to change this whole industry. Come join our next alpha by signing up here. https://lnkd.in/g4ztMcsK

✨Meet Tanner✨, our Senior Software Engineer!! Always up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices, Tanner is 🔥ed up to help us create some never-before-done stuff within the webcomics space. United with his pup, Wilma, Tanner will help us make our platform ideas, Pawsitively Paw-sible. 🐶 #engineer #softwareengineer #softwareengineering #webdev #webcomics #manga #anime #comics #games #manhwa #manhua #sgteam #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #petfriendly #employeeculture