15/09/2014
Once upon a time there was a story builder...
In 2012 we started the private beta of our children’s book authoring tool Storybuilder. Developed by a handful of developers as part of our Robook platform, Storybuilder allowed authors to create interactive stories for iPhone, iPad and Android without using any code. We called these stories robooks.
3,367 people downloaded the private beta, ranging from independent children’s book authors to large publishers, and even massive tech companies. Hundreds of robooks were produced, some of which we published in our marketplace Storyteller. It also started to grow beyond our expectations: teachers used Storybuilder in their classrooms, designers created animated portfolios and even developers prototyped apps with it.
We are extremely thankful to everyone who tried Storybuilder, and specially to the storytellers who created content with it. Seeing authors realize their ideas with our little tool inspired us, and was probably the main reason we kept tinkering and improving the platform for so long.
Until we couldn’t anymore. Put simply, we were unable to prove that there was a viable business behind Storybuilder in order to continue. Some of our assumptions about the tool and Storyteller were wrong, and perhaps we bit more than we could chew.
The result is that effectively immediately we will stop supporting Storybuilder. Storyteller has been unpublished, and Robook Reader -the app used to view robooks- will be unpublished on September 25 at 17:00 CET. Those who have already downloaded the Storybuilder beta may continue using it, but there will be neither further updates nor support.
We have and will open source a lot of the technology that was developed for the Robook platform. And of course, we will keep maintaining our previous endeavors, such as the popular English Idioms Illustrated and A Comic Viewer apps, with renewed energy. After all, every ending is a new beginning.
Thank you to everyone who was a part of this adventure. If you have any thoughts or questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by email at [email protected].
Hermes Pique
Head Robot.
