FYI – The Story Synth One-Hour Game Jam is happening on July 31st from 2-4pm PST sign up here.

Welcome to the Story Synth Summer Jam! This is a low-key game jam lasting from June through August to create games using Story Synth.

Come join the community in the Story Synth Discord, where you can share you games and ask for help.

You can share your designs on Itch and Twitter with the hashtag #storysynth – feel free to mention @storysynth for retweets!

What is Story Synth?

Story Synth is a free web platform for designing, playing, and sharing prompt-based storytelling games like For the Queen and The Quiet Year.

Check out some great Story Synth games in the Gallery. Learn more about the formats and customization options in the Documentation

Designing a Story Synth game is super easy:

1. Copy the template Google Sheet for the right format
2. Add your own game content to the Sheet
3. Set the Sheet's view permissions to Public
4. Paste the Sheet's URL in Story Synth and the site will automatically generate your game

Once your game is on the site, you can share its link with whomever you want. Then players can create new sessions and, within each session, players will see the same prompts at the same time.

Publishing Story Synth games on Itch

Even though Story Synth games don't have downloadable files, you can still publish them to Itch and charge for them. Here's how:

1. Set classification to 'Physical games' – despite being a digital game, Story Synth has much more in common with tabletop roleplaying games
2. Set 'Kind of Project' to downloadable
3. Under Uploads, create an External File as executable and set the URL to game's page on Story Synth.

Then just create the game's Itch page like you normally would. For an example Itch page of a Story Synth game, check out Around the Realm.

FAQs

Can I submit games that I've submitted to other jams?

Totally! Here are some ongoing jams that you might want to make a Story Synth game for: Solarpunk, Applied Hope, Generator Jam, Yojambo

How can I get help?

The best place to get helps is in the Story Synth Discord but you can also email help@storysynth.org

Who's hosting this jam?

This jam is run by Story Synth creator Randy Lubin

How can I request new features?

Story Synth is regularly getting new formats and functionality and Randy loves to get requests! Just describe what you want in the Story Synth Discord or email randy@storysynth.org

Community Standards

The Story Synth community has a code of conduct – give it a read!

Some key points:

• No harassment of any sort
• No bigotry in your games – this means no racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, antisemitism, etc
• Please use content warnings when relevant
• Reach out if there are any issues: community@storysynth.org