Stornaway.io is a game-changing new editing platform for interactive experiences, launched last summer and now being rapidly adopted by thousands of users.
At its heart are magically simple storytelling tools, which let creative teams plan, produce and publish interactive video experiences, for delivery to many platforms.
We launched in summer 2020. We began by beta testing with TV production companies, theatres and film schools developing ideas for TV VOD and web platforms .
We were featured in industry publications like Broadcast magazine, Creative Review and TVB Europe and creative director Kate Dimbleby was nominated for the Digital Production Partnership's Rise Product Innovation Award in September 2020.
Before Stornaway.io, interactive filmmaking was confusing, difficult and expensive. Charlie Brooker said about making Netflix's Bandersnatch, ”It was like doing a Rubik's cube inside your brain - there were no tools aimed at professionals”.
Our patented technology gives a drag and drop, no-code environment that complements professional film production workflows. This makes interactive storytelling and video games easier and more affordable for non-technical film, tv and video producers globally - letting them focus on the storytelling rather than the tech, to put much more of their budget on screen.
We released 2 interactive films of our own at Immersive Encounters 2020 which we used to develop and improve the workflow.
Then in January 2021, we opened out our SaaS subscription model to a wider market.
In just a few months, we've seen creators from film, TV, education, business and charities using our Stornaway.io to craft and deliver interactive stories of all kinds.
We are now seeing thousands of sign ups every month from producers in over 150 countries creating interactive experiences and story games in Entertainment, Business, Learning and Agencies for delivery to websites, social media and gaming platforms.
We created Stornaway.io to unlock the possibilities of this kind of content, previously blocked by expense, one-off development and/or proprietary systems.
The participatory nature of this kind of storytelling is particularly good for engagement - whether in education, training or stories for change.
The first interactive feature film to be created using the software, “The Gallery”, written and directed by Paul Raschid (who also directed interactive films “The Complex” and “Five Dates”) will be previewed at Cannes Marche du Film on 8th July 2021 in a seminar presented by Stornaway.io founder Ru Howe and Raschid called ‘Stornaway.io and The Gallery – secrets from the new frontier of interactive filmmaking’.
In July 2021, partly funded by a European Digital Innovation Fund grant, we are launching the world’s first game engine for YouTube, letting our creators design interactive experiences in Stornaway.io and deliver straight to YouTube.
Future integrations include enabling creators to author interactive content and 360 video in Stornaway.io and deliver to Unity, Unreal Engine to release as apps as well as Vimeo, the BBC and other VOD platforms.
During the pandemic, we worked with universities and film schools in the US and UK who used our collaborative authoring platform in courses to bridge the gap between film and games. We are releasing a free-to-use tier in September, aimed at students, universities and film schools.
There is a huge demand for creative technology that connects film, immersive and game schools. We see the potential to learn from the next generation of media-makers - and make Stornaway.io the universal editing platform for interactive content.
After many years of waiting for the right moment, Stornaway.io was designed by co-founders creative producer Kate Dimbleby and filmmaker/technologist Ru Howe. Ru Howe made the first interactive film on YouTube in 2008 and worked as a creative technologist in large media companies like the BBC, managing technical change projects for creatives. In 2019, he designed a prototype for Stornaway.io which enabled the team to raise angel investment to build the first release, We have been working with Bristol based development agency Cookies HQ, who have continued to be our technology partners.
We are seeking investment and corporate partnerships in 2021 to enable us to scale this disruptive technology. We are a small team with a product that is market ready and built to scale. Our business plan shows subscription model exceeding £10 million ARR by year 5, with millions of users.
Being a CIC CreaTech One To Watch would help us amplify our message, make connections and find industry partners in many parts of the creative industries who could use Stornaway.io to transform their web and video experiences.
