Agnes Kozera is the Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer of the new mobile story platform Storiaverse.
In a bit, we’ll get Agnes to tell us what Storiaverse is, but one TL; DR might be to call the platform a mixture of an animated web series with a motion comic.
Sound grand? Agnes’ previous companies have been bought by Google and made content creators famous, and have been bought by Audacy to help people become content creators in the first place. Suffice it to say, I figured many people reading this interview might also be content creators interested in Agnes’ current project!
Storiaverse is exciting and still relatively new! You’ve been on Geek Native’s radar for barely a months now. Is Storiaverse much older than that? When does the Storiaverse story begin?
We just launched the Storiaverse app about a month ago, in April, but we initially founded the company last year. My co-founder David Kierzkowski and I have been building companies in the creator and content spaces for more than a decade. We previously created Podcorn, the leading podcast influencer marketing platform that was acquired by Audacy, and FameBit, the first and largest platform for YouTubers, which Google acquired.
Through our years of working with online creators and building companies to support them, we gained a deep understanding of the influencer landscape and observed some emerging trends that inspired us to create Storiaverse. We noticed the rise of independent animators on social platforms as animation software became more accessible and the popularity of animated content and graphic novels among adult millennials and Gen Z-ers.
At the same time, there’s lots of existing literary content, particularly short stories, that’s hard to discover because it’s buried in obscure journals or maybe never even had the chance to be published anywhere. We saw an important opportunity to create a new content format at the intersection of writing, animation, and reading, which would uplift writers and animators while entertaining new fans.
I imagine some readers will be interested in reading about Storiaverse, and I don’t believe there’s anyone better to explain it to them. What is Storiaverse?
Storiaverse is a mobile entertainment platform that merges the worlds of literature and digital storytelling to deliver content in a new read-watch format. We feature edgy and exclusive stories from diverse voices and award winning authors that we connect to talented animators from around the world to create immersive, animated content. Our patent-pending read-watch content format for digital native adults combines animated video, audio, and text into a dynamic narrative on your phone.
Our iOS and Android apps allow users to read-watch compelling stories and watch beautiful animated videos periodically as they scroll through the text. Our stories are driven by creators’ diverse styles and genres on the app include science fiction, mystery, fantasy, horror and much more. We’re deeply committed to empowering artists, embracing an artisanal approach to storytelling. Our platform celebrates diverse animation styles, offering artists the freedom to unleash their creativity and breathe life into stories according to their unique vision.
Since we launched, we have seen so much excitement and interest from users, which is really gratifying. Many of them tell us Storiaverse is an alternative to doomscrolling on social media for them and they enjoy having a more rewarding escape and alternative when they don’t feel like watching a full movie or reading a full book.
If I tried to sum up as “Storiaverse is a platform for motion comics” in a deliberate attempt to hark back to old language, how wrong would I be?
Our read-watch content format is a bit more interactive than typical motion comics. It can be seen as the next evolution of graphic novels and comics combined, aimed at taking you deeper into the story and making it a multi-dimensional experience. It’s also optimized for phones in a vertical format that users scroll through. We’re the first to create this specific mobile experience.
We feel that our format not only caters to existing fans of literature, comics and animation but also has the potential to attract a wider audience seeking new forms of entertainment. We love that we’re able to bring different communities together and include them in a more immersive, hybrid entertainment experience.
The growth in new animation software must be on your radar. Do you think it’s enabling more quality work to be readily and cheaply accessible online?
The democratization of animation software is definitely one of the catalysts behind the trend of more animators posting their work and building up audiences online, which is part of what inspired us to create Storiaverse. Now that animation tools are more accessible and affordable, more people can create high-quality animations independently – they don’t need to get a job at a major studio to get their hands on the software they need. We work with more than 100 creators and we think it’s really exciting to see their unique animation styles. Animators who want to work with us can submit their information on our website.
Are there any animation solutions, tools, or software suites that come to mind that you’re happy to mention?
Our animators use a wide range of tools like Blender, Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects, and Unreal Engine. We leave decisions about what software to use up to our creators because we want them to use what works best for their individual styles. Due to the different tool use, every story on our platform feels like a unique piece of art, avoiding a cookie cutter experience.
Geek Native readers include lots of tabletop gamers, especially roleplayers used to D&D. I’m sure it’s hard for you to pick any one story on Storiaverse above any other but Geek Native readers in mind are there any stories that you’d highlight for us?
You’re right, I love all our stories! As Chief Content Officer, I lead the team that selects them from the thousands of submissions we’ve received from writers and pairs them with animators to bring them to life.
The fantasy genre, like in D&D, is very popular among our users. A few Storiaverse stories in the fantasy genre that D&D fans might enjoy include “The Kelpie,” about a young witch; “Sea Kissed,” featuring a mythical creature called a selkie; or “The Silver King,” which is more futuristic but is partly set in a forest. We have more fantasy stories in the pipeline that are coming soon including mythical creatures, dragons and sword and sorcery including adaptations of portions of HarperCollins books like “Dividing Eden,” a fantasy series by Joelle Charbonneau, the author of the New York Times bestselling trilogy “The Testing.”
A good chunk of readers are actually RPG creators and publishers who sell their games on marketplaces like Itch.io and DriveThruRPG. These readers are used to license deals, commissions shops take, distribution rights and the commercial side of the hobby. How does it work with Storiaverse? Who owns the rights to the content?
Some of our Storiaverse creators have worked on games, as well. Animator Shahab Serwaty, who animated “The End of the West” and “Bumf*ck, Nowhere,” has also designed board games. Alex Kingsley, a Storiaverse creator who wrote “Shroomscape,” also writes tabletop games.
We’ve been building companies to uplift creators for over a decade, so we’re always going to be creator-friendly. We work out individual deals with our writers and animators, so they’re compensated for their work. They’ve expressed appreciation that we’re giving them opportunities that other companies don’t, especially in terms of creative control, monetization and reaching new audiences.
Could Storiaverse’s “read-watch” format be adapted to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons? It’s a hard question to answer if you’re not a gamer, but as a reference, there are Alexa audio games from D&D rival Starfinder where players speak their choices, like taking a left or right path in a dark space station, and where the technology reads out what happens next. Could Storiaverse add virtual dice and decision trees?
We don’t have any tabletop RPG IP partnerships in the works yet but we plan to explore them in the future. The depth of characters, world-building, lore, and dedicated fan bases of these types of games are perfect for Storiaverse’s read-watch format. The fan fiction and fan art that has come from the community has proven that there’s an appetite for these kinds of stories and plenty of creativity among tabletop RPG fans. The success of all the adaptations of D&D IP proves that these characters and worlds can translate across content mediums. We would love to find a home for many of these great adventures and stories, and we welcome story submissions from writers.
We’re focused on the read-watch format for now, so we don’t have plans to make Storiaverse more interactive where it feels more like a game. We think this format has endless possibilities for fictional and non-fiction content across every genre, and we’re really excited to see where it takes us.
How do you imagine Storiaverse might grow and develop?
Our mission is to make Storiaverse the biggest mobile storytelling platform and to make reading more immersive and engaging. We believe our read-watch format not only caters to existing fans of literature and animation but also has the potential to attract wider audiences who are seeking new forms of entertainment. Even people who may shy away from reading because they prefer more visual entertainment can enjoy reading through our read-watch format.
We’re very excited to expand our content library with more original content, partnerships, and unique adaptations of existing content. We think the sky’s the limit in terms of what kinds of content can be adapted for read-watching.
Lastly, I know team Storiaverse has experience with content influencers through Podcorn, the podcast influencer marketplace. What tips do you have for readers who want to boost their own podcast influence and do you foresee a future of read-watch influencers?
Many of the creators we work with are already influencers in their own right on social media, from posting their work online. Our goal at Storiaverse is to help writers and animators reach new fans, both in our app and perhaps they’ll follow our creators’ work on other platforms, too. In terms of advice for gaining influence, I’d say a lot of it is about having a podcast or social media account about something that you are passionate about because passion fuels expertise, making you a credible authority in your chosen field. Additionally, engage with your audience authentically, and collaborate with other influencers and thought leaders in your niche to expand your reach and credibility. Lastly, consistency is key to maintain momentum and grow your influence over time.
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