I start this project because I want a tool that lets me create stories the way I imagine them. Something I can build upon and shape freely. At this point it has no name, just the idea of giving writers (or wannabe writers like me) a place where they can turn imagination into something interactive.
I have tried a few different approaches before, including Unity, but switching frameworks and languages every few months has become exhausting. It feels like progress keeps resetting. I decide to start over and build everything for the web instead. It feels like the right foundation, flexible and fast to iterate on. The plan is to make it cross platform from the beginning so that one day it can run on Steam, iOS, and Android without rewriting the core. Maybe even on consoles if everything goes well. The goal is to have a single tool where stories can be created and published everywhere automatically.
I have been a developer for nearly twenty years now. Most of my work revolves around maintaining large interconnected systems that have to run for years without breaking. One of the first applications I built is now more than fourteen years old and still growing. I have also spent nearly a decade making games with different tools and engines. That experience helps me see what works and what doesn’t. I know the scale of what I am trying to build, but I also think I can do it.
Books have always been a big part of my life. As a kid I loved the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories where you decide what happens next. It felt like being part of the story, not just watching it unfold. That same idea drives me now. I love role-playing games and story-driven adventures. Fallout might be my favorite. I grew up with the classic LucasArts games and they still shape how I think about interactive storytelling.
Written in retrospect, with the editor now nearly complete.
Talescape didn’t appear out of nowhere. I’ve been trying to build something like this for more than a decade: starting, failing, rebuilding, and coming back again. Back then I was just a junior developer, trying to create my own “RPG Maker,” far beyond what I actually knew how to do. Every attempt collapsed under its own ambition, but each left behind a small fragment of what would one day fit together.
Over the years, experience filled the gaps that talent and optimism couldn’t. I learned how to design systems that last, how to build for scale, and how to finish what I start. Talescape is the moment all of that finally came together. The same dream, rebuilt with the knowledge to make it real.
If you’re curious how far back this goes, there’s still a blog post from 2012 where I tried to build one of the earliest versions. A small “RPG Creator” built with Drupal. It didn’t work, but it marked the beginning of everything that followed.