Dear friends and Storybricks enthusiasts,

Thank you for your tremendous support. Many people have helped by trying out the alpha of ‘Kingdom of Default’, sending in suggestions, and spreading the word about our ambition. We truly appreciate the enthusiasm and support.

Despite our efforts we did not reach the momentum we needed to sustain this aspect of our project. We estimated that the amount of resources to take Kingdom of Default to the level we envisioned would have been more than we can possibly provide. Therefore, we have decided to go back to the drawing board.

Several weeks ago we ended development of the browser client of Kingdom of Default. In its current form, the Kingdom of Default has run its course and will be taken offline.

The simple reason behind our decision is that we were trying to do too much for a small developer. We were trying to innovate on AI, gameplay and graphics without having the time or resources necessary to cover all these areas. We took a step back and are now focusing on the parts where we can innovate and deliver great products.

What happens next?

We are putting our efforts where they can have the greatest impact. More than ever, we are determined to push back the limits of interactivity and Artificial Intelligence in gaming to take the industry to a whole new level.

We have also listened to your feedback, which was very helpful, on how you would like to see our technology work and where you felt stuff was not right.

We listened to your feedback on what you would like to see from our technology. We appreciated your comments. These lessons are not lost on us and they are important for shaping what we will do now.

The good news is that we raised new funding and are currently working on new applications for our technology. Instead of developing kick-ass technology and kick-ass games by ourselves, we are partnering with other game studios to bring you the best of both worlds.

We wake up every day with the same mission of bringing you worlds filled with living, complex, emotional characters as never seen before. What will change is the way we deliver it.

What is Storybricks about now?

We believe that while graphics, gameplay and interface have evolved in gaming, Artificial Intelligence has lagged behind. Our goal is to bring changes to Artificial Intelligence in games as significant as 3D graphics were to game aesthetics.

We designed and built an emotional intelligence engine in order to breathe life into virtual characters. They have their own goals, moods, they interact among themselves and take decisions on their own. The story no longer revolves solely around scripted behavior: game worlds can now be rich and complex.

This hard work is our foundation as we move forward into the future.

Who is on your team?

Storybricks employs a dozen people both in the US and the UK. The team is still led by Stéphane Bura, Brian ‘Psychochild’ Green and Rodolfo Rosini.

We have picked up a few new friends on our journey and we will make an announcement soon.

What kind of games are you working on?

We have several projects underway, on several platforms and with diverse types of gameplay, all exploiting our unique AI possibilities. Several studios have shown interest in what our technology can offer and we are looking forward to working with them to create amazing games.

Working with partners now means that all our projects are now under NDA, so we cannot be as open as we have been in the past. But we can assure you: these projects are pretty awesome.

We are really excited about the future.

What about the ‘Kingdom of Default’?

Kingdom of Default was a first test of our technology, a browser game for users to write their own stories and interact with complex artificial intelligences. But we realize the alpha had a lot of problems: it was not enough of a game for traditional MMO audiences, too complex for casual players and too much of a game for educational uses (apparently the ‘zombie’ feature was a big no-no for some schools).

It had traction in some markets, especially education and schools. We would be happy for it to find a new home and a loving family that can continue development for it with the budget it deserves as we move onto more traditional games. If you are interested please reach us at contact [at] storybricks.com

Again, thank you so much for your support. We look forward to amazing you again in the future!