Story Engine — Release Community Announcement
It's Out. The Full Release.
Short version first: Story Engine (随心所叙) has shipped, complete.
It's live on Steam now. The base game is free — download and play with a small free quota included. This is a complete, playable, feature-complete release, not a half-finished build. Content, systems, moderation, payments, voice — all in place.
About the "Real" 1.0
You might be wondering: is there a definitive final version coming later?
Yes — but it's a long way off. The developer plans to do a full rebuild of the entire project — not adding content, but rewriting the underlying architecture from the ground up. The version that comes out of that rebuild is the one the developer considers the "real" 1.0.
That's a huge job, and it has to wait until the developer has time. Until then, this is the complete release. Nothing is missing. Play it in confidence.
Four DLCs Coming Within a Week
Four DLCs are coming within the next week — three paid, one free. All of them are in final wrap-up.
1. Atmosphere Pack · AI Music (Paid)
Around a hundred tracks purpose-generated for different genres and scenes — cold-steel battlefields, cyberpunk rainy nights, Victorian drawing rooms. Not generic "battle music" or "sad music," but tuned to specific situations.
Also includes music management: add, remove, and organize your own music library, swap out what you don't like, bring in what you do. The AI auto-picks the best track for the current narrative.
2. Atmosphere Pack · AI Images (Paid)
Around three hundred purpose-generated images, matched to the current story and world setting.
Also includes image management: add, remove, and curate your image library, control what the AI can choose from. The bigger the library, the less the AI has to settle.
These two are called "Atmosphere Packs" because they do the same job: giving the text world sights and sounds. One covers sound, one covers visuals — you can buy them separately.
3. Making-of Notes (Paid)
This DLC adds no gameplay. It's a behind-the-scenes bundle: the developer's development process, abandoned designs, failed prototypes, design reports and production records, plus compliance communications with various platforms (sensitive information redacted).
Want to know how this game was actually built — what was thought about, what was given up, what pitfalls were hit? It's all in there.
4. TTS Voice Synthesis (Free, Optional Install)
The voice DLC lets NPCs actually speak, with different voice profiles per character. For tens of thousands of lines of text interaction, voice cuts the reading load dramatically.
It's free, and split out as an optional install. The reason is practical: local voice synthesis needs at least an RTX 4060-class GPU to run, and the models are several gigabytes. Bundling that into the base game would weigh everyone down — players who don't want voice would be forced to download gigabytes for nothing. So it's a free, optional DLC: download it if you need it, skip it if you don't.
About Pricing
Let's be clear about pricing — don't worry:
Every paid DLC's price converts fully into equivalent tokens — every dollar you spend becomes real, usable playtime in-game. Buying DLC is ultimately just adding to your token balance; the bundled music, images, and notes are free extras on top.
And pricing will be modest. Digital distribution costs the developer nothing; volume beats gouging. If you ever feel short-changed, it's because you burned through quota too fast — not because the DLC wasn't worth it.
*— a developer who wants to play this too*