INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared Bristol member, Stornaway.io, has released the world’s first game engine for YouTube, allowing filmmakers, game producers and YouTubers to make interactive films and Full Motion Video games on YouTube.com.

The YouTube game engine is an extension of Stornaway.io‘s editing platform for interactive experiences, which launched in 2020 and is being used by thousands of creators in over 150 countries.

It lets you design your experience in Stornaway.io, then uploads clips and links them up using YouTube’s ‘end-screen’ interactive links.

Stornaway.io is being used by TV and film companies developing ideas to meet the demand shown by shows like Netflix’s “Bandersnatch” and “Bear Grylls: You vs Wild”– for VOD and game platforms.

One of these is “The Gallery”, a feature length thriller directed by leading light Paul Raschid (“The Complex”, “Five Dates”). Because “The Gallery” is being made in Stornaway.io, it could be delivered to YouTube, mobile, console, VOD platforms and interactive cinema screenings.

Founder Ru Howe said: “Stornaway.io is a magically simple platform for creatives to play with this amazing new format. This YouTube integration lets our creators bring their experiences to 2bn YouTube users and it’ll change the whole landscape of interactive filmmaking.”

“Stornaway has revolutionised my way of working as I could instantly experience the film, even while we were still shooting it!”

Before Stornaway.io, making interactive films was notoriously hard. Charlie Brooker described making Bandersnatch as “Like doing a Rubik’s Cube in your brain.”

Stornaway.io is also being used by thousands of producers in marketing, education, tourism and universities.

Co-founder Kate Dimbleby, herself a well-known writer, producer and performer, says: “The pandemic changed how we used video forever. It’s exciting to see creative people worldwide inventing this new form, being able to play in real time with interactive ideas. I can’t wait to see what happens now we’ve added YouTube into the mix.”

“What excites me about Stornaway.io and YouTube is that, like me, you don’t need to be technical. Now you can make the next Bandersnatch – on YouTube!”

Ru Howe was one of the world’s earliest videobloggers in the 2000s and made the first interactive story on YouTube, “Indecision”, in 2008 by playing with YouTube’s previous interactive technology, “annotations”.