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Show HN: Instorier – A tool for creating rich scroll-based stories for your site

21 points by danielskogly 4y ago

Hey HN! After 2 years of bootstrapping, we're excited to introduce you to Instorier, a new digital storytelling platform that helps businesses and agencies craft compelling stories using a variety of modules like powerful imagery, videos, maps, and even fully customizable 3D scenes with seamless transitions and motion that sync to the user's scroll position. Our editor allows users to create stories without any web development or coding experience, making it a flexible option for companies looking to tell engaging stories online, whether it's for in-depth feature articles, digital exhibitions, or a company's "About us" page. We created Instorier because we saw a frequent demand for high-quality and advanced storytelling sites in our own agency work, but budgets were often a limiting factor for the client's vision. Our subscription-based pricing model has two tiers: Professional for companies looking to enhance their own storytelling, and Agency for agencies working with customers that have these needs. Early bird pricing is available for both tiers until the end of January. We're looking forward to hearing your feedback on Instorier and any suggestions for how we can improve the platform. Our current roadmap includes things like improving accessibility, making sure stories can render in reader mode and/or without JS enabled, and continuously improving the editor experience. Happy to share details on the stack if anyone’s curious! Thanks for checking out Instorier! Founders & Devs, Bjørn and Daniel

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
techdragon 4y ago
You missed a plan tier… 1 story, “landing page mode”… I’d be willing to try something cool and new like this for $35 to make a super slick landing page… but the entry price of $350 USD per month is… well past “why not use SquareSpace” and into maybe I can justify the hours of time to hand craft my own scroll based 3D presentation using the old revealJS 3d tools… the fact that your per “story” price is more than an entire site on several hosted site platforms is … it’s very premium and while you may indeed have something so good it’s worth it, odds are Im not going to use the remaining 20% of perfect Apple grade scrolling animations to justify the price. Im not suggesting you’ve made a mistake pitching it as premium, I’m just unsure if you’ve over shot, because this is definitely pricier than I’m comfortable with and I’m not afraid to just use Wix or SquareSpace or Typeform or any one of a number of tools instead of coding it all myself.
- danielskogly 4y ago
  Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it, and agree completely with you when it comes to the pricing - especially for things like personal or small-business use. In the longer run, we aim to introduce more affordable tiers to enable as many as possible to use the product, but until then we understand that either hand crafting or things like Wix/SquareSpace might be a better option for many.
aliqot 4y ago
Corinthians was pretty clear about not touching another man's scroll wheel.
- danielskogly 4y ago
  Only if you're religious about it - something I know many in the HN crowd are! Jokes aside, this is one of the reasons we plan to add top notch support for both reader mode and clients that browse without JS enabled.
  - cwillu 4y ago
    “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” --God speaking to Abraham about the future of Instorier
kevincox 4y ago
Scrolling through your landing page on mobile was an awful experience. I both had my scroll speed reduced to stop in the middle of sections then was zipped by the small amount of content. Looks flashy but isn't functional and definitely needs some polish. Not that I would ever be happy with this sort of interface. Just stick the text on the page and let me scroll like every other page on the web.
- me_bx 4y ago
  Same experience here on mobile, where scrolling vertically tends to skip sections. I had the same issue on a website with scroll-snapping a few months ago and fixed with the following CSS applied to each section: scroll-snap-stop: always;
- danielskogly 4y ago
  Well that sucks to hear! I'd be really interested in knowing what device you're on, and whether or not you have things like battery saving on. I really can't envision a future where every single article would be made in a tool like Instorier - plain text is enough for most things, and I hate it myself when pages scroll-hog. Some experiences may have something to gain from being able to synchronize scroll with e.g. drawing a journey taken on a map, or being able to highlight and zoom in on statues or buildings as a story is told.
weego 4y ago
I don't want to be negative because launching a thing you believe in is always a good moment, so congratulations for that. Maybe it's just that the landing page and demos don't show where the value is, but I don't see how this is a business, let alone a 350/mo one, and not just a framework.
- brudgers 4y ago
  If $350/month seems like too much money, the product isn't for you. If it seems like a bargain, it is. To be a business, you have to stay in business. 100 customers at $350/month probably allows that. 7000 at $5/month probably doesn't because it requires 70x conversions, 70x retentions, and 70x the customer service (at least) -- and of course $5/month is trying to compete with free.
  - fortyseven 4y ago
    Wow. You can just pack that comment up and use it anywhere, huh? "If it's good for you, that's good. If it's bad to you, it's not for you." Brilliant.
    - brudgers 4y ago
      That’s how market segmentation works. I can’t afford a Ferrari because Ferrari’s are not for me. The Ferrari salesperson isn’t going to feel bad about that and shouldn’t. And the best thing you can take away is focus on selling products to people with money to spend and a willingness to spend it…if you are running a business of course.
saaaaaam 4y ago
I work with a corporate client developing specialist learning content. They would love this sort of thing, but unless I’m reading your pricing wrong then $4.2k a year for just five pieces of content max is insane pricing. I also own a b2b publisher and would love to use this but we’d be looking at 5 stories a month, not 5 stories a year.
- danielskogly 4y ago
  The $350/mo plan includes 20 stories! Will look into clarifying the wording of our pricing table, as well as adding what extra usage costs. I'd love to hear more about your use cases though, if you'd like to get in touch at daniel at instorier.com
vagrantJin 4y ago
Cool. Looks neat for sites looking to be on awwwards some day. But I have no idea how it performs on different devices and browsers.
gofreddygo 4y ago
This looks cool for product demos. Lots of images very little high contrast text. A text heavy page with background images moving around (like the demo pages) is a bad experience and does not highlight your strengths. Congratulations on shipping !
- bearfjellstad 4y ago
  Thank you, gofreddygo! We really appreciate the feedback and have updated the demos with increased text shadow to, hopefully, improve the legibility. We're also working on creating more compelling demos, such as explorable spaces, maps, interactive 3D models, etc. that might better highlight our strengths.

21 points by danielskogly 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

techdragon 4y ago

You missed a plan tier… 1 story, “landing page mode”… I’d be willing to try something cool and new like this for $35 to make a super slick landing page… but the entry price of $350 USD per month is… well past “why not use SquareSpace” and into maybe I can justify the hours of time to hand craft my own scroll based 3D presentation using the old revealJS 3d tools… the fact that your per “story” price is more than an entire site on several hosted site platforms is … it’s very premium and while you may indeed have something so good it’s worth it, odds are Im not going to use the remaining 20% of perfect Apple grade scrolling animations to justify the price. Im not suggesting you’ve made a mistake pitching it as premium, I’m just unsure if you’ve over shot, because this is definitely pricier than I’m comfortable with and I’m not afraid to just use Wix or SquareSpace or Typeform or any one of a number of tools instead of coding it all myself.

danielskogly 4y ago
Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it, and agree completely with you when it comes to the pricing - especially for things like personal or small-business use. In the longer run, we aim to introduce more affordable tiers to enable as many as possible to use the product, but until then we understand that either hand crafting or things like Wix/SquareSpace might be a better option for many.

aliqot 4y ago

Corinthians was pretty clear about not touching another man's scroll wheel.

danielskogly 4y ago
Only if you're religious about it - something I know many in the HN crowd are! Jokes aside, this is one of the reasons we plan to add top notch support for both reader mode and clients that browse without JS enabled.
- cwillu 4y ago
  “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” --God speaking to Abraham about the future of Instorier

kevincox 4y ago

Scrolling through your landing page on mobile was an awful experience. I both had my scroll speed reduced to stop in the middle of sections then was zipped by the small amount of content. Looks flashy but isn't functional and definitely needs some polish. Not that I would ever be happy with this sort of interface. Just stick the text on the page and let me scroll like every other page on the web.

me_bx 4y ago
Same experience here on mobile, where scrolling vertically tends to skip sections. I had the same issue on a website with scroll-snapping a few months ago and fixed with the following CSS applied to each section: scroll-snap-stop: always;
danielskogly 4y ago
Well that sucks to hear! I'd be really interested in knowing what device you're on, and whether or not you have things like battery saving on. I really can't envision a future where every single article would be made in a tool like Instorier - plain text is enough for most things, and I hate it myself when pages scroll-hog. Some experiences may have something to gain from being able to synchronize scroll with e.g. drawing a journey taken on a map, or being able to highlight and zoom in on statues or buildings as a story is told.

weego 4y ago

I don't want to be negative because launching a thing you believe in is always a good moment, so congratulations for that. Maybe it's just that the landing page and demos don't show where the value is, but I don't see how this is a business, let alone a 350/mo one, and not just a framework.

brudgers 4y ago
If $350/month seems like too much money, the product isn't for you. If it seems like a bargain, it is. To be a business, you have to stay in business. 100 customers at $350/month probably allows that. 7000 at $5/month probably doesn't because it requires 70x conversions, 70x retentions, and 70x the customer service (at least) -- and of course $5/month is trying to compete with free.
- fortyseven 4y ago
  Wow. You can just pack that comment up and use it anywhere, huh? "If it's good for you, that's good. If it's bad to you, it's not for you." Brilliant.
  - brudgers 4y ago
    That’s how market segmentation works. I can’t afford a Ferrari because Ferrari’s are not for me. The Ferrari salesperson isn’t going to feel bad about that and shouldn’t. And the best thing you can take away is focus on selling products to people with money to spend and a willingness to spend it…if you are running a business of course.

saaaaaam 4y ago

I work with a corporate client developing specialist learning content. They would love this sort of thing, but unless I’m reading your pricing wrong then $4.2k a year for just five pieces of content max is insane pricing. I also own a b2b publisher and would love to use this but we’d be looking at 5 stories a month, not 5 stories a year.

danielskogly 4y ago
The $350/mo plan includes 20 stories! Will look into clarifying the wording of our pricing table, as well as adding what extra usage costs. I'd love to hear more about your use cases though, if you'd like to get in touch at daniel at instorier.com

vagrantJin 4y ago

Cool. Looks neat for sites looking to be on awwwards some day. But I have no idea how it performs on different devices and browsers.

gofreddygo 4y ago

This looks cool for product demos. Lots of images very little high contrast text. A text heavy page with background images moving around (like the demo pages) is a bad experience and does not highlight your strengths. Congratulations on shipping !

bearfjellstad 4y ago
Thank you, gofreddygo! We really appreciate the feedback and have updated the demos with increased text shadow to, hopefully, improve the legibility. We're also working on creating more compelling demos, such as explorable spaces, maps, interactive 3D models, etc. that might better highlight our strengths.