Rules

A game for inventing 1158 billion billion stories…

We believe that storytelling is a key skill for life. It can even increase your brainpower!

There are so many resources to help you become a great storyteller. However, the best way to improve is simply to practice. That’s all well and good, but most of us are clueless when faced with a blank sheet of paper. What we need are some prompts. That’s why we invented Story Shout. It displays a set of visual clues (nouns/glyphs) that you try to convert into a story.

Story Shout currently works on any iOS device. It’s best played on an iPad because of the large screen, which makes it easier for everyone to see the glyphs.

There are 223 (prime number) glyphs, based on the visual nouns collection at The Noun Project. When you play the game, it presents 9 glyphs on the screen, taken at random from the entire set of 223. Glyphs are never repeated twice (or more) in the same story. With 223 glyphs to choose from, the game can produce up to 1158 billion billion combinations! It’s more or less impossible to get the same sequence twice.

The easiest way to get started with Story Shout is just to play it! Click on the homepage graphic (or play button) and start telling your story as soon as the glyphs spread out.

As the rules page says: “There are no rules!”

The idea is to tell a story out loud that matches the nine glyphs that appear on the screen.

There are four ways to tell the story:

In time with the fading glyphs – you confine the part of the story you tell to the current glyph before it fades.
In time with the entire set – you tell the story, taking as long as you want on each glyph, so long as the whole story finishes before all of the glyphs fade out.
Ahead of time – you try to tell a story using all the glyphs as quickly as possible. If you finish before they all fade away, that’s up to you. However, you should consider increasing the story speed until you can tell a story at speed 9 and become a true Story Ninja!
There is no 4.

There are five ways to choose the story:

Choose a new set of glyphs for each turn
Stick with the same set and force yourself (and others) to tell a different story each time – very tough!
Stick with the same set and shuffle the glyphs for each turn, telling a variation of the same story – tricky!
Stick with the same set and shuffle them, trying to change the story each time – also tricky!
There is no 5.

There are seven ways to choose the speed:

Play at the slowest speed (1) and give yourselves plenty of time, simply trying to beat the clock
Play at the slowest speed (1) and see if you can keep the story going for the whole time (about 2 mins)
Start at the slowest speed (1) and speed up each round (of turns) – the winner is the one who can keep up – tough!
Play at a medium speed (5) to give yourself enough time, but without a round taking too long – fun!
Play at a fast speed (7) and keep the game moving (using any of the five ways above)
Super Story Ninja rounds for advanced creative fast-thinking wizards – only play at speed 9 – we dare you!
There is no 7. (You getting the hang of this?)

There are so many other ways you can play the game:

As a family game with the kids – lots of fun and its educational too. Creative kids are more intelligent and will go further in life (sorry, we have no scientific proof, but we subscribe to this idea because it makes us feel good).
As a game with the mates when you’re bored and don’t want to play the usual board games or Playstation etc.
As a game in the office to warm everyone up before a training session or meeting. Makes a great ice-breaker and you quickly discover how folks think when their stories all appear to be very dark, or not!
There is definitely a 4, and a 5, 6, 7 and 8 – there are so many ways to play – it’s up to you, but please share any ideas with us.

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