Where the idea began
Growing up, I loved stories that invited me to make choices. They transformed listening and reading from something passive into something personal. Every decision made the adventure feel uniquely my own, and replaying the same story often revealed entirely new paths.
Years later, I found myself wondering why this kind of experience had remained so rare. Books, films and audiobooks had become easier than ever to create and share, yet interactive storytelling was still something only a handful of creators could realistically produce.
A new possibility
Advances in generative AI changed that. For the first time, creating richly branching stories, expressive narration, original artwork and immersive music became achievable on a much larger scale.
To me, AI was never the destination. It was the missing tool that could finally make the kind of interactive storytelling I had imagined for years practical to build.
Built for my children
The first stories were created for my own children. I wanted them to experience adventures where curiosity mattered, kindness opened new paths and every choice genuinely influenced what happened next.
Watching them replay stories simply to discover what might have happened differently convinced me that interactive audio storytelling could become something much bigger than a personal project.
Still just the beginning
Schmaudio is still growing. Every new story explores another idea, another world and another way meaningful choices can shape an adventure.
My hope is that years from now, interactive audio stories will feel as natural as audiobooks do today—and that Schmaudio will have helped make that possible, one story at a time.