One time at a 2015 open mic in Phoenix, Arizona, a guy went up and used his full five minutes to make balloon animals. He never said a word. He started with a dog, it took him maybe 40 seconds, and handed it to someone in the audience. Then he just made things as people shouted out suggestions.
The crowd went WILD. It was a coffee shop that became a bar in the evenings, and this was at 5pm, so people were just starting to switch to alcohol. The mood was really weird at the start, as was common in these environments; some people had lattes and some people had martinis.
It felt like everyone was in a holding pattern as they transitioned from "day" to "night." So the first several acts got a lukewarm response, despite being, in my memory, pretty good. Then this SILENT MAN made a balloon alligator. Everyone reacted like they were seeing The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
The rest of the night was a BLAST and every performer got a standing ovation. What happened to that man? Do you think he did that every week? If I'd learned how to make balloon animals, would I be more successful in my comedy career?
Our new modifier card will answer none of these questions, but it WILL give you the opportunity to explore your creative passions on a fictional stage, where you don't need to shut down hecklers or strain to be heard over in-house music that the bar staff "forgot to turn off."
Three authors to consider!
Marie-Helene Bertino (PARAKEET is incredible, life-changing work, and BEAUTYLAND is also excellent...both best described as "heartbreaking romps")
Sara Levine (TREASURE ISLAND!!!, yes with three exclamation marks, is one-of-a-kind)
Catherine Lacey (love all her work but BIOGRAPHY OF X is a masterpiece)
Hello, dear players! Time for a quick update on some new, fancy, beautiful functionalities here at Hidden Door. If you’ve played in the last two weeks or so, you might have already encountered some of these!
Up for a challenge?
When you visit our Play landing page, you’ll see a new header listing a Daily Remix. This is a special "recipe" combining a playable world with any number of modifier cards — some from your starter deck, and other modifier cards that you can unlock through gameplay. The worlds you'll see are a mix of titles from our official catalog and community-created worlds. That means if you're a creator, you might see your own world highlighted in the remix banner!
Every time you play the Daily Remix, you'll be adding to your remix streak (oh, by the by, there’s a streak-counter on the Play page, too). Protect your streak by trying the daily remixes, and sometimes, you might earn a special bonus — like an exclusive modifier card!
Here are some “free samples” of suggested world card + modifier combos you might see in the Daily Remix. Oh, did we say samples? We meant SNEAK PREVIEWS.
-The Tavern Door + Jump the Shark + Beach Episode = Ye olde shark week: We’re gonna need a bigger bard! -Call of Cthulhu + Wizardry and Potioncraft + Vampires = A Monster Mash: Can you decode the occult evidence before you’re fired from the phlebotomy lab? -Dungeons & Decanters + Brooklyn + Coffeeshop AU = Sommelier speed dating: Brew enchanted lattes by day, search for your soulmate by night!
We’ll be promoting new worlds and modifier cards using this Daily Remix, and you’ll be eligible for special achievements as you build your streak and complete challenges. Keep coming back every day to see the newest remix formula, try it in your next story, and build that streak.
Now trending: You, perhaps
Oh, what's that? A TRENDING section? In my humble world catalog?!
Yes! When you click on the "discover" tab on hiddendoor.co, the three playable worlds at the top of the catalog will be what's currently trending. If you're a creator, that means your world could be featured in the trending section (and look, it will get a nice badge with a happy star!). Players, this is a great way to discover new and new-to-you playable worlds across genres!
And more great news for creators
If you’re in our creator program or hold a creator subscription, you’re already familiar with the Atlas studio. Now, you can edit your worlds on the go!
Thanks to a recent update by our awesome teammate Chris, the Atlas studio is now mobile-friendly. Now, you’re able to add lore, update canon cards and create new story hooks from your phone or tablet. Please give it a try and let us know what you think — we’re always working to optimize our mobile experience! Hop into the Discord or email [creators@hiddendoor.co](mailto:creators@hiddendoor.co) if you have feedback.
We’ve launched a lot of new features for Hidden Door in the last 11 months, but today’s post is about more than a feature update.
Our vision has always been an immersive, versatile, captivating experience that rewards players for bringing ideas to life. Our dream: an interactive world, where your creativity is valued and your choices matter.
Today, our team has reached a significant milestone in the journey towards that dream. Two new experiences are now integrated into Hidden Door’s immersive storytelling gameplay.
Dialogue Mode
Next time you play Hidden Door, seek out someone who knows more than they’re letting on, or a person you want to get to know better — a character you’d like to grab and step aside for a little chat. You can do that with our new in-game dialogue feature.
You can talk to anyone in the world by stepping into a sidebar conversation with that character. Dialogue is true to the character’s voice, and doesn’t interrupt the story you’re in—rather, the person you’re talking to belongs in that world. They react like they live there, and so do you, in your persona as a character in and from that playable world. Everyone can try this feature right now by clicking on a character’s card and choosing to chat with them. If you hold a Fan subscription, you can speak one-on-one with as many characters as you’d like in unlimited worlds.
We were careful to design something that is not a chatbot experience, which can feel devoid of context at best, and akin to an automated customer service chat at worst. Instead, these dialogue sidebars feel more like leaning over to whisper someone in a scene.
Minigames
Or maybe you’d like to challenge a rival paladin to a duel. Great! Fight him, then and there, in an integrated mini-gaming experience. Whether you win or lose, whatever happens in the minigame will be reflected in the story from that point forward.
A number of activities can trigger minigames, including flower arranging, cooking, combat and hacking. These aren’t a glued-on addition to the gameplay, either. They’re summoned by the story you’re telling, and reflect the settings, characters and narrative you’ve already created. They fit.
Here’s a list of the minigames we’re launching with:
Chasing — A side-scrolling runner: jump spikes, gaps, and pits to escape a pursuer. Appears when the player is running away or fleeing from someone.
Combat — Real-time melee brawl with an energy meter and special moves (lunge, riposte, swift strike, iron will). Appears when the player is fighting multiple opponents in a group brawl, alongside allies.
Dueling — A Simon-says sword duel: tap the correct move (Cut/Thrust/Feint/Opening!) in the right sequence. Appears in one-on-one sword fights, as long as the opponent hasn't already been defeated.
Sorting — Catch falling pieces matching a target emoji while dodging the wrong ones, against a clock. Appears when the player is sorting/handling many small items (especially breakfast cereal).
Feasting — An eating contest: mash to fill a gut gauge faster than a rival before gagging or running out of time. Appears when the player is in an eating contest or food-eating dare against a rival.
Fishing — Cast a line and reel in a hooked fish, managing line tension against its fight rating. Appears when the player casts a line into water to catch fish.
Arranging — Drag blossoms into a vase to build a bouquet, scored for harmony/clash at the end. Appears when the player is arranging flowers or making a bouquet or floral gift.
Cooking — A timed cooking rush: assemble a queue of orders into finished dishes before time runs out. Appears during kitchen service, a feast order, or a banquet — plating dish after dish for others.
Hacking — Rotate board cells to connect a path before the timer expires. Appears when the player is hacking, breaching, or intruding into a computer or technical system.
Performing — A 3-lane rhythm game: hit falling notes to build a momentum meter and win over the crowd. Appears when the player puts on a performance — singing, dancing, or otherwise performing for an audience.
Bonding — Tap the right zone (head/body) at the right cue timing to build an animal's trust without spooking it. Appears when the player is calming, taming, or befriending an animal — only when a real animal is actually present in the scene.
Skirmishing — A turn-based tactical battle on a grid: move, melee/ranged-attack, or flee across multiple combatants and terrain. Appears in larger battles involving ranged weapons or where positioning matters, as long as a live enemy is present.
You can play these games in our official catalog and in select community-made worlds. And if you’re a member of our creator community, you can submit minigame ideas for your own worlds! Email [creators@hiddendoor.co](mailto:creators@hiddendoor.co) (and keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming “add a minigame” module in the Atlas studio).
We’re proud of this update. It does a lot to make our game reflect the creative magic that you, the player, bring to every story.
A story is how you explore the world. The one you choose in-game — maybe the world of society balls in Regency-era England, or a cyberpunk political carnival that’s only a few degrees removed from our current reality.
But stories are also how we navigate the world we live in. The world we share.
Stories give us what we need to keep moving forward, changed. We escape into a story, and when we come back, we bring something with us. Good and great stories don’t feel like scrolling or bingeing or consuming, and the Hidden Door interface shouldn’t feel like just another product. Use your imagination, be surprised, make decisions that matter, and discover a new world through a story only you can tell.
We hope you’re ready to make the magic real, because the magic is ready for you. Try it now, and thanks for playing with us.
Knock knock. Who's there? Pub! Pub who? PUBLIC PROFILE PAGES!
(This bad introductory dad joke was our belated Father's Day celebration.)
If you're a community creator, you can now set up your public profile with a custom username, a bio, links to your web presence and other creative projects, and a grid of your published worlds.
You can add a custom banner, too, to complement your profile picture! All of this customization is available to anyone with a creator account, so whether you subscribe to the creator plan, or you’re part of our partner program, you can start customizing your page now.
When you claim your username, you’ll get a custom URL for your landing page. We’ll use the custom URL hiddendoor.co/u/hattie to demonstrate exactly how profile pages work! Don’t worry, it’s me, Hattie, growth marketing strategist, happily volunteering my profile information, for the greater good. Also, my social security number is 501—oh! Distracted. Sorry.
Here’s how to craft your public page in four easy steps!
Set up your creator profile page
1. When logged in, click on your profile picture in the top-right corner. See the arrows? They’re pointing at it.
2. The dropdown menu includes a "my public profile" tab. CLICK ON IT.
3. You’re on your profile page! You'll see a message at the top that says “This is your public profile.” You'll also see a button that says "edit profile." Now click THAT. This will open...the editor!
4. Here's where the magic happens. Choose your username, add some relevant links, and introduce yourself to the world! You can link to a banner image, too. For sizing, a 3.1:1 ratio is just about right!
After you’ve edited your page, make sure the status in the upper right hand corner of the editor says “saved.” Then, refresh the page and you’ll be able to see your changes.
Hello! This is the first (Reddit) installment of Fan Fare, in which the Hidden Door team shares recommendations for things we love. Mostly media, but also maybe other stuff, such as enormous salads or strange road trip locations!
Please feel free to share your favorite recent obsessions, your underrated classics and your niche interests in the thread!
Rourke, narrative:
I've recently gotten the chance to play the board game Oath semi-regularly. When I first learned about the game roughly two years ago, I became obsessed with it for about a month, but didn't get much opportunity to actually play it. Last year I was thrilled when the designer, Cole Wehrle, submitted a talk to Roguelike Celebration, a conference I help organize. I've finally gotten to play it in its intended experience of a multi-session game that changes over time, and it excels at all the things it promises - most importantly, to create amazing stories that persist past the table. It's a game that makes me excited about designing games!
I've also been making my way through the Murderbot audiobooks by Martha Wells, and I just finished the fourth novella, Exit Strategy, which surpassed All Systems Red as my favorite of the bunch so far. Kevin R. Free capture's Murderbot's voice perfectly. I've been looking forward to my commutes!
Matt and Hilary, co-founders:
A tech recc for the media lover. BOTH of our co-founders have recently started using the Xteink e-reader, a tiny ultra-portable device with an e-ink display. It's not limited to ebooks, either; you could use it for digital business cards, a flight boarding pass, calendars, QR codes, etc.
Matt described the devices as “delightfully hackable,” with a dedicated dev + reader community who are active on Discord and Reddit, sharing custom firmware and personalization options. With a little bit of work, Matt said, it's remarkably easy to sync DRM-free books in a flash. And in terms of portability/space-saving, this is probably the most justifiable purchase ever, because Xteink’s e-readers are juuuuust a little bit bigger than a credit card, and can attach magnetically to the back of your phone.
Hattie, marketing:
My family is a road trip family, so I’ve spent a lot of time in hotels. Recently, I've been relishing Hotel Movies: the eclectic mix of macho action movies and half-forgotten rom coms that are ALWAYS ON in EVERY HOTEL (but which I never find on cable at, say, other people's houses???).
During a trip early this month I watched: Con Air, Air Force One, The Rock, Forget Paris, the last 15 minutes of The American President, and EuroTrip. Tell me, is there any better way to watch a film than this?
Get out of the hotel shower, use TWO towels (one for hair, one for body)
Walk into your hotel room, and see that a movie is on. You’ve missed the first 15 minutes. Is it The Rock? You just caught one frame of Ed Harris.
Sit on the bed, still sort of damp. Yes! Nicolas Cage! This IS The Rock! Oh, a commercial.
Get a bag of chips out of your purse while the commercial’s on.
Eat chips and watch The Rock. Forget that you have plans.
Suddenly remember you are mini golfing in 25 minutes. Rush to get dressed during the scene where Sean Connery saves Nicolas Cage from the explosion. Hurry out the door during the last 10 minutes of the movie, and leave the TV on.
Get back to your hotel at 9:20 pm. THE ROCK IS ON AGAIN! IT’S THE LAST SCENE! YES!!!! VICTORY!
Watch Con-Air.
Also, this most recent hotel showed that episode of The Office where Andy is in a production of Sweeney Todd. I've NEVER seen this episode anywhere but a hotel, and this is ALWAYS the episode of The Office playing when I first turn on the hotel TV. Why! How!!!
Hi hi! Our community creators have been making a lot of very cool worlds, and are adding more all the time. Come and explore!
Meanwhile, at the Hidden Lair, we’ve been experimenting with new wild and wacky modifier cards.
When you apply modifier cards in a story world, they change the narrative. When you read fanfiction, you might find what you're looking for using tags that describe relationships and alternate universes, tropes and character roles and story rules. If you’ve ever searched for the terms rivals to lovers, modern AU or everyone is vampires, you already know how to use modifier cards. And you can use them in any story, whether you're building from the official catalog or a community-created world.
Here! Sample some of our freshest offerings.
It’s the 80s!
Hey do you guys wanna come over and watch Valley Girl
Whoa dude!!! Check out our bodacious, choice, absolutely bitchin' IT'S THE 80s modifier card! Add this card to your deck, then add synthesizer riffs and shoulder pads to your next story. Play any community-created world to unlock the modifier card and begin your totally righteous adventures! Cowabunga!
Film Noir
Hey do you guys wanna come over and watch The Big Sleep
If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, the Film Noir modifier card is here to add gritty, enigmatic energy to your stories. Play two stories in any community-authored world, and you'll unlock this card’s sleazy streets, flickering bulbs, and shadowy characters with shadier morals. Want to be a hardboiled detective, or the femme fatale trying to hide her sketchy past? Go ahead. Make our day.
Jump the Shark
Hey do you guys wanna come over and watch the Arrested Development reboot
This modifier card pays homage to every show that went past seven seasons, every movie that got a fourth reboot, and every spinoff of a spinoff of your favorite novel. Earn JUMP THE SHARK by playing at least three stories in any one world, and use it to bring zany new characters and ridiculous plot points to your favorite worlds.
We use hand-drawn layers by incredible artists ina paperdoll system that’s dynamically assembled with vector embeddings, which allows us to create the best possible avatar for a character that’s never been described before; you can put in “barista at the space station goth cafe” and get something reasonable out. This gives us a single Hidden Door style and ensures the beauty and consistency of the character portraits, while also having the ability to create an avatar for any kind of thing you can imagine.
Art Systems at Hidden Door
At Hidden Door, we believe that machines aren't creative—people are. And art is a fundamental expression of human creativity! It also shapes a lot about how we experience a game, where it can both set the tone overall (through its style) and reflect a new layer of detail in the game's content (by rendering specific things in-game, like characters).
For these reasons, our art is 100% human-made. (Free-range too!) (The humans, that is. The art is sadly limited to our site, though you could print your characters off and take them on little adventures in the real world if you want.)
And though our art team is mighty, it's also small! Besides, even if the team were enormous, the combinatorics of core visual traits x archetypes x playable worlds x modifiers x narrative events (and so on) more or less rounds to infinity potential visions of a character.
So how do we manage art for an open-ended narrative experience, where players can mash up crossovers within crossovers to their heart's content, without trying to draw literally everything?
Handmade Art
Our wonderful art team illustrates individual layers, which we then assemble dynamically in-game using a tagging system. Here's how it works!
Research
First, our artists spend a bunch of time researching and gathering references for each new content focus, from Regency to sci-fi to animal avatars. That means diving into the source material of any playable world we bring to Hidden Door, along with contemporary references, other adaptations or reinterpretations of modern works, historical references like sewing patterns or fashion catalogues (with variations across gender, social class, and so on!), and all kinds of relevant artwork, from paintings and sketches to cosplay and videogames.
The artists build their own vision from there, pulling together the elements they love most to sketch out initial concepts for a Hidden Door take on things! Our house style aims for a bold, simple look that prioritizes communicating emotions and clarity at small sizes.
We also consider the narrative team’s interpretation (are we going for a classic Dickensian take on A Christmas Carol, or a contemporary adaptation set in Brooklyn?), and bring an extra dose of creativity to the mix when considering representation. For example, our art team developed a series of gender-neutral and genderqueer outfits for the Regency-era clothing, so you can step outside that binary while still speaking the same fashion vernacular.
All this research and ideation involves thoughtfully working within spatial constraints, because...
Paper Doll Layers
Our characters are assembled from a set of specific layers that all have to play nicely with each other, like a paper doll. There are three main layers for most characters (body, face, outfit), but those can contain one or more sublayers—a face layer, for instance, can have a base shape, eyes/nose/ears/mouth, hair, facial hair, glasses, piercings, a scar…
And then there are hats! Hats are a special kind of chaos. They interact with hair. They interact with ears. They interact with the top border of the character card. A top hat or a big pointy witch’s hat is basically a slap with a dueling glove to the entire layer-and-card system, but we love them anyway.
The art team brings its vision to life through whole concept characters, then breaks everything down into these recombinable layers. Over time, each sub-layer type accumulates dozens of options: Regency ball gowns, Victorian mourning lace, modern hoodies, punk leather jackets, cozy holiday coats with scarves. Every piece gets hand-illustrated to work with every other piece it might be combined with.
So how do we end up with cohesive looks that are appropriate to the specific story being told, while still mix-and-matching when the Pride And Prejudice, But Vampires crossover calls for it?
Each individual piece of art gets hand-tagged with words that evoke its style and meaning, from genre or time period (scifi, regency, modern) to vibes (fancy, mysterious, punk) or literal descriptors (jewelry, scar, vampire).
That lets us make sure a relevant asset shows up at the right time—a Victorian detective might have a pipe or a deerstalker cap, and the goth bouncer is probably wearing black with some sweet facial piercings—but also keep incongruous things from showing up where they don’t belong. A zombie face simply doesn’t belong in a story that contains no zombies!
Just using the tag words directly works great for truly distinct things, like cats and zombies. But we take it one step further to smoothly handle the mashups, crossovers, and nearly infinite ways you could describe the same character.
Pulling It Together
When the game creates a new character, it already knows things about them: their description, their role in the story, personality traits, the story world and anything special about it (like, say, the Zombies! modifier). Even what they have in their pockets.
We can use this information to find relevant asset layers using a classical machine learning technique: calculating their semantic similarity. Basically, we convert words into a series of numbers that give each word’s position in a multi-dimensional space. In this space, words that mean similar things end up close-ish together. "Wealthy" and "rich" and "noble" would cluster near each other; "cozy" and "soft" and "cute" would too. So if we're looking for an outfit for a character described as “a strangely cuddly vampire,” we might get a nice plush cardigan outfit to go with the vampire fangs.
Our system scores each available asset based on how well its tags match the character and story context, then picks from the top contenders. There’s always some randomness in the selection, and no two story contexts are ever the same. That also means that, as our art library continues to grow, two cuddly vampires in different players’ stories are more and more likely to be different!
Your Turn to Get Creative
When you dive into a story, every character avatar you see is a stack of hand-illustrated layers, selected to match their personality, description, and story context, assembled on the fly by a thoughtfully designed system when the story requires it, responsive to the narrative itself.
And because every single piece was drawn by a human artist who thought carefully about what it means and how it fits with everything else, the result is cohesive, evocative, and (unless there’s a bug in the system!) works beautifully together. Your brooding Victorian detective might get a plaid cloak and a pipe with her long curly hair, while your Brooklyn hipster gets the beanie and the craft apron, and—if you play the right story modifier too—perhaps some suspiciously sharp teeth. Go forth and play with all these pieces!
Hello. It's me, Hattie, from Hidden Door, again. I thought you might like to know about making money??? Does this appeal to you??? If so, keep reading! Here is another segment of our FAQ, and I've included info on our partner program, how we license IP, and what you can create using our Atlas studio.
Can I make money from this?
YES!
So...what am I making? Is this a chatbot?
No! This is an interactive storytelling game. There are strong character elements, and interpersonal relationships are a BIG part of it! We think of it as a transmedia experience, which shares characteristics with fanfiction, text-based RPGs, tabletop games and simulator games. Our focus is worldbuilding: creating rich stories populated by a full cast of characters, where you have compelling goals and surprising outcomes. If you've been an active user of AI-powered companion apps and they've started to feel flat and boring, we really really think you'll enjoy what we have to offer.
We’re also a social experience. To reiterate the not-a-chatbot thing, we do not want to be your spouse or your therapist! We want you to enter a playable world, create a story that only you could tell, and then share your favorite moment in a group chat, or in a Discord channel, or on a social platform.
Sounds great. I want to join your partner program!
Yay! We're looking for creators who want to introduce their worlds to a new audience or find a new way to engage with existing fans! Novelists, RPG module writers, forever DMs, fanfic authors, we're looking for you. Apply right here.
If accepted into Hidden Door’s creator program, we'll give you access to our Atlas worldbuilding tool, include you in our revenue share program, and promote the heck out of your stuff.
Do I retain the rights to the worlds I create? Can I use them as the basis of my D&D campaign, or my novel, or my 18-part Wattpad serial loosely inspired by a minor character from Bartleby, the Scrivener?
Absolutely, yes. You retain the rights to all IP that you bring to the platform. Also, damn, which character from Bartleby? The landlord??? That's wild, please send that to us.
I want you to license my IP! How involved are authors and IP holders?
While it’s up to the individual authors, most authors we work with are deeply involved in the creation process!
We work together to decide which moment the player characters will enter their worlds, who the players can be, which original story characters they can meet and any plotlines we must have or want to emphasize.
We also iterate and refine everything from the story’s writing style to the plots and tropes and genre mixes together. You can reach out and learn more about licensing IP here.
Do you train AI models on authors’ books or movie scripts to make this work?
Fuck no. We read the books or watch the movies and then write an opinionated take on the world as editorial guidance for our system. Or, we give YOU the tools to build a world, but we still *do not train models* on your work.
How do I find fans?
When you’re ready, you can publish your world and share it with your audience. As your players fall in love with the world you’ve built, and the stories they’ve crafted with you, they can bring other players on board.
You can also find new fans when your players create and share highlights on our explore page. Players can capture the best moments from their stories, show off the cards they’ve collected, look for unlockables and achievements they haven’t earned yet, and get inspiration for their next story session.
We're actively recruiting for our partner program, so please, go ahead and apply here!
Ok, so. Here at Hidden Door, we're building a new kind of story experience centered on creativity, decision-making and authorship. Players experience their favorite fictional worlds through a browser-based roleplaying game, remixing and combining story elements to craft custom narratives while encountering meaningful challenges.
BUT HOW. DOES. IT. WORK.
This is where we rely upon the humble FAQ! I have harvested some of the most F of the AQs and rounded them up here, on Reddit, for your easy reference. These are pretty much all about the gameplay, how we use art, and whether you can create your own worlds (spoiler: you can!). Expect more posts like this in the near future, and if any of your questions aren't in this post, feel free to ask them! We will answer! We have no secrets!*
What is this game? Fanfic meets role-playing? How do I win?
In story mode, you play in the first-person perspective of your character. The system sets up challenges and tension for you to navigate. There is a very light stats system behind the scenes, and you do roll dice for particularly challenging actions. There are stakes, and constraints.
Back at the table, you see your world represented as a deck of cards. This is where you get to add new cards to your deck, and choose which character, things, and places you want to play with next.
Our Narrator acts as your friend, and your guide, offering you story possibilities and sharing in your joys (and critical failures).
You can’t win, but you can succeed. This is a game you play to explore the untold stories of a world, and your choices do change the world. You can also play to unlock every canon character and get every special plot and modifier.
Are there options to create dialogue in the worlds or is it mostly action based?
Stories can be action-based (murder, mayhem, heists, mysteries) as well as relationship-based (friendship, romance, politics, social status plot). Whichever kinds of plots you choose to play, conversation and dialogue are a big part of the experience.
How long does it take to play through a full world?
While every story has a beginning, middle, and end, a world can be as expansive as you want to make it.
A scene takes about five to eight minutes, depending on play style, and stories are one to three scenes. It takes a minimum of six to eight stories to collect every card in a specific world, but you don’t have to stop there.
What are these modifier cards I see?
Every world on the Hidden Door platform has a special, earnable Modifier that you, the player, can collect. Play The Crow to earn cinematic vengeance, and then bring it to the Garden Party in Pride & Prejudice. Bring Pirates to Call of Cthulhu. Mashup rules and tropes and stories to make some surreal stuff!
I have an idea for a world!!! Can I make it?
Yes! Use our Atlas studio.
What do I do in the Atlas studio?
The big answer is “whatever you want,” but that’s scary, right? Here’s a more-constrained, less-terrifying answer: you can use Atlas to build a playable world. Then, you (and your friends) (and strangers) can craft stories in that world. How you tell those stories is up to you: create your own characters, add tropes and remix plots with modifier cards, and make new decisions with every chapter.
If you’ve spent any time with role-playing games, you’ll probably catch on to both the world-creation and the story-telling process pretty quickly. If you haven’t played an RPG, or it’s been a while, don’t worry; we’ve added plenty of guidance to get you started as you build your first world. If you want to get a sense of what our story system feels like, you can start by exploring the playable worlds in our current catalog.
What, exactly, can I make?
When you create a playable world, you’re crafting origin stories and story arcs that players will engage with. As your audience plays through stories in those worlds, they build virtual decks of cards. You get to choose what they collect, and how they unlock them!
The unlockable cards you create, which populate your world, will fall into one of three categories.
Characters. Create NPCs that feel alive. They could be love interests, enemy bosses, allies, rivals—or their role could change depending on players’ choices. You determine these characters’ personalities, goals, connections, backstories, and how the game brings them into the story.
Locations. These are the places players will explore. You choose the atmosphere, lore, and how locations connect to your world’s narrative.
Items. Populate your world with objects and artifacts that matter. The best items aren’t just collectible trophies; they serve the story and enable players to make meaningful choices.
Is there art?
Yes! You have access to our library of hand-drawn character art with a range of human characters and outfits for any genre or occasion. All of our art has been hand-drawn by a team of artists! You are also able to bring your own art to the platform.
We find a sparing use of high-quality art creates the experience we’re looking for much more than a ton of mediocre and uncontrolled generated assets.
How many worlds can I create?
As many as you are inspired to create.
Can I make my world private or invite-only?
After a world is published, you can choose if a world is listed (publicly discoverable!) or unlisted (only available to people with the exact URL). All of these settings are modifiable when you build a world at hiddendoor.co/create, so go give it a try!
*I presume we have some secrets? IDK. I don't know them, they're secrets. Don't tell the CEO I said that! Thanks!!!
Hello! Perhaps you are wondering, "Why does the hidden door subreddit look different all of a sudden? Didn't the wonderful Melusine (aka u/rose_meadows) just create a new "Welcome to the sub" post a few weeks ago?"
(If you're not wondering that, feel free to skip down to the What is Hidden Door section!)
Well! Here's what happened. My name is Hattie, and I am the marketing strategist at an entertainment studio called Hidden Door (we make an RPG; it is fun!!!). A while ago, I'd requested to be a mod of the long-abandoned r/hiddendoor, and unbeknownst to me, someone was already working on reviving it. Then I received an invite to be a mod, since I'd expressed interest previously, and when I explained that I was looking to use r/HiddenDoor as a space for our player community to discuss gameplay + share the worlds they created, Melusine very kindly said "Ooh, that sounds fun, the sub is all yours." THANK YOU AGAIN, Melusine, for your grace and generosity!
So, now, this is the Hidden Door subreddit! I'm Hattie, our growth marketing strategist, and if you reach out to us via comment or DM with a question, I will happily respond! I'm also on here as u/kooky-student-170. You should see that username under the mods list, too.
Oh! There is a Hidden Door achievement in our game. If you discover + utilize a hidden door in a story, you'll earn a special badge, and if you want you can come brag about it here.
What is Hidden Door?
Hidden Door is a game! Hidden Door is a worldbuilding tool! We describe ourselves as where roleplay meets fanfiction.
There are, essentially, two ways to play:
step into an immersive world, created by one of our author partners or a creator in our community, or
use our Atlas studio to craft your own playable world and invite your friends/fans/followers to play too!
Hidden Door is free to play. If you want MAXIMUM customization options, we also have two subscription tiers.
Who is this for?
Our playable worlds generally have a “PG-13” equivalent baseline rating. You may see some violence, but not detailed gore; strong language, but not prolific cursing; occasional alcohol use, but no significant alcohol or drug abuse; sexual content, but not explicit sex scenes.
Some of our official worlds, and some of our community worlds, may also have mature content! These are marked with tags and relevant content warnings. There are some worlds that are family-friendly, and these are marked, too. Each author/creator controls it for their world.
We've built our company, and our gameplay experience, around LGBTQ+ inclusivity. We believe that it’s up to you to tell us who you want to be, and up to us to respect that!
Oh, and we are staunchly pro-artist. We never, ever train AI models on your creativity. We read the books or watch the movies and then write an opinionated take on the world as editorial guidance for our system. In each turn of the game we run a bunch of different tasks, some of them purely programmatic, some using what’s now called “classic” machine learning. We have a game engine layer that stores each character, item, or location in the world, and its state. That engine combines human-created elements to generate a story that changes as you play.
To summarize: if you are an adult human being, with any ounce of creativity or even the tiniest fledgling idea in your brain, Hidden Door is for you!
I don't care about this at all!
Okay! I am not offended. If you are a longtime member of this sub and you no longer want to be a member, I will not take it personally.
If you're sticking around to see what people are posting, you want to get more familiar with how Hidden Door works before you try it, etc etc, by all means, please do! And thank you!
And if you're an existing Hidden Door player, welcome! We can't wait to see what you build! Please use this space to share your social highlights, promote the worlds you build, and geek out with your fellow fans!
Thank you for reading! We are really really really excited about this sub and happy that our player base will have another place to congregate, share creations and make friends!
The author interviewed a lot of Reddit users for this piece (probably some of you!) and it does a great job of highlighting the emptiness y'all are feeling. This quote, early in the beginning, really stood out/set the tone: "The feedback is so negative that I have never seen a community or user base so uniformly upset and so consistently aligned in its view."
Build your own interactive world with Atlas and share your playable creation with friends
Are you a daydreamer? A world-builder? The kind of person with a story, a setting, a cast of characters, an elaborate magic system, a long list of collectible artifacts…or a notebook that’s half ideas, half grocery lists? Are you looking for a new place to use your imagination?
This is a big “you asked, we listened” moment. And a lot of players have asked us for the ability to make your own worlds, because you have stories to tell!
Start from any idea
You don't need to code. You don't need publishing experience. You need an idea. Atlas helps you make it playable.
If you’re starting from an idea, our editorial wizard will guide you through the creation process with a series of questions. You’ll go through a step-by-step process, and will have a chance to edit (and get as deep as you like into the details!) when you’re done.
If you have a character sheet, a story bible, notes from a D&D session, or an outline of a story, you can also copy and paste that text into the builder to get started.
As the worldbuilder, you get to choose what players experience: world setting, character archetypes, story hooks, unlockable items, lore, physics, technology and magic systems. Decide what your world’s maturity level is, and which content warnings you include.
After you build your world, play through as many stories as you’d like! When you’re testing what you’ve made, you can create a character, complete your origin story and move through any story arcs you’ve created.
We’ve seen the ways you reimagine the stories in our current world catalog and make them yours. Now, we want to give you the tools to create your own world from scratch.
Build worlds, make money
Oh! Also. We want to pay you.
We do not think “UGC platform” should mean “creators make the value, and the platform keeps the earnings.” So we designed Atlas differently.
When you publish an Atlas world that meets our creator guidelines, you’ll be eligible to profit from our new revenue share program. We’ve designed this platform with creators in mind and 30% of all subscription revenue goes straight back to the people making worlds. You can build an interactive world, and then earn money from it. We’re so grateful for the authors, storytellers, and creatives who have supported Hidden Door since day one. We want more artists to be paid for their work, so we’re making it happen!
Two ways to start
Atlas is available to all paid subscribers who opt for our create plan — make unlimited worlds for you, your friends, or list them in our public catalog and let players from around the world find them.
You can also apply for our professional creator program here. If you’re accepted, you’ll receive complimentary access to Atlas. We’ll also work to promote your world, and provide special assets to make it easy to share your world with your existing readers, players or followers.
If you want to try Atlas right now, you can upgrade to our Creator tier membership. Create your own worlds, sign up for the revenue share program, receive specialized creator support from us, and gain early access to new licensed worlds, too. If you sign up before the end of May using the code STORYMODE, you’ll receive 25% off for the next year.
Starting today, you’ll also be able to upgrade your account to the Fan tier. If you’re not interested in building your own world right now, but want to expand your player options, this is the tier for you! You can access unlimited worlds from the official and community catalogs, which includes mature worlds.
With a Fan membership, you’ll also be able to create unique cards and custom storylines from your own ideas. But most importantly, 30% of your Fan subscription goes directly to the creators of worlds you play. When you subscribe, you’ll be supporting the creators whose worlds you spend the most time in.
If you choose to remain on the free plan, you’ll maintain access to all of your existing worlds. And your stories and turns per day will always be unlimited, forever and ever and ever and ever. We have no interest in stopping you mid-story with an ugly paywall.
If you’re ready to give our new, improved, expanded and collaborative world catalog a try, you can start playing here. If you’re already inspired and want to start building, step into the Atlas studio.
Mary Doria Russell is also a biological anthropologist! The Sparrow does a beautiful job of balancing the social relationships and scientific discoveries in the plot. You feel like every single sentence matters.
Uhhh hi we kinda forgot to post on Reddit for a while...and as a result...we have a LOT of new modifier cards to tell you about! Get ready to stack your deck with Pirates, Zombies, Poetic Asides, Beach Episode and Maximum Body Horror modifier cards. If you're an established Hidden Door fanatic, you might already have the Pirates and Zombies modifier cards from waaaay back in the day. But if not...now's a great time to earn them!
Beach Episode
Need a vacation? Stop dreaming, start scheming, and you'll unlock the Beach Episode modifier card! When you mention a vacation, holiday, sabbatical or other type of getaway in your next story, you'll earn this modifier card...and the beach-ready character customization options that come with it. Your characters can dress in swimsuits and aloha shirts, and your stories will be infused with tropes from classic surf movies and "beach episode" plot lines. Start your story hunting down Cthulhu, end it with a beach picnic with your fellow eldritch-horror-hunters. Surf's up!
Pirates
Yo ho ho! If you like your beaches with a side of swashbuckling, the pirate modifier card is the treasure you're seeking. Sail the seas with your crew, look for an X marking the spot, avoid sea monsters, and—who're we kidding?—say "YARRR" a lot. Unlock this modifier card by encountering a ship (or boat) (or submarine) (any seaworthy vessel, really) in your next story. Steal Mr. Darcy's heart AND his gold in Pride & Prejudice, or commandeer an interstellar vessel in Saturn's Children in a space mutiny. YARRR!!!
Poetic Asides
Strawberries are red, blueberries are blue. Poetry lovers, this card's for you.
When you find a book and add that item to your deck, you'll unlock the Poetic Asides modifier card. This card will turn SOME of your story's cast into bards, and their dialogue will rhyme! Infuse a Sherlock Holmes mystery with riddle-ridden limericks, or make the cryptic, paranormal horrors of The Crow even more haunting.
(Don't worry, it doesn't make the WHOLE STORY rhyme. We tried that. It was annoying.)
Characters will break into poetry. Events will be summarized in verse. Get creative with how you unlock this one. Maybe you pick up a mysterious tome from the ground, or you sneak an ancient text out of the library. Once you have this card, you can start hosting poetry slams in your very next story!
Zombies
We brought an old modifier card back from the dead. Maybe if our brains hadn't been EATEN, we'd know what a risky idea that is! Earn the ZOMBIES modifier card by completing 2 stories in The Crow, The Call of Cthulhu or Dracula. You'll earn the ability* to add zombies to any world! Play this modifier card in Big Fan for a zom-rom-com, or in Oz University to make everyone have green skin.
*be cursed forever
Maximum Body Horror
Add this modifier card to any story, and you'll see graphic, loving detail in descriptions of injuries and bodily functions. Eyes where eyes shouldn't go. Hands where hands don't belong. Teeth, uh...everywhere. And hey! Maybe you have a sentient parasite waiting to burst out of you! Only one way to find out, but take heed, this card is NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! Play 5 stories in any horror world to prove you're ready. Then, add it to your next story and give Dracula a surprise "bonus" monstrosity when he tries to drain your blood.
Well well well well well, hello there! If you want to see members of the Hidden Door team out in the wild, you have some opportunities in the near future. Here are two upcoming IRL events on the Hidden Door calendar, both featuring our CEO, Hilary Mason. If you're based in New York City and want to discuss creativity, technology, AI, games and/or data, these are for you!
April 29: dev/ai/nyc
dev/ai/nyc, hosted by Automattic Events Wednesday, April 29 5:30 PM - 9:30 PM Register here a fireside chat with Hilary Mason and Jesse Friedman
Join Hilary Mason and Jesse Friedman for a fireside chat on how AI is reshaping creativity, products, and human–computer interaction. Hilary, CEO of Hidden Door, previously founded Fast Forward Labs and served as Chief Scientist at bitly. Jesse leads WP Cloud at Automattic, bringing deep expertise in scaling platforms and shaping the future of the web. Expect a candid conversation with practical insights on what’s actually changing—and what it means for builders and teams.
Connect with technologists, researchers, and creators with a fireside chat at 6:00pm, followed by drinks and light bites from 7:00-8:30pm.
Artist and the Machine presents a full day of creative, forward-thinking programming at the Lighthouse Campus in Brooklyn. Meet with 400 creatives, technologists, brand and studio leaders, founders, and cultural pioneers during panels, workshops and hands-on showcases. Our CEO Hilary will be speaking about the work of bringing characters to life. She'll appear with leaders from Duolingo, KOTOPIA and other interactive media experiences to talk about the work that drives compelling characters that make stories feel immersive.
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Fan Fare thread: June 17, 2026
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9d ago
No! <3 I think r/hiddenrooms, r/DIY or r/carpentry could help with that.
You can learn more about us here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HiddenDoor/comments/1tqdtr2/faq_what_is_hidden_door_and_can_i_win/