Storymatic Studios

What Storymatic Studios does

Storymatic Studios is a privately held, Vermont-based creator of storytelling card games and creative writing prompt products, founded in 2009 and operated by a team of 1–10 from Brattleboro. The company's core technology is a physical card-based prompt system: four distinct decks — Storymatic Classic (540 cards, $34.95), Storymatic Kids (360 cards, $34.95), Rememory (230 cards, $25.95), and Synapsis (250 cards, $25.95) — each offering curated combinations of characters, settings, and plot prompts designed to cure writer's block, spark creativity, and serve as icebreakers. Storymatic's products are non-competitive, screen-free, and targeted at writers, educators, families, performers, therapists, and corporate team-building buyers.

The company sells primarily direct-to-consumer through a Shopify-powered storefront, supplemented by dedicated wholesale, educational, and team-gifts channels for institutional and corporate buyers. Revenue comes from one-time hardware sales of card decks, branded apparel and accessories (t-shirts, hats, onesies, sticker packs), free downloadable worksheets, and a fulfillment partnership with Tusen Takk Press for award-winning fine art photography books priced from $46 (trade) to $650 (limited collector's edition of 99 copies). International shipping is available to a curated list of countries including Canada, UK, and Australia. The company has no external funding, no app or digital product, and no disclosed AI/ML capabilities.

Strategic positioning is built on press credibility (Forbes, Chicago Tribune, Scholastic, Time for Kids, Wired), community partnerships (Stop Writing Alone writing community, Elevate Children's Improv Program), literary festival presence (Brattleboro Literary Festival, Boston Lit Fest, BookCon, Lit Crawl), and product-level award recognition (Major Fun Award, Brain Toy Award). The Tusen Takk Press photography book program adds a higher-margin collectible vertical, with NOW IS ALWAYS receiving Trifolio's 2025 Special Prize and a Prix du Livre shortlisting at Les Rencontres d'Arles 2026. The business model is asset-light, bootstrapped, and operationally simple, with no evidence of venture investment, M&A activity, or aggressive scaling.

Name

Storymatic Studios

Legal name

Storymatic Studios

Website

https://thestorymatic.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Storymatic Studios is a privately held Vermont-based maker of physical storytelling card games and creative writing prompts, serving families, writers, educators, performers, and corporate buyers via a Shopify DTC storefront, wholesale channels, and a fine art book partnership.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Storytelling Card Games

NAICS

Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (45912), Doll, Toy, and Game Manufacturing (339930)

SIC

Retail-Hobby, Toy & Game Shops (5945), Games, Toys & Children's Vehicles (No Dolls & Bicycles) (3944)

akta.pro primary industry

Board Game & Puzzle Specialty Retailers (CRALALAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Art, Photography & Illustrated Books Publishing (MPAJAAAF)

Keywords

• Storytelling card games
• Creative writing prompts
• Educational card games
• Improvisation card decks
• Fine art photography books

Headquarters

HQ city

Brattleboro

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Card Game Products: Sale of physical card-based storytelling games including Storymatic Classic, Storymatic Kids, Rememory, and Synapsis. One-time purchase model with individual retail pricing.
2. Photography Books: Sale of fine art photography books in partnership with Tusen Takk Press, including trade and collector editions. Storymatic handles fulfillment and checkout.
3. Apparel and Accessories: Branded merchandise including t-shirts, hats, aprons, onesies, and sticker packs featuring Storymatic themes.
4. Wholesale and Educational: Bulk sales to educational institutions and corporate buyers through dedicated wholesale and team gifts pages.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Storymatic Studios designs, manufactures, and sells physical storytelling card games—Storymatic Classic, Storymatic Kids, Rememory, and Synapsis—that use curated prompt decks to support creative writing, memory sharing, classroom storytelling, and improvisational performance. The company also fulfills and sells fine art photography books in partnership with independent publisher Tusen Takk Press, and offers branded apparel, accessories, and a wholesale/educational/corporate-gift purchasing infrastructure.

Product overview

Storymatic Studios offers a family of storytelling card games and creative writing products centered around four core offerings: The Storymatic Classic (540 cards for ages 12+), Storymatic Kids (360 cards for ages 5+), Rememory (230 memory-based cards), and Storymatic Synapsis (250 improvisational cards). The company also publishes fine art photography books through a partnership with Tusen Takk Press, including Vaune Trachtman's award-winning NOW IS ALWAYS and Geoffrey Peckham's MORNING IS A LONG WAY HOME. Additional offerings include Creative Starter Packs, free worksheets, branded apparel (T-shirts, onesies, hats, aprons), stickers, and gift wrap. The company serves retail customers, educational institutions, and corporate clients through dedicated wholesale, educational, and team gifts programs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Storymatic Classic: The flagship storytelling card game with 540 cards for creative writing prompts, characters, scenes, situations, and plots.
• Storymatic Kids
• Rememory
• Synapsis

Products and services

• The Storymatic Classic A 540-card storytelling card game for ages 12+ in which players draw gold cards for main characters and copper cards for plot elements, settings, and situations, producing flexible prompts for creative writing, improvisation, classroom storytelling, and group activities.
• Storymatic Kids A 360-card storytelling card game for young imaginations (ages 5+), featuring thick cards with rounded edges, family-friendly content, and 20 blank cards for customization, intended for kids, teens, parents, grandparents, classrooms, and mixed-age groups.
• Rememory A 230-card memory-based storytelling deck organized into 25 Season cards, 25 Generation cards, and 180 Prompt cards, designed to help users access, share, and write about personal memories and family history through conversation.
• Storymatic Synapsis A 250-card improvisational storytelling deck built from 30 Spark, 140 Riff, 30 Connect, and 50 Ask cards, designed to combine characters, settings, plots, and conversation prompts in a structured improvisational format.
• Creative Starter Packs Introductory card packs designed to onboard new users into creative storytelling and writing prompts, priced at $15 per unit.
• NOW IS ALWAYS (Trade Edition) by Vaune Trachtman A $46 trade-edition fine art photography book featuring 45 award-winning photogravures by Vaune Trachtman in a gatefold presentation, fulfilled and sold by Storymatic Studios under its Tusen Takk Press partnership.
• NOW IS ALWAYS (Collector's Edition) by Vaune Trachtman A $650 limited-edition (99 copies) photography book presented in a cloth-over-board clamshell box, including an original signed photogravure print titled Reverie.
• MORNING IS A LONG WAY HOME by Geoffrey Peckham A $48 fine art photography trade book by Geoffrey Peckham presenting a five-chapter visual journey transitioning between black-and-white and color photographs, fulfilled by Storymatic Studios.
• Storymatic Apparel (T-Shirts, Onesies, Hats, Aprons) Branded wear-and-share items including T-shirts (from $24.95), onesies ($24.95), hats ($23.95), and aprons featuring Storymatic-inspired designs, made to order with free shipping.
• Sticker Packs Branded sticker packs featuring Storymatic-inspired designs, sold as a merchandise accessory.

Quantifiable outcome

• Storymatic Classic has 44 reviews with 95% 5-star rating
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Tusen Takk PresscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with independent publisher Tusen Takk Press for fine art photography books. Storymatic Studios handles fulfillment and secure checkout for Tusen Takk Press titles including NOW IS ALWAYS and MORNING IS A LONG WAY HOME. Tusen Takk Press is devoted to producing carefully made books by visual artists.
• Vaune TrachtmancoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVisual artist and photographer whose award-winning series of photogravures (NOW IS ALWAYS) is published through the Tusen Takk Press partnership. Her work melds archival negatives, handwriting, and contemporary photography. She lives and works in Vermont.
• Geoffrey PeckhamcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAmerican photographer and founder of Tusen Takk Press. His book MORNING IS A LONG WAY HOME is published through the partnership. Also founded Clarion Safety Systems and Tusen Takk artist residency.
• Trifolio SRLsupportingOthersArt book printer based in Verona, Italy, widely regarded as one of the world's finest. Printers for NOW IS ALWAYS and MORNING IS A LONG WAY HOME. Also awarded Trifolio's 2025 Special Prize to NOW IS ALWAYS.
• David SkolkinsupportingOthersArt book designer who designed NOW IS ALWAYS. Co-founder of Radius Books and has designed books for Aperture Foundation, Magnum Photos, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• Major JacksonsupportingOthersPoet and author who wrote the foreword for NOW IS ALWAYS. Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University and influential literary voice.
• ShopifycoreTechnology or IntegrationE-commerce platform hosting Storymatic's online store. Provides payment processing, storefront functionality, and order management for direct sales.
• USPSsupportingOthersPrimary shipping carrier for US domestic orders along with UPS. Used for standard and expedited domestic shipping.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Rory's Story Cubes: Rory's Story Cubes is a tabletop storytelling game using dice with icons to prompt stories, targeting the same creative-play and educational use cases as Storymatic. Both products occupy the screen-free storytelling prompt category and compete for similar shelf space in specialty toy and education channels.
• ThinkFun: ThinkFun makes educational logic and creative-thinking games sold to families and schools, addressing similar cognitive-skill development outcomes as Storymatic's storytelling cards. Both brands compete for educational procurement and gift-shop placement.
• Bananagrams: Bananagrams makes portable word-based games (Bananagrams, Boggle, Appletters) that serve family game-night and classroom use cases similar to Storymatic. The company competes for the same non-competitive, creative tabletop game segment across consumer and educational buyers.
• Exploding Kittens: Exploding Kittens is an indie card game publisher with a strong direct-to-consumer e-commerce motion (Shopify-based) and similar premium pricing on creative/party games. Both companies are independent card-game brands selling primarily through owned digital channels.
• Barefoot Books: Barefoot Books publishes children's storytelling books and educational activity products aimed at parents and educators. It shares Storymatic's core customers (families, classrooms) and screen-free creative-play positioning across overlapping product formats.

Emerging players

• Unstable Games: Unstable Games is an independent card game publisher producing niche creative and party games. It overlaps with Storymatic's indie card-game identity and competes for shelf space in specialty game retail and gift markets.
• Imagination Gaming: Imagination Gaming produces educational card and board games focused on literacy and storytelling in school settings. It targets the same educator and school-purchase use cases as Storymatic's classroom products.

Broad incumbents

• Hasbro Gaming: Hasbro is a major incumbent game publisher with broad card and board game portfolios. While not a specialty storytelling brand, Hasbro competes for the same family game-night and educational dollar and has the distribution scale that Storymatic lacks.
• Mattel: Mattel owns major card and board game brands (UNO, Scrabble) sold through mass-market retail. It competes with Storymatic for the same family entertainment occasions but operates at vastly different scale and breadth.
• Chronicle Books: Chronicle Books publishes illustrated, gift-format, and specialty books across children's, art, and gift categories. It shares distribution channels (indie bookstores, museum shops, gift retailers) and creative-publishing positioning with Storymatic's photography book line.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Storymatic
• Facebookfacebook.com/thestorymatic
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/storymatic-studios

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Storymatic Studios