- Video Essays on Writing - Around the Campfire - 3 March 2021
Hello, storyteller! Have you seen Campfire's YouTube content? Levi, the channel's host, makes video essays about writing by analyzing popular media to teach storytelling concepts. Our content covers everything from character development to plot to worldbuilding. Check out the most recent video which tackles Wandavision. The show leans hard on its gimmick, but is that a bad thing?
- Campfire Blaze is officially here! - 1 November 2020
When we released Campfire Pro in 2018, users overwhelmed us with excitement and feedback. People requested more languages, a word processor, and worldbuilding tools so they could create their stories better than ever. We added tons of features over the next year and improved the software in every way we reasonably could. Unfortunately, it was our first attempt at creating a writing software and had many shortcomings. The same way a novel needs good bones in the edit, so too does software. To create the greatest writing software in the world, we knew we’d have to start from scratch. In September 2019, Campfire Technology created Blaze’s Kickstarter campaign. 378 backers in our community supported it and raised $37,141. Over the last thirteen months, we’ve added members to the Campfire team and worked tirelessly to create Campfire Blaze. And it’s finally here. As a browser-based suite of…
- The Navigation Update - 19 June 2020
Hello Storytellers, *Sigh* That’s right, we did it again. We can’t help it. Over eight months ago we said there would be no further updates… And we’ve continued to update Campfire Pro ever since. What can we say? We hear your requests, we appreciate all your continued support, and we want to make Campfire Pro the best software it can be. The Navigation Toolbar Going back and forth between views is easier than ever with the new navigation toolbar. This unobtrusive panel at the bottom of the screen has buttons that help you navigate backwards, forwards, go to any view you want, or add a new panel to the view you’re on. It’s pretty nifty! In the options you can choose whether to make it constantly on-screen or hidden until you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen. View-Only Mode Want to share your story with a friend who doesn’t have Campfire Pro? No problem. People who don’t own th…
- The Worldbuilding Pack Released! Magic Systems, Species, Items, Cultures, & more - 20 April 2020
Hello, Storytellers. The Worldbuilding Pack is finally here on Steam! Take your planning to the next level by creating Languages, Magic Systems, Species, Religions, Cultures, Systems, Items, and more with the Worldbuilding Pack. It's perfect for creating your next TTRPG campaign or writing your next novel. Have you seen our new YouTube series on How to Create Compelling Characters? Check it out: Build Characters From the Bottom Up - The Fundamental Aspects of Character https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmBhAk9dCBs Be sure to subscribe since we're going to continue bringing you writing craft videos every other Monday! Keep writing! Don't forget, the world needs your story. - The Campfire Team
- The Worldbuilding Pack DLC Releases on Steam April 20th! How to Write Compell... - 6 April 2020
Hello, Storytellers. We're excited to announce that we are releasing the Worldbuilding Pack as DLC on Steam! You'll be able to buy it directly from Steam and expand your story. This release will not affect anyone who already purchased the DLC from our website. Take your planning to the next level by creating Languages, Magic Systems, Species, Religions, Cultures, Systems, Items, and more with the Worldbuilding Pack on April 20th, 2020. Finally, we have started producing content on our YouTube channel! You can watch the first video in our series "How to Write Compelling Characters" right now: We're excited to start bringing you videos every other Monday about writing! Keep writing! Don't forget, the world needs your story. - The Campfire Team
- Surprise Update Released! - 14 January 2020
Surprise Update Released! Hello storytellers, We know we said the last update was the final one, but we’ve decided to surprise you all with a new update anyways! This one comes with some new features (as well as the usual bug fixes). Introducing the Surprise Update. New Stuff Notepad: Remember that little Notes box that’s on the Title Page of your stories? Well, you can now view and edit those notes from any Campfire View by clicking the little notebook icon at the bottom right of the screen. Use this as a scratchpad to store your thoughts before you find the right place for them in Campfire! Story Search: You can now search your entire Campfire story to quickly navigate to an entry. Just click the magnifying glass icon at the bottom right of any Campfire view and the search window will appear. Drag to Multi-Select: We made it easier to select and move multiple items on a Timeline, Rela…
- Campfire Pro Worldbuilding Pack DLC - 20 November 2019
The Campfire Pro Worldbuilding Pack So, you're ready to take your worldbuilding to the next level? Campfire Pro is here to help with our new Worldbuilding Pack. This optional DLC is purchasable from our website and is fully compatible with the Steam version. Here's how you can get it: Head over to https://www.campfiretechnology.com/pro/pricing/ Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Buy Now" link under the Upgrades section. Alternatively, you can simply check out with this link: https://sowl.co/s1dFz Go through the buying process, and check your email to retrieve your license key. Open Campfire Pro on Steam, open a Story, go to Worldbuilding Pack -> Register License in the top menu, then paste in your key and register. Congrats! You should be good to go. If not, don't forget you can always ask us for help on the Steam discussion boards, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, or ou…
- Campfire Pro: The Final Update is here, and it's HUGE - 15 October 2019
Hello storytellers, Today we bring you the most powerful update Campfire has ever seen. The Final Update is live, and it brings with it two major overhauls: the UI Update and the Worldbuilding Pack. UI Update The UI Update is a free upgrade that improves and streamlines Campfire Pro’s interface. It finally makes Campfire Pro feel like the finished product we always wanted it to be, and adds loads of useful features like statistics, lists, and improved linking between different areas in the software. https://www.campfiretechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Characters.jpg Worldbuilding Pack The Worldbuilding Pack is an optional $25 expansion pack that adds powerful new worldbuilding features to Campfire Pro: species, cultures, languages, religions, philosophies, magic, items, and systems. We’re really excited about this pack, as it allows committed worldbuilders to dive into their pr…
- LAUNCHED: Campfire Blaze Kickstarter Campaign - 15 August 2019
Campfire Blaze will be a web application that encompasses Campfire Pro's greatest features, while adding what users have been clamoring for like sharing, collaboration, and a word processor to actually write your stories. We just launched a Kickstarter campaign for Campfire Blaze, and we hope you'll take a look at it! Our reward tiers include heavily discounted access to Blaze when it releases, access to a private beta a few months before launch, access to an exclusive development discord, and more. View the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/campfiretechnology/campfire-blaze-writing-software-for-storytellers
- Utility Update Released! - 16 July 2019
Hello storytellers, It's been a while since we've released an update. In fact, we had originally planned on not releasing any more updates to Campfire Pro, and focusing exclusively on the development of our up-and-coming software Campfire Blaze. However, after a discourse with our users, we realized that certain QoL fixes were necessary for the current version of Pro. Introducing the Utility Update: Added the Utilities window, accessible from Campfire -> Utilities, which is designed to help users fix any bugs or issues they're encountering with Campfire Added support for fully offline use, which will be enabled automatically for all users Added ability to add Encyclopedia entries to Relationship Webs Updated Relationships UI to open up more screen space Added a short "where did you hear about us?" questionnaire that runs the first time a new user opens Campfire Added a "Cautious Mode" p…
- QoL & Bug Fix Update Released! - 27 April 2019
Hello storytellers! This update we fixed a whole bunch of bugs and made a lot of quality of life changes that we think you’ll enjoy. Specifically, here’s what we changed: - Added automatic backups to a hidden folder to allow for recovery of lost work - Changed Fiction theme to reflect Campfire branding - Added more links to other pages across the software (try right-clicking character, event, or location dropdowns) - Organized character, event, and location dropdowns properly - Campfire now remembers the last character and map the user worked on last, and loads it at startup - Added Preference that allows double-clicking a location to go to its linked Map instead of opening the Edit window - Added "Star" location and Map type - Made maps renamable via World -> Rename Map - Replaced all bad-looking dialogs with themed dialogs that don't randomly disappear after Alt-Tabbing - Fixed some i…
- Maps Update Released! - 31 March 2019
Hello storytellers! This update we focused on making the World section more organized for everyone. Specifically, we added the following features (along with a few bug fixes): Listed all Locations in the sidebar, even if they aren't pinned to the current Map. Unpinned Locations are shown in gray Organized Locations by type in the sidebar Added pin/unpin icons next to Locations in the sidebar Added Map selection box at top left of World section to allow faster navigation between Maps Made Location sizes customizable by right-clicking the Location and choosing Change Location Size Made Location transparency customizable by right-clicking the Location and choosing Change Location Transparency Added a few more types of Maps and Locations (district & room) Added ability to add images to Locations from the Edit Location window Added ability to link a Location to a Map. You can now right-click…
- $400 Prize Pool Story Official Campfire Contest - 24 March 2019
The deadline is coming up soon, so check out the full contest details on our website here: https://www.campfiretechnology.com/contest.html
- Event Update Released! - 7 March 2019
Hello storytellers! This update we focused on making the Timeline better for everyone. Specifically, we added the following features (along with a few bug fixes): Added connector handles to top and bottom of Events Allowed Events to connect to each other from any of their connectors Added ability to right-click a connection and add an arrow or toggle the line type to dotted or dashed Better distinguished major/minor and onscreen/offscreen Events Showed more info on the Event: temporal location, major/minor, onscreen/offscreen, and geographic location Added Timeline Filters: can be used to filter the timeline by characters, locations, and/or colors Added ability to export the filtered Timeline to PDF Allowed users to drag divider headers up and down (or left and right for horizontal dividers) Added ability to right-click a Relationships connection and change its line type to dotted or da…
- Character Update Released! - 28 February 2019
Hello storytellers! This update we focused on creating not one, but two new sections in Campfire! Character Arc View – Want to track how your characters change physically and emotionally over the course of the events in your story? The Character Arc View allows you to create custom attributes to view character arcs on graphs. Relationship View – Perfect for creating family trees or relationship webs, utilize the Relationship View to visualize how characters feel about each other or interact. Deleting Connectors – Added by popular demand, click on the lines between connectors in the Timeline and Relationship View to delete connections. Various QOL Changes and Bug Fixes This month we were able to launch the Campfire store on Zazzle, you can find it here: https://www.zazzle.com/campfire_technology. We’ve had an abundance of users reaching out to learn how they can support the development o…
- Encyclopedia Update Released - 31 January 2019
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for is here - the Encyclopedia Update is live! This update we focused on creating an entirely new section within the software called the Encyclopedia! Here are the most significant changes with this most recent update: Encyclopedia – A place to store your vast worldbuilding and lore! We suggest using it to record your creatures, magic, history, social class structure, languages… The possibilities are endless. Factions – Create groups of characters and store them in a collapsible group in the Character sidebar. We planned this feature for the end of February, but we moved it up to January by popular demand! Easily sort your characters by any grouping you desire: villains, heroes, side characters, cyborgs, dragons, etc. World & Location Types – Added more world and location types in the worldbuilding section. Various QOL Changes and Bug Fixes Thi…
- User Feature Request Update Released! - 3 January 2019
Hello storytellers! This update we focused on general features most commonly requested by users! Whenever you fill out a feature request form, we assess the best place for it on Campfire’s Roadmap. These features didn’t fit into any of our future planned updates, so we put them together to create the User Feature Request Update! Lock/Unlock Panels in Place – Gone are the days where you would perfect your layout, only to accidentally move a panel and ruin your masterpiece! Custom Sections in Events/Locations – You’re no longer restricted to just the general description sections we provide you with, now you can add your own! Improved PDF Exporting – Custom sections across Campfire now appear on the exported PDF. GIF Support – Bring even more inspiration into your work with gifs! Save Pop-Up (Windows only) – We’ve added a pop-up asking if you want to save changes before closing the edit ch…
- Customization Update Released! - 19 December 2018
Hello storytellers! We’ve been hard at work this month on the Customization Update! This update features requests by users specifically oriented around customizing the Campfire experience to your own preferences! We intend to release another update at the end of this month comprised of a handful of features requested by our users with no particular theme in the User Request Update. You can always keep up with our progress on each update by checking in our website roadmap which you can find here: https://www.campfiretechnology.com/roadmap.html Been on the fence about buying Campfire? Now’s your chance - it will be 20% off between December 20th and January 3rd. Let’s get into the update! Custom Backgrounds – Use whatever background image and landscape image you’d like to customize your prewriting aesthetic to your own preferences! Custom Fonts – You can use any font on your computer as we…
- Gender and Security Patch - Future Updates and Features - 20 November 2018
Hello storytellers! We hope all our new users are enjoying Campfire this week! As always, you can report any bugs you find under the “help” tab in Campfire, and we’ll start creating fixes right away! This has been a busy week for us, we won’t always have this many updates so close together, but we’re working around the clock to make Campfire the best it can be! First, The Gender Update is a mandatory update for Steam and Non-Steam. It is available for download now. The previous version of Campfire will not work. This update will not affect your stories, everything will be right where you left it. The Gender Update contains security improvements that require us to do the patch this way. We do not anticipate mandatory updates will become a regular occurrence. We’ve had three updates this week, but we plan on future ones being larger with more features and fixes releasing every two weeks.…
- Steam Update - The Future of Campfire and Misc. Details - 18 November 2018
Hello Campfire storytellers! We just had an update a few days ago, but we’ve got a little one ready to go again! Steam Achievements There was a small bug affecting the “Days in a Row” statistic on Steam. As a result, some users weren’t receiving related achievements. This update contains a bug fix for these achievements. We thank you for your patience! Steam Update details: • Open Story has been split to Open Story from Cloud and Open Story from File. • New Story has been split to New Story to Cloud and New Story to file. • Save Story As has been split to Duplicate Story to Cloud and Duplicate Story to File. • Delete Story has been added to the Campfire main menu. Some users wanted to have a file of their story saved locally to their computer, so these various options should allow users to do so! Some users were receiving errors and had confusion because they had not logged into Steam a…
