Getting started

From a blank dashboard to a published chapter in about ten minutes. Follow these steps once, and you’ll know how the whole loop works.

1 · Create an account#

Create a free account at signup. You only need the one account to be both a creator and a player — your dashboard appears as soon as you’re signed in.

2 · Start a story#

On your dashboard, click New Story. Pick a template:

Simulated OS

The story plays as a fictional phone — messenger chats, social feeds, calls and push notifications. The default and most Storyomi-specific template.

Standard VN

The classic visual novel layout — full-bleed background, sprites, text box and choice buttons.

Every new story is seeded with a first chapter containing a guided sample script — you can edit or delete it freely.

3 · Write your first scene#

Open the story in the Creator Studio and write in OmiScript. A scene is a few lines of plain text: a background, some dialogue, and a choice.

chapter_one.omi

## First Contact
@bg city_night

"It's a quiet night when your phone buzzes."

mira: "Hey. You're up late too?"
player: "How did you know it was me?"
mira: "Lucky guess."

? "What do you reply?"
  - "Want to grab coffee?"
    mira: "I'd love to."
    -> Cafe
  - "It's late. Tomorrow?"
    mira: "Sure. Goodnight."
    -> End of night

## Cafe
mira: "This is nice."
@end

## End of night
mira: "See you around."
@end

Notice the sigils: @bg sets the background, speaker: "text" is dialogue, ? "prompt" asks the player, - "option" is a choice, -> Label jumps to a label, and @end ends the chapter. Each is covered in depth in the OmiScript guide.

4 · Register before you reference#

The engine validates your script before it runs. Every character, background, variable, and chat you reference must be set up in the Studio first — then you refer to it by name.

5 · Playtest in the Studio#

Hit Playtest in the Studio toolbar to run the current chapter instantly — no publish needed. The linter under the editor flags problems as you type, so a script that compiles clean will almost always run clean.

To check just the scene you are writing, use Play from here (toolbar, or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter). It saves your edits and starts playtest at the beginning of the scene your cursor is in — not at the cursor line. The background, CG, sprites and music the scene inherits are restored, and a chip at the top offers Restart from beginning.

6 · Publish to the world#

Publishing is two steps, both from the story page:

Publish the chapter — a chapter must be compiled before it can go live.
Publish the story — with at least one live chapter, the story becomes visible on Explore.

Once it’s live, anyone can play it instantly — no account needed. See Publishing for chapters, scheduled releases and analytics.