Microgrant Program

microgrant banner - click it to learn more and apply

In 2022, we ran a $30,000 microgrant program to help designers make games on Story Synth. The grant program was run by Big Bad Con and funded by Grant for the Web. Check out the grantees' games in the Microgrant Gallery. Learn more on Big Bad Con's site.

Program Details

The microgrants were for designers from marginalized backgrounds to create new games on Story Synth that take advantage of web monetization.

The microgrants came with the following:

  • $300 to each grant recipient (up to 100 recipients) to create a game in a 6 month window
  • Administrative support from the Big Bad Con grants administrators
  • Story Synth technical and design support from Randy Lubin
  • Designers retain full ownership / rights to their games

The microgrant program was run by the wonderful folks at Big Bad Con. Learn more about the application process on Big Bad Con's site.

More About Web Monetization

The funds for this program are provided by Grant for the Web, a non-profit seeking to boost open, fair, and inclusive standards and innovation in web monetization; enabling new ways for content creators to earn incomes online.

The Web Monetization standard allows sites to know if a site visitor is sending a stream of micropayments and, if so, the site can then enable content or functionality for that user. An early example of this is Coil, a browser extension where a user can subscribe for $5.00 per month and that money is shared among the sites that the user visits, based on time spent.

In addition to the $300 grant award, recipients will also receive micropayments from players playing the game. They might start as just pennies here and there, but as more people play they will begin to add up.

Story Synth currently has a basic implementation of web monetization via the monetization custom option. Over the next few months, we'll be adding new monetization related functionality to Story Synth, including the ability to restrict some or all of your game to groups of players using web monetization. Stay tuned for more details!