What the research actually says about paper, screens, and shared reading
We built MirthTale on three findings. Here they are, in plain language, with what we do about each one.
✦ Design
Designing Story Packs: fifteen worlds and why they're physical
A pack sets the world and a companion. It never sets the hero. And it is a card you can lose under the sofa, on purpose.
Small children rarely picture a whole world. They give a fox, a problem, and an opinion about the ending, and when MirthTale asks where it happens they need something to choose from. If the AI had to invent a world from nothing every time, every book would feel like it came from nowhere. Story Packs are our answer: a world with a place, a supporting cast, and one companion animal, so that every book in that world feels like it belongs there.
What a pack decides
The world and the places in it. The supporting characters. The picture style and palette. A recommended age range. That is all. A pack never decides the hero, the adventure, or the ending. The child chooses those, and the AI writes and illustrates what they leave open.
Why fifteen
We started with six and asked families what was missing. Vehicles, said the parents of four-year-olds. Dinosaurs, said everyone. Something for winding down, said the parents of children who didn't. We ended up with fifteen: Woodland, Meadow, Night, Mountain, Ocean, Town, Long Ago, Jungle, Snow, Space, Farm, Desert, Castle, Island, and Garden. Each has a companion who turns up when a story needs a friend.
Why physical
We could have made packs a menu on the caregiver page. We didn't, for three reasons. A physical card is something a child can choose, hold, and swap without an adult. It makes the device legible: you can see which world is in it. And packs can be lent between families, which the families in our Berlin pilot are already doing without being asked.
The companion
Every world has one animal who is always around: the fox in Woodland, the whale in Ocean, the mouse in Space. Children can make the companion the hero, a sidekick, or ignore them. In practice, the companion is where a story goes when a child stalls. "Is the owl in it?" is a question almost every child can answer.