Developer Commentary 5: What is Collected? What do you mean by "it's OURS"? Season 2 updates

Machine transcription; unreviewed and may contain errors.

Developer Commentary 5: What is Collected? What do you mean by "it's OURS"? Season 2 updates
Source: collected/009-developer-commentary-5-what-is-collected-what-do-you-mean-by-it-s-ours-season-2-updates.mp3
SHA-256: a80ac65c85528d98a583d5ac2d39e0d45ffc3041b6dcc4f6cfde2d9868dbbad3
Model: scribe_v2 | Transcribed: 2026-10-10T18:10:18.973299+00:00
Machine transcript — uncorrected. Speaker labels are local to this recording and do not identify people.

[00:00:00.080] Speaker 1: [upbeat music] Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Collected Developer Commentary. So this is the show where I talk about the show and where it's all going. So this is part one of a master plan series that explains exactly how we're gonna do things a little bit differently here, uh, than most of the other podcasts you probably listen to. But I'm gonna go ahead and give you the punchline right now. It's not about me. It's about

[00:00:35.020] Speaker 1: all of us. So who, who is us? So we are the storytellers and the lovers of story who support them. That's who we are. So if you don't care about the creators or their wellbeing, unfortunately this is not the place for you. Now, support isn't always financial, but if you're not interested in getting involved somehow, then you're gonna get less and less out of Collected. You're just not gonna enjoy it because we're building it for our people, and our people are the creators of great story

[00:01:10.400] Speaker 1: and the lovers of story who support them. That's us. Now, Collected is just the name of the brand. Uh, it's a creator-first brand and the beginning of a user-created, user-owned multiverse. It's not mine. It belongs to all of us, but we'll get into that. My name is Steven Schrembeck. I'm a writer and programmer. I see my role here really as a facilitator and pace car. Basically, I'm gonna set the vision. I'm gonna get it all started, but then I'm gonna take a step back and start supporting you all so you

[00:01:45.420] Speaker 1: can take it over. Now, I am personally committed to writing and producing a 12-story block. So here's what's gonna happen. Each story follows the events of a different inner world. Mortal Steel is just the first of these stories. Uh, it has 12 episodes, and it's part of the 12-story block called the Revealer Block. If you wanna know why, you'll just have to keep listening to find out. But that's just the surface level. Let's dig into what exactly I mean when I say Collected is not mine, it's

[00:02:20.180] Speaker 1: ours. So I have three important points to go over here. One, our shared multiverse is called the Eternium. It's shared because once we're ready, Collected is going to start taking community submissions. That means any story which meets some very basic qualifications for what is a Collected story is going to become canon in our multiverse. Now, obviously, it's gonna take some time to build out a pipeline where we can start accepting submissions, actually doing something with them and turning them into stories and getting people to produce them, so for a while,

[00:02:55.380] Speaker 1: just expect to see mostly my work. But the goal is, eventually, my work is just gonna be a tiny portion of all the great stories that you have available here. So as a listener, that's obviously good for you. There's gonna be more great stuff coming. But if you're a creator or aspiring creator, so specifically a writer, voice actor, musician, or visual artist, you're gonna wanna pay extra close attention because we've got some really cool opportunities coming up. But honestly, this is about more than just the creators because not everyone wants to make stories, and that's okay. I'd wager that only a small portion of the community will ever really be

[00:03:30.400] Speaker 1: interested in learning the skills to tell stories. No problem. So that brings me to my second point. Number two, we're using an open, shared IP model. That means any member can create their own content, sell their own merchandise, and even spin off their own podcast and make money from any Collected story IP. Whether that's one of my 12 worlds or somebody else's, it doesn't matter. Now, if you're a creator, your brain is probably melting. What do you mean other

[00:04:05.240] Speaker 1: people can make money off my story worlds? I'm not gonna get into the details today, technical implementation or otherwise, but the gist is that as long as the sellers and creators play by a few simple rules, a small portion of the revenue is gonna come back to the entire community, including the authors that created the stories. But the gist is anyone can sell stuff, and we all get a little bit of money from it. So if you want to sell Mortal Steel stickers or a T-shirt or a fan-made sequel, you don't have to ask me. There's gonna be a very simple self-service and mostly automated way of going about this.

[00:04:40.360] Speaker 1: But I'm also aware that a lot of people aren't gonna wanna do that either, which brings me to the third point. Anybody who contributes to Collected is a part owner. This is gonna take a little explanation. Just imagine that if every time you commented or posted or did a like on Facebook, you got a tiny share of the business itself, and anytime Facebook made money, you got a cut of that money relative to how many of those tiny shares you owned. That's what I'm building for you. It's not lip

[00:05:15.240] Speaker 1: service when I say that it is ours. Collected is actually going to be yours in the financial sense as much as it is mine. This is obviously a very lofty vision, and it's gonna take some time to build out, but that's the goal. So anytime Collected makes money, as long as you hold something that gives you a share, you're gonna make a little bit of money too. So you might be asking, "Who gets these shares?" Uh, the short answer is anybody who contributes value. Obviously, there's a lot of details here. Besides producing things to consume, like stories or merchandise, whether that's

[00:05:50.060] Speaker 1: digital or physical, you can do things like start discussions, host events, or just share stories. Really, anything that benefits all of us, you're going to get rewarded for, and that's going to earn you a piece of the total pie. I'm gonna get more into the mechanisms behind this actually works and how it's possible in the next Master Plan episode. But just know that that's what's coming. Obviously, this is a pretty new way to run an organization, but it's actually gaining in popularity. We're not the first, and it really represents part of a larger shift.

[00:06:25.216] Speaker 1: People are kind of tired of top-down organizations that really only reward the people at the top, more or less at the expense of everyone else, or at the very least, they don't get nearly as much out of it. Collected is actually just a small part of this bigger cultural movement happening right now. It is a shift in power to creators, which is being enabled by technology. And it's also a shift to the people who support those creators. It's cutting out a lot of middlemen. But it's doing more than cutting out middlemen. It's also making the supporters part owners in the entire project. I'll

[00:07:00.176] Speaker 1: also talk a little bit more about the creator economy in some of the, uh, later Master Plan episodes. I hope you found that useful. Yeah, let me level with you. I can get this started, but I can't do it on my own. I'll be announcing some opportunities to get involved later, but only to the people who are on the email list. So if you wanna get involved on the first projects, make sure you're on it. Sign up is at collectedaudio.com. And remember, this is a shared project, and the way these projects usually go, even though it's early days, the people who get in

[00:07:35.016] Speaker 1: early are the people who get rewarded the most. And that's as it should be because those are the people taking the biggest risks with their time, effort, and money. While I can't promise financial returns, and this isn't financial advice, if you believe in this model and in this bigger cultural shift and you kinda buy into this vision, you will be rewarded. And the more you do and the more you contribute, and the earlier you contribute especially, the more you will be rewarded. So I'm gonna leave you with one question to chew on before the

[00:08:09.836] Speaker 1: next Master Plan episode in, I don't know, maybe a month or so. Should I bet on this? Do you want to see more of this kind of thing in the world? Think about it. This space is moving insanely fast, like crazy fast, uh, and we're not gonna slow down. So I'm only bringing in the people who really know that they wanna get in early. If that's you, cool, sign up. I'd love to have your help. All right, let's wrap this up with a little bit of housekeeping. So Mortal Steel is going to wrap at twelve episodes. We're gonna do a short break,

[00:08:45.096] Speaker 1: which I'm going to fill with a couple surprises. Uh, and then season two starts. Production on season two is picking up. The major characters and the plot are done, but the story's still being written. I'll be putting out casting calls for voice actors soon, and work on the cover art and music will begin as well. So as far as the sound design goes, I'm gonna tease you with this. I am planning something rather ambitious. I think it's something you've never heard before. Uh, and I [laughs] I might regret the workload, to be honest with you. But we'll see. We'll see. If you wanna

[00:09:20.056] Speaker 1: hear a teaser of that, as always, be on the email list. Collected is less and less and less for the passive listener and more and more and more for the engaged community member. That's just how I think it should be. There are thousands of great podcasts and audiobooks for you to listen to. If you just wanna be a passive listener, please go consume those. They absolutely need your support. And finally, special thanks to the alpha readers who made season two better already. I really, really appreciate your work. And I appreciate you, traveler, for listening to our show.

[00:09:55.416] Speaker 1: And I can't wait to bring you more. See ya.