So much new stuff!
Chris, our developer, has been cooking for weeks and now we have a bunch of new features.
Here's a quick rundown, and we'll go into detail in later emails.
Watch words & students
- See class & student profile pages
- Refer a friend for free weeks
- Save game templates more easily
- Award badges for excellent responses
- Students can unlock avatars
- We've increased student privacy
The final Watch List feature looks a little different to this, but this gives you the idea.
A few months ago, I wrote about how frustrating it was to see great games derailed by Skibidi Ohio Rizz etc, but I said we had resolved not to add meme words to the swear filter.
But then we had some feedback from a teacher: "You don't need to ban the words, but I wish I could see them more easily in Approval Mode."
That's a great idea! So we've made a Watch List feature that highlights selected words and students during a game.
This makes it easier to have a conversation ("'My butt' is not a suitable title, Ash!"—actual convo from the other day), reject the reply, or boot them from the game!
You'll find the Watch List in the Players column when you run a game.
View class & student profile pages
We are working on better ways to display student work.
As a first step, go to My Classes and look in any class where you've played assigned games (ones where students have logged in).
You'll find new profile pages for the class and each student, showcasing popular replies and key stats.
These pages are only visible to class members, but we'll work on other publishing tools in future.
Share Frankenstories & get 2 free weeks of Pro every time!
Lots of you recommend Frankenstories to friends and colleagues, so we wanted to say thanks for spreading the word with a referral system.
Once logged in, go to Refer a Friend in your profile section and you'll find a referral code.
Share it with friends, and if anyone uses it you both get an extra 2 weeks on your FS Pro free trial or paid subscription!
And there's no limit on how many friends you invite—you'll keep getting bonus weeks!
(T&Cs apply, just to prevent anyone abusing the system.)
Simplifying game creation & assignment
Long story short, all games are now saved as reusable templates (even quick-start games).
This makes it easier to create games you can assign to classes, which in turn lets you build class and student profile pages.
We'll be working on other ways to make finding, sharing, and managing your games easier—any requests, let us know!
Award 'Excellent' badges
We've all seen players who were robbed in voting.
Now you can highlight great responses with a teacher-only Excellent badge.
You can give Excellent awards both during and after games!
Unlock avatars
Cute little bonus for students:
If a student gets 100% of possible votes in a round (not all players in the game, just the ones who saw the reply) then they unlock their current avatar and can use it whenever they play.
Improving student privacy
Since most teachers are happy using student first name and last initial, we've restricted all student last names (with some extra characters in case you have two Alex M's and need to distinguish between them).
That's more than enough for this week!
Have fun checking out the new features. Any questions, let me know! 👋
Happy teaching & writing!
Andrew & the Writelike/Frankenstories team