Fallen London was always a research project. We wanted to learn the best ways to build interactive stories on the web - stories that broke away from the usual constraints of games, and weren't ashamed to be text-heavy and provoking. We wanted to build a platform to do that... and to allow other creative folk to do the same.

That platform is nearly ready. We're going to start with some games we've put together in-house - projects we're itching to release, with some of that very Failbetter feel - and then open it to other interested parties.

You can register for the beta at http://signup.storynexus.com.

What about Fallen London?

It's not going anywhere. We have a roadmap for tying up all the major plotlines and introducing an endgame. This will slip from October 2012, but it'll still happen this year. Furthermore, FL will share a platform and a single sign-on with StoryNexus games. So the work we do on StoryNexus will feed back into FL.

What about Varytale?

Varytale is a similar project we talked about last year. It was a joint venture with an extremely talented technical partner who, wretchedly, has become seriously ill over the past few months - so it's hard to know when it might launch. But Varytale is different enough from StoryNexus that there's room for both. StoryNexus is more game-y; Varytale is more book-y. StoryNexus is easier to use; Varytale is more customisable. We're concentrating on StoryNexus for now.

EDIT: All this said, we've heard from our tech partner and Varytale may also be going live in demo form quite soon. Stay tuned.

When does this happen?

We're thinking June. Sign up and we'll keep you posted.