Scriptyard is a spatial story-planning tool built for screenwriters and storytellers. Map characters, locations, scenes and structure on an infinite canvas, then export to Markdown, Fountain, or Final Draft.
Hi everyone,
I’m Chris, an Emmy-nominated VFX Supervisor, and I’ve spent more than 20 years working in film and television.
Over that time I’ve seen countless writers and filmmakers develop stories using walls covered in index cards. It’s a wonderfully simple way to think about structure, but it’s not always practical once you’re working remotely or collaborating with other people.
I built Scriptyard because I wanted that same experience in a browser.
It’s a virtual notecard workspace for developing stories visually. You can organise scenes, move ideas around, explore different structures and keep track of the bigger picture without fighting a complicated interface.
I also wanted it to be free.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of years is that many writers are understandably wary of new writing tools because they’re concerned about AI and what happens to their work. Scriptyard isn’t an AI writing assistant, and it doesn’t use your writing to train AI models. It’s simply a place to develop your ideas. All files live locally, no login, no cloud.
This is an independent project that I’ve been building alongside my day job, and I’d really appreciate honest feedback from writers. If something feels awkward, if something is missing, or if there’s a feature you’ve always wished these kinds of tools had, I’d love to hear it.
After more than 20 years working in film production, I finally decided to build the story development tool I always wished existed. I hope some of you find it useful. Thanks!
@chris_smallfield that makes sense, avoiding data collection is a real tradeoff worth keeping even if it means shared work is more manual for now. a lightweight drive integration where you just point it at a folder would probably cover most of the writers-room use case without you having to host anything yourself.
The Fountain and Final Draft export is the smart part here — most visual planning tools quietly trap your work inside their own canvas. When you export, does the spatial structure you've laid out (scene order, act breaks) carry through into the linear script, or does it flatten to a plain doc and leave you re-sequencing by hand?
the visual index card approach is how a lot of writers already work on a physical corkboard, so digitizing that directly instead of forcing everyone into a linear document is a smart call. is it built for solo writers only right now, or can multiple people work the same board together like a shared writers room?
The infinite-canvas-to-Fountain/Final Draft export is what would actually pull me in — most story-planning tools trap the structure in their own format and re-typing it into a script kills the whole point. When you export to Fountain, does the scene and character layout on the canvas carry through as scene headings and structure, or does it flatten into a plain ordered list? And if I keep moving things around on the canvas after exporting, is there any re-sync or is export strictly one-directional?
finally a spatial tool that gets how my brain works during outlining — the infinite canvas for threading scenes and character arcs feels like it was made by someone who has actually wrestled with outlining before. exporting to fountain and final draft is the cherry on top.
There is something about a wall of index cards that no outline ever quite replaces, so seeing that feeling recreated digitally really appeals to me. Knowing the whole story stays on my own device makes it even easier to trust.
Congratulations on the launch! I read through the site but couldn't tell - when you rearrange cards on the canvas, does that order carry into the Fountain/Final Draft export, or does export just pull the text and leave sequencing to you?
The infinite canvas idea sounds great for visualizing structure. One thing that would really help my workflow is a beat board view that auto-syncs with the canvas, so I can drag scenes around spatially but also see them in a linear outline that stays current. Right now I'd worry about losing the script's logical flow when everything lives on a canvas. A toggle between spatial and outline modes, with the outline updating in real time, would make this feel complete for actual drafting days.
Who doesnt love an index-card-on-a-wall tool for the browser. You can move scenes and ideas around visually, see the whole story at once, and then export to Markdown, Fountain, or Final Draft when you’re ready to write.
I applaud that it’s free, with no login, and nothing saved on their servers. It feels simple on purpose, like a visual development board. That’s actually what I would want from something like this :)
the infinite canvas approach is honestly such a smart call for outlining scripts visually, beats cramming everything into folders or cards. also love that it exports to fountain without making you jump through hoops
Pinned my characters and locations to a canvas and the export to Fountain actually kept my scene structure intact. Wish I'd had this during my last rewrite.
the index card wall replacement is such an obvious need once you say it out loud. does the export to Fountain/Final Draft preserve the spatial layout at all, or is it just a linear scene order once it leaves the canvas?
This used to be our Design Whiteboarding assignment - A platform for writers to draft stories. I dig the no login vibe but generally writing is collaboration, feedback and approvals. Have a strong encryption and have optional login.
Really respect the "no login, no cloud, doesn't train on your writing" stance — that's clearly a direct response to what writers are actually worried about right now, not just a feature checkbox. The index-card-wall analogy makes total sense as the thing to digitize. Does it support any kind of collaborative/multiplayer editing yet, or is it intentionally solo-first for now?
About Scriptyard on Product Hunt
“A free visual story development workspace”
Scriptyard launched on Product Hunt on July 20th, 2026 and earned 154 upvotes and 35 comments, placing #10 on the daily leaderboard. Scriptyard is a spatial story-planning tool built for screenwriters and storytellers. Map characters, locations, scenes and structure on an infinite canvas, then export to Markdown, Fountain, or Final Draft.
Scriptyard was featured in Web App (122.9k followers), Writing (59.3k followers), Movies (15.1k followers) and YouTube (16.9k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 55.1k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Scriptyard?
Scriptyard was hunted by Chris Smallfield. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
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Chris Smallfield