Guides · 2 min read
How Moonvale stories are made (and where AI comes in)
Who writes them, how the voice is made, and why we tell you.
We get asked how the stories are made, and whether the voice is real. Here is the plain answer.
The writing
Each story starts as a script written by our small team. A script is a branching conversation: what he says, the moments he asks you something, the answers you can give, and what each answer leads to. We write for the ear, which means short sentences, room for pauses, and stage directions like "softly" or "dry, low" that tell the voice how to read a line.
Every script is checked automatically for broken branches (an answer that leads nowhere, an ending you cannot reach) and read through for tone. Our rule is simple: romantic and warm, sometimes flirtatious, never explicit.
The voice
The voices are made with AI text-to-speech, not recorded by an actor. We pick a voice for each character and direct it line by line with those stage directions, then listen back and rewrite or regenerate lines that do not sound right. Some stories are narrated in several languages the same way.
We chose AI voices because they let a very small team make many stories, in several languages, at a price that keeps the opening of every story free. The trade-off is real: an AI voice is not a performer, and some listeners will prefer human voice actors. We think you should know which one you are hearing, so we say so here, in our store listings and in our help pages.
The sound
Under the voice there is a quiet ambience bed for each scene (rain on a train window, a hotel corridor, a fire) and a few sound effects: a door, a kettle, a train braking. They are kept low on purpose, so they set the place without getting in the way.
What we do not do
- No explicit content, and no one under 18.
- No chatbot. The stories are written in advance; nothing is generated live while you listen, and nothing you answer is used to train anything.
- No voice cloning of real people.
Questions about any of this are welcome. The help page covers the rest, and you can hear the result for free in Last Train.