Dendrite logo Dendrite

About

Dendrite is an online, choose-your-own-adventure book that you can both read, and write. This allows you, the reader and author, to participate in the story however you see fit. The stories branch through various pathways, with endless potential to read, write, re-write, edit, and change the story to make it truly your own. Find your way through other authors' stories, and pick up where they left off, creating your own thrilling plot lines to pique your interest.

Dendrites, from the Greek δένδρον (meaning tree), are spindly tentacles which connect the nucleus of one brain cell to another, very similar to the way that links on Dendrite connect the pages of each story. The dendrites form a significant part in growth and learning in the brain, and slowly extend to connect to other brain cells, forming new thoughts and memories in the process.

You, the reader and author, can take on a role as a part of the adventure—you can be a spy, a princess, a pirate, a rockstar, a ninja, a space cowboy, an explorer, a chef, a supermodel, a scientist, or write the story and watch it unfold for any and all of these characters.

Dendrite is a creation of Matt Heard.

Discuss Dendrite with us at:

Contributors

Developer

Matt Heard: software developer behind Dendrite. He began working on Dendrite in 2013. Matt's primary motivation for Dendrite is to build a creative environment which gets better when more people create stories, as he wants to explore how network effects and organic user contributions can combine to bloom new communities.

Matt has optimised Dendrite to run well on multiple platforms and browsers, as he considers that accessibility is pivotal to obtaining collaboration from a wide variety of users.

Matt leads the team responsible for the mobile app and website at Outfittery in Berlin.

Matt writes a blog at MattHeard.net.

Major contributors

Leah Hudson: assisted with the general creative direction of Dendrite, and provided significant amounts of feedback when testing early releases of Dendrite. She also wrote the About and Contributors pages, and drafted the Terms and Privacy pages. Leah is a writer and editor.

Ryan Hamilton: provided creative direction and web design assistance, as well as logo design and feedback from testing early releases of Dendrite. Ryan is a service designer for the Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand.

Beta testing and bug reporting