Unexpected lessons from building for a very niche audience
One thing I underestimated while building FolkRealm was how specific niche users can be once they actually start using your product.
I originally thought fantasy writers just wanted a place to store notes, but the feedback was way more detailed than expected. Some people cared about timeline consistency, others wanted relationship tracking between characters, and a few mainly used it to organize fictional cultures and languages.
The interesting part is that almost nobody asked for “more AI features,” which I assumed would be the first request. Most users cared more about reducing friction and keeping creative flow uninterrupted.
I also realized niche communities notice fake marketing immediately, so I stopped trying to describe the project in startup language and just shared development progress honestly.
Current stack is mostly React, Supabase, and a lot of late night redesign decisions.
Still learning how to balance simplicity with flexibility without turning the whole thing into another overloaded writing platform.