Public stories are published as templates. Other players can start from your setup, but they get their own private copy to play.
What makes a story public
- Public stories must be Visual Stories.
- Public stories are saved as templates, so other players begin from a clean copy of your setup.
- A public story can appear in discovery and playlists.
- Mana checks the setup before publishing and assigns a safety rating.
Public-only fields
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Publish to Playlists | Select at least 1 playlist that allows submissions. You can add the story to up to 8 playlists. |
| Gameplay Mode Restriction | Choose All Modes if players can use Standard or Realism, or Realism Only if the template should stay grounded. |
| Thumbnail | Choose how the public story card looks: Default (first background and character), Use Assets (build up to 6 thumbnail slots from selected characters and backgrounds), or Upload Custom (your own 2:3 portrait image). |
Thumbnail
With Use Assets, choose a thumbnail slot, then add a background and character from the story's selected assets. You can also pick character expressions and available image variations. With Upload Custom, upload a single JPG, PNG, WEBP, or AVIF image (2:3 portrait, at least 800×1200px, max 5MB) — drag and drop works too. The upload window can also download reference images of your selected characters and copy a ready-made Template Instruction, so you can paste both into an AI image tool (like ChatGPT) and generate a thumbnail that matches your cast. After uploading, the Animate button can turn your image into a short looping video (Grok Imagine 1.5 or Seedance 2 Mini, priced in coins), or use Upload Video to bring your own MP4 (up to 10 seconds, under 10MB, portrait between 2:3 and 3:4). Either way the video plays on your story card as a seamless back-and-forth loop, always muted.
Character voices
Before saving a template, every selected character needs a voice. This helps the public template work consistently for players who start from it.
Safety ratings
When you publish, Mana reviews the story setup and assigns one of these safety flags. The public label is what users see after publishing.
| AI safety flag | Public label | What it generally means |
|---|---|---|
| sfw | safe | Story-focused content without overt sexual suggestiveness or heavy adult themes. |
| ecchi | suggestive | Light fanservice or suggestive themes that are not explicit. |
| hentai | explicit 18+ | Mature or explicit adult content. Visibility depends on each viewer's content settings. |
A blocked submission is not published as one of these three ratings.
After publishing
When publishing succeeds, Mana shows Story Published and the assigned safety rating. You can choose Play Now to start your own private copy, or My Stories to return to your library.