Hi Product Hunt! 👋 I'm Johnson. I've spent two years writing a historical novel set on the Silk Road (970 CE, a merchant caravan going from Khotan to Bianliang) — and for most of those two years, my protagonist quietly refused to do what my outline said. The breakthrough wasn't a better outline. It was talking to him instead of about him. I set up an AI to BE the character — with his own agenda, allowed to push back, keep secrets, even lie to me — and interrogated him like a hostile witness. One hour of that did more than six months of outline surgery. (I shared one of these transcripts on Reddit last week and writers' response convinced me to launch this properly.) That's Khotan Studios: 🎭 Describe your character → get a person in the room, not an assistant 🧠 Narrative Memory Engine — characters remember across sessions & drafts 🚫 No hedging, no "as an AI", no helpful mode. The friction is the feature 🔒 Your characters are your IP. We never train on your work ✍️ Works for novels, screenplays, games, brand personas Named after Khotan (于闐), the Buddhist oasis kingdom where my novel begins — a place where every caravan had to decide what it truly carried. Free tier is live, no credit card. I'll be here all day — ask me anything, or better: tell me the question you'd ask YOUR protagonist.

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15d ago

1 day to launch: what question would you ask YOUR protagonist?

Hi! Johnson here solo maker of Khotan Studios, launching July 26.

The origin story: two years into writing a historical novel, I knew everything my protagonist DID and nothing about WHY. Outlines didn't help. So I built a tool that plays your character as a person in the room one who pushes back, keeps secrets, and refuses to be a helpful assistant and pressed him until he told me what he'd been hiding. One hour rewrote 300 pages.

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Khotan Studios

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Meet the one you haven't written yet

Forum Threads

1 day to launch: what question would you ask YOUR protagonist?

Forum Threads

1 day to launch: what question would you ask YOUR protagonist?