|
Post by russm on Sept 20, 2014 18:19:47 GMT -5
I've seen various story/scene generators over the years so have decided to do one for Scooby Doo. THe idea is that it will generate the outline of a story, a bit like a story challenge.
So I'm looking for help in picking up all the themes in the stories for example
Why are they there? They just happen to be there when they mystery kicks off. They are just travelling through They get lost They break down They have been invited by a friend for a social event They have been invited by a friend who needs help They have been invited by a family member for a social event They have been invited by a family member who needs help They are on holiday They have been hired to solve the mystery
Does Velma loose her glasses?
What is the underlying crime Plain old robbery (e.g. a bank) Art theft To cover up some other crime (e.g. rigging a contest) To scare people away so something can be brought cheaply (e.g. land) To defraud a relative out of an inheritance
Where does it take place?
Who is the person behind it all?
What is the mystery?
And so on. The plan is to put this into a java program which will generate a scenario based on these variables and some constraints.
So if anyone can think of the common factors and themes in the show I'd appreciate the input. As a reward I'll post the code here so those of you inclined can take an use it.
|
|
|
Post by Matt_the_miner_49er on Sept 20, 2014 19:18:23 GMT -5
Is a member captured/used for the villain's purpose?
|
|
|
Post by ahkyahnan on Sept 23, 2014 11:35:53 GMT -5
Are you wanting us to help fill in extra lines under the Bold headers, and add new Bold header categories as well?
Sounds interesting but I'm not familiar with sort of thing and was curious.
Mark
|
|
|
Post by russm on Sept 23, 2014 15:49:45 GMT -5
Are you wanting us to help fill in extra lines under the Bold headers, and add new Bold header categories as well? Sounds interesting but I'm not familiar with sort of thing and was curious. Mark Good question. It was a bit of a brain dump which explains the non-finished lists. Essentially what I'm looking to do is to write some code which will produce the outline of a story (the gang are going to visit a fried for a social event when a creature appears and scares people. The purpose of the creature is to cover up a crime taking place. Velma looses her glasses. The people behind it are local criminals etc.) - poor example but it is to serve as a starting point for a story, not the be all and end all of a story. What I'm noting down are the common themes of the show, lumping them into common groups then randomly picking them (there may be some conditional logic to constrain how things go but we'll see how it goes). Any ideas are welcome, it will take a while as I'm using the project to learn Java.
|
|
|
Post by russm on Sept 24, 2014 17:34:09 GMT -5
So the output will look something like this, the stuff in <> is what the program will generate. (taken from the code with the code removed)
Scooby Story Outline The story starts with the gang <doing something> All is going well until <insert mysterious event here> The mysterious events are based on <local legend, myth or new stuff> During the investigation Velma <may or may not loose her glasses one way or another and if she does is this a problem> Fred <may or may not build a trap and if he does, does it work> The number of crooks The crooks behind the mystery are <crime gang, jealous relative, misguided person etc.> They are doing what they are doing because <what are they trying to cover up>
|
|
|
Post by russm on Sept 27, 2014 16:39:17 GMT -5
Work in progress
Scooby Story Outline The story starts with the gang All is going well until null The mysterious events are based on null During the investigation Velma looses her glasses and they are found by someone else. While looking for her glasses she ends up getting caught in a trap of some kind (Fred's if he has made one). Fred decides not to build a trap, another of the gang may build one, but not Fred. There is only 1 crook involved The crooks behind the mystery are a national crime gang. They will have poor local knowledge and connections but good resources and national connections. They will not be known to local law enforcement but may have the FBI or similar on their tail. They are doing what they are doing because null
|
|
|
Post by CaptainBuck on Sept 27, 2014 16:50:27 GMT -5
Hey Russem, looks good. I've had lots of Ups and Downs the last couple of months, the Downs keeping me away.
What's Hot and Not around here if you could give me an idea where to look?
I was going to add that looking at Matthew Lillard's IMDB page to see if other rumors were true (WB trying to reboot Gilligan's Island potentially tapping him for Gilligan, go figure), I noticed he was listed for Freak Out, but it seems that's not news.
I'm confounded that WWE says they will do a second crossover with Scooby, weird, was thinking WWE with Scoob and then Flintstones was enough, even though i'm a Wrestling guy.
|
|
|
Post by russm on Oct 4, 2014 15:59:06 GMT -5
Hey Russem, looks good. I've had lots of Ups and Downs the last couple of months, the Downs keeping me away. What's Hot and Not around here if you could give me an idea where to look? I was going to add that looking at Matthew Lillard's IMDB page to see if other rumors were true (WB trying to reboot Gilligan's Island potentially tapping him for Gilligan, go figure), I noticed he was listed for Freak Out, but it seems that's not news. I'm confounded that WWE says they will do a second crossover with Scooby, weird, was thinking WWE with Scoob and then Flintstones was enough, even though i'm a Wrestling guy. Yeah, Real Life has been hectic at my end as well, haven't been able to do much writing recently as my brain has been squashed flat by work. What's hot, well Velma is hot... oh not that kind of hot. Well there's been some discussions about new forums, some discussion about the new series and reviews of SD:MI as they have been shown in Greece. As for WWE it must mean the money men were happy with the first, if they back-pedalled the 'push WWE stuff' then it could be good.
|
|
|
Post by russm on Oct 4, 2014 16:15:39 GMT -5
Well my basic program has been finished, here is the output of a couple of runs. If anyone wants the code just ask.
Scooby Story Outline The story starts with the gang being asked to investigate a mysterious happening by a friend. All is going well until they are warned of the event by a stranger who vanishes or a suspicious looking local. The mysterious events are based on a family curse coming true. During the mystery Velma looses her glasses and they are found by someone else. While looking for her glasses she ends up getting captured by the crooks but is able to escape. Fred decides to build a trap. The trap fails to catch the crooks. There are 3 crooks involved The crooks behind the mystery is someone who who feels they have been wronged or overlooked. They are a 'good person doing bad' to avenge some real or imagined slight against them or their family.They may break the law but what happens will depend on exacly what they do and the reaction of others.
Scooby Story Outline The story starts with the gang invited to visit one of their friends. All is going well until they are warned of the event by a stranger who vanishes or a suspicious looking local. The mysterious events are based on a threat or curse from a mysterious stranger or persons unknown (e.g. via a note). During the mystery Velma looses her glasses but is handed her spare pair. Fred decides not to build a trap, someone else may build one, but not Fred. There are 3 crooks involved The crooks behind the mystery is an envious neighbour. They will have excellent local knowledge and connections. They will not be known to local law enforcement.They may or may not be trusted by the victim and will try to lead the gang on a wild goose chase. They are doing what they are doing because they want someone to give up or give away their inheritance.
Scooby Story Outline The story starts with the gang being asked to investigate a mysterious happening by a friend. All is going well until they experience they mysterious event first-hand. The mysterious events are based on a set of unexplained sightings or events e.g. sounds, lights in the sky, sea changing colour. During the mystery Velma looses her glasses and they are found by someone else. While looking for her glasses she ends up getting caught in a trap of some kind (Fred's if he has made one). Fred decides to build a trap. The trap doesn't work as planned but still managed to catch the crooks thought this is more by luck than judgement. There are 2 crooks involved The crooks behind the mystery are opportunistic villains. They have spotted an opportunity and have taken it with little forward planning. This may make them easy to catch or very dangerous when thing start to go wrong They are doing what they are doing because they want someone to give up or give away their inheritance.
The next steps are to tidy up the text handling and put some flesh on the people (names, gender, hair, clothing, character traits, relationships) and expand on the options already there. The latter will be done by querying some database tables to get all the variable text out of the programme.
|
|
|
Post by CaptainBuck on Oct 12, 2014 22:37:07 GMT -5
LOL, is it in C, C++, Java, Perl?
|
|
|
Post by russm on Oct 13, 2014 2:46:44 GMT -5
Java.
|
|
|
Post by Doo on Oct 13, 2014 16:14:18 GMT -5
Sounds like an interesting idea!
|
|
|
Post by groovyscooby on Oct 14, 2014 12:46:42 GMT -5
True!!!!! Now only if i knew how to code..... As it is I'm tired of looking at mountains for an computer art project!
|
|
|
Post by russm on Oct 25, 2014 16:36:35 GMT -5
I've just about finished adding the code to generate where they mystery will take place (decided by shed-loads of random number generation and IF statements, if anyone knows of a better way then let me know), the main areas so far are School College/university Shoreline/seaside Woods Forest Holiday Resort Residential area Commercial area Industrial area Transport Movie set Themed event/park
Each of which have a number of sub-locations to provide some focus/constraints so the college/university has science department, art department, humanities department, engineering department, administrative building, library, utilities and support buildings, student centre, sports hall/gym, external sports facilities, dormitories, science/business park, postgraduate/research areas, grounds and meeting hall.
So you get a line like: The main location for the mystery is Movie set with the bulk of the action taking place in romance/rom-com film
All of which got me thinking that the location can help define why the crooks are doing what they are going so I'll add some conditional rules to potentially modify the purpose of the crooks
I'm next going to add a character generation bit to flesh out the people involved (both the goodies and the baddies) so that will be names, physical attributes, character attributes and clothing/general appearance.
|
|
|
Post by russm on Oct 25, 2014 16:38:38 GMT -5
True!!!!! Now only if i knew how to code..... As it is I'm tired of looking at mountains for an computer art project! It is easier to learn if you have a project you want to code, if you try to learn a language for the sake of learning it you'll get bored, forget it and end up surfing the web for pictures of Scooby Snacks (or Velma in my case).
|
|