Sherman

Let's play with replacement grammars by wrapping Tracery.js in ClojureScript

Goals

Autodidactic goals:

• Learn about JavaScript interop
• Learn about self-hosted ClojureScript
• Try shadow-cljs as a build tool
• Experiment with using clojure.spec in code that is mainly or wholly test-driven

Library goals:

• Validate grammar rules
• Integrate interesting sources for words (specifically dariusk/corpora)
• Create procedurally generated content for game jams and bots and such...
• ...accessible through command-line and http interfaces

Prerequisites

• Node.js
• npm
• shadow-cljs (npm install shadow-cljs --global)

Usage

Who couldn't* use Castamir the Usurper's mantle of ubiquitous second chances, or an orcish sweater of courage? Wouldn't Túrin's regretful cantrip help you during your day? Don't you sometimes feel like raising your arms to the sky and shouting, By the forehead of Chaos!?

As a web service

First build the code with shadow-cljs compile app. Then run node dist/sherman-server.js This will start a server at localhost:3000. You can query it with

• curl localhost:3000/magic/spell for a magic spell name
• curl localhost:3000/magic/item for a magic item name
• curl localhost:3000/oath to get an exclamation

Or, visit these urls in your browser for the same effect.

As a command line script

tk

Testing

My strategy is to run shadow-cljs watch compile test to keep an up-to-date test file generated, then in a separate process run chokidar (npm install chokidar-cli --global) to watch for changes in that file with chokidar out/node-tests.js -c 'node out/node-tests.js'.

TODO

• add grammars
• continue complexifying current grammar(s)
• consider more complex REST service; maybe it starts with a base grammar and users can add symbols and expanders to it?

Grammar Ideas

What sorts of flavor text could be useful to generate for games?

• Spell and Item names
• Power-up names
• Character biographies
• Organization names and motivations
• Oaths ("By the gleaming elbows of Hera!")
• Insults
• Recipes
• Dialogue
• Journal entries

Thanks To

• GalaxyKate, for creating Tracery (http://tracery.io) and for her "Generative Art and Procedural Content starter kit":
  • a 30 minute talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WumyfLEa6bU
  • an in-depth post: http://galaxykate0.tumblr.com/post/139774965871/so-you-want-to-build-a-generator
  • a friendly zine: http://www.galaxykate.com/pdfs/galaxykate-zine-encyclopedia.pdf
• Emily Short, for her many contributions to the field of interactive fiction. She blogs extensively on interactive fiction and conversation modeling, and I really enjoyed this talk on procedural text generation and collaborating with the machine to, in this case, create a travel guide.
• George Buckenham, for packaging Tracery for Node.js: https://github.com/v21/tracery

Why 'sherman'?

After photographer Cindy Sherman. The idea of making numerous grammars in different genres and purposes made me think of her make-up and costuming in her many self-portraits.