Those Who Came Before

What is TWCB About?

A narrative game about understanding vanished cultures by interpreting procedurally generated artefacts.

What is TWCB Really About?

It's about how we talk about other people, and the self-imposed limits we create through our assumptions.

Inspiration

• Mali & its amazing history
• All the knowledge lost when Mayan books were burned
• The Bronze Age Collapse
• The Basque language's lost relatives

Development

What's the Latest Feature?

A basic artefact generator & web UI. It currently generates lists of 5 unique artefacts, each comprising a type of object (axe, urn, etc) and a material it's made from (wood, bone, etc).

Progress Chart

#	Theme	Current Status	Next Feature	Branch	Waiting On
1	Interface	Basic generator	-	main	#2
2	Artefact Generation	item-material pairs	item traits	main	#4, #5
3	Devlog	README.md	generated site	main	-
4	Artefact Generation	-	Dynamic blueprints via JavaScript	itemAnatomy	-
5	Artefact Generation	-	Dynamic blueprints via RiTa	itemGrammar	-

Which Branches are Being Worked On?

Right now I'm knee deep in the itemAnatomy & itemGrammar branches

What's the Current Focus?

I'm working on a template object for artefacts that will allow dynamic generation of artefacts with variable (but reasonable) constructions. Say the game generates a sword. It...

• Has to have a blade, or it isn't a sword
• Has to have a handle
• Doesn't have to have a crossguard, but if it does then...
  • it has to be between the handle and the blade
• Doesn't have to have a pommel, but it it does then...
  • it has to be at the end of the handle
• Probably doesn't have a belt loop on it, but if it does, then...
  • it could be attached to pommel.
    • which it might not have.
  • it could be threaded through a hole drilled through the handle
    • but only if there isn't a pommel
      • but there shouldn't be a hole there is there isn't a belt loop

You can see the ~~convoluted bullshit~~ depth of thought involved by expanding this section.

Artefact Generation Flowchart

graph TD
type["`**Type**
	What is this object?
	*Sword*
	*Vase*
	*Brooch*
`"]

type ---> chance
type ---> loc1
type ---> loc2
type ---> orientation
type ---> position

chance["`**Likelihood**
	% chance part exists
`"]

chance -.-> part1
chance -.-> part2

position["`**Position**
	Position when in use
	*Held*
	*Free*
	*Worn*
`"]

orientation["`**Orientation**
	Directionality of object
	*Near -> Far*
	*Bottom -> Top*
	*Back -> Front*
`"]

position & orientation ---> loc1 & loc2

loc1["`**Slot**
	Potential part
	*Grip*
	*Base*
	*Pin*
`"]
loc2["`**Slot**
	Potential part
	*Blade*
	*Mouth*
	*Frontpiece*
`"]

loc1 -..-> part1
loc2 -..-> part2

part1["`**Part**
	If generated
`"]


part2["`**Part**
	If generated
`"]

part1 ---> material1
part2 ---> material2

material1["`**Material**
	What it's made from
	*Bone*
	*Clay*
	*Tin*
`"]
material2["`**Material**
	What it's made from
	*Obsidian*
	*Clay*
	*Jade*
`"]

The system also needs to scale to further complexity well, because after item generation is nailed down I'll need to make sure that a culture can generate multiple items that feel coherent. Here's some initial ideas for that...

• if a sword lacks a crossguard, further swords from that culture should have a reduced chance of generating crossguards
• the use of a material can...
  • increase the likelihood of that material being used by that culture ("we use Obsidian")
  • significantly increase the likelihood of that material being used by that culture in similar contexts ("we make blades out of obsidian")

More abstracted inferences can be drawn from emergent patterns:

• Patterns
  • Ornamental items
    • 3 have been generated
    • jade was present in 2 of them
  • Utility items
    • 2 have been generated
    • jade was present in neither of them
• Inferences
  • Jade is a decorative material

Other Info

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