The Swallows

If you want your computer to write a novel, why not program it to simulate something like a text adventure?

I wouldn’t call it great literature, but of all the novels that came out of NaNoGenMo 2013, I think the most influential was Chris Pressey’s four-book series of The Swallows, The Swallows of Summer, Swallows and Sorrows, and Dial S for Swallows. It immediately generated a comprehensible plot, complete with a MacGuffin, and its structure suggested a number of ways the idea could be built upon–and I’ll be discussing those projects in the future.

Do peek at the Python source code if you’re interested in how it was constructed.

https://github.com/catseye/The-Swallows

#procgen    #nanogenmo    #nanogenmo2013    #procedural text adventure    #generative text    #procedural text    #novel generation    #procedural novel    #procgen novel    #abusing ergodic literature for fun and profit