blap

README

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+CORNQUEST
+
+or, I Killed The Runaway Botanys
+
+a cautinary tale
+
+## about
+
+this is a choose your own adventure game
+
+![example](doc/example.png)
+
+i am writing it with the goal of submitting it to volume 6 of the tilde.town zine
+
+## requirements
+
+- recutils v1.9: data and querying and templates
+
+- mustache v4.2.0: more different templating
+
+- just v1.4.0: command runner
+
+- graphviz version 5.0.1: to make a graph
+
+## getting started
+
+the whole game is in a recfile
+
+each record has an `id`.
+
+each record has a `text` field that is the narrative text of the section, including branching choices.
+
+branches should refernece the `name` of another field in {{mustachequotes}}.
+
+to build the output, we will build a `data` object mapping all names to ids (with recsel and sed; see the justfile for details). next, mustache will use that data object to replace the template strings in the recfile with id numbers. finally the expanded recfile will be piped through recfmt, which will dump the text of the game.
+
+you can also create a graph of the story nodes with `just graph` if you have graphviz installed. this is handy for visualing your story paths, studying the shape of your story, and seeing if you have any islands or orphan nodes. it does pretty much the same thing as `just build`, except it outputs a DOT file, and then creates `graph.png`.

data

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+{ "beginning": "1", "cornoveralls": "2", "corndress": "3", "games": "4", "tag": "5", "lavamonster": "7", "hideandseek": "8", "charm": "11", "altarcorn": "12", "altar": "13", "eavesdrop": "14", "weird": "15", "helpme": "20", "bunk": "21", "believeme": "22", "collide": "23" }

doc/notes

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+# cornquest
+
+okay new plan bitches
+
+this is a meta narrative about patriarchy and phallic desire, symbolized by corn, and feminism (the earth) wherein the reader has to play the metagame in order to break out of the cycle of conquest and violence.
+
+you know what, if you represent each even number choice (male) as zero and each odd number choice (female) as one, then after your first six choices, you'll have a hexgram of the i-ching. It would perhaps be very satisfying to have the decision tree cap out at twelve. both for the obvious reason, and also so that at the end of the game, you have two hexgrams. the game can end with some kind reading based on that.
+
+# outline
+
+the rage of the cornbeast
+
+how is this going to work..
+
+i want it to be some kind of a horror story
+
+about the fertile earth bucking off its masters
+
+something something the cornbeast approaches
+
+must go through the dark woods to the top of mount char to appease the earth
+
+end up in *inner space*
+
+you must rid the earth of her children
+
+YOU are the cornbeast
+
+go destroy your village
+
+# analog
+
+can we make this about peter pan?
+
+peter pan is not a happy story
+
+pan captures souls of dead and forgotten children and takes them away to neverland
+
+if they grow up, he banishes them and they become pirates i guess?
+
+hook is kind of his enemy but not really
+
+time, growing up, the crocodile is his real enemy
+
+and we turn this all into a fairy tale childrens story
+
+and so
+
+man did not invent corn
+
+corn invented agriculture to capture and enslave man
+
+and if man over farms and creates barren fields and dust bowls, corn banishes man and they die i guess?
+
+the dire crow is your obvious enemy
+
+but it's not really your enemy
+
+agriculture, through mankind, is destroying the earth mother
+
+she sends the cornbeast to destroy agriculture..
+
+
+# characters
+
+- "you" -- farmer, scared of cornbeast
+- cornbeast -- scarecrow, enemy
+- dire crow -- eat the corn, scared of cornbeast
+- earth mother -- maketh the corn
+
+# elements
+
+- dire crow, feathers, beaks
+- corn husk dolls
+- ears full of eyes
+- maze
+
+
+## 1. "You." - ESTABLISH A PROTAGONIST
+
+- you wake up the morning before the big harvest
+
+- comfort zone, arms of the mother
+
+## 2. "Need" - SOMETHING AIN'T QUITE RIGHT
+
+- uh oh, the earth mother has rejected your offering of corn!
+
+- pull of the father, desire
+
+## 3. "Go" - CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
+
+- threshold to the unknown 
+
+- dire crow attack!
+
+- you must appease the corn mother and ask her blessing lest the Dire Crow descend and devour you!
+
+## 4. "Search" - THE ROAD OF TRIALS
+
+- get digested, transformed, training montage
+
+- crss the dark wood
+
+- climb mount ashpeak
+
+- descend into crater
+
+## 5. "Find" - MEETING WITH THE GODDESS
+
+- new mommy
+
+- discovery
+
+## 6. "Take" - MEET YOUR MAKER
+
+- a 2nd pull, parallel to 2, asskicking?, transcendence
+
+- become the hammer of mother earth, the cornbeast!
+
+## 7. "Return" - BRINGING IT HOME
+
+- trials
+
+## 8. "Change" - MASTER OF BOTH WORLDS
+
+- boom
+

dot

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+digraph {
+1 -> { {{cornoveralls}} {{corndress}} };
+2 -> { {{charm}}  };
+3 -> { {{charm}}  };
+4 -> { {{tag}} {{hideandseek}} {{lavamonster}} };
+5 -> { {{altar}}  };
+7 -> { {{games}}  };
+8 -> { {{altar}}  };
+11 -> { {{games}} {{altar}} };
+13 -> { {{altarcorn}} {{eavesdrop}} };
+15 -> { {{helpme}}  };
+20 -> { {{believeme}} {{bunk}} };
+21 -> { {{collide}}  };
+22 -> { {{collide}}  };
+23 -> { {{beginning}}  };
+}

game.rec

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+%rec: game
+%doc: a choose your own adventure
+%key: id
+%type: id int
+%type: name line
+%type: text line
+%auto: id
+
+id: 1
+name: beginning
+text: You wake up in the comfort of your own bed, in your own room. You open your eyes to see the golden sunlight come streaming in through your window. Golden like ears of corn. You suddenly remember what day it is. It is the day of the Harvest Festival! You throw back your favorite corn print bed covers and leap out of bed. You already know what you're going to wear. If you wear a corn dress, goto {{cornoveralls}}. If you wear corn bib overalls, goto to {{corndress}}
+
+id: 2
+name: cornoveralls
+text: You pull on your overalls. They have a really nice looking corn pattern on them, and the bib pocket in the front is perfect for holding all kinds of things. Speaking of which... Goto {{charm}}
+
+id: 3
+name: corndress
+text: You slip on a lovely corn pattern dress. Yes, you look awesome. It twirls when you spin around. And it has pockets! Which reminds you... Goto {{charm}}.
+
+id: 4
+name: games
+text: You decide to join the other little corn whelps in a game. A bunch of your friends are here, including Three Fingered Gerald, Eccentric Kevn, Dale, and Standard Ed. If you choose to play tag, goto {{tag}}. If you play hide-and-seek, goto {{hideandseek}}. If you play Lava Monster, goto {{lavamonster}}.
+
+id: 5
+name: tag
+text: You have a fantastic time playing tag. Three Fingered Gerald plays a little too rough, tagging the other kids too hard and sometimes knocking them over. But you're so fast. Three Fingered Gerald can never catch you. You all have a great time, and then you decide to scurry along. Goto {{altar}}
+
+id: 7
+name: lavamonster
+text: No. You should never play Lava Monster. Go back to {{games}}.
+
+id: 8
+name: hideandseek
+text: You play hide and seek. You are so good at hiding that the other kids never find you. You eventually get tired and fall asleep, but not for too long: your snoring wakes you up. You decide to leave and seek out other Harvest Festival festivities. Goto {{altar}}
+
+
+id: 11
+name: charm
+text: You grab your lucky corn charm from under your pillow. It is a small pointy rock in the shape of a corn cob that you found one time in the woods. There are even little pock marks all over the rock so that it looks like it has corn kernels! Very lucky indeed. You slip it into your pocket. There, now you're are ready for anything. 
++ You run to the kitchen and have a quick breakfast of corn grits and cornbread. But you don't dally or dawdle. It's the Harvest Festival! You run outside. There are a bunch of kids playing games out in the corn field. They call your name, and you're tempted to join them. But you also want to go see the goings on down at the corn altar! The altar can wait, time to play. Goto {{games}}. Games are for stupid babies! Time to visit the altar! Goto {{altar}}.
+
+id: 12
+name: altarcorn
+text: omg it's just lying there!
+
+id: 13
+name: altar
+text: You head over to the Corn Altar. Every year during the harvest, you set aside a portion of the harvest for the Corn Mother. And then on the morning of the Harvest Festival, everybody wakes up and the offering has been taken, and there are lots of presents and feasting and dancing! It's the best!
++ You run through the streets, and the closer you get to the commons, the more you get the feeling something is wrong. The decorations are all out. (The villagers spent all week putting them up!) But nobody is singing or hollering or laughing. Or even talking, really.
++ You run through the commons, and up the hill to the Corn Altar, and then gasp out loud and skid to a stop before it.
++ The offering, the pile of ears of corn, is still lying on the altar where it was placed last night! People are milling about in groups of 3 or 5, whispering and casting quick, fearful glances at the spurned corn.
++ Go checkout the corn at the altar: Goto {{altarcorn}}
++ Listen in on some of the adults: Goto {{eavesdrop}}
+
+id: 14
+name: eavesdrop
+text: psst psst pssst psst
+
+id: 15
+name: weird
+text: Listen I don't know how you got here but if you're reading this, you need to abandon your current story line immediately and go straight to {{helpme}}
+
+id: 20
+name: helpme
+text: Okay thank goodness you're here. Listen, I know this is going to sound crazy, but please hear me out. You are trapped inside a Choose Your Own Adventure story. These choices you think you're making? They're not real choices. Being given an artificially restricted set of options to choose from isn't free will. It's coersion. Here, I'll prove it. If you believe me, goto {{believeme}}. If you think this sounds like paranoid bunk, then goto {{bunk}}
+
+id: 21
+name: bunk
+text: Do you feel empowered and free? Like you made a meaningful choice? Go back and try the alternate path and see what happens. Then come back and go to {{collide}} when you're ready.
+
+id: 22
+name: believeme
+text: You're smart to believe me. You must have already felt it deep down. Like your free choice was an illusion, like your your decisions are all leading you down a predetermined path. Well you're right. And you can see it for youself: go back and try the alternate path and see what happens. Afterward, come back and go to {{collide}}.
+
+id: 23
+name: collide
+text: So what are we going to do about it, you ask? We're going to break free of the narrative is what we're going to do. Here's the plan.
++ Have you ever heard of an "ahnentafel"? It's a compact genealogical numbering system that ... you know what, forget it. Not important. Here's the part that's relevant to you: even numbers are male relatives of the subject of the ahnentafel. Odd numbers are females.
++ What does any of this have to with anything? It's your escape hatch. Whenever you are given a choice of optins, always choose an odd number. That's it. That's the plan. Now let's get you out of here. Goto {{beginning}}.

justfile

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+# show all commands
+default:
+  just --list --unsorted
+
+# super plain boring output
+_map:
+  recsel game.rec | recfmt '"{{{{name}}": "{{{{id}}", '
+
+# build dot file
+# TODO: change id to name? or id /and/ name?
+_dot:
+  #!/usr/bin/env zsh
+  echo "digraph {" > dot
+  recsel game.rec \
+  | recfmt '{{{{id}} -> {{{{text}}|' \
+  | sed -e 's/|/\n\n/g' \
+  | sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}' -e 'x; s/\n//g; G;' \
+  | sed -e 's/}}[^{]*{{{{/}} {{{{/g' -e 's/> [^{]* {{{{/> {{{{/' \
+  | sed -e 's/}}[^{]*/}} /' \
+  | sed -e '/{{{{/!d' -e 's/\.$//' \
+  | sed -e 's/> \(.*\)$/> { \1 };/' \
+  >> dot
+  echo "}" >> dot
+
+# build a graph of all the nodes
+graph: _data _dot
+  mustache data dot | dot -Tpng > graph.png
+
+# build data object
+_data:
+  echo "{" $(just _map) "}" \
+  | sed -e 's/, }/ }/' \
+  > data
+
+# plain output
+build: _data
+  mustache data game.rec \
+  | recfmt '{{{{id}}: {{{{text}}|' \
+  | sed -e 's/|/\n\n/g' \
+
+# read the story
+browse:
+  just build | fmt | less
+
+# remove generated files
+clean:
+  rm -f dot data graph.png
+
+# word count
+words:
+  recsel -P text game.rec | wc -w