Broadway

Broadway is a remake of the classic computer game "Hollywood" by Theatrix, and can be considered a spiritual successor to the Story Builder software. Users create a story by choosing a backdrop, creating actors, and then writing a script. Using animation and the native Text-to-Speech software, the story comes alive.

Example Screenshot

Usage

There are three main User Interface components in Broadway:

• Stage: This is where the Actors and Backdrop appear. Any animation and action takes place here.
• Tabs: This contains buttons that switch the currently active Panel.
• Panels: This is where the 5 different Panels appear. A Panel is a collection of controls.

The Panels

• File Panel: Contains controls to save, load, and create Scripts. You can also modify metadata about the current Script from here, including the title, author, and a description.

• Backdrop Panel: Contains controls to change the Backdrop of this Script.
• Actor Panel: Contains controls to add, remove, and edit Actors. You can adjust a variety of settings for each Actor, such as their name, skin, voice.
• Script Panel: Contains controls to write the Script. Besides the dialogue, you can also direct Actor's to perform actions such as moving around, changing pose and expression, or leaving the stage.
• Theater Panel: Contains controls to watch the current Script.

Development

Packages used:

• Pygame
• Spyral
• PGU
• Simplejson

Broadway was created using Pygame. Spyral is used to simplify the handling of Sprites in the Theater. A modified version of PGU is used to handle the user interface. Finally, Scripts are currently stored using JSON, requiring the Simplejson library.

Planned Features

• More translations
• Spellcheck
• Grammarcheck
• Export to Youtube
• More of the existing content: actors, backdrops, twists, emotions, voices, etc.
• Download content button (from central repository)
• More example stories
• Better text editing features (copy/paste, etc.)
• Props that actors can interact with
• Animations
• Sound Effects and Musical Stings

Requested Features

• ...?

Author

Austin Cory Bart, for his undergraduate thesis work at the University of Delaware with Dr. Lori Pollock.