Broadway

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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

Example screenshot of Broadway being used to edit a script

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.
    • 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.