Code
Project Highlights
- AI focused project with steering, state machines, conversation logic
- Gossip based on real feedback from 4th and 5th graders
- Technology used: OpenGL, Glut and GLUI
Scuttlebutt, which is still in very early stages, started as my senior project and will end up being a "gossip simulator". The basic idea is to create a digital world full of inhabitants, allow them to slowly interact with each other, meet "people", make "friends" and earn "trust". That's when the fun begins, because once people have friends they trust they will share dark secrets with friends. These secrets are the seeds to creating juicy gossip.
Perhaps that person needs to tell one other person, and then that person tells another, and so on, until everyone knows!
Although the program is still in its early stages, much of the AI groundwork has been laid, such as getting the assortment of ditigal citizens to congregate and communicate with one another
Denziens
One of the most important decisions was what sort of people should populate this simulated world. Office people -- to standard. College students -- to crude. I wanted the sort of gossip that was generated to be able to be fun to hear but still have some meat to it.
4th Graders. Their loquacious nature coupled with their general innocence makes them perfect.
UML Diagram
This UML diagram shows how the Mortal class reacts with the rest of the world. Characters are controlled with a state machine which in turn is influenced by the character's personal stats; this can lead them to chat, confront others about gossip, simply wander around, and much more.
Not shown is that the Gossip class is derived from a graph node class. This enables Gossip to be tracked in multiple graphs with each mutation stored as a new, unique node.
