Test Drive SWAT
You’ve downloaded SWAT. Now you want to see what creating a storyworld is like. This page describes some things you can do to take the storyworld authoring tool out for a test drive.
If you prefer a more thorough introduction to the craft of Storytronics, visit our Tutorials, or our Storyworld Authors’ Guide. Technical specifications for authoring a storyworld are on SWAT Technical Specs.
Open a Storyworld
Double click on SWAT. (It will probably have a version number associated with it. The file should say something like "SWATnnnn.jar" where "nnnn" is a number; e.g., 1297.)
A screen will appear, asking you which file you want to open. As of this writing there are three files you may choose from: BoP2k.stw, and ChitChat.stw*. (Files without an "stw" extension are not storyworlds and will not open in SWAT.)
Some sample storyworlds should be in the subfolder res > data:
These three storyworlds come bundled with SWAT.
To see what an existing storyworld looks and acts like, choose ChitChat or BoP2k. To create a new storyworld from scratch, start with BareBones.stw. It has only the basic System verbs required by the Storyengine.
Feel free to click buttons, add things, change them and delete them, to see how the software works. (Warning: in general it’s a good idea to avoid tinkering with the System Verbs; they are used by the Engine, and certain kinds of changes will crash Storyteller or SWAT.)
The files you will play with as part of this test drive are all sample files, which can always be re-downloaded in their original form, if you accidentally save a change that makes the software misbehave. However, if you don’t even want to have to think about what you’d do if you accidentally changed or deleted something critical, the easiest solution is to save the file under a different name before you start tinkering with it, under File > Save at the main menu bar at the top of SWAT.
The First Thing You See
When SWAT opens, you are in the Verb Editor. It looks something like this:
The Verb Editor is where you will do most of your storybuilding work.
The pale pink panel on the left is the Verb tree. The Verb you are currently located in (i.e., the Verb whose information is editable in the middle and left panes) is indicated on the top bar of the Verb window ("ignore," in the snapshot above). The buttons and dropdowns in the middle panel allow you to edit the Verb’s assorted properties and scripts.
You can move from Verb to Verb by double-clicking on the list of Verbs in the Verb tree on the left.
The Editors
SWAT has four other editing tools, in addition to the one for Verbs. Here is the full list of Editors:
Actor Editor - Create and modify the personalities and physical characteristics of your Actors.
Prop Editor - Create and edit Props’ characteristics.
Relationship Editor - Set Actor relationships and perceptions of each other.
Stage Editor - Create and edit Stages.
Verb Editor - Create potential Events, and instructions for how the Actors will react to them, based on their personalities, physical attributes, and relationships to each other.
You switch between these five editing tools with the main menu at the top of the SWAT window. Check them out.
Extensive information on how to use them is contained in the Tutorials and Storyworld Authors’ Guide.
Run Storyteller
A good place to start is to run Storyteller (the tool that runs the storyworld for the player), if you haven’t already tried it, to get a taste of what the experience will be like for your end user. SWAT has a version of Storyteller embedded in it, which you use to test how your storyworld will behave when a player plays it.
Bring up SWAT and open BoP2k. From the menu selections at the top of the screen, choose Lizards > Storyteller Lizard.
A screen should come up with an iconic expression at the upper left, a sort of diagrammed sentence in the middle left. This is where the other characters act upon you (and each other). At the bottom of the screen is information about where you are (the current Stage), and who (Actors) and what (Props) are there with you. In the middle on the right is your input screen. Here is where you choose your response to what has just happened to you, on the left. Here is a sample snapshot:
Play around and make a few choices.
When you start Balance of Power, Fate asks you what you want to do first. To make a choice, click on the "do what?" button and select an action. Sometimes you will also need to input other information, such as an adverb or adjective, or trait. If so, other buttons will appear in the righthand section, linked to the existing word sockets. Once you have completed your input, the Done button at the top will become accessible. Click Done. (You can always undo your choices with the undo button before you click done.)
The sentences you construct when you make your choices, and the sentences the Actors communicate with you in, are a simplified form of English known as Deikto.
SWAT is beta code, and you may encounter a few bugs. If events seem to run into dead ends or not work properly, just close Storyteller and then rerun it and try different choices. You'll begin to get a feel for how the interactions work. See if you can capture bin Laden! Or even better, achieve world peace...
Check out the Editors
Another useful exercise is to look at the different Editors.
Start with the Actor Editor. Here is where you set and adjust the computer generated Actors’ personal characteristics.
Open ChitChat. (You can also have a look at the actors in Balance of Power, but because BoP2k is more a geopolitical strategy sim, the Actors’ traits are very different from what you would see for human Actors. So for the purposes of seeing what most storyworlds would be like, ChitChat is probably a better example.)
From the main screen, under the menu choices at the top, choose Editor > Actor Editor.
This is the screen that allows you, the storybuilder, to add or delete actors, as well as to see and set what the Actors' traits, moods, and relationships are. (More on Actors.)
Next, refer to the Relationship Editor. This is the screen that allows you view and change relationship traits between Actors. All Actors have relationships with each other. For every core (intrinsic) Trait, each Actor has a perception of what each other Actor's intrinsic trait is. This screen is where you adjust them. (More on Relationships.)
Also check out the Prop and Stage Editors. (More on Props and Stages.)
Verb Scripts
Here is where the tire meets the tarmac, in Storytronics. The other Editors create the objects that players can interact with in your storyworld; the Verb Editor tells the Storyengine how those objects behave in response, based on your instructions.
Your ultimate goal as a storyworld author is to use this Editor to create a set of Verbs, link them all up in dramatically interesting ways, and create scripts for each Verb specifying what would cause the non-player Actors to make one decision versus another at any point in time. More detail than that at this point would constitute moving into deeper waters than a test drive merits, but here are a few things you can do to get a quick glimpse.
Choose a Verb in ChitChat—say, “ignore,” in the Verb Category “Bad Social”—by double clicking on it in the Verb tree pane. Now notice the buttons in the middle pane. These different buttons are a collection of instructions for each Verb, which the Storyengine uses to direct events when someone plays a storyworld. Don’t worry for now about what each type of button means; simply click on one.
The text that appears in the panel directly to the right of the middle one, when you click a button, is called Sappho. Just as Deikto is the language the player uses to talk to the other Actors, Sappho is the language you the author use to talk to the Storyengine. To learn more about it, read the Scripting sections of the Storyworld Authors’ Guide.
If You Encounter Problems
Follow our instructions for reporting a bug.
If you prefer a more thorough introduction to the craft of Storytronics, visit our Tutorials, or our Storyworld Authors’ Guide. Technical specifications for authoring a storyworld are on SWAT Technical Specs.
Open a Storyworld
Double click on SWAT. (It will probably have a version number associated with it. The file should say something like "SWATnnnn.jar" where "nnnn" is a number; e.g., 1297.)
A screen will appear, asking you which file you want to open. As of this writing there are three files you may choose from: BoP2k.stw, and ChitChat.stw*. (Files without an "stw" extension are not storyworlds and will not open in SWAT.)
Some sample storyworlds should be in the subfolder res > data:
- BoP2k.stw is Chris's work-in-progress, Balance of Power - 21st Century.
- ChitChat.stw is a mini-storyworld, a demo we created to give people something to play with while BoP2k was in the works, and provide a starting place for new authors. ChitChat has a few characters in a bar who can get in brawls, flirt, or gossip about each other.
- BareBones.stw is an empty storyworld that allows you to start creating your own world from scratch.
These three storyworlds come bundled with SWAT.
To see what an existing storyworld looks and acts like, choose ChitChat or BoP2k. To create a new storyworld from scratch, start with BareBones.stw. It has only the basic System verbs required by the Storyengine.
Feel free to click buttons, add things, change them and delete them, to see how the software works. (Warning: in general it’s a good idea to avoid tinkering with the System Verbs; they are used by the Engine, and certain kinds of changes will crash Storyteller or SWAT.)
The files you will play with as part of this test drive are all sample files, which can always be re-downloaded in their original form, if you accidentally save a change that makes the software misbehave. However, if you don’t even want to have to think about what you’d do if you accidentally changed or deleted something critical, the easiest solution is to save the file under a different name before you start tinkering with it, under File > Save at the main menu bar at the top of SWAT.
The First Thing You See
When SWAT opens, you are in the Verb Editor. It looks something like this:
The Verb Editor is where you will do most of your storybuilding work.
The pale pink panel on the left is the Verb tree. The Verb you are currently located in (i.e., the Verb whose information is editable in the middle and left panes) is indicated on the top bar of the Verb window ("ignore," in the snapshot above). The buttons and dropdowns in the middle panel allow you to edit the Verb’s assorted properties and scripts.
You can move from Verb to Verb by double-clicking on the list of Verbs in the Verb tree on the left.
The Editors
SWAT has four other editing tools, in addition to the one for Verbs. Here is the full list of Editors:
Actor Editor - Create and modify the personalities and physical characteristics of your Actors.
Prop Editor - Create and edit Props’ characteristics.
Relationship Editor - Set Actor relationships and perceptions of each other.
Stage Editor - Create and edit Stages.
Verb Editor - Create potential Events, and instructions for how the Actors will react to them, based on their personalities, physical attributes, and relationships to each other.
You switch between these five editing tools with the main menu at the top of the SWAT window. Check them out.
Extensive information on how to use them is contained in the Tutorials and Storyworld Authors’ Guide.
Run Storyteller
A good place to start is to run Storyteller (the tool that runs the storyworld for the player), if you haven’t already tried it, to get a taste of what the experience will be like for your end user. SWAT has a version of Storyteller embedded in it, which you use to test how your storyworld will behave when a player plays it.
Bring up SWAT and open BoP2k. From the menu selections at the top of the screen, choose Lizards > Storyteller Lizard.
A screen should come up with an iconic expression at the upper left, a sort of diagrammed sentence in the middle left. This is where the other characters act upon you (and each other). At the bottom of the screen is information about where you are (the current Stage), and who (Actors) and what (Props) are there with you. In the middle on the right is your input screen. Here is where you choose your response to what has just happened to you, on the left. Here is a sample snapshot:
Play around and make a few choices.
When you start Balance of Power, Fate asks you what you want to do first. To make a choice, click on the "do what?" button and select an action. Sometimes you will also need to input other information, such as an adverb or adjective, or trait. If so, other buttons will appear in the righthand section, linked to the existing word sockets. Once you have completed your input, the Done button at the top will become accessible. Click Done. (You can always undo your choices with the undo button before you click done.)
The sentences you construct when you make your choices, and the sentences the Actors communicate with you in, are a simplified form of English known as Deikto.
SWAT is beta code, and you may encounter a few bugs. If events seem to run into dead ends or not work properly, just close Storyteller and then rerun it and try different choices. You'll begin to get a feel for how the interactions work. See if you can capture bin Laden! Or even better, achieve world peace...
Check out the Editors
Another useful exercise is to look at the different Editors.
Start with the Actor Editor. Here is where you set and adjust the computer generated Actors’ personal characteristics.
Open ChitChat. (You can also have a look at the actors in Balance of Power, but because BoP2k is more a geopolitical strategy sim, the Actors’ traits are very different from what you would see for human Actors. So for the purposes of seeing what most storyworlds would be like, ChitChat is probably a better example.)
From the main screen, under the menu choices at the top, choose Editor > Actor Editor.
This is the screen that allows you, the storybuilder, to add or delete actors, as well as to see and set what the Actors' traits, moods, and relationships are. (More on Actors.)
Next, refer to the Relationship Editor. This is the screen that allows you view and change relationship traits between Actors. All Actors have relationships with each other. For every core (intrinsic) Trait, each Actor has a perception of what each other Actor's intrinsic trait is. This screen is where you adjust them. (More on Relationships.)
Also check out the Prop and Stage Editors. (More on Props and Stages.)
Verb Scripts
Here is where the tire meets the tarmac, in Storytronics. The other Editors create the objects that players can interact with in your storyworld; the Verb Editor tells the Storyengine how those objects behave in response, based on your instructions.
Your ultimate goal as a storyworld author is to use this Editor to create a set of Verbs, link them all up in dramatically interesting ways, and create scripts for each Verb specifying what would cause the non-player Actors to make one decision versus another at any point in time. More detail than that at this point would constitute moving into deeper waters than a test drive merits, but here are a few things you can do to get a quick glimpse.
Choose a Verb in ChitChat—say, “ignore,” in the Verb Category “Bad Social”—by double clicking on it in the Verb tree pane. Now notice the buttons in the middle pane. These different buttons are a collection of instructions for each Verb, which the Storyengine uses to direct events when someone plays a storyworld. Don’t worry for now about what each type of button means; simply click on one.
The text that appears in the panel directly to the right of the middle one, when you click a button, is called Sappho. Just as Deikto is the language the player uses to talk to the other Actors, Sappho is the language you the author use to talk to the Storyengine. To learn more about it, read the Scripting sections of the Storyworld Authors’ Guide.
If You Encounter Problems
Follow our instructions for reporting a bug.
