Mining Someone Else’s Magic World

by Lynn Cherny (@arnicas)

Mining Someone Else’s Magic World

or, “How I Spent Way Too Much Time But Still Failed to Finish This for #NaNoGenMo But You

Get to Hear About it Anyway Because I Think

It’s Funny”

by Lynn Cherny (@arnicas)

“Learn to Play the Most Complex

Video Game Ever Made”

248 pages of “getting started.”

“Dwarf Fortress is a game featuring…distinct, randomly-generated worlds (complete with terrain, wildlife and

legends), gruesome combat mechanics and ubiquitous alcohol dependency.”

“Dwarf Fortress is a game featuring…distinct, randomly-generated worlds (complete with terrain, wildlife and

legends), gruesome combat mechanics and ubiquitous alcohol dependency.”

“Dwarf Fortress is a game featuring…distinct, randomly-generated worlds (complete with terrain, wildlife and

legends), gruesome combat mechanics and ubiquitous alcohol dependency.”

“Stopped fort dwarves from throwing their clothes off into a pile after being visited by adventurer.”

Bug Fixes (We’d Rather Weren’t Fixed)

“Stopped fort animals from getting clothing after being visited by

adventurer.”

“Stopped animals with kills from getting trinkets from corpses.”

“Stopped animals from growing attached to and bestowing names

on items in their possession.”

“Stopped fort dwarves from throwing their clothes off into a pile after being visited by adventurer.”

Bug Fixes (We’d Rather Weren’t Fixed)

“I cleaned up some crashes today. One of them involved a night creature that had wandered

into a shop and killed the owner... the creature then somehow got assigned as the owner. The crash happened when the night creature tried

to come up with things to say to potential shoppers, since it didn't have

a civilization as a frame of reference. I fixed that part, but I still have no idea

why it thought it should change professions in the first place...”

This game is so complicated even the author doesn’t really know why things happen.

This game is so complicated even the author doesn’t really know why things happen.

And ABSOLUTELY: None of the players knows what’s going on.

“I think Dwarf Fortress generates such complexity and depth of information, that the task of the storyteller is to

simply sift through and find the narrative.”-Tim Denee

Region-1-blahblahblah-legends.xml

Extracting Stories from XML1. Create xml in game, export it (“legends” mode)

2. Load into python and parse

3. Make some charts - what’s in this?

4. Tie together the id’s of people to events

5. Turn some fields into human-readable text: e.g., skills, events

6. Build a context free grammar to tie snippets of english together

7. Add a list mechanism to add relatives and victims to the stack of historical figures to “describe”

The data…

The data…

Nako Bentcurse, who was a female GOBLIN, always hoped to rule the world. Nako Bentcurse got married. In the year 50, Nako Bentcurse was killed in the dark pits called Wraithblockade by Oce Gravecaverns The Sable

Twilight. She lived for 227 years.

Nako Bentcurse, who was a female GOBLIN, always hoped to rule the world. Nako Bentcurse got married. In the year 50, Nako Bentcurse was killed in the dark pits called Wraithblockade by Oce Gravecaverns The Sable

Twilight. She lived for 227 years.

Iddim Candlemerges, who was a male HUMAN BABY, always hoped to become a legendary warrior. In the year

102, he was killed in a town called Goosebalded by Vispol Amusepants. He lived for 0 years.

Here's the life of Nepe Coloredgarlics The Ponderous Escort Of Spiders, who was a female HUMAN. Nepe Coloredgarlics The Ponderous Escort Of Spiders was kind of crap at dissecting fish, kind of crap at doing useful things with fish, kind of crap at fishing. She lived for 59 years. In the year 61, she was abducted in a hamlet called Soundedstop by Ngebzo Taperedevil. Nepe Coloredgarlics The Ponderous Escort Of Spiders took up another role, possibly to do something with fishing in a dark fortress called Anguishsteal. In the year 65, she hooked up with Zega Chasmspike, a male HUMAN. In the year 85, she foully murdered Ecod Scrapedcleared in a dark fortress called Anguishsteal. She foully murdered Snamoz Stolenwax in a dark fortress called Anguishsteal. In the year 99, Nepe Coloredgarlics The Ponderous Escort Of Spiders foully murdered Necalo Creatureacted in a dark fortress called Anguishsteal. … She started a new career, possibly to do something with fishing. She was foully murdered in a dark fortress called Anguishsteal by Ngebzo Baldcruelty, maybe because of her deficiencies at dissecting fish.

Really Terrible Things Are Happening in

A Dark Fortress Called Anguishsteal

You might also want to know about Cika Ringspikes, who was a male

NIGHTCREATURE . Cika Ringspikes had no animal friends. He lived for 43 years. Cika

Ringspikes hooked up with Kuppo Bushelsounds, a female HUMAN. In the year

31, Cika Ringspikes took up another role, possibly to do something with butchering animals in a hamlet called Actevened. He

was abducted in a hamlet called Actevened by Oce Gravecaverns The Sable Twilight. In

the year 50, he took up another role, possibly to do something with butchering animals in a hamlet called Actevened. In the year 50, Cika

Ringspikes hooked up with Oce Gravecaverns The Sable Twilight, a female NIGHTCREATURE. In the year 51, he was

changed into a MALE NIGHTCREATURE by Oce Gravecaverns The Sable Twilight. In the year 62, Cika Ringspikes was struck down in battle by San Prairieblunt, maybe because of

his deficiencies at butchering animals.

The Whisper Of Rain, who was a male BAT , was outstanding at mechanics, outstanding at operate_pump,

outstanding at siegecraft, outstanding at telling jokes, outstanding at pacifying others who are upset,

outstanding at lying, outstanding at figuring out what others intend, ok at throwing a spear, kind of crap at

noticing what's going on, kind of crap at climbing, kind of crap at tracking. He was born in the year -1 and is still

living. In the year 73, The Whisper Of Rain got married . In the year 74, he hf does interaction . In the year 84, he

hf does interaction . The Whisper Of Rain hf does interaction . In the year 100, The Whisper Of Rain got

married . In the year 101, he got married . The Whisper Of Rain got married . The Whisper Of Rain got married . In the year 106, he got married . In the year 107, he got married . In the year 108, he got married . The Whisper

Of Rain got married . He got married .

Once upon a time, there lived The Whisper Of Rain, who was a male BAT deity whose spheres were stars and sky and rainbows and light. The

Whisper Of Rain was only good at boring fighting skills. He was born at the beginning of time and is still living. In the year 73, The Whisper Of Rain was worshipped by Dacap Dipspecial, a female HUMAN. The Whisper Of Rain cast the Curse of the Vampire. He cast the Curse of the Werebeast. In the

year 95, he cast the Curse of the Werebeast. The Whisper Of Rain was worshipped by Zurko Agedtrench,a female HUMAN ANIMALDISSECTOR .

In the year 101, he was worshipped by Ica Doorbutter,a female HUMAN ANIMALCARETAKER. The Whisper Of Rain was worshipped by Histek Spikewires,a male HUMAN BONESETTER. The Whisper Of Rain was

worshipped by Xugot Baldrub, a male HUMAN TANNER. …

Fanfiction? Or Translation?

Iddim Frostspatter, who was a female HUMAN FARMER, lived in this

world. She was born in the year 110 and is still

living. Iddim Frostspatter always

hoped to rule the world.

“The game simulates surprisingly realistic geology…, and somehow generates civilizations, complete with long histories of murdering the shit out of each other. The

game is in a sort of open alpha at the moment, standing at an estimated 31% complete; we are forced to assume

that, when finished, the game will fully and perfectly simulate the Universe, judging by its current progress. Eventually, it's supposed to generate complete fantasy

worlds and storylines. Basically, it'd be like if your computer could write The Lord of the Rings or Dragon

Age at the push of a button.”

– Paolo Antonelli, MOMA

“When you are playing Dwarf Fortress, you are God, and the world is talking back to you. And

you are a very anal god.”

How do we get their stories out?

References

• http://www.cracked.com/funny-6021-dwarf-fortress/

• http://www.wired.com/2010/09/oilfurnace/

• http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/23/5926447/dwarf-fortress-will-crush-your-cpu-because-creating-history-is-hard

• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

• http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70099

• http://dwarffortresswiki.org/images/e/e6/FlowchartDF.png

• http://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/15t7hs/this_has_been_my_general_progression_as_a_dwarf/

• http://i.imgur.com/YVMaJ.png

• http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

• Bugs in release notes: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

• http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Glass_industry

• http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/start-over-and-remember-losing-is-fun-1/

• Missale et horae ad usum Fratrum Minorum. 1301-1400. God creating the heavens and the Earth.

• http://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/1hl9ea/

• Codex Gigas http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/codex-gigas-devil-s-bible-largest-manuscript-world-001276

• http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/kitab-al-bulhan-or-book-of-wonders-late-14thc/

• Universitätsbibliothek Kiel. Nürnberger Schembart-Buch, f.247. 17th century

• The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia) (Italian, Siena 1398–1482 Siena

• Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º, Folio 42v. Bat

Thanks to @badnetworker (David Masad), Caleb Howe, and Nicolai Krakowiak for introducing me to stories about Dwarf

Fortress.