Character Database (Writers utility program)

[Alexander Morou]

Just curious,

Tdata asked a question on the Game and Application Development board if anyone knew of a good Character Database program.  The only one that existed that was worth its salt, was a professional program.  So I decided to take on Tdata's request, and it got me wondering.  Would anyone else here need a character database for whatever reason?

Since Tdata needed a free solution, I started coding my own.  I'm nearly complete with it, because it was fairly simple in its overall concept.
Here's a few screen shots of it so far:
http://alexandermorou.com/images/screenshots/characterdb/characterdb-001-th.jpg[/img] http://alexandermorou.com/images/screenshots/characterdb/characterdb-002-th.png[/img] http://alexandermorou.com/images/screenshots/characterdb/characterdb-003-th.png[/img] http://alexandermorou.com/images/screenshots/characterdb/characterdb-004-th.png[/img] http://alexandermorou.com/images/screenshots/characterdb/characterdb-005-th.png[/img]

I would make a topic in the Game and Application development board, but this program would best benefit writers; however, I must ask, do any of you here have a use for such a program?

You'll have to forgive the rigidness of the program's data, but it's written around the specs Tdata outlined, though they do seem pretty reasonable considering the general focus of the community.

Here's an outline of the general data the program focuses on:
First Name, Last Name, Gender, Age, Height, Weight, Profession, Rank (Subset of profession, each profession has its own rank series), Weapons Used, Hometown, Motivation, Biography, Magical Abilities, Stories used in, Miscellaneous data, associated character pictures.

If this is still the wrong place for the topic, please move it.  I'm half asleep right now.

 

[So fist]

Customizable fields would be nice.  Yet this is one of those topics that is hard to place since you are making an application whose target is writer's.  I'll leave it here for now.

 

[Surmuck]

I think it's okay to leave here, as it does come in handy for anyone who needs a solution to keep track of their characters.

That's some pretty fancy application though, and would make a wonderful reference point for someone writing a longer piece who just needed specific notes on a character, especially ones that they forgot. The biography field is one I'd use especially, again just for a quick reference - but I'd add an "Other Notes" field for anything that doesn't fit so I'm not cramming information into the biography.

**Oops, I guess miscellaneous data fits that.

Cool stuff.

 

[Alexander Morou]

Customizable fields would be nice.  Yet this is one of those topics that is hard to place since you are making an application whose target is writer's.  I'll leave it here for now.

I decided against a customizable field system because it would increase the development lead time by a great deal.  It would've made it take leaps and bounds longer to create, and the look would've been much less sleek, since the fields would've been more generic.  The field relationships/structure editor would've been more complex than the entire program as it is now.

 

[So fist]

Well maybe a field that lists family and friends, Hometown, and race.

 

[Alexander Morou]

Well maybe a field that lists family and friends, Hometown, and race.

Family and friends is good.  I'll take it a little differently though and make it so you can define the name of the relationship, since 'family and friends' is vague.  This way you can explicitly define Jane Doe as Mo Doe's wife, with Go and Hannah as their children, and the Children would have Jane and Mo as Father and Mother, respectively.  Naturally you'd have to explicitly tell it all this, since you'd be defining the relationship names and so on, it'll have no contextual awareness or understanding (so if you say Jane is Go's mother, you'd also have to say that Go is Jane's child, it wouldn't know to do this for you).

Hometown is already listed (and data-wise there, but not functionally, yet), but race is not, it's something I could add.  Adding to the structure is easy since I structured it around a CommonEntry concept, which has 'Name' and 'Description', of which Weapon, MagicalAbility, Rank, Profession, and Story are all a part of.

 

[Despain]

This is cool. I want to use this.

My suggestion: tabs? Instead of an insanely long scrollbar, maybe a tab for each section per character.

 

[Alexander Morou]

This is cool. I want to use this.

My suggestion: tabs? Instead of an insanely long scrollbar, maybe a tab for each section per character.

Actually, the view that's there, check the first screen shot: I can add more sections based upon the type of information you're entering.  This way if you want to enter a lot of common information, you could enter the common information in the 'General Information' expansion, I just hadn't taken the time to move the tools around and segment it in that way.

Mostly because I haven't decided the best order in which to put things.  Perhaps a section for each type of data, weapons, magic, stories, et cetera.

Since they're collapsible, you can just hide the areas you don't care for, and focus on that.  I just made one big list to start because it was quicker on development time.

 

[Doohblah]

wow this would help me alot... I am writing an appocolyptic action fantasy and I find myself forgetting details alot...

when do you think this will be finished?

or even a beta test or something.

 

[Alexander Morou]

wow this would help me alot... I am writing an appocolyptic action fantasy and I find myself forgetting details alot...

when do you think this will be finished?

or even a beta test or something.

Hopefully sometime in a day or two.  I've just been a little bit busy.  Job interviews, and other life things.

 

[Doohblah]

indeed. Well I look forward to it.