# Babble Engine

> Babble Engine turns a line of text into gibberish speech for game characters: made-up language, critter chatter, robot beeps and soft tones. It runs in the browser, is free, and is made by Wrong Floor.

Babble Engine is for game developers who want characters to "talk" without voice acting. You type a line, pick a style and a voice, listen, and export a WAV file. You can also record your own voice in the studio and use it as the source for the babble. Recordings stay in the browser (IndexedDB); nothing is uploaded and there are no accounts.

## Use it

- [Babble Engine](https://babble.wrongfloor.studio/): the tool, in English and Dutch
- [Use it in your game](https://babble.wrongfloor.studio/game): the same engine as one JavaScript file, with examples
- [Source code on GitHub](https://github.com/wrongfloor-dev/babble-engine): plain HTML and JavaScript, no dependencies

## Styles

16 styles. Voice styles (work with your own recorded voice): Critter Chatter, Babblish, Bloopa Doopa, Name Talk, Grunts & Barks, Grumble, Gizmo, Sprite, Spooky Whisper, Echo Folk, Mumble Radio, Babytalk. Sound styles (no voice): Text Blips, Droid Chirps, Soft Tones, Talking Instruments (with a kazoo).

## Web module (for game code)

One ES module, no build step, no dependencies, no server. Works in the browser; `render` and `toWav` also run in Node (`require('./site/src/engine.js')`).

```js
import { render, play, toWav, styles, loadVoice } from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/wrongfloor-dev/babble-engine@1/site/src/babble.mjs';

const line = render('Hi! Do you want an apple?', { style: 'animal', voice: 'fern', mood: 'happy' });
const p = play(line);   // browser only, with the style's room; returns { stop(), ended, context }
p.stop();               // stop it, e.g. when the next dialogue line starts
line.syllables;         // [{ time, text }]: syllable start times in seconds, for mouth flaps or subtitles
toWav(line);            // ArrayBuffer, 16-bit mono WAV, dry
```

render(text, options) returns { pcm (Float32Array, mono, dry), sampleRate, duration, syllables, style, voice }. Options:

- style: default 'animal'. voice: default the style's first voice
- mood: neutral, happy, angry, sad, flirty, surprised (default neutral)
- seed: default 1. Same text, options and seed give the same sound
- sampleRate: default 48000
- pitch, speed, expression, throat, breath, brightness: override the voice
- hiss: 0 to 1, consonant noise
- name: Name Talk only, the name the creature keeps saying (like 'Pikachu')
- intent, length: Bloopa Doopa only (style 'vemmo'). It ignores the text and speaks by intent: greet, bye, tell, explain, ask, curious, joy, cheer, think, letdown, agree, warn. length 'short' or 'medium'
- ownVoice, steady: a voice from loadVoice(), exported in the tool under Voices & characters as a .babble-voice.json file. Voice styles only

Unknown styles, voices, moods or intents throw an Error whose message starts with 'Babble: ' and lists the valid values.

## Style and voice ids

- `animal` Critter Chatter: `fern`, `burt`, `pip`, `lowell`, `bleep`
- `sim` Babblish: `lottie`, `ben`, `kiki`, `hank`, `whisper`, `bubs`
- `vemmo` Bloopa Doopa: `jesse`, `bram`, `mila`
- `name` Name Talk: `moki`, `grumbo`, `zee`, `lulu`, `bonk`
- `bark` Grunts & Barks: `hero`, `heroine`, `elder`, `kid`, `brute`
- `grumble` Grumble: `grok`, `moss`, `burly`
- `gizmo` Gizmo: `bolt`, `cog`, `unit9`
- `sprite` Sprite: `fae`, `wisp`, `glimmer`
- `ghost` Spooky Whisper: `whisper`, `wail`, `hollow`
- `echo` Echo Folk: `village`, `crowd`, `kids`
- `radio` Mumble Radio: `dispatch`, `pilot`, `scout`
- `baby` Babytalk: `tot`, `bubba`, `mini`
- `blip` Text Blips (no own voice): `pixel`, `tiny`, `boss`, `soft`, `typewriter`
- `droid` Droid Chirps (no own voice): `beebo`, `rollo`, `zapp`, `mini`
- `tone` Soft Tones (no own voice): `clouds`, `softbubble`, `rain`, `breeze`, `hum`, `purr`, `wood`, `droplet`, `kalimba`, `felt`, `bubble`, `glass`
- `instr` Talking Instruments (no own voice): `horn`, `trombone`, `choir`, `kazoo`

## License

- Code: MIT
- Audio you make with Babble Engine is yours to use, also commercially.

## Maker

[Wrong Floor](https://wrongfloor.studio)