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Plugin Export

TaleNode can export drop-in runtime plugins for popular game engines. These plugins include a dialogue runner that loads and plays your exported JSON files.

Supported Engines

Engine Menu Item Output
Godot File > Export Godot Plugin... GDScript addon in addons/talenode/
Unity File > Export Unity Plugin... C# scripts in TaleNode/
Unreal File > Export Unreal Plugin... Plugin folder for UE

How It Works

  1. Choose the export menu item for your engine
  2. Select the target folder (your game project's root or plugin directory)
  3. TaleNode writes the runtime plugin files to that location

The exported plugin includes:

  • Dialogue runner — Loads and plays through dialogue JSON files
  • Expression evaluator — Handles {variable} interpolation, math expressions, and inline conditionals
  • Signal/event system — Emits events for your game to respond to (dialogue started, choice presented, event triggered, etc.)

Godot Plugin

The Godot plugin exports to addons/talenode/ and includes:

  • talenode_runner.gd — Main dialogue runner script
  • talenode_expression.gd — Expression parser and evaluator
  • plugin.cfg — Godot plugin configuration

Enable the plugin in Project > Project Settings > Plugins.

Unity Plugin

The Unity plugin is a full UPM (Unity Package Manager) package for Unity 6+. It includes both a runtime dialogue runner and an editor toolkit.

Installation

In Unity: Window > Package Manager > + > Add package from git URL:

https://github.com/fognil/TaleNode.git?path=plugins/unity

Use File > Export Unity Plugin... and select your Unity project root. TaleNode writes the full package to the target directory.

Window > Package Manager > + > Add package from disk... and select plugins/unity/package.json from the TaleNode repository.

What's Included

Runtime (works in builds):

  • TaleNodeRunner.cs — Dialogue execution engine with events
  • TaleNodeExpression.cs — Expression parser, evaluator, and text interpolation
  • TaleNodeDialogueData.cs — Serializable data classes for dialogue JSON

Editor (Unity Editor only):

  • ScriptedImporter — Auto-imports .talenode.json files as assets
  • Custom Inspector — Node stats, characters, variables, locale coverage
  • Graph View — Visual read-only dialogue graph with auto-layout
  • Playtest Panel — Run dialogues inside the editor with variable watch

See the Unity Editor Tools guide for detailed usage.

File Extension

Name your exported JSON files with the .talenode.json compound extension (e.g. intro.talenode.json). The ScriptedImporter only matches this extension — regular .json files are not affected.

Usage

After installing the plugin, export your dialogue as JSON (File > Export JSON), rename it to *.talenode.json, and drop it into your Unity project's Assets/ folder. The file is auto-imported as a TaleNodeDialogue asset.

Refer to the Engine Integration guide for runtime API details, or the Unity Editor Tools guide for the editor workflow.