Unity Editor Tools¶

The TaleNode Unity package includes editor tools that let you view dialogue graphs, inspect assets, and playtest dialogues directly inside Unity. All editing is done in the TaleNode desktop app — the Unity tools are read-only.

Asset Import¶

Name your exported JSON files with the .talenode.json compound extension (e.g. intro.talenode.json). When you drop the file into your Unity Assets/ folder, the ScriptedImporter automatically creates a TaleNodeDialogue asset.

Regular .json files are not affected

The importer only matches the .talenode.json compound extension. Your other JSON files will continue to work as before.

Custom Inspector¶

Select any .talenode.json asset in the Project window to see the custom inspector:

Header — Dialogue name, version, total node count
Node Statistics — Count per node type with color-coded dots matching the desktop app
Characters — List of all characters in the dialogue
Variables — Name, type, and default value for each variable
Locales — Available locales with translation coverage percentage
Action buttons — "Open in Graph View" and "Open in Playtest"

Graph View¶

Open via Window > TaleNode > Dialogue Graph or the inspector's "Open in Graph View" button.

Control	Function
Dialogue field	Pick which `.talenode.json` asset to display
Locale dropdown	Switch displayed text to a different locale
Frame All button	Zoom to fit all nodes in view
Search field	Filter nodes by name or ID (non-matching nodes fade out)

Node Display¶

Each node type has a distinct color:

Type	Color
Start	Green
Dialogue	Blue
Choice	Yellow
Condition	Orange
Event	Purple
Random	Gray
End	Red

Nodes show a preview of their content:

Dialogue — Speaker name, emotion tag, and text preview
Choice — Prompt text; each option is a separate output port
Condition — Variable, operator, and comparison value
Event — List of actions (up to 3, then "...")
End — Tag name

Auto-Layout¶

Since exported JSON does not include node positions, the graph uses BFS auto-layout:

Start nodes are placed at the far left (column 0)
Each hop from start adds a column to the right
Condition nodes fan true/false branches vertically
Choice/Random nodes stack their options vertically
Orphaned nodes (not reachable from start) are placed at the far right

Nodes are draggable for viewing convenience, but positions are not saved.

Read-Only¶

The graph is view-only:

You cannot create new connections or nodes
You cannot delete existing connections or nodes
Positions are not persisted

To edit the dialogue, use the TaleNode desktop app and re-export.

Playtest Panel¶

Open via Window > TaleNode > Playtest or the inspector's "Open in Playtest" button.

Toolbar¶

Control	Function
Dialogue field	Pick which asset to playtest
Locale dropdown	Switch dialogue text to a different locale
Play	Start the dialogue from the beginning
Stop	Stop the current dialogue
Restart	Stop and restart from the beginning

Main Area¶

The left pane shows a scrollable dialogue log:

Dialogue lines appear as "Speaker: Text" with the speaker name in blue
Choice prompts appear in yellow
Your selections appear in green as "You: chosen option"
Events appear in purple with action details
End markers appear in red

When a dialogue line is reached, click Continue >>> to advance. When choices appear, click the option buttons to select.

Variable Watch¶

The right pane shows all variables with their current values. When a variable changes, its value highlights in yellow so you can track state changes in real time.

Graph Sync¶

If the Graph View window is open, the playtest panel highlights the currently active node with a yellow border and scrolls to it automatically. This lets you follow the dialogue flow visually as you playtest.

Localization Preview¶

Both the Graph View and Playtest Panel support locale switching:

Your dialogue must have locales defined (exported with locales and strings fields)
Select a locale from the toolbar dropdown
Node text updates to show the translated version
Untranslated strings fall back to the default text