Bark Dialogue

Bark dialogue (also called ambient dialogue) is short, context-sensitive lines that characters speak outside of the main dialogue tree. Think of NPCs muttering as you walk by, guards commenting on the weather, or shopkeepers calling out to passersby.

Overview

Barks are attached to characters, not to the node graph. Each character can have a list of bark lines with optional weights and conditions. At runtime, your game engine picks a bark line based on weight and condition state.

Managing Barks

Open the Barks panel via View > Bark Dialogue in the menu bar. The panel appears as a dockable tab.

Selecting a Character

Use the Character dropdown at the top of the Barks panel to choose which character's bark lines to edit. Only characters defined in the left panel appear here.

Adding a Bark Line

Click + Add Bark to create a new line. Each bark line has:

Field	Type	Description
Text	String	The bark dialogue text
Weight	Float (0.0–10.0)	Selection probability weight. Higher = more likely
Condition	String (optional)	Variable name that must be truthy for this line to play

Editing Bark Lines

• Text: Click the text field to edit the line
• Weight: Use the drag slider (0.0 to 10.0, default 1.0)
• Condition: Enter a variable name. If set, this bark only plays when that variable is truthy at runtime

Removing a Bark Line

Click the X button next to a bark line to remove it.

Bark Selection at Runtime

Your game engine should:

1. Filter bark lines by condition (skip lines whose condition variable is falsy)
2. From the remaining lines, select one randomly using weights

For example, if a character has three bark lines with weights 2.0, 1.0, and 1.0, the first line plays ~50% of the time and the others ~25% each.

Export

JSON Export

Bark groups are included in the JSON export when characters have bark lines defined:

{
  "barks": [
    {
      "character": "Guard",
      "lines": [
        { "text": "Move along.", "weight": 1.0 },
        { "text": "Stay out of trouble.", "weight": 1.0, "condition": "is_night" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The barks array is omitted entirely when no characters have bark lines.

CSV Export

Export bark lines as a CSV file via File > Export Bark Dialogue (CSV).... The CSV format:

Character,Text,Weight,Condition
Guard,Move along.,1.00,
Guard,Stay out of trouble.,1.00,is_night
Merchant,Fine wares for sale!,2.00,shop_open

This format is useful for spreadsheet review, voice actor scripts, or importing into external tools.

Tips

Tip

Use weights to control bark variety. Give common greetings higher weights and rare remarks lower weights.

Tip

Conditions let you make barks context-sensitive. A guard might say different things during day vs. night by using is_day and is_night condition variables.

Tip

Deleting a character from the left panel also removes all their bark lines.