Dialogues

The Dialogue Editor lets you create interactive conversations between characters and the player. Dialogues consist of lines (spoken text or narration) and options (player responses) connected in a visual conversation graph.

Dialogues can branch, react to player choices and trigger logic such as events, variables or item changes. They can belong to a scene, a chapter or the whole story.

The Dialogues panel lists dialogues available in the current scope. Each dialogue represents a conversation that can be triggered from a scene or event.

Multiple dialogues can exist within the same scene. For example, you might create separate dialogues for:

• Talking to different characters
• Inspecting objects
• Repeating interactions after story progress

Each dialogue can be edited independently. Story and chapter dialogues can be reused across several places, while scene dialogues stay local to one scene.

Dialogue scope determines where a dialogue belongs.

• Scene: Use this for conversations that only make sense in one location.
• Chapter: Use this for conversations that can happen anywhere inside one chapter.
• Story: Use this for conversations that can happen throughout the whole story.

This is useful for phone calls, companion chats or repeated interactions that should not be tied to one room or background. The same conversation can feel different in a rainy forest than in a cozy inn, while still sharing the same dialogue structure.

You can combine scoped dialogues with conditions to show different options depending on the current scene or story state.

Dialogues are built using a visual node graph.

Each node represents part of the conversation:

• Blue nodes: The starting line of the dialogue
• Dark nodes: Regular dialogue lines
• Option nodes: Player response choices
• Green nodes: Dialogue endings

Nodes can be moved freely and connected by dragging from one node to another. The graph updates automatically as you add or remove elements. Use automatic arrangement to produce a clear initial layout for branches and paths that reconnect, then adjust individual nodes as needed.

For large conversations, the minimap helps you navigate the dialogue structure.

Dialogue lines represent text spoken by a character or narrated to the player.

Each line includes the following fields:

• Text: The dialogue or narration displayed to the player.
• Audio (optional): A voice clip or text-to-speech file.
• Speakers: Characters visible during this line.
• Active Speaker: The character currently speaking.
• Character Position: Determines where characters appear on screen, including direct horizontal and vertical offsets and portrait layering.
• Scale (optional): Adjusts the visual size of the character sprite.
• Flip: Mirrors the portrait horizontally or vertically.

A dialogue line can include multiple speakers, allowing several characters to appear at once while one is marked as the active speaker.

Lines automatically continue to the next connected node unless the conversation branches into player options.

Default-style dialogue lines can define an animation for the active speaker. The animation runs when the line becomes active. It does not apply to inactive speakers.

Available values:

• None: No line animation.
• Emphasis: A short scale pulse.
• Shake: A short horizontal shake.
• Tremble: A small jitter.
• Recoil: A quick backward jolt that returns to the original position.
• Bounce: A vertical bounce that returns to the original position.
• Sway: A side-to-side motion that returns to the original position.
• Flash: A brief tint flash that restores the normal tint.

This setting is available only for the default dialogue display style. Chat, phone call and terminal dialogues do not show this setting.

Position and scale changes are configured separately in speaker settings. Those changes affect portrait placement between lines. Line animations are one-shot effects on the current line.

The default dialogue style supports ongoing effects for speaker portraits. These effects remain active while the portrait is displayed, unlike line animations, which run once when a line becomes active.

Available effects:

• None: No ongoing effect.
• Glitch: Intermittently changes the portrait's position, tint, opacity and scale.
• Pulse: Changes the portrait's scale at a regular rhythm.
• Breathe: Applies slower, more subtle scale changes.

Speaker effects are available only in the default dialogue display style.

Dialogue options connect a line to one or more possible paths. They can be configured as manual choices or automatic branches.

A manual choice contains:

• Text: The response shown to the player.
• Remember: When enabled, the choice is stored automatically so it can be referenced later in the story.
• Name of the Choice (optional): A unique identifier used when referencing the remembered choice.
• Conditions: Rules that control when the option is visible.

Options allow you to build branching conversations and context-sensitive responses.

For example:

• An option can appear only if the player owns a specific item.
• A response can disappear after it has been chosen once.
• A special dialogue path can unlock after a previous choice was remembered.

A dialogue line can continue through manual choices or automatic branches.

• Manual choices are displayed to the Dreamer. They require player-facing text and wait for the Dreamer to select one of the available options.
• Automatic branches are evaluated without showing a choice. Player-facing text is optional; an editor-only branch name can be used to identify the path in the graph.

Use the Order setting to control how manual choices are displayed or how automatic branches are evaluated. Manual choices and automatic branches maintain their order separately.

Dialogues integrate directly with Talescape’s logic systems.

• Conditions determine whether a line or option is visible.
• Events define what happens when a line appears or when a choice is selected.

Through events you can:

• Change variables
• Give or remove items
• Unlock achievements
• Trigger other gameplay systems

This allows story progression and gameplay logic to be handled directly inside conversations.

Connections between nodes define the flow of the conversation.

You can:

• Create links by dragging from one node to another
• Delete links by selecting the connection
• Move nodes to organize the dialogue layout

Options automatically create branches, allowing multiple possible paths through the conversation.

Green nodes mark dialogue endings, where the interaction concludes and control returns to the scene.

Dialogues are typically triggered from a scene element, such as interacting with a character or object. They can also be triggered by broader chapter or story logic when the dialogue scope allows it.

A single scene can contain multiple independent dialogues, allowing different interactions depending on what the player chooses to do.

Dialogues can also use their own background. This is useful for presentation layers such as a phone overlay, where the conversation should appear on top of the current scene without replacing the whole location.

Dialogues support multiple display styles. The style changes how the same dialogue logic is presented to the player without requiring a separate system for each format.

Available styles include:

• Default: The standard Talescape dialogue presentation.
• Chat: A message-like format for text conversations.
• Phone Call: A focused call presentation for remote conversations.
• Terminal: A command-line inspired style for computer, system or console exchanges.

Use dialogue styles when the conversation format is part of the story's presentation. The dialogue still uses the same lines, options, speakers, conditions and actions.

The Layer setting controls where a default-style dialogue is placed relative to the scene:

• Foreground: The dialogue background and characters appear in front of the complete scene.
• In scene: The dialogue is rendered as part of the scene and is affected by scene lighting and atmosphere. If the scene has a foreground image, that image appears above the dialogue.

The Layer setting applies only to the default dialogue display style.

The Dialogue Editor can show the selected line or option in a live preview while you edit it. The preview supports default, chat, phone-call and terminal dialogues.

Use the preview to:

• select and navigate between lines and options
• create a new line after an option
• add a new option to the current line
• check speaker placement and the selected display style while editing

When you navigate away from a line or option with unsaved changes, choose whether to save or discard those changes. A new line created from the preview inherits the speakers from the preceding line.

• Keep dialogue lines concise and readable.
• Choose the narrowest scope that fits the conversation.
• Use multiple speakers to create more dynamic conversations.
• Choose a display style that matches the conversation format.
• Use conditions to make options appear only when relevant.
• Use remembered choices to track important decisions.
• Ensure every branch eventually reaches a dialogue ending.
• Test dialogue paths in Story Preview to verify logic and flow.

Well-designed dialogues form the emotional and structural backbone of interactive stories. They are where characters express themselves and where player choices shape the narrative.