Changelog

v0.15.0

New Features

Achievements

Achievements. A new Achievements editor section – Achievements, Tiers and Groups – defines the entries, their prestige rank and the sub-tabs the in-game tab is split into. The engine stores progress, scores the points, pops the notification and draws the tab, and registers nothing when a game defines no achievements.
Achievement progress API (game.progressAccolade). Scripts do the tracking: progressAccolade(id, delta), setAccoladeProgress(id, value), progressAccoladesByTag(tag) and setAccoladeTarget(id, n). Progress only ever rises, and the new accolade_completed emitter hands you the id and its points to pay out.

Content and DryadScript

choose_item action. Opens an item picker from content, filtered by id, category or tags, and stores the pick in active_item and the new chosen_item_id state. Branch on it with the new _chosen_item(id) condition.
Book reader (book trait). An item whose book trait names a scene becomes a paged reader – one paragraph per page, with a Read choice added to its card. Bookmarks persist per item in book_bookmarks, and {read_book: true} opens one from content.
Paintings (view_painting). An item with the painting trait can be looked at: the named asset goes full-screen with the item's description as the text. Leave the trait empty and the item id doubles as the asset id.
Key locks (key / key_consume). Rooms take these two fields and inventories take them as traits, so entering a locked room or opening a locked chest spends a key from the party bag. Scene-driven movement bypasses the lock, and the new key_used emitter reports what opened what.
Gather spots (collect_pool). A collectable can draw its item from a table instead of naming one, resolved through the new collectable_resolve emitter at dungeon creation. Prose on the @ line can use the new |title| and |description| placeholders for the item that was drawn.
Scene actor rail (panel_actor). Scenes list their cast in a rail opposite the party list, and clicking a face opens that character's viewer. {panel_actor: "alice, bob"} adds someone with no art on stage, hide_actor_list suppresses the panel for a beat.
_ability condition. Whether a character currently has an ability: _ability(alice.fireball) = 1. It reads the final set, so abilities from a status or an equipped item count.

Game API and emitters

Item discovery. game.discoverItem(id), game.isItemDiscovered(id) and game.getDiscoveredItems(), backed by an item_discovered emitter that fires once per item per save. Learning a recipe, finishing a book and viewing a painting each discover the item automatically.
Shadow dungeons. game.addShadowDungeon(id, { config, content, rooms, encounters }) defines a dungeon at runtime that the engine treats like an authored one, from raw DryadScript or a pre-parsed line array. Ids must start with an underscore, definitions persist in saves, and game.removeShadowDungeon(id) cleans up.
game.reorderParty(orderedIds). Reorders the party with no join or leave side effects, rejecting anything but the exact current members in a new sequence. Party order drives the character rail and the default battle roster, and players can now drag the rail themselves.
window.engine.popups. closeAll() drops the transient hover stack and closePopupsByKey(prefix) removes pinned cards too. Reach for it before opening a dialog of your own, since these cards paint above the modal layer.
status_apply_before emitter. Fires before any status lands, reapplies included – which status_added skips. Return false to refuse it, or mutate stacks, duration or source in place to change what lands.
Inventory and economy emitters. inventory_transfer_after is the post-mutation counterpart of inventory_transfer, and inventory_craft fires after a recipe is crafted. currency_change fires once per currency whenever a payment lands, negative when paid and positive when received.
quest_updated emitter. Fires after a quest log line lands, with (questId, goalId, result, dungeonId). The result tells a brand new quest from a goal that just closed one out, so you needn't track quest state yourself.
item_drop_render emitter and item.isDroppable(). Both discard affordances now ask the same two questions: isDroppable() is the engine's rule (equipped gear, quest rarity), the emitter is the game's own veto. It is a pure predicate that runs on every render, so listeners must only return.

Components and slots

Savelist and StatusCard exported components. Savelist is the engine's own save/load list, for a game-over screen that has to offer a way back. StatusCard is the full status card StatusBrick shows on hover, exposed to mount as your own popover.
Built-in Quest filter tab. The inventory filter bar ends with an engine-owned tab that collects every item of quest rarity, whatever category each one sits in. Games no longer need a Quest category of their own, and re-skin the tab through the .inventory-filter-icon-quest CSS class.
item-card-top component slot. Renders at the top of the item card body, above the description, for a readout that belongs beside the item's name. The existing item-card slot is unchanged and still renders at the bottom.

Authoring

Ability effect order and description_attach. order pins both the card's display order and the resolution order, lowest first, so a merged ability no longer inherits the order its modifiers were collected in. description_attach is free text under the effect name for behavior no aspect can express, and it runs through the text resolver.
Skill tree order. Sorts the tree tabs, lowest first, and decides which tree opens selected. Trees left on 0 keep the sequence the character was granted them in.
Dismiss and rename (dismissable, renameable). Two Essentials character traits that add a confirming Dismiss button and the inline rename control to the character sheet. Both hide under the new viewerMode prop, so a battle inspect popup can never delete a live combatant.
Recipe groups. A new Recipe Groups editor tab, a recipe_group field on each recipe and a group_recipes list on each inventory. Membership lives on the recipe, so a new recipe joins every station that lists its group by setting one field.
Developer-only ability fields (debug_info). Flag an ability definition and its raw value prints at the bottom of the card – but only in dev mode with Show Hidden Stats on. Works on meta and aspect roles, for tuning fields like AI weights that have no player-facing meaning.
Entity id badges on cards. Ability, item, status, stat, skill, tree and record cards now show the entity's id in a small monospace badge. Always on in the Engine Editor, and in-game behind the Show Hidden Stats dev setting.
Spine asset transitions and idles. Spine scene assets now take the same enter, exit and idle animation fields as images and videos. The enter transition waits for the skeleton to arrive, so it reveals the art instead of fading in an empty box.
Borrowed status icons. A status with no art of its own wears the icon of whatever applied it – the potion, the equipped item, or the ability that cast it. The source is resolved live through the new Status.displayImage, so re-icon the item and every existing save follows.

Engine Editor

Abilities picker. Character templates, statuses, item templates and skill slots gain an Abilities button that opens a visual picker where every candidate renders as the real in-game card. Filters come from the ability schema, and each card can copy its id or save and jump to it in Ability Templates.

RPG Battler plugin

Multi-wave battles (enemies2). A second enemy list spawns instead of victory once the first is wiped, and the party keeps its health, statuses and cooldowns. Scripts can pass start({ waves: [[...], [...]] }), and the new battle_wave_start emitter carries the wave index and incoming ids.
Support combatants (battle_support). A party member who joins every battle outside the party limit and acts from the sidelines as a floating portrait. They can never be targeted or damaged, so they drop out of targeting, splash, ally counts and the defeat check alike.
AI-driven party members (battle_ai). Hands a player-side member to the battle AI, which picks from that character's own kit. The trait is read fresh each turn, so a status carrying it takes control mid-fight and gives it back when it expires.
Battle roster traits (battle_ignore, battle_always). battle_ignore keeps a member off the battlefield entirely, for shopkeepers and pets who travel with you but don't fight. battle_always locks one into the picker, preselected and not toggleable.
Pre-battle party picker. A roster larger than the battle limit now opens a picker instead of silently taking the first N. start() returns { ok: false, reason: 'party_select_pending' } while it is up, and the Battle Config field max_party_size is now max_battle_units.
Unit caps (max_total_units, max_enemy_units). Two summon budgets in Battle Config: the player cap counts the whole battle including the dead, the enemy cap counts only the living, so summoners refill but never overflow. The new summonFromTemplate(templateId, side) service checks the cap before creating the character, and atUnitCap(side) exposes the same check.
Turn-order grace window (round_start_delay). Every round opens with a "Turn N starts" banner held for a configurable beat, default 1500 ms, with the camera pulled out. Initiative is already settled behind it, so the lineup is readable before anyone moves.
Multi-hit strikes (flurry). flurry: 3 hits the same target three times, re-resolving the effects only – no cost, cooldown or charge is re-paid, and armor is paid per strike. Reach for bounce instead when you want hops between random targets.
free_action aspect. The cast costs no action, so the caster acts again instead of ending their turn. It is per effect rather than in meta, so pairing it with chance gives a chance to act again.
Cast-baked stat bonuses (crit_chance, crit_multi, accuracy). Three effect aspects that add to the caster's own stats for the single cast carrying them. They fill a gap a self-applied status cannot, since a status lands after the damage loop and can only help the next cast.
lifesteal character stat. Lifesteal is now a stat every ability reads, so gear and passives grant sustain across a whole kit, with the effect aspect adding on top. Aspects sum across effects instead of the highest one winning.
reflect status and stat. A multi-stack positive status returning 1% per stack of the damage that reaches health, unmitigated and without consuming stacks. It is the mirror of thorns: reflect answers the wound, so a shield stops it, while thorns answers the blow and now fires through a full absorb.
Status splash (splash_statuses). Spills a percentage of the target statuses to the same neighbors splash_count reaches. It is independent of the damage share, so a pure crowd-control ability can splash with no damage at all.
summon_amount aspect. Spawns several copies of one template from a single summon effect, so the card reads "Summon 3 Slime". Each copy is checked against the unit cap before it is created, so an overflowing clutch spawns what fits and stops.
Passive obstacles (meta.prevents_action). A status whose holder forfeits every battle action while it is held, for obstacles and training dummies. They still take their turn slot, so DoT ticks, durations and turn emitters all fire.
battle_finished emitter. Fires the moment a battle is decided, every time including a re-fight, with (result, battleId). The Experience plugin's loot and XP now run from it, so a re-fought battle pays out where it used to pay nothing.
Battle service helpers. Four additions to rpg_battle: heal(targetId, amount, opts) pushes a raw number through the full heal pipeline, getSide(charId) answers player or enemy, and getNeighbors(targetId, count, includeSelf) returns the living combatants beside a target. getRoster(battleId) expands a battle into one entry per body across every wave.

Experience plugin

Smith station (smith action). {smith: true} opens a forge where level-stamped equipment is reforged upward or broken down for stones. New smith_upgrade / smith_break emitters veto either operation, and a smith service exposes smithableItems(), breakYield() and upgradeCost().
Environments (environment / environments). A new Environments config tab defines the game's own vocabulary, read by the environment dungeon trait and the environments item trait. The plugin's gather pool then draws only ingredients legal for the place.
Enemy dungeon-scale curve (enemy_scaling). Experience Config takes {level, coef} pins, read back through game.getService('reward').enemyScale(level). The plugin only publishes the curve – the game applies it where enemies are built, typically a stat computer.
Drop simulators (simulateBattleLoot, simulatePool). Two reward service calls that dry-roll loot into a throwaway inventory and grant nothing, twenty rolls by default. They run the same code a victory and a chest use, so what they report cannot drift from what the game drops.
Leave loot behind. Every party-loot brick on the reward panel gains a trash toggle, which marks the line and removes it again on continue. It respects item.isDroppable() and the game's item_drop_render veto, so protected kinds stay put.
reward-panel-bottom slot. The reward panel ends with a component slot, so a game can hang its own block below the rewards. Context arrives as props, so the component declares props: ['result'].

Turn System plugin

Stack bleeding (stack_bleeding). A status meta key that strips N stacks per adventure turn, oldest instance first, removing the status at 0. Reach for it where the stack count itself is the timer, so power and remaining time are one number.
A lot of bug fixes and improvements

v0.14.2

New Features

game.hasState(key). Whether a state key has been registered. getState throws on an unregistered key, so a base-game code path that reads a state a MOD registers had no safe way to ask. Now it does: game.hasState('mod_flag') && game.getState('mod_flag').
replay_mode_unlock_scenes state. Opens every gallery scene for replay, including ones the player never reached, and reveals their names. Defaults to false. Its existing companion replay_mode_unlock_choices ungates the choices inside a scene that is already unlocked.
game.closeMenu(). The counterpart openMenu() never had. Needed before opening a popup from a menu-before / menu-after slot: the menu paints above the popup layer, so a popup opened from inside the menu stays invisible until the menu closes.

v0.14.1

New Features

reset_character action. Rebuild a character from its template under the same id — a narratively fresh entity in the same role. Party membership is kept; statuses, resources, the private inventory and learned skills are discarded. When nothing with that id is live it creates the character instead, so one call guarantees a pristine character without the content having to know whether one exists yet.

v0.14.0

New Features

Inline choices (>). Attach a choice menu directly to a paragraph with >Label{...} lines — the buttons replace the normal "click to continue".
Hidden encounters (discover). @x{discover: "perception#6"} keeps an encounter invisible until any party member meets the stat threshold, then reveals it permanently
Action gates. Registered actions can now define a gate(value, ctx) that runs before a paragraph renders and before any of its actions fire; returning a scene id aborts the paragraph — its prose is skipped, its other actions never run, and the reader jumps elsewhere.
Choice hints (clue). Mark a choice {clue: true} and it renders highlighted until the player takes it. In map and screen dungeons the encounter holding an untaken clue glows on the map too, so players can see there's something here they haven't done.
Scene colour grade (grade). {grade: "night"} darkens and cools the world art — background assets, character art and the exploration map — crossfading over about a second, so daylight art can carry a night scene with no second painting. It follows the art wherever it is drawn, so a battle fought at night grades its backdrop and its fighters too. UI never grades: dialogue, choices, toolbar, and in battle the health bars, ability panel, turn order, floating damage and log all stay at full brightness. Presets cover time of day, weather and place, elemental and magical light, states of mind, and utility looks like sepia and greyscale — plus a #0.5 strength suffix and an object form for manual brightness/saturation/tint. Persists across rooms and saves until you clear it with {grade: false}.
Collectables. A new collectable encounter type: pick an item, place it on the map, and the player can collect it while on the map.
encounter_selected emitter. Fires when the player selects an encounter on the map or screen, so a script can act on the click itself with no choice to press. Return false to block the selection.
Dungeon name in the toolbar. The map toolbar now shows the current dungeon's name, and a spinner in its place while the dungeon's art loads.
Dungeon art preloads. Entering a dungeon fetches its background, fog mask and encounter images before the map is drawn, so it appears in one piece instead of popping in image by image. Each dungeon is warmed once.
Wait a turn (Turn System plugin). A Wait button in the map toolbar passes one turn on the spot: statuses tick, collectables regrow, and hidden encounters are re-scanned. Turn Config can show the turn counter beside it.
Skin-layer masks: targeting and clip-to-shape. A static layer's mask can now name which layers it applies to (mask_targets, empty = all below) and choose mask_mode: hide cuts a hole (existing behavior), keep clips the targeted layers TO the polygon — e.g. hair trimmed to fit under a hat.
Status-gated abilities (meta.require_status). An ability exists for a character only while they hold any of the listed statuses — hidden from the panel, sheet, battle and AI otherwise. Lives in meta, so modifiers (e.g. equipped items) can inject the gate at runtime.
Spine asset slot tints and removals. Spine scene assets take slot_colors (RGB multipliers × brightness per slot — values above 1 re-brighten dark base art, e.g. recoloring red-based hair) and slot_remove (hide a slot's attachment). Re-applied automatically after skin changes; scripts can inject both at play time through the asset_render emitter.
transfer_item action. Move items between inventories from content: {transfer_item: "gold#200 -> merchant"}. Source defaults to the party inventory and the transfer aborts cleanly when the source lacks the quantity — pair with {active: "_item_count(gold) >= 200"} for pay-to-play choices.
_item_count condition. How many of an item an inventory holds (party by default): _item_count(pickaxe) > 0, _item_count(chest.gold) >= 100.
_char(x.status.y) condition. The _char condition can now check whether a character holds a status: _char(mc.status.blessed) = 1.
Skin-layer visibility via attr. Simple show/hide layers no longer need a dedicated on/off attribute: when the key of an attr action is a skin layer id instead of an attribute, true/false shows or hides the layer — {attr: "mc.wings = true"}. Works in conditions too: _char(mc.attribute.wings) = true. On an id collision the attribute wins (a warning is logged at load).
Attribute order. Character attributes take an order field that sorts the attributes list and controls the segment order of multi-attribute skin-layer image keys (applied when the layer is saved in the editor).
game.setFlag(id, value). The flag setter is now on the public API next to getFlag (supports dungeon.flag scoping).
Battle opening statuses (RPG Battler plugin). The battle action takes a statuses list applied to every party member as the fight opens — {battle: {battleId: "bats", statuses: ["advantage"]}} for ambushes and similar setups.
item_view action. Show an item's card under the dialogue text: {item_view: true} for the active item (the one whose custom choice opened the scene), {item_view: "item_id"} for a party-inventory item; cleared when the event ends. Pairs with the bare |item| placeholder and no-item-id _item_on(char) condition, which now both resolve the active item.
max keyword for resources. Resource ops take max in place of a number, resolved per character to that resource's cap: {resource: "ane.health = max, ordelia.health = max"} is a full heal for the party. Works with every operator and on can_overflow resources, where a large literal would keep going instead of stopping at the cap.

Improvements

State markers +text+ / ++text++. Mark prose as the initial or altered state of a changeable thing — rendered as .initial (purple) and .altered (orange) spans, restylable from game CSS. Stray pluses like +43 health stay literal, and both markers highlight in the content editor.
Choice labels are now resolved. |placeholders|, **bold** and *italic* in a choice's label now render, the same as body prose.
Map encounters fade in and out when they show or hide, using each encounter's fadeTime / fadeOutTime.
Save restoration is declared, not called. game.registerSaveMigration('_core', {...}) at script-load time replaces calling the migration from a game_initiated listener — the engine merges every declaration and runs one pass itself on save load, before your listeners see the data. Mods and plugins register under their own id and the merge is restrictive, so a mod can widen coverage for its own content but a false or a skip from any source always wins. It covers every section it can touch — stats, traits, attributes, abilities, skin layers, spine views, static art placement, item slots, skill trees, learned skills, statuses and the four item sections — each taking true, false, { only: [ids] } or { skip: [ids] }. Sections nobody mentions follow mode: opt-out (the default) syncs them, opt-in skips them, so you can re-push one thing (say a recalibrated face crop, spine and static art) without disturbing the rest of the save. Item slots are repositioned as well as backfilled, so moving a slot on the doll in the editor now reaches old saves too.
A lot of bug fixes and inner improvements

v0.13.0

New Features

Item slot accepts — general vs character-specific equipment. A slot type can now list extra slot tokens it also admits, on top of its own id.
Item Categories — player inventory filtering. New Items > Item Categories registry (name + icon image + order) and a category field on item templates. The party inventory now shows a filter bar: a built-in All tab plus one tab per category (its icon, or the name as a chip when no icon is set) and a name search box.
Art Manager on items, statuses & skill slots. The visual Art Manager (spine/static art positioning, art_dx/art_dy/scale, face crop) is now available on Item Templates, Character Statuses, and Skill Slots — not just character templates.
Actor animation inherit. Scene actor slots now accept inherit on their enter, exit, and idle fields (the new default). When an actor moves to another slot, inherit keeps its current animation instead of resetting.
equip scene action. Equip and unequip items by live character and item ids: equip: "riko -> armor1 & ring1", riko -> !armor1 to unequip, riko.slot_type -> ring1 to target a slot type, !riko.slot_type to clear a slot, and !riko to clear all. Missing items/slots log a warning instead of breaking the scene. Prefer it over the uid-based equip_item/unequip_item.

Improvements

A lot of bug fixes and inner improvements

v0.12.0

Breaking Changes

**Content action {discover_lore: ...} renamed to {lore: ...}.

New Features

game.isOldSave() – Returns true when the loaded save was made on a previous (game + mods) version, false for new games or version-matched saves. Useful for retroactive migration hooks in game_initiated listeners (e.g. adding new slots / states / data to existing saves after a version bump).
[[item:id]] and [[status:id]] lore-link syntax. Narrative text now supports kind-prefixed lore links — [[item:lust_shift]] renders an item card on hover; [[status:fox_1]] renders a status card. Bare [[id]] continues to resolve to records (backwards-compatible). Custom labels ([[item:lust_shift>that pink shift]]) and the record: prefix work too. The ! discovery marker only applies to records.
Record parent_record field — layered, discovery-gated encyclopedia entries. A record can declare parent_record: "some_id" to attach itself as an addendum to that parent.

Improvements

item_slot content action — [x, y] is now optional. Coordinates default to 0, 0 when omitted. Lets text-based games (no character doll) add slots without dummy coordinates: {item_slot: "mc->outfit & collar & panties"}. The bracketed form charId.slotId[x, y] continues to work for games that position slots on a doll.
A lot of bug fixes and inner improvements

v0.11.0

New Features

RPG Battler – A lot of new features, better camera movement, difficulty settings.

Improvements

Game Settings – readable via getData – game.getData('game_settings') now returns the merged setting definitions keyed by id, so scripts can read a setting's values/options (e.g. to build a custom settings UI) the same way other data files are read.
A lot of bug fixes

Breaking Changes

Unified party action – join_party and leave_party are merged into a single party action. A bare character id joins, a !-prefixed id leaves: {party: "alice, !bob"}. Update any scenes still using the old action names.

v0.10.0

Breaking Changes

Text emphasis now follows standard markdown – *text* renders italic and **text** renders bold.

New Features

Multi-stack statuses – New multi_stack boolean on character_statuses. When true, each apply creates an independent instance with its own duration (DoT/poison-style). When false (default), reapply refreshes the single instance.
Status metadata bag – New meta field on character_statuses, populated from a new Characters → Status Meta editor tab. Plugins (and games) define their own metadata keys here (e.g. power_scaling, dot_damage_type, is_battle)
Per-instance source tracking – Statuses store an optional source field on each instance, captured from character.addStatus(status, { source: casterId }). Useful for reflecting damage back to the caster, attributing log entries, etc.
Status lifecycle emitters – status_added, status_removed, status_expired are now part of CORE_EMITTER_SIGNATURES. Listen for any status transition without polling.
save_load_before emitter – Fires with the raw save JSON immediately before deserialization. Listeners may mutate saveData in place to migrate old-shape data, or return false to abort the load. General-purpose primitive for game-side schema migrations.
Unified popover system – v-popover now drives every floating UI surface (status / item / stat / skill bricks, ability tooltips, record links, [v:status] references).
Stat breakdown popup – Hovering a stat now lists every status contributing to its value, grouped by the source(Base, equipped items, learned skills, other statuses).

v0.9.0

New Features

Save restoration – When manifest.version (or a mod's version) changes between saves, the engine can rebuild every character and every item from the current data definitions. See the new Advanced → Save Restoration doc.

Editor Improvements

Better Spine DX – Character/asset popups now show a Spine stats panel listing every animation and skin from the loaded skeleton.

Breaking Changes

Unified character canvas – Static and Spine characters now render into the same canvas shape.
Action consolidation – add_status, add_skin_layer/remove_skin_layer, and add_item_slot/remove_item_slot are gone. Replaced by three new content actions with a shared targetId->item & item, targetId->!item syntax (! prefix = remove):
- {status: "alice->buff1 & buff2, bob->!debuff"}
- {skin_layer: "alice->armor & helmet, bob->!cloak"}
- {item_slot: "alice->ring, bob->!belt"}

v0.8.0

New Features

New main screen – Cinematic per-game landing page with full-bleed background asset, glassy header, accent theming, ambient soundtrack, and a Continue/New Game buttons.
Visual Dungeon Content Editor – New popup editor on Dungeon → Config for authoring DryadScript without touching raw text or relying on Google Docs.
Lore & Encyclopedia – Author lore/tutorial records once, reference them inline as hoverable [[link]] tooltips (BG3-style stacking on nested links) and as a browseable Encyclopedia tab. Supports discover-on-encounter syntax ([[!id]]), custom labels ([[id>label]]), the {discover_lore} action, and progressive reveal via auto_discovery.
Multiple App instances – Saves now work correctly across multiple opened instances of the app.
HTML editor asset picker – The Insert Image popup now lets you search and pick any project image (with thumbnails) alongside the existing URL paste, and a new Insert Video button does the same for .mp4/.webm/other video assets.

v0.7.0

New Features

Mobile compatibility — Phones and tablets are now supported in landscape. Portrait orientation shows a full-screen rotate-device prompt.
Text dungeon overhaul — New text-dungeon layouts with a side column for custom components and a refreshed scene flow.
a lot of bug fixes and quality of life improvements

v0.6.0

New Features

staticFaceForce prop on CharacterFace — Forces spine characters to use face_static image instead of live spine rendering. Use in logs, sidebar, and turn order to save performance.
face_static_precedence trait — Per-character opt-in to prefer face_static over spine crop in CharacterFace.
Spine viewport controls — Background spine assets support dx, dy, and zoom viewport adjustments in the editor.
is_hidden status property — Statuses can be marked hidden from the UI via the is_hidden field.
Context-aware string resolution — game.resolveString() accepts an optional context parameter. New |stat(statId)| placeholder reads character stats from context.
game.getResolveContext() — Public API for accessing resolve context in custom placeholders.
Create Game from Template — New wizard in the editor (New → New Game) lets you create a game from a pre-made template in seconds. Pick a template, enter a name, and you have a working game ready to edit.
Ability Groups — New ability_groups editor tab under Characters. Assign abilities to groups via the group meta field. The RPG Battler ability panel and character sheet ability viewer render tabs per group. If no groups are defined, abilities display as a flat list.
getGroupedAbilities() — New Character API method that returns abilities organized by their assigned groups.
Experience Plugin — New engine plugin for XP and leveling. Characters with a level trait automatically gain a managed xp resource. Configurable progression formulas (linear/exponential percentage scaling), multi-level overflow, character_level_up emitter, _level(characterId) condition, {xp: amount} action, and XP bar UI in the character sheet.
RPG Battler Plugin — Turn-based RPG battle system with player-controlled party combat, ability groups, splash targeting, status durations, shared cooldowns, dynamic turn order, combat stats display, battle log service, defeated battle tracking, and more. See the plugin docs for full details.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where items could not be consumed.
Fixed broken character equipped item slots position
Fixed ability card effects without id being treated as new (golden outline) instead of core (yellow outline).

v0.5.0

Version 0.5.0

Improvements

Empty Paragraph Auto-Skip

Paragraphs that resolve to empty text after inline if{}/fi{} processing are now automatically skipped. The engine advances to the next paragraph without displaying a blank dialogue box.
This allows conditional paragraphs that produce no output (e.g., if{flag = 0}Optional text.fi{}) to be silently bypassed when the condition fails, without needing manual {redirect} workarounds.
Only triggers when both the output text is empty and no actions are attached to the paragraph.

Intro Scenes (`{intro: true}`)

Scene paragraphs can now use {intro: true} in params to play block 1 (column 1) only on the first visit. On subsequent visits, the engine automatically redirects to block 2 (column 2).
Useful for first-time introductions, name reveals, or one-time exposition that should be replaced by a shorter greeting on repeat visits.

Spine Character Dolls

Characters can now use Spine skeletal animations as an alternative to static layered images. Configure atlas, skeleton, and default animation in the character template's Spine section.
CharacterDoll component auto-detects spine config and renders the Spine animation – no component changes needed for game scripts.
Convention-based skin mapping – character attribute values are used directly as Spine skin names. Changing an attribute reactively updates the Spine skins.
New animation type for the char action: {char: "mc.animation=idle"} switches the playing animation from content without code.
Script API: character.setSpineAnimation(name), character.isSpineCharacter(), character.getSpineSkins().

Character Views

New Character Views system for rendering characters from different perspectives (back, side, etc.). Define views in Characters > Views, then tag skin layers or add spine_views entries on templates/statuses.
View-tagged layers are excluded from default rendering (scenes, portraits, galleries) and only appear when explicitly requested via the views prop on CharacterDoll or CharacterSlot.
Static and Spine rendering are independent per view -- a static character can have a Spine back-view, or vice versa.
Script API: character.isSpineForView(view), character.getSpineForView(view), character.getImageLayersForViews(views).

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where items could not be equipped.
{actor: false} now properly triggers exit animations before removing characters from the scene. Previously it cleared all actors instantly without playing exit transitions.

v0.4.0

Version 0.4.0

New Features

Consumable Items

Added first-class consumable item support. Mark items with is_consumable to enable one-time-use effects (potions, scrolls, buff foods).
Consumable fields: consume_duration (status duration, -1 = permanent), consume_max_stacks (stacking cap, -1 = unlimited), consume_percentage (% of max resource), consume_absolute (flat resource amount).
Consume order: apply status → percentage resources → flat resources → reduce quantity.
Same item type produces the same status ID, enabling automatic stacking via the existing status system.
Added item_consume_before / item_consume_after emitters. item_consume_before is cancellable (return false to prevent consumption).
Added item_consume_before / item_consume_after action script slots on item templates.
Added inventory.reduceItemQuantity(item, amount) helper method.
ItemCard tooltip now displays consume effects (restore/reduce) with color coding and duration.

Custom Vue Directives

Added v-persist directive for keeping images in browser memory cache. Prevents decoded image data from being evicted when elements are removed from DOM (e.g., panels using v-if). Usage: <img :src="iconPath" v-persist />. Cache holds up to 600 entries with automatic FIFO eviction.
Added v-fit directive that auto-shrinks font size so text fits within its container. Reacts to text changes and container resizes. Usage: <div v-fit>{{ name }}</div>. Supports { min } option for minimum font size.

Trait Merge Mode

Added is_merge flag to character trait schema. When enabled, trait values accumulate across statuses instead of last-wins. Merge behavior is type-aware: chooseMany deduplicates, array concatenates, schema deep-merges.

Stat Display Improvements

Added reduction_is_good flag to character stats. When enabled, indicates that reducing the stat is beneficial (e.g., cooldowns). When disabled (default), increasing the stat is beneficial (e.g., health, damage). Used mainly for UI coloring.
Added color field to resource stats. Hex color (without #) used for resource bar fill.
Added game.registerStatGroupResolver(resolver) method. Registers a function that receives a character and returns an array of stat tag names. The engine builds groups by filtering stats matching each tag, sorts by order, and resolves display names from locale key group.{tag}. Enables per-character stat group control (e.g., show breeding stats only for MC).
Removed character_stat_groups state. Replaced by the stat group resolver pattern above.

Ability Description Auto-Generation

Added ingame_description field to ability definitions (htmlarea, aspect role only). Template for auto-generating player-facing descriptions. Supports [v] for the aspect's value and [sibling_id] for other aspect values in the same effect.
Added ingame_description_ref field to ability definitions. Dot-path to the display name in fromFile-referenced data (e.g., "name", "traits.name"). Falls back to name, then raw ID.
Added game.buildAbilityDescription(abilityId, characterId?, isFlat?) method. Returns auto-generated description lines per effect, or flat if isFlat is true.
Added name field to ability template effects and ability modifier effects. Optional display name returned by buildAbilityDescription.

Ability UI Components

Added AbilityCard component for displaying detailed ability information with icon, name, cooldown, resource costs, description, and auto-generated effects.
Added AbilitiesViewer component for listing and selecting character abilities.

Engine-Level Locale System

Added native Locale tab under General in the editor. Locale entries have id and val fields, supporting |placeholder| syntax for dynamic content.
Added game.getLine(lineId, params?) method. Looks up a locale entry by ID and substitutes |placeholder| tokens with provided params. Returns [lineId] if entry not found.

Plugin Script Loading

Breaking Change: Removed automatic script loading from plugins. Plugins must now explicitly specify scripts to load via the scripts field in plugin.json. This enables proper ES6 module usage without double-loading imported files.

Data API

Changed game.getData() return type to any. Most paths return a Map, but plugin single-file configs return plain objects.
game.drawFromPool() now returns PoolDrawResult[] ({ id: string, quantity: number }[]) instead of flat string[]. Duplicate draws are stacked by quantity, eliminating manual counting loops in callers.

Editor Schema Field Improvements

Added "Hide empty" checkbox to both schema and schema[] field headers in the editor. "Hide empty" hides fields with undefined, null, empty string, or empty array values. The setting is global and persists across sessions.

Template Variants (`~N`)

Templates ($template_id) now support automatic random variant selection. Add numbered variants with ~2, ~3, etc. suffixes (e.g., $greeting, $greeting~2, $greeting~3). When |$greeting| is resolved, the engine picks one at random. No special syntax needed from the caller.

Component Registration API

Added game.registerComponent(name, component) method. Allows plugins to register reusable Vue components to window.engine.components.
Added game.getComponent(name) method. Retrieves a registered component by name(you can still access them via window.engine.components).

Settings API

Added game.getEngineSetting(key) and game.setEngineSetting(key, value) methods. Read and write engine-level settings (music_volume, sound_volume, font_size, typing_speed). Shared across all games, persisted to browser localStorage.
Added game.getGameSetting(key) and game.setGameSetting(key, value) methods. Read and write per-game settings defined in game_settings.json. Persisted in save files.

Narrative System

Added data-driven narrative composition system. Define slots (insertion points), states (matching conditions), tags (categorized value pools), and segments (text fragments with conditions). The engine selects the best-matching segment at runtime based on live game state.
Slots are referenced in any text with |@slotId| syntax — resolved inline through the standard text pipeline. Slots can nest other slots for hierarchical composition.
States support two modes: gate (hard filter — mismatch eliminates the segment) and identity (soft preference — match increases priority, mismatch ignored). Supported types: boolean, number, range, chooseOne, chooseMany.
Identity states with chooseMany use per-overlap scoring — each matching tag adds specificity independently, so a segment matching 3 of 5 tags ranks higher than one matching 1.
Selection pipeline: collect by slot → filter by gates → score identity → keep top specificity tier → anti-repeat (last 2 per slot) → weighted random → resolve content.
Added game.registerNarrativeState(id, evaluator) method. Registers a function that provides runtime values for state matching.
Added 4 editor subtabs under Narrative: Tags, Slots, States, Segments.
Added fromFileType: 'values' option for chooseOne/chooseMany schema fields. Reads item.values arrays instead of item.id — enables tag-based option lists filtered by category.

Plugin Documentation System

Plugins can now ship their own documentation.

Built-in Plugins

Added Auto Battler plugin — an ATB combat system with grid positioning, token-based status effects, AI decision-making, and autocast. Includes full documentation.
Added Gender & POV plugin — dynamic text substitution with two subsystems: POV (1st/2nd person) for the main character, and Gender (masculine/feminine pronouns) for NPCs.

Action Naming Convention

Breaking Change: All built-in action names standardized to snake_case. Renamed: joinParty → join_party, leaveParty → leave_party, createCharacter → create_character, updateCharacter → update_character, deleteCharacter → delete_character, addStatus → add_status, addSkinLayer → add_skin_layer, removeSkinLayer → remove_skin_layer, addItemSlot → add_item_slot, removeItemSlot → remove_item_slot, equipItem → equip_item, unequipItem → unequip_item, consumeItem → consume_item, addItem → add_item, learnRecipe → learn_recipe, choicesOver → choices_over.

Art Manager Improvements

Improved character Art Manager popup with game-accurate preview. Shows game padding zone and character-sheet boundary line scaled to rendered image size.
Art offset (art_dx, art_dy) is now draggable directly on the character image.

v0.3.0

Version 0.3.0

New Features

HTML Editor

HTML editor forms now support adding local images using relative paths (e.g., assets/games_assets/my_game/_core/images/icon.webp).

Template Validation

Custom Vue Components are now validated at registration time. Includes tag mismatch analysis to help find mismatched HTML tags.

Character API

Breaking: character.getStat(name) now returns a number directly instead of a reactive ref. If you were using character.getStat("health").value, change it to character.getStat("health").
Added character.getStatRef(name) for when you need the reactive ComputedRef (e.g., for watch())

Inventory API

Breaking: inventory.getCurrencyAmount(id) renamed to inventory.getItemQuantity(id)

Data API

game.getData(path, original?) now returns a deep copy of the data by default, making it safe to modify without affecting the source. Pass true as the second parameter to get the original data for better performance (read-only).

Random Pools

Added game.drawFromPool(entry, settings?) for weighted random selection using editor-defined pool entries with filters, entity groups, and multiple selection modes.
Added game.drawFromCollection(collection, settings?) for simple weighted draws from any array or Map without defining pool templates.
For more details see 'Random Pools' documentation.

Constant Properties

Properties can now be marked as constant (is_constant: true) in the editor.
Constant properties cannot be modified at runtime and are excluded from save files.
Use for game constants that modders can override (e.g., base stats, multipliers, config values).

Game Events

room_enter_before and room_enter_after events now receive dungeonId as a second parameter.

Localhost Development

Added standalone development server (dev-server.cjs) for running the engine in localhost mode without Electron.
Run npm run dev-server to start the data API server, then npm run start for the Vite dev server.

Docs

Added Dungeons API documentation.
Updated exported components documentation with grouped categories and detailed prop descriptions.

UI

Improved Character Sheet UI with flexible stat groups layout and resource bars for resource-type stats.

Bug Fixes

Fixed choices not appearing for text-type dungeons in scene mode.
Plugin array data is now converted to Map format in the data registry, consistent with other data types. Use getData("path").get(id) to access items.
Fixed resource values not clamping to new max when a status is removed and can_overflow is false.
Fixed plugin schema[] fields showing numeric indexes (0, 1, 2) instead of property IDs as field labels.
Fixed fromFileTypeAnd and fromFileTypeOr not working for plugin-generated forms.
Fixed file search not matching paths with Windows-style backslashes.

v0.2.0

Version 0.2.0

Breaking Changes

Character API

createCharacterFromTemplate() has been removed. Use createCharacter() instead, which now accepts both template objects and template ID strings.
```
// Before
game.createCharacterFromTemplate("npc_1", "npc_template");

// After
game.createCharacter("npc_1", "npc_template");
```

Item API

createItemFromTemplate() has been removed. Use createItem() instead, which now accepts both template objects and template ID strings.
```
// Before
game.createItemFromTemplate("iron_sword");

// After
game.createItem("iron_sword");
```

createInventoryFromTemplate() has been removed. Use createInventory() with optional second parameter instead.

// Before
game.createInventoryFromTemplate("shop_template");

// After
game.createInventory("shop_id", "shop_template");

New Features

Character API

createStatus() accepts both template objects and template ID strings.

// From template ID
const buff = game.createStatus("strength_buff");

// From custom object
const custom = game.createStatus({ id: "my_buff", stats: { strength: 5 } });

addToParty(), removeFromParty(), and deleteCharacter() now accept both Character instance and ID string.

game.addToParty("alice");       // Using ID string
game.removeFromParty("bob");    // Using ID string
game.deleteCharacter("npc_1");  // Using ID string

Changelog Viewer

Click on the engine version number in the main menu to view the changelog.

File Browser

Added "Clear Cache" button in file picker dropdown to refresh file list after adding new assets.
Added "Resources/File Browser" documentation page.

UI Improvements

Improved UI for the Editor Form Buttons.
Added key filtering for schema fields - filter input appears when schema is expanded.

Character Templates

added starting_statuses field to Character Templates Form for adding statuses on character creation.

Bug Fixes

File Browser

Fixed WebP auto-conversion triggering on typed search strings instead of only on selected files.

UI

Fixed UI styling issues when OS dark mode is enabled.