DDSL, a Godot plugin for scripting dialogues

DDSL is a dialog manager plugin for Godot 4.6+, using a scripting language integrated with the GDScript system for dialogs

The plugin is primarily published on the Godot Asset Store and its sourcecode is available on Github

Features

• Integration with GDScript, including native calls to built-in methods
• Operator overloading possible within the DSL
• Unboundedly nested branching options without forced use of `goto` statements
• Programmer-first dialog writing
• Simple custom UI interface

Basic usage

Dialog scripts can be created anywhere within the game's project folder. For this, create a text file, and end it with `.ddsl`, then fill it with the dialog, for example

edwin = ^"res://sprites/portraits/edwin.png"
edwin: "Hello, little rover. Are you lost?" { autoconfirm = true }
<- option
- "Yes"
    edwin: "Oh, well, we can't have that here. Come, follow me"
    Cutscenes.trigger("edwinTavernWalk")
- "No"
    edwin: "Are you sure? Well, then... Hope this helps you in your journey"
    Inventory.add("potion/health2")
    edwin: "If you need me, you can find me in my tavern"
- "Kill all humans" ? Inventory.has("weapon/knife") # this branch is not created unless the player has a knife
    edwin: "Why, why, so aggressive! And here I thought you were a friendly little roomba!"
    edwin: "I say, you shouldn't have this"
    Inventory.remove("weapon/knife")
    edwin: "Are you even old enough to have a knife? When were you born?"
    age <- number(1980, 10000)
    ? Time.get_time_dict_from_system()["year"] < age
        edwin: "A time traveller too? I find it hard to believe."
    edwin: "I think you should come with me"
    Cutscenes.trigger("edwinTavernWalk")

Information about the domain-specific language can be found on the Github Wiki

Once a dialog file is created, it can be executed in-game in two primary ways

# Note that there is no default dialog box provided so Dialog will error during execution if one is not explicitly set
Dialog.setBox(someDialogBoxScene)
# The main way the dialogs can interact with GDScript is via explicit object bindings
# Global bindings are permanent between all dialog calls
Dialog.bindGlobal(InventoryManager, "Inventory")
# This will start the dialog without blocking current execution, executing _dialog_callback after the dialog finishes
Dialog.start("res://path/to/dialog.ddsl", _dialog_callback)
# Current execution will be paused for the duration of the dialog
# `value` will be assigned to a dictionary containing all variables created during script execution
var vars = await Dialog.start("res://path/to/dialog.ddsl")

Full usage instructions can be found in the Github Wiki

Documentation

The documentation for the plugin is hosted on the Github Wiki of the repository