Config files
A narrat game needs various config files to function
Config files are all written in yaml by default, though you can also use json (this is not encouraged).
A narrat game needs a few config files to function: The main
config.yaml is where a lot of settings are configured, and characters.yaml is where the various characters that can speak in the game are setup. On top of that, there are config files for specific features (like items.yaml or skills.yaml).It is possible to put the config of those other files like
items.yaml directly in the main config.yaml, but this is not encouraged and will probably be deprecated in the future. The narrat template already comes with feature-specific separate config files, which is much easier to use and understand than a single giant config file.
There are example files available:
By default
config.yaml should be in public/data. If you want to change its position, edit src/index.ts to have the correct path to your new localisationTo manually setup config files to use with narrat, you need your code to call the
startApp function from narrat, passing it a config object that includes the path to config files:import "./css/main.css";
import { startApp } from "narrat";
window.addEventListener("load", () => {
startApp(
{
charactersPath: "data/characters.yaml",
configPath: "data/config.yaml",
},
{
debug: true,
logging: false,
}
);
});
The
config.yaml file is a yaml file which should already contain everything necessary if using the template, but some optional values can be omitted. For an example config file, look at the example configs pageThe various features and guides sections of this documentation can give more information about how to use each option.
Config files are validated by the engine. This means when running the game, the engine will show error messages explaining any missing or incorrect values in config files. This ensures configuration files are always correct.
There are many possible options in the config. They are not currently all documented, but the documentation for a specific feature often shows or explains the relevant config.
More advanced use: To see the exact definition of config files and their options, look in the config folder of the engine code. This is where all the possible config options are defined in a json-schema format. This is harder to read, but it is the actual source that defines the possible options in the code, and is likely to be the most up to date way of finding out possible options.
For example:
src/config/quests-config.ts
export const ObjectiveDataSchema = Type.Object({
description: Type.String(),
hidden: Type.Optional(Type.Boolean()),
});
export const QuestDataSchema = Type.Object({
title: Type.String(),
description: Type.String(),
objectives: Type.Record(Type.String(), ObjectiveDataSchema),
});
This quest config means a quest has the following properties:
- title: A mandatory string value
- description: A mandatory string value
- objectives: A key-value list of objectives defined in the ObjectiveDataSchema
Then, an objective config has:
- description: A mandatory string
- hidden: An optional boolean value
The engine follows this process for loading the config:
- Each config section has a default config. This default config exists to provide default values to options that don't need to be changed by default
- The engine loads the game's config files. Those are the files coming from the game itself
- Each default config is merged with the game's config so that whatever the game customised overrides what's in the default options
Additionally to
config.yaml, there is a separate characters.yaml file containing the config for all characters in the game.A character's config can have the following values:
name: The name the character will appear assprites: A key-value object of pose names to the url of the picture to use for that pose. Poses are used with the talk command (the commandtalk player idle "A sentence"would use the character "player" with the picture for the pose named "idle")style: An object to customise how that character looks with the following options:- color: a CSS color (ie. "red", or #FFF)
- boxCss: CSS style object for custom-styling of the box encapsulating a dialogue from that character.
- nameCss: Same as above, but the styling will apply to the name of the character specifically
- textCss: Same as above, but will apply to the text "spoken" by the character
Example character config file:
characters.yaml
---
config:
imagesPath: "./img/characters/"
characters:
game:
name: ""
color: white
player:
style:
color: orange
sprites:
idle: player.webp
name: You
cat:
sprites:
idle: cat_idle.webp
style:
color: white
name: Generic Cat
shopkeeper:
sprites:
idle: shop_cat.webp
style:
color: white
name: Shopkeeper
helper:
sprites:
idle: helper_cat.webp
style:
color: green
name: Helper Cat
music_cat:
sprites:
idle: music_cat.webp
style:
color: "#7f06e2"
boxCss:
background-color: red
textCss:
color: white
font-family: Comic Sans MS
name: Music Cat
inner:
sprites:
idle: inner_voice.webp
style:
color: red
name: Inner Voice
Last modified 7mo ago