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PN Scripts

Game dev tools

Tellstitch

by PN Scripts

Write branching dialogue in plain text files and run it in Godot 4: choices, conditions, variables, signals, a typewriter dialogue box and CSV translations, with errors reported by line.

  • Godot 4
  • GDScript
  • CSV localisation
  • Coming soon

Coming soon

Not published on its store yet, so there is no buy or download link. PN Scripts does not take payment for it here.

Game dev tools
A .tell dialogue script next to the same choice menu running in Godot 4.7.1

What it solves

The gap

Dialogue written as GDScript or nested resources is slow to edit and hard to translate, and mistakes such as a misspelled variable or a missing jump target only show up when a player reaches the line.

What it is

Tellstitch keeps dialogue in readable text files, checks them completely on load with line numbers, runs them through a small runtime and shows them in a ready dialogue box with translations from CSV.

How you use it

Writers edit plain text, programmers get signals and a clean runtime API, and translators get a CSV with stable keys.

For Godot developers who want writer-friendly branching dialogue with real conditions and localisation, without a node-graph editor.

Who it is for

Use it when

  • Shop, quest and companion conversations in an RPG or adventure game
  • Visual-novel style scenes where choices change variables and later branches
  • Games that ship in several languages and send dialogue to translators as CSV

Built for

  • Godot 4 developers building story-driven games
  • Small teams where writers and translators work alongside programmers

What is inside

Dialogue as readable text

A .tell file declares characters with display names and colours, variables with starting values and nodes that start with === name. Inside a node you write speaker: text, : narration and * choices, add [if coins >= 5] or [once] to options, branch with if/elif/else, change variables with set and move with -> node or -> END. Text can include {coins} or any expression and BBCode.

Mistakes caught on load

The parser reads the whole file and lists every error with its line: unknown variables, characters or nodes, duplicate nodes and keys, wrong indentation, an if without a colon, an unclosed brace. Warnings point at nodes nobody jumps to and variables nobody uses. The same check runs from the editor's Tools menu and from the command line.

A runtime and a dialogue box

TellRunner returns one event at a time: a line, a list of visible choices or the end. Your game listens to dialogue_signal for things like camera shakes or sounds, reads variables, registers functions such as has_item and saves the state with the rest of the save file. The dialogue box scene shows lines with a typewriter, names in colour and choices as buttons, and can be restyled with a Theme.

Translations from CSV

Lines and choices get keys from #key tags or automatically. A CSV with a column per language is loaded at run time or through Godot's own localisation settings, and {expressions} keep working inside translated text. The export tool writes the CSV for translators and keeps the translations of lines whose source text did not change.

Specs

Availability
Coming soon
Vendor
PN Scripts
Type
Plugin
Pricing
One-time purchase Price to be announced.
License
Proprietary
Deployment
Download (ZIP with the addons/tellstitch folder, example and docs)
Maturity
v1.0.0

Compatibility

Platform or runtime Supported versions Tested up to
Godot Engine 4.7 or newer 4.7.1

Stack

  • Godot 4
  • GDScript
  • CSV localisation

Tellstitch is coming soon

It is finished and tested. It is not on sale yet; this page will say where to get it when it is.

Coming soon

Not published on its store yet, so there is no buy or download link. PN Scripts does not take payment for it here.

Questions

A Godot 4 addon for branching dialogue: a plain-text script format with choices, conditions, variables, jumps and signals, a parser with line-numbered errors, a GDScript runtime, a themeable dialogue box with a typewriter effect, and CSV localisation.

Godot 4 with GDScript. It was tested with Godot 4.7.1 on Linux; other 4.x versions were not tested. No other addons are needed.

There is no visual graph editor, no voice-over or portrait system and no C# API; scripts are edited as text, and the dialogue box shows a name, text and choice buttons that you can restyle or extend.

It is written in GDScript. 32 headless tests cover parser errors, expressions, branching, variables, signals, save and load, localisation, the dialogue box and the example scene, and the built zip was installed into a fresh project with the plugin enabled. Created with AI assistance; the parser, runtime, dialogue box and localisation were checked by PN Scripts with 32 headless tests in Godot 4.7.1, an install of the built zip into a fresh project and screenshots of the example running in Godot.

It is not on sale yet. When it is, this page will link to the store; PN Scripts does not take payment on this site.