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CSV Workflow for Dialogue in Dialogue System for Unity

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:06 am
by bremandel
Hello Tony,

We are a very small team focusing on visual novel making. I have been using an asset called Utage for our visual novel, but our team is also interested in exploring the possibilities of creating a point-and-click platformer with minimal technical demands. We would like to branch out beyond the genre of pure visual novels, but we are limited by our very basic knowledge of programming and Unity in general. Therefore, we are considering purchasing the Dialogue System for Unity to assist in our production.

We have been almost exclusively using Excel with Utage for our production, and it has been working great. While I know we need to learn a bit about the Unity interface if we are to transition away from Utage, I am wondering whether it is possible, and to what extent, to rely solely on CSV for script or dialogue writing—especially for our creative writing teammates who do not have any technical understanding of the Unity interface, as CSV is really hassle-free for them.

I have read the documentation on importing and exporting CSV for dialogue in the Dialogue System for Unity, but I am still uncertain about the complexity involved in writing dialogues—especially for long strings of dialogue without interactive elements, which is quite common in visual novels—directly in CSV and reimporting them into Unity afterward.

I am particularly curious whether it is possible to export a simple or "blank" CSV containing all the necessary attributes or formatting for the Dialogue System for Unity, and then reimport it with potentially long strings of dialogue that our teammates draft using CSV. Would the workflow be straightforward? Thank you very much for your advice in advance!

Re: CSV Workflow for Dialogue in Dialogue System for Unity

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:13 pm
by Tony Li
Hi,

The Dialogue System can import CSV for linear conversations. It can also import from a simple custom text format that Mografi designed for Jenny LeClue - Detectivu and used with Google Sheets. And it can import from several other authoring applications such as Twine, Yarn, articy:draft, Arcweave, and more. Please see: Import & Export.

You can also write your own importer by duplicating ConverterWindowTemplate.cs, renaming it (e.g., UTageImporterWindow.cs), and filling in your import code where the comments indicate.