# Editor Tools — making scenes and scenarios inside the running game

Editor Tools are the author's windows that open over the running game: the scene editor, the scenario editor, editors for the world map, interactive objects and lights, a builder of Godot scenes and the catalog export of a mod. Everything they save is ordinary mod files, and the game picks the change up at once, so an author writes a place, walks into it and plays it without restarting.

Compatibility package: the seven windows now live in their own mods (`scenario_editor`, `scene_editor`, `scene_builder`, `map_editor`, `interactive_editor`, `light_editor`, `catalog_export`). Shared forms and files are in `tools_base`, scenario services in `scenario_tools_base`. All windows open from the in-game toolbar; no title-screen buttons are added.

## Opening the tools

In a game, the hammer button on the toolbar opens the tool box:

![The toolbar of the novel template with the hammer pressed and the tool box open: Export Catalog Entry, Interactive Editor, Light Editor, Map Editor, Scenario Editor, Scene Builder, Scene editor.](assets/toolbox.jpg)

- All seven windows are in the tool box: **Scene editor**, **Scenario Editor**, **Map Editor**, **Interactive Editor**, **Light Editor**, **Scene Builder** and **Export Catalog Entry**. Other tool mods add their own entries there (the item, character, RPG map and object editors, the Data Editor).
- The **scenario editor** also opens from the scene editor: select a scene, pick one of its scenarios and press **Open**, or **+ New scenario**.

The windows stay open across scene changes, can be moved and resized, and close with the cross.

## A whole small edit: a new place

The novel template has a town, a bar and a home. Here an author adds a park that can be reached from the town, using only the editors.

**1. A new scene.** In the scene editor press **+ New scene**, type the name, choose the mod to save it to and add a background:

![The scene editor: the scenes my_novel_bar, my_novel_home and my_novel_town of my_novel_game on the left; in the middle the background home/vestibule added to the scene; on the right Name my_novel_park, Save to my_novel_game, Sound none, Default scenario none.](assets/new-scene.jpg)

Save (Ctrl+S) writes `scenes/my_novel_park.json` into `my_novel_game`; the game knows the scene at once.

**2. Its scenario.** **+ New scenario** opens the scenario editor with a file for the scene. The park offers one way back:

![The scenario editor with my_novel_park.scenario: scene my_novel_park, priority 10, the narration "A quiet park behind the town. Wet leaves, an empty bench.", the choice "What next?" with "Back to the town" leading to switch_scene my_novel_town.](assets/park-scenario.jpg)

**3. A way there.** In the town's scenario one answer and one label are added:

![The scenario editor with my_novel_town.scenario: the choice "Where to go?" now has the answer "Go to the park" -> :park, and the label :park does switch_scene my_novel_park.](assets/town-scenario.jpg)

```scenario
option "Go to the park" -> :park

:park
switch_scene my_novel_park
end
```

Saving a scenario drops the game's scenario caches, so the next entry into the town plays the new text.

**4. Play it.** **Go to scene** in the scene editor, or simply playing on, enters the town, and the new answer is there:

![The town in the running game: "Where to go?" with Go into the bar, Go to the park, Go back home.](assets/town-choice.jpg)

![The new park after choosing Go to the park: "What next?" with Back to the town.](assets/park.jpg)

## The editors

- **Scene editor** — the places of a novel: name, the mod to save to, backgrounds (one is picked at random on entry), ambient sound with a listen button, the default scenario and the scene's scenarios. **Go to scene** ends the running dialog and enters the scene.
- **Scenario editor** — the files of every mod, a summary and a graph of scenes and transitions; DSL highlighting; Ctrl+S saves; **Play** (F5) saves and plays the scenario inside the running game, and Stop returns to where the game was; **Open in external editor** opens the file in the system's editor.
- **Map Editor** — the zones of the world map.
- **Interactive Editor** — clickable objects of the current scene.
- **Light Editor** — the lights of the current scene.
- **Scene builder** — Godot `.tscn` scenes for mods.
- **Catalog export** — packs a mod into a zip and writes its entry for a mod catalog with checksums.

The Validator checks cross-mod references. Modal scenario saving does not perform a full Validator pass. With `npc_barks_base` loaded, invalid ambient programs and ambient patches are refused before saving; the status line reports the compilation error.

## Whose files are written

The tools write only into mods installed as folders. A scene is the sum of the `scenes/<name>.json` files of all mods, so the scene editor writes the file of the mod chosen in **Save to**. Changing a scene that belongs to another or a packed mod creates a file in your mod that adds to it; backgrounds that come from other files are shown locked. Scenarios are saved in the mod they belong to.

## If something goes wrong

1. **The hammer button is missing.** The game does not include the tools; add the Developer Tools toolset in its collection or run with `--with-mods=editor_tools`.
2. **A new scenario does not play.** Its header names another scene, or another scenario of the scene is chosen first (compare their `priority`).
3. **Save to lists no mods.** Only mods installed as folders can be written to.