Nexus Forge

A headless modular toolset plugin for Godot

Important

Alpha State: The plugin is functional, but APIs, class names and GUI layouts will likely undergo breaking changes before the Beta release. Use this for testing, evaluation, or as a bold choice for an early-stage project. Expect bugs.

This began as a personal tool, so it includes a few specific static helper classes tailored for my own workflow.

Warning

No Undo/Redo yet: Nexus Forge does not currently implement an Undo/Redo system. Actions taken in the editor cannot be reversed via Ctrl+Z.

Contents

• About
• Installation
  • Compatibilty
  • Reserved Classes
  • Installation Steps
• Features
  • Utility Classes
• Documentation
• Roadmap

About

Nexus Forge is a modular toolset designed to create and handle the creation and processing of data (dialogues, characters, items, etc.) through easy-to-use interfaces and remain UI-agnostic in-game by making use of built-in and custom signals.

This project was born out of the frustration that many plug-ins came with their own interface and were often difficult to customise, limited in its features or bloated with nodes that although weren't going to be used, were required in the scene.

At first it was a script-only solution for my personal projects and I eventually made a game editor. As I started to put more effort into it, I decided to make it into a proper plug-in and release it in hopes it can help others that suffer from those same frustrations.

I hope this can help you build your games and improve your workflow as much as it has done for me!

Installation

Compatibility

• Engine: Godot Engine 4.4+
• Resolution: The editor GUI is designed for a 1920x1080 resolution. Smaller resolutions are supported but will trigger scrollbars.

Reserved Classes

Nexus Forge makes use of several class names. Make sure you have them available before installing.

Installation Steps

1. Download the latest build or the a copy of the main branch.
2. Extract the zip file and extract the addons/nexus_forge folder to your project's res://addons directory.
3. Go to Project → Project Settings → Plugins and enable NexusForge
4. (Optional) Go to Project → Project Settings → General and in the Nexus Forge category configure the plugin. For more information go to the Config Section of the wiki.
5. Restart Godot/Reload your project to ensure the plugin is working correctly

Features

• Create rich dialogs through an easy-to-use graph-node based editor with text parsing, localization capabilities and more.
• Manage globally-accessible data with a folder/file-like structure.
• Create and manage complex character sheets to use anywhere.
• Make items with custom rarities, values, flags and integrate them into customizable crafting recipes.
• Create custom currencies with different values to develop a multi-currency system (DnD inspired).
• Create multi-branch quests and let the plugin log and handle it's progression.
• Multiple utility classes to manage data with less boiler-plate.
• The plugin makes use of signals so you don't need to compromise with an UI. The plugin handles the data, you handle the display.
• And more!

If you wish to get a more detailed overview of the modules, head to the wiki.

Documentation

• Built-in (F1): All custom classes include manually written documentation accessible directly inside the Godot editor's F1 help menu.
• GitHub Wiki: Setup instructions and guides are available on the Wiki.

Note

The wiki was initially AI-assisted but manually reviewed. A full rewrite is planned for after the Beta releases and the API stabilizes).

Roadmap

Features that are planned to be implemented in the future:

Alpha:

• Core: Skip instantiating singleton modules based on editor modules enabled
• Discourse: Use your own scene to test dialogs
• Depot(Items): Allow for name & description to be formatted using Blackboard's variables on settings.
• Odyssey(Quests): Allow for title & description to be formatted using Blackboard's variables on settings.
• Kindred(Species): Hybridization system.
• Odyssey(Quests): Modding API.
• Core: Fix all the critical bugs and stabilize the API, making the plugin usable on projects.
• Release Beta.

Beta & Beyond

• On Release: Publish on Godot's Asset Library/Asset Store
• Core: UndoRedo for all modules
  • Discourse (Dialogs)
  • Blackboard (Variables)
  • Persona (Characters)
  • Kindred (Species)
  • Talents (Skills & Traits)
  • Depot (Items & Currencies)
  • Blueprints (Recipes)
  • Odyssey (Quests)
  • Phrase Maps
• Core: Implement an automatic mod loader
• Discourse: Import/Export CSV files for localization
• Github Wiki: Rewrite the Wiki and include examples using screenshots/gifs
• GUI: Improved GUI for smaller resolutions

And more! ... maybe

Modding

All core data APIs are exposed at runtime, allowing developers to easily implement modding. A mod loader would automatically scan a defined directory and apply all changes from mods.