Planning screens and narrative checks

Planning is optional in schema 10. Start with a plain authored list for choices. Use entities for a roster, timeline for work, calendar for dates, islands for seats, ensemble for a conversation, and workspace only when controls need explicit positions. The neutral workshop under examples/workshop/game contains working definitions. The workspace recipes explain the larger layouts, and typed arguments and repeated calls the event arguments.

Start with a list #

A plain screen needs a title and entries. A label with do is an action; a label without an action is explanatory content. when hides a row. On a bounded action (an entry with bounds and do or destination), unavailable keeps it visible but refuses activation, and reason explains why. These two fields are not supported on plain list rows. Mouse, keyboard, scripts, headless sessions and saved-screen replay share the same activation check. An evaluation error refuses activation.

screens:
  workshop:
    title: Workshop
    entries:
      - label: Inspect kiln
        do: [{say: The kiln is cooling.}]
      - label: Work can resume after inspection.

Add a planning calendar, entities and activities only when the game needs these rules. An activity’s after refers to other activities and gates work. A reservation’s after refers to other reservations and gates scene selection; these are separate namespaces.

Scene dependencies without bookkeeping flags #

planning.schedule accepts optional after, exclusive and when. after lists reservation IDs whose events must already have started, recorded by the engine’s existing saved ran state. A dependent is not selected merely because its prerequisite was queued by the same dispatch. Call plan: {op: dispatch} again after the prerequisite returns. Normal execution runs each selected event in order. A recursive dispatch inside a prerequisite can see that event as started; this is not a promise that all its dialogue was read.

exclusive admits at most one reservation from the group on a calendar date, across phases and save/load. Authored order breaks ties. when is a pure expression; use public entity attributes for presence or other eligibility. False leaves a reservation pending. Expression errors roll back the whole dispatch. Existing schedules without these fields keep their behavior.

planning:
  schedule:
    - {id: arrival, phase: morning, event: arrival_scene}
    - id: inspection
      phase: morning
      event: inspection_scene
      after: [arrival]
      exclusive: visitor_scene
      when: entity.potter.present

gozen check rejects missing reservation references, dependency cycles, fixed dates outside the calendar, prerequisites fixed later than their dependent, and same-day dependencies in one exclusive group. Existing flag diagnostics still report flags never written or never read. Arbitrary conditions are not solved: the checker cannot prove general reachability, presence, or the order of dynamically indexed flag writes. Repeated dispatch plus a script is the runtime check for those conditions. An exclusive group chooses one event; it does not guarantee that every member eventually runs.

Optional character voice checks #

An actor may declare speech keyed by the game’s language. Without a matching language declaration, no dialogue is inspected. first_person, addresses and endings name preferred forms and explicit alternatives to flag. They do not rewrite lines. Address keys identify the author’s intended recipient; the check is lexical and cannot infer the addressee from narrative prose.

actors:
  potter:
    name: Potter
    speech:
      en:
        match: word
        first_person: {preferred: I, avoid: [we]}
        addresses:
          weaver: {preferred: Master, avoid: [buddy]}
        endings: {preferred: please, patterns: ['dude[.!]?$']}

word is the default and uses Unicode letter/number boundaries. substring is useful for languages without word spaces. RE2 patterns allow different language-specific rules, including endings anchored with $. Patterns match discouraged forms, not required ones: absence of a pronoun is not an error. GZN0123 is a warning. Quoted speech can legitimately match; review it manually. Only literal source lines with a known actor are checked. Dynamic speakers, text_expr, interpolated values and translated alternatives are not inferred.

Appearance and compatibility #

A plate presents information; a button acts; a ticket presents progress; a carousel groups bounded controls. Use the existing theme before adding individual colors. ui.material controls surface finish; ui.light controls a light surface palette; ui.tones distinguishes authored emphasis; ui.chrome controls decorative frames. Call and chat views require kind: ensemble. Call views require at least 640 by 360 logical pixels. Larger fonts can require more caption pages. Call control strings draw labels without implied icons; use {label: Leave, icon: leave} to request an exit icon and color explicitly. The unused view.door field was removed before release.

Material panels sample the current layer, including previously drawn panels and content. Overlapping panels therefore blur what is already behind them. Wallpaper is regenerated when its colors or strength change, and GPU resources are released on reload and close.

Saves and automation #

New saves record authored effort and calendar bounds. Values are validated against the saved effort before definition changes are reconciled. Without this metadata an old save must fit the current effort and calendar; out-of-range values are rejected rather than silently repaired. Definition additions and removals retain their existing reconciliation behavior. Checkpoint commands require schema 10. Carry values are filtered through the current allowlist on read, application and write, including when the allowlist becomes empty.

sim script retains every simulation tick and seed. Idle planning screens skip input-only geometry work. Capture preparation advances in bounded bursts before image sampling. These changes do not skip event waits or random draws. Web export has a separate four-worker ceiling and a 2 GiB estimated image-work budget, using 56 bytes per pixel. A source exceeding the budget remains in its original format. This is an estimate, not an operating-system RSS limit.

For complete card, flow, call and guide examples, see workspace recipes.