World Items & possessions

One item identity, many story references

A World Item is a reusable story object with a stable UID, a name, localized description, imagery and initial state. Several Item cards or text aliases can identify the same item without creating duplicates.

A character can hold an item owned by someone else. Taking or giving possession does not automatically transfer ownership. Decide those changes explicitly when authoring the story and configuring runtime actions.

Create and describe the item

1. Open the Story’s Items & Possessions workflow, or create an Item Node from Make Node / the Quick Node Creator.
2. Choose an existing World Item or create a new library entry. Set its description, image and initial owner, possessor, environment and status.
3. Place Item cards where they help explain the scene. Cards share the library identity and remain separate from the execution chain.

Text aliases such as [key] can resolve to the item’s UID. Bind the alias to the intended library item; a matching GameObject name is not the binding. Item-card references also work without a bracket token.

Reference an item or change its state

1. Choose Reference or State Change on the Item card.
2. Click Attach and choose the target story node in the same scene. Escape cancels.
3. For a state change, open the dashed link’s label and configure the Node Links event in Items & Possessions.
4. For each affected field, retain the current value, set a specific value or clear it. Add the intended action and notes.

Reference attachments identify an item at a node without changing it. State-change attachments create an event owned by that attachment. Dashed cyan reference links and amber state-change links do not change story execution connections or timing.

Use a connected Dialogue, Action, Environment, Route, Character or End node for a state change intended to execute at runtime. Reference links can also point to editor-only media nodes, but those nodes do not run in game. Removing an attachment removes the event it owns; independently authored events remain.

Follow the chosen branch

Use Route State to inspect an item at a particular story node, starting from its initial state and applying eligible ancestor events. Branch choices and Pass flags determine which authored changes contribute to that state.

For example, one branch can give a key to the player while another leaves it in an environment. A later scene or Condition can query the resulting possession instead of treating every authored branch as if it happened.

Bind the physical object

1. Push the story scene into its linked SceneData.
2. Attach WorldItem to the item’s Unity GameObject and choose the SceneData and item UID.
3. Assign focus/interaction transforms as needed, then configure proximity input, a Ray Click event or another input source.
4. Configure OnReferenced, OnStateChanged and the specific item-action events to update the game.

World prompts support icons and optional text. Set icon visibility distance separately from maximum interaction distance. Configure how prompts behave when the item is possessed.

Connect item state to gameplay

These functions change narrative runtime state and invoke configured events. They do not automatically move, hide or destroy a Unity GameObject. Use the callbacks to attach a pickup to a hand, toggle a renderer, update an inventory UI, play audio or run an animation.

Use IsPossessedBy, IsOwnedBy, IsInEnvironment and related queries in Conditions or scripts. The optional World Item Runtime Manager exposes state and object queries by scene and item UID. Manager setup →

Choose the history view for the question

Authored history

Items & Possessions can show active-route events or all authored events. Excluded branches are labelled as skipped. Editing an authored event updates that history row; this is a chronological story-state view, not a log of every editor action. A reference alone creates no state-change history event.

Gameplay history

WorldItem.History records actual runtime item events and resulting state, including previous owner/possessor/location context. WorldItem.AuthoredHistory exposes the planned story history separately. Use the runtime view to answer what happened during play.

Save narrative progress and item state

Use InteractionSaveManager for narrative progression and runtime World Item state. It can restore item state without replaying the current item event. Use SaveManager for configured game objects/components and coordinate their slot and load order.

Plan how physical transforms, inventory presentation and generated UI are restored. Shared Condition variables are transient runtime data, so do not rely on them as your saved inventory. Verify taking, dropping, consuming, saving and loading in the target player build.

Reuse and share the authoring data

Select Item cards and their target nodes when copying or cutting to retain attachments. A card copied alone keeps the library item identity without linking back to original targets. Cross-story paste brings missing World Item definitions and maps selected references into the pasted graph; matching item UIDs are reused.

Templates can include attached Item cards, required World Items and their event assignments. Save/load, paste and template insertion remap targets into the destination graph. Use Undo/Redo for authoring changes and the normal push workflow for runtime SceneData.

HTML and Story Viewer exports present authored items, references and route-aware state. Browser presentation is read-only and remains separate from the live Unity gameplay history. Open Story Viewer →