zomg i so tired again. good ol 8 till 5 of hard coding. the entire point of a dialogue editor and map editor is to help facilitate community driven stories. And obviously, a part of that would be mods. So im putting in modding directly into the application. I build the skeleton and the UI for users to create a mod directory, put in sprites or sprite sheets, chop those into cells and those cells will have JSON data tied to them. EVERYTHING is date driven now (or soon will be).
I want to get this part done as fast as possible, so i may take a nap and then go and try to work through the night. See what happens, i am a lazy boi after all.
here is chat boi to give you a breakdown on what we implemented today.
Dev Report — Sprite Sheet Authoring & Mod Pipeline Progress
Focus: Runtime content authoring + mod-safe export pipeline
Status: Core loop functional, UI stabilization in progress
What shipped today
1. Runtime Sprite Sheet Authoring Tool (WIP)
JSON-first authoring (Unity is renderer/executor only)
Sessions load/save at runtime (no editor dependency)
Entries represent data only (id, name, rect, type)
Immediate mutation model with rehydration (no Apply button)
2. Grid-based Sprite Slicing
Grid cut supports:
Cell width / height
X/Y cuts
X/Y padding (for spaced sprite sheets)
Grid slicing logic moved out of UI → dedicated service
UI now only parses inputs and dispatches intent
3. Mod-Safe Export System (Runtime)
Export root lives in:
Application.persistentDataPath/Mods/_ExportsIn-game folder browser (no OS dialogs, no editor APIs)
Can:
Create export directories
Select export directory
Persist selection per session
Export path is logged and fully deterministic
4. Content Registry (JSON SSOT)
Generic ContentRegistry with:
Deterministic load order
Base + override folder support
ID-based override semantics
Shared data shape for tiles / walls / overlays
Schema-sniffing groundwork in place (type-safe without hardcoding)
5. UI State Hardening
All controls start interactable = false
Interactivity now derives strictly from state:
Has session
Has export directory
Has selected entry
Prevents invalid actions and “dead clicks”
Makes tool behavior predictable under fatigue
What’s intentionally not done yet
Free-cut slicing (disabled on purpose)
Visual surface selection
Map editor integration
Workshop packaging
Cross-platform file dialogs (Windows only for now)
Why this matters
This moves the project from prototype tooling to a real authoring pipeline:
Mods are first-class
JSON is the source of truth
Tools run in builds, not just the editor
Content can be authored, shared, and overridden safely
This is foundational work that unblocks:
Map editor consuming JSON tiles
Community content
Steam Workshop later