The Story Writer

The Story Writer is Tsumugi’s main screen: the map, the open node, the preview and every tab, in one place. It opens one .yarn file at a time. It edits the same file as VS Code’s text editor, so saving, undo and Git all see one file.

Opening it

• Click a file under Story files in the Tsumugi sidebar.
• In a .yarn text tab, click Open in Story Writer (the book icon at the top right).
• Right-click a .yarn tab and use Reopen Editor With….

The two halves

Left: the map. Each box is a node. Arrows show where the story goes next. Click a box to open that node. See The map.

Right: the open node. This is where you write, one node at a time, laid out by speaker.

Drag the bar between the halves to change their sizes. Double-click it to put it back in the middle.

The tabs

The tabs above the map:

Tabs that don’t fit go under More (⋯) at the end of the row. Unlocks gets its own place once your game has an unlock.

A badge on Needs counts what is missing.

Progress

Over the map, a row of counts shows how far along the file is: sprites, area art, code and nodes, each as done out of total. Click one to see exactly what is missing. It flashes in the Needs tab.

The counts under the map add up the problems in the file. Click one to see them.

The top of a node

• Back and Forward go through the nodes you opened.
• The node’s name, in plain words, with its name in the file beside it.
• Reached from lists every way into the node. See The map.
• Show picks what you see. See Find and filter.
• Show Preview draws the game’s screen. See The preview.
• Start here makes Run in GameMaker start at this node. See Testing in GameMaker.

Under the writing, In this node lists the node’s problems. See Problems and checks.

Help

• The light bulb opens the guides.
• Help has the Chatterbox documentation, and short pages on the words Tsumugi uses, indenting, and how the file looks inside.

Text and Zen

• Text opens the whole file as plain text in VS Code’s editor, beside the Story Writer. A change in one shows in the other.
• Zen hides the map, the tabs and the buttons, so only the writing is left. Pick another node from the list at the top. Press Esc or click Exit Zen to come back.

Saving and undo

• Tsumugi saves the file every few seconds while you work. Turn this off with Save every 10 seconds in Settings.
• ⌘ Z undoes your typing, and anything Tsumugi changed for you, like a deleted node. One undo covers the writing and the map.
• ⌘ ⇧ Z does it again. On Windows and Linux, Ctrl Y works too.
• Changes made outside the Story Writer (in the text editor, by Git, by a rename) are undone with VS Code’s own undo.
• VS Code’s Timeline (at the bottom of the Explorer) keeps the file as it was at each save.

When it is locked

Without a licence, the Story Writer shows a page instead of your story. Your story is safe: nothing in the file changes. You can still open it as text. See Licence and privacy.