Disclosure: I make these and sell them: the paid GodotDialogue addon, and this free Lite version. This post was written with AI assistance.
GodotDialogue Lite is a small free addon for linear conversations and simple player-selected branches, written as JSON. It is MIT-licensed. If you only need lines and choices and don’t want an editor framework, it may be enough; if you need state, it is not.
What is in the zip:
- a small polling runner,
- a literal-text dialogue box with Next and choice buttons,
- a standalone trail demo.
It needs no dependencies, no autoload and no plugin activation. To try it, extract GodotDialogue_Lite_v1.0.1.zip (17 kB), open GodotDialogueLite/project.godot in Godot 4 and run the demo. To use it in a project, copy addons/dialogue_lite/ and keep the LICENSE file. The README in the zip has the schema and API.
What it does not do:
- Lines and ordered unconditional choices only.
- Limits: 1 MiB per JSON file, 4096 nodes, 64 options per choice.
- No variables, conditions, assignments, automatic branch/set nodes or runtime signals.
- No visual editor, localization, progress saving, portraits, audio or typewriter effects.
Testing: 138/138 headless checks passed on Godot 4.7.2 stable, macOS arm64, in an independent run on a fresh extraction of the zip. GUI layout, keyboard accessibility, exports and other engines or platforms have not been verified. Check it against your own Godot version and target platform before you rely on it.
The addon’s code, documentation and tests were prepared with AI assistance. The icons and release artwork are procedural code-rendered graphics, not AI-generated images.
There is also a paid GodotDialogue addon with variables, conditions, assignments and signals. Lite uses its own schema, so don’t assume Lite files will migrate to it. It is linked from the Lite page and is not the subject of this post.
Bug reports and questions are welcome here or at hello@mail.programkiln.com. If something you’d expect from a lines-and-choices runner is missing, I’d like to hear which.