Stage directions

Lives in: story/script.txt

Bracket lines change the scene. They are not spoken. They run when the moment starts — unless they appear after dialogue has already begun, in which case they fire mid-line as {@cN} cues; see Pacing.

[bg street fade 0.5]
[hana left fade 0.4]
[bgm city_loop]
[sfx door]

Places

[bg street]
[bg street fade 0.5]
[bg park slide_left 0.6]

Loads a picture from backgrounds/ (extension resolved for you). Optional fade / slide and duration. Naming: Pictures, sound, and folders.

More: Backgrounds.

Characters

[hana left]
[hana happy left fade 0.4]
[hana hide]
[sora right fade 0.3]

• First word is the character folder name (characters/hana/).
• left / center / right are places on stage (defaults; you can rename them later).
• An expression word (happy) and a fade are optional.
• hide removes them from their place.

Speaking with HANA [happy]: also stages that expression. Bracket lines are for show / move / hide without a line of dialogue.

Pictures on disk: Pictures, sound, and folders. Packs and places: Characters.

Music and sound

[bgm theme]
[bgm theme fadein 1.5]
[sfx door]

Files live under audio/bgm/ and audio/sfx/. Title music defaults belong in game.json — Music and sounds by default. Mid-story cues: Music and sound.

Flags (also brackets)

[score = 0]
[helped = true]
[score += 1]

Same bracket shape, different job: memory, not staging. Full use: Choices and memory.

Why several directions feel “instant”

All enter directions in one moment run as a batch when that moment starts. That is why two [hana …] and [sora …] lines can appear together. To time something with the spoken line, put the bracket after text has started — Pacing ({@cN}).

Comments

# This is only for you — the player ignores it

Usually you need

Keyword directions also include things like panel, screen, animate — look them up in Reference when you need them. Character folder names without a keyword are treated as show/move/hide for that character.

Next

Scenes and jumps