FAQ
Why plain JSON files instead of a database?
Because everything narrative teams struggle with — versioning, merging, review, backup, tooling — is already solved for files in a repo. One entity per file means per-entity diffs; canonical serialization (sorted keys, stable formatting) means a one-line story edit is a one-line diff. Any text editor, script, or pipeline can read your story without Parlance in the room. More: git-native workflow.
Why is there no export step?
An exporter is a place where the authored truth and the shipped truth drift apart. Parlance's answer is a contract: the engine reads the exact files the editor writes, and the runtime semantics are published with conformance vectors that ports verify against. More: the engine contract.
Which engines work with it?
Any engine that can read JSON. The Godot runtime is public and conformance-verified; the TypeScript reference runtime powers the editor and playtesting; the integration docs cover porting to anything else — the conformance suite tells you when your port is correct.
What's the licensing split?
Three layers, deliberately different:
| Layer | License |
|---|---|
| The format spec — schemas, runtime contract, conformance vectors, reference validator | MIT, published at parlance-spec — open forever, so your data and third-party runtimes never depend on our goodwill |
| The Parlance tool — editor, host, CLI, MCP server | Free to use, including for commercial games; not open source and not redistributable (details) |
| Your narrative content | Yours. Entirely. The tool's license doesn't touch data/ or lore/ |
The manuals on this site are © and not part of the MIT surface. More: licensing · the open spec.
How much does it cost?
Nothing. The editor is free — for hobby projects and commercial releases alike, with no seat count, revenue threshold, or license key.
Paid products come later and separately: hosted review links, hosted editing for teams, and a self-hosted server license — things that cost real money to run and are worth it to a team of ten writers. The local editor isn't one of them. More on that.
Is my story safe in AI training / telemetry?
Parlance is local-first: no cloud service, no accounts, no telemetry. Your files never leave your machine unless you push them somewhere. The optional AI drafting feature only sends what you ask it to draft, to the provider you configure, with your API key.
Does it handle localization and voice-over?
Yes — every player-facing string is extracted with a stable key; translators get flat JSON templates; coverage and stale keys are tracked per language, and VO maps voiceable lines to engine audio keys the same way. See the editor guide.
What's "dialogue laddering"?
The mechanism that answers "which dialogue plays when I talk to this character right now?" — an ordered, state-gated list per character, resolved first-match-wins, with static checks for the classic ordering mistakes. It's the heart of state-aware conversations in Parlance: dialogue laddering, explained.
Can a team use it without a server?
Yes — that's the design. Review (comments, suggestions, verdicts, narrative diffs) works with nothing but git: two people with plain clones have a full review workflow. See git-native workflow.
Where do I start?
Play the demo (two minutes), then your first project (ten minutes), then how it all fits together.