Welcome
Core Concepts
A glossary of the core Storyarn concepts you will see across the documentation.
Storyarn connects world data, branching narrative, spatial scenes, localization, and export workflows. This glossary gives you the shared vocabulary used throughout the docs.
Project structure
| Concept | Meaning | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | Your team’s top-level container. It holds projects and controls workspace membership. | Create a Workspace |
| Project | A self-contained narrative workspace with its own sheets, flows, scenes, localization data, assets, and project-level members. | Project Dashboard |
| Asset | An uploaded media file such as an image or audio file. Assets can be referenced by sheets, flows, scenes, localization, and exports. | Assets |
World data
| Concept | Meaning | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Sheet | A structured data record for a character, item, location, faction, quest, or any world entity you need to track. | Sheets Overview |
| Block | A typed field inside a sheet. Blocks can store text, rich text, numbers, booleans, selects, dates, tables, references, and more. | Blocks & Variables |
| Variable | A runtime-readable value generated from a supported, non-constant block. Reference and gallery blocks are not variables. | Your First Sheet |
Variables use the pattern:
{sheet_shortcut}.{variable_name}
For example, a Health block on the mc.jaime sheet becomes mc.jaime.health.
Narrative logic
| Concept | Meaning | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Flow | A visual graph that defines dialogue, branching logic, conditions, instructions, subflows, and execution paths. | Flows Overview |
| Node | A single step inside a flow. Common node types include Dialogue, Condition, Instruction, Subflow, Hub, Jump, Entry, and Exit. | Your First Flow |
| Pin | A connection point on a node. Output pins connect to input pins to define execution order and branches. | Flows Overview |
Spatial design
| Concept | Meaning | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Scene | A spatial map where narrative content can be explored through zones, pins, child scenes, and flow overlays. | Scenes Overview |
| Zone | A drawn region inside a scene. Zones can evaluate conditions, run instructions, link to flows, or drill into child scenes. | Zones and Interactive Areas |
Brainstorming
| Concept | Meaning | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Session | A shared canvas of notes where a team explores ideas, optionally started from a Sheet, Flow, or Scene. | Brainstorming Overview |
| Round | One band of a session with its own question. A round can stay private until it is revealed. | Rounds, Privacy, and Timer |
| Decision | What the team agreed to do: a verb, the content it affects, a conclusion, and its sources, tracked until it is applied. | Decisions |
Localization
| Concept | Meaning | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Localization ID | A stable identifier used by the localization system to track extracted text across source changes, translation, review, and import/export. | Localization Overview |
How these concepts connect
Sheets define the world state. Blocks on sheets become variables. Flows read those variables through condition nodes and change them through instruction nodes. Scenes place flows in a spatial context. Brainstorming sessions explore changes before they are made, and their decisions point at the Sheets, Flows, and Scenes they affect. Localization extracts the player-facing runtime text from Flows and Sheets; Scenes remain spatial editor content. Export moves the result into engine-specific formats.