Shadow Lines

Learn about reusing the same line in multiple places, using shadow lines.

In Yarn Spinner 3, shadow lines let you reuse the same line in multiple places, without having to create duplicate copies.

Shadow lines are copies of other lines, but don’t create a duplicate entry in the string table. This can be useful if you want to re-use an existing line in more than one place, which can be important when each line has in-game assets like voice-over recording.

Shadow lines are marked using the #shadow: hashtag. When you use the #shadow: tag, you specify the line ID of another line, which is called the source line. The source line must have an explicit #line: hashtag to identify it.

Here’s a simple example of using shadow lines:

title: Tavern
---
Ava: Hello, barkeep!  
Guy: Hi there, how can I help? 
Ava: I should go. #line:departure
===

title: Kitchen
---
Ava: Greetings, chef!
Guy: What are you doing back here? 
Ava: I should go. #shadow:departure
===

The script contains six lines, but only 5 string table entries will be created, because the line “I should go” is shadowed.

Shadow lines are required to have the same text in the Yarn script as their source line, but are allowed to have different hashtags (in addition to the #shadow: and #line: hashtags).