Unity Plugin Overview

You know the moment. Your project starts small — a few ScriptableObjects for enemy stats, a couple of prefabs with Inspector overrides. Clean, manageable, very Unity.

Then six months in, you have 300 .asset files scattered across a dozen folders. A designer needs to change a damage multiplier and can’t tell which one to open. A programmer renames a field and three of those assets silently break. A new team member spends an afternoon just trying to understand where the quest data actually lives.

ScriptableObjects were never designed to be a game database. The Charon Unity Plugin replaces that fragile patchwork with a structured, validated game database — embedded directly in your Unity project.

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What is it?

The Charon Unity Plugin is a full data-driven design workflow embedded in the Unity Editor. It gives you:

• A structured game database — one organized place for all your items, characters, quests, and abilities, with enforced relationships between them

• A visual editor that opens from the Unity menu and runs in your browser — no external tools, no switching context

• A C# code generator that turns your schema into type-safe classes, so your code reads hero.Stats.Hp instead of (float)data["stats"]["hp"]

Designers own the data. Programmers own the code. Charon keeps both in sync automatically.

Which problem does it solve?

Pain Point	How Charon Fixes It
ScriptableObject sprawl	All entities live in one database file. No more hunting through hundreds of .asset files.
Broken references	Deleting an item that a quest still references is a validation error, not a silent runtime bug.
Boilerplate data code	Generated C# classes handle all loading, deserialization, and lookups — zero hand-written plumbing.
Designer bottleneck	Designers edit data in a purpose-built UI without waiting on a programmer to change a value.
Localization sprawl	All translatable text lives in one place, exportable to any translation pipeline in one click.

Who is it for?

Unity Developers

Stop writing data-loading boilerplate. Generated C# classes give you full IntelliSense, compile-time safety, and zero magic strings. Plug into CI/CD with the CLI — validate data on every commit.

Game & Narrative Designers

A real editor, not a spreadsheet workaround. Define your own schemas, fill in data, and see validation errors immediately — without touching a line of code or filing a ticket.

Production Teams

Building an RPG, CCG, strategy game, or anything with hundreds of balanced entities? Charon scales with you. It also supports modding out of the box — ship the editor alongside your game so your community builds with the same tools you used.

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Key Features

Feature	Description
In-Editor Server	Launch the data editor directly from the Unity menu bar.
Auto-Generation	C# code is updated automatically whenever you change your data schema.
Asset Integration	Link your game data directly to Unity Assets (like Prefabs, Sprites, etc.).
Memory Efficient	Optimized loading routines designed specifically for mobile/console performance.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Unity plugin uses dotnet charon tool, which is a .NET Core application built for .NET 8.

Windows

1. Download and install NET SDK 8+.

2. Make sure you have write access to %PROGRAMDATA%/Charon.

MacOS

1. Download and install NET SDK 8+.

2. Make sure you have write access to /Users/<username>/.config/Charon.

3. Make sure dotnet is available from $PATH.

Linux

1. Download and install NET SDK 8+.

2. Make sure you have write access to /usr/share/Charon.

3. Make sure dotnet is available from $PATH.

Checking Available .NET SDK Versions

# check for dotnet already installed
dotnet --list-sdks

# output for dotnet --list-sdks
7.0.120 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
8.0.206 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
8.0.414 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]  # <- this one is fine
9.0.300 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]  # <- this one too

Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.0 [C:Program FilesdotnetsharedMicrosoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Installation from OpenUPM (recommended)

1. Install the required software for your operating system.

2. Ensure your Unity version is 2021.3 or later.

3. Open the OpenUPM page for the plugin.

4. Click the Manual Installation button in the upper right corner and follow the instructions.

Installation from Unity Asset Store

1. Install the required software for your operating system.

2. Ensure your Unity version is 2021.3 or later.

3. Open the Charon plugin in the Unity Asset Store.

4. Click Add To My Assets.

5. Open the Unity Package Manager by navigating to Window → Package Manager.

6. Wait for the package manager to populate the list.

7. Select My Assets from the dropdown in the top left corner.

8. Select Charon from the list and click Download. If it’s already downloaded, you will see an Import option.

Installation from GitHub

1. Install the required software for your operating system.

2. Clone or download the plugin source code from the GitHub repository.

3. Create a <project-dir>/Packages/com.gamedevware.charon directory.

4. Copy the plugin files from src/GameDevWare.Charon.Unity/Packages/com.gamedevware.charon into this directory.

5. Restart Unity if necessary.

Core Concepts

Data-Driven Design Principles

The core idea is simple: keep data out of code, and keep code out of data.

Instead of baking a weapon’s damage range into a C# constant or a MonoBehaviour field, you define it in a schema and let designers own it. Instead of checking a quest’s completion condition in a hardcoded switch statement, you describe it in structured data that the engine evaluates at runtime.

This separation pays off at every stage:

• During production: designers iterate without waiting for programmers; balance changes don’t require rebuilds

• At launch: every value is traceable, auditable, and diffable in version control

• Post-launch: mods and live updates become data operations, not code deployments

Further reading:

• Modify Everything! Data-Driven Dynamic Gameplay Effects in ‘For Honor’ (Video)

• Data-driven Design in Unreal (Article)

Understanding the Plugin’s Architecture

Plugin Assets

All game data information is stored in a JSON file within your project. The generated source code is used to load this data into the game. Additionally, a ScriptableObject asset will be created, which can be used to access game data from your scenes.

Whenever there is a modification in the data structure within a JSON file, it is necessary to regenerate the C# source code and reimport the .asset file. To do this, select the .asset file and press the Synchronize button.

Working with the Plugin

Creating Game Data

To create a new game data file within the Unity Editor, open the Project window, right-click in the desired folder, and select the Create → Game Data menu option.

1. Open the Project window and navigate to the desired folder.

2. Right-click in the Project window and select Create → Game Data.

3. Name your game data file and click the Create button.

4. Wait for the source code and assets to be created in the specified folder and for the editor to recompile the scripts.

5. Double-click the created .asset or .gdjs file to start editing.

Editing Game Data

To edit a game data file in the Unity Editor, open the Project window, find the corresponding .gdjs, .gdmp, or .asset file, and double-click it. This action opens a new web browser window featuring a user interface for editing the game data. Remember to Synchronize assets from the Inspector window after completing your edits.

Advanced Features

Localization and Multi-Language Support

Charon facilitates multi-language text support through the Localizable Text data type. When creating a Schema, properties can be defined with various data types, including Localizable Text. Initially, all localizable text defaults to EN-us (US English). Additional languages can be added via Project Settings → Internationalization → Translation Languages in the Charon UI.

Exporting/importing localizable data.

Referencing Game Data in Scenes

The Charon plugin introduces a specific type for referencing documents within scenes, named GameDataDocumentReference. This type is part of the Charon package. To create such a reference, add a field with the GameDataDocumentReference type to your component class.

public class HeroComponent : MonoBehaviour
{
  public GameDataDocumentReference heroReference;
}

You can then configure it in the Inspector. Here is an example of a Game Data Document Reference used to point to a Hero document:

To get an instance of a document in your game code, call the GameDataDocumentReference.GetReferencedDocument<Hero>() method.

private void OnEnable()
{
  var hero = this.heroReference.GetReferencedDocument<Hero>();
  Debug.Log(hero.Name);
}

Referencing Unity Assets

To reference assets within the game, you can use a special Asset composite type. Create a property via Composite Types -> Asset Path menu options.

Work & Build Automation

To facilitate automation of work or builds, a programmatic interface for working with game data is provided. You can read more about it on the CharonCli class documentation page.

Feedback

We welcome and encourage feedback, particularly bug reports and suggestions, to help improve our tool. If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, please join our Discord community or reach out to us via email at support@gamedevware.com.

See also

• Basic Navigation and User Interface Overview

• Creating Document Type (Schema)

• Filling Documents

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Glossary