Overview
QuestForge is a modular quest, dialogue, and world navigation framework for Unity, built natively on top of the Malbers Animations ecosystem. It provides everything needed to deliver a complete player
What It Does
QuestForge is organised around five interconnected pillars:
Quest & Objective System Quests are defined as ScriptableObject assets with structured objectives, states, and completion conditions. The system tracks quest progress at runtime, fires Unity Events at key milestones, and integrates directly with the map and minimap to surface active objective markers to the player automatically.
Dialogue System Conversations are authored visually in a node-based graph editor inside the Unity Editor. Each node in the graph holds dialogue text, speaker information, and branching conditions. Graphs are stored as assets and played back at runtime by the dialogue system, supporting linear sequences, player-choice branches, and event-driven outcomes.
World Map A full-screen map overlay driven either by a static pre-rendered texture or a live orthographic render camera. The world map displays Points of Interest, quest objective markers, and player-placed custom waypoints, all correctly positioned relative to configurable world bounds. Players can pan, zoom, place waypoints by clicking, and initiate fast travel to discovered locations. Animated dotted paths guide the player to their active quest objective or navigation waypoint. An optional Fog of War component progressively reveals the map as the player explores.
Minimap A real-time minimap that follows the player and renders the same POI and quest marker data as the world map, keeping both views consistent. Icons scale and respond to the same filter system, so toggling a category on the world map is automatically reflected on the minimap.
Compass Bar A scrolling horizontal compass UI that updates in real time based on player or camera orientation. POI markers appear on the compass strip as the player turns toward them, scaling and fading with distance and clamping to edge indicators when a target drifts outside the visible angle. Quest objective markers receive distinct highlighting and pulse effects, and elevation indicators (up/down arrows) signal when a target is significantly above or below the player's current position.
Supporting Systems
POI Manager — Centralised registry of Points of Interest. Supports categories, filters, and icon pooling for performance.
Waypoint System — Players place, name, and colour-code custom waypoints directly on the world map. An optional Waypoint Picker UI panel lets players customise a waypoint before confirming it.
Fast Travel — POI-driven fast travel with event hooks for transition effects and validation logic.
Fog of War — Mask-based exploration reveal that integrates with the world map camera.
Architecture
QuestForge follows Malbers Animations convention of ScriptableObject-driven data. Quest definitions, POI data, and configuration live as project assets rather than scene components, making them reusable across scenes and easy to manage in version control. Runtime references (player transform, camera) are resolved through TransformReference and GameObjectReference ScriptableObjects, keeping scene components loosely coupled.
The system is designed to be adopted incrementally — the world map, minimap, dialogue system, and quest tracker, compass can each be used independently or together.
Requirements
Unity 6000.0.51f1 or newer
Malbers Animal Controller/Horse Animset Pro package
NOTE - Malbers Animal Controller/Horse Animset Pro MUST be purchased to use this system. QuestForge is an extension of these systems. This will NOT work as a standalone.
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