Studio and Desktop Tools

Studio & Desktop Tools

Gondwana is code-first and does not require an editor, but it includes a Windows authoring layer for the native content formats used by the engine.

The central design rule is simple:

The standalone content editors are the authoritative authoring surfaces. Gondwana Studio hosts those same reusable editor controls in one shell rather than maintaining a second editor implementation.

That keeps Studio optional without making it a parallel content system.

Choose an entry point

Tool	Use it when
Gondwana Studio	You want one integrated Windows workspace for several Gondwana content formats, working-directory browsing, shared shell tools, and optional plugins.
Standalone Desktop Tools	You want a focused application for one content type, or you want to use/test an editor independently of Studio.
Scene Viewer	You want to see a saved GSCN materialized and rendered through the real Gondwana runtime rather than the lightweight authoring preview.
External Asset Importing	You want to convert supported Godot, Tiled, or Aseprite content into native Gondwana authoring files.

All of these are development tools. A game does not need Studio or the standalone applications at runtime.

Authoring formats

Studio and the standalone editors operate on the same native formats consumed by Gondwana:

Format	Purpose	Standalone editor	Format documentation
GAF / ZIP	Typed asset containers	Gondwana.Tooling.Assets.WinForms	Assets Files
GTS	Tilesheet definitions	Gondwana.Tooling.Tilesheets.WinForms	[[.gts Files
GANI	Animation definitions	Gondwana.Tooling.Animations.WinForms	[[.gani Files
GSND	Audio definitions	Gondwana.Tooling.Audio.WinForms	[[.gsnd Files
GSCN	Scene definitions	Gondwana.Tooling.Scenes.WinForms	[[.gscn Files
GSPR	Sprite collections	Gondwana.Tooling.Sprites.WinForms	[[.gspr Files

The format pages remain authoritative for serialization, runtime behavior, provenance, dependency rules, and validation semantics. Tooling documentation explains how those formats are edited.

Shared editor architecture

Each standalone authoring application exposes its main editor as a reusable WinForms UserControl. Studio embeds those same controls as documents:

native format
    |
    v
definition/document model
    |
    v
reusable editor control
    |
    +--> standalone WinForms shell
    |
    +--> Gondwana Studio

Studio therefore does not translate files into Studio-specific models and does not own alternate serializers.

Each editor owns its own inner DockPanelSuite workspace and panes. The standalone application or Studio owns the outer application/document workspace.

Gondwana Studio

Gondwana Studio combines all six native content editors in one Windows shell.

Studio provides:

• a working-directory browser;
• multi-document editing;
• File/Open/New/Save/Save As/Close routing for the active document;
• global Output and plugin panes;
• per-editor pane restoration through the View menu;
• per-user dock-layout persistence;
• optional plugin loading from the Studio plugins/ directory.

Studio does not require a GameHost or a running game loop for normal authoring.

Standalone editors

Standalone Desktop Tools remain first-class applications rather than compatibility wrappers. They are useful when:

• editing one content type without launching the whole Studio shell;
• testing an editor in isolation;
• embedding or maintaining one editor surface;
• keeping separate layout preferences for a focused workflow.

Studio and the standalone applications store independent UI-layout profiles even though they reuse the same editor controls.

Scene Viewer

The Scene Viewer is different from the definition editors.

Gondwana.Tooling.SceneViewer.WinForms opens a saved GSCN, resolves its authored dependencies, materializes an actual runtime Scene, and renders it through the current WinForms GPU host.

The GSCN editor's View Scene command launches the viewer in a separate process from either Studio or the standalone Scene editor. The lightweight Scene Preview remains definition-driven and editable; the Scene Viewer is the runtime check.

See .gscn Files for the GSCN model and the Runtime Scene Viewer section.

Plugins and importing

Studio supports optional plugins without moving core editing functionality out of the built-in editors.

Current repository plugins include:

• Project Diagnostics — read-only inspection of native authoring files and their explicit references in the active working directory.
• External Asset Importer — converts supported Godot 3.x/4.x TileSets, Tiled TSX/TMX content, and Aseprite sprites into native Gondwana definitions and generated PNG assets.

The import pipeline is headless beneath the Studio plugin, so foreign-format knowledge stays outside the native editors and runtime serializers.

See External Asset Importing for the supported conversion matrix and format-specific limits.

Runtime boundary

Studio and the desktop tools edit the same files that the engine can load without those applications being present:

Studio / standalone editor
        |
        v
native Gondwana definition
        |
        v
runtime serializer / loader
        |
        v
game

There is no Studio project format required by the engine, and EngineState project composition is separate from the current Studio shell.

Where to read next

• Gondwana Studio
• Standalone Desktop Tools
• External Asset Importing
• Assets Files
• .gts Files
• .gani Files
• .gsnd Files
• .gscn Files
• .gspr Files