DataForge

🏠 Overview

All your game data assets, in one editable grid.

DataForge is a Unity Editor extension that turns your ScriptableObject assets into an editable spreadsheet. Pick a type — WeaponData, EnemyData, ItemData, anything — and every asset of that type becomes a row, every serialized field a column. Edit values inline, fill cells with formulas, catch bad data with validation rules, colour-code with conditional formatting, and round-trip the whole table through CSV, JSON, or Google Sheets.

What you can do

Typical Workflow

⚡ Quick Start

From import to your first bulk edit in under two minutes.

📦 Installation

One dependency — DataForge installs it for you.

DataForge depends on Newtonsoft.Json (com.unity.nuget.newtonsoft-json), an official Unity package. It is used for JSON import/export, the change-history store, and Google Sheets sync.

Automatic setup

When DataForge loads in a project that doesn't have Newtonsoft.Json yet, it opens a Setup Required popup. Click Install Newtonsoft.Json and DataForge adds the package through the Unity Package Manager — no manifest editing required. Unity recompiles, and DataForge is ready.

🖼 The DataForge Window

A toolbar on top, your data grid below.

Open it via Window → DataForge → Open DataForge. The window is dockable and resizable, and has two areas:

The data grid

• Rows are the assets of the selected type. Columns are their serialized fields.
• Click a cell to select it; click + drag or Shift+click to select a range; Ctrl+click rows to multi-select.
• Arrow keys, Tab and Enter move the active cell, just like a spreadsheet.
• The header row stays frozen while you scroll. Column headers can be shown in Friendly or raw form (see Settings).
• Large tables are paginated — the page size is configurable in Settings.

Search & filter

The search box in the toolbar filters rows live as you type — matching against the asset name and cell values. Clear it to show every row again.

Column visibility

Click Columns in the toolbar to toggle individual columns on or off, or choose Show All Columns. Hiding columns you aren't editing keeps wide tables readable.

🧰 Toolbar Reference

Every control across the top of the window.

✏ Editing Cells

It writes to the real asset — with full Undo.

Editing a cell in DataForge is editing the asset. Every change goes through Unity's serialization and is registered with the editor Undo system, so Ctrl+Z works exactly as it does in the Inspector. Object-reference, colour, enum, curve and gradient cells open the same property drawers Unity uses.

Keyboard & mouse

📑 Supported Field Types

DataForge renders an appropriate editor for each serialized field.

Each column is rendered with a type-aware cell editor. The following field types are supported as first-class columns:

🔁 Bulk / Multi-Edit

Change dozens of assets in a single action.

Select a range of cells — a column, a block, or a multi-row selection — and edit them all at once. This is the core reason DataForge exists: balancing data means changing many values together.

Σ Formulas

Compute numeric cells from other fields in the same row.

Any cell value that begins with = is treated as a formula. Formulas reference other fields of the same row by wrapping the field name in braces — {fieldName} — and are evaluated to a number that is written into the cell.

Examples

// double the base damage
={damage} * 2

// derive DPS from damage and attack speed
={damage} * {attackSpeed}

// clamp a computed price into a sensible band
=CLAMP({basePrice} * 1.15, 10, 999)

// round a value to a whole number
=ROUND({weight} * 0.45)

Operators

Standard arithmetic is supported: +, -, *, /, and parentheses for grouping.

Built-in functions

✅ Validation

Catch bad data before it ships.

DataForge can check each field against rules and surface failures right in the grid. Rules are attached per field and stored in a per-type validation profile asset.

Rule types

How it runs

• With Auto Validate on Edit enabled (the default), DataForge revalidates after every edit and when the window regains focus.
• Otherwise, click Validate View in the toolbar to run validation on demand.
• When issues are found, an issue count appears in the toolbar — red for errors, amber for warnings. Click it to filter the grid down to just the offending rows.

🎨 Conditional Formatting

Let the data colour itself.

Conditional formatting paints a cell's background or text based on its value, so patterns and outliers are obvious without reading every number. Rules are defined per type and persist with your DataForge settings.

Typical uses

• Highlight a damage value that is far above the rest of the table.
• Tint a whole rarity column by tier — common, rare, legendary.
• Flag a price of 0 red so unfinished economy data stands out.
• Mark booleans — e.g. isEnabled — green when true.

Each rule pairs a condition on a column with a format style (background colour, text colour, emphasis). Rules are evaluated as the grid draws, so formatting updates the instant a value changes.

➕ Batch Create

Generate many new assets in one dialog.

Click + Create in the toolbar to open the Batch Create window and stamp out a run of new assets of the selected type.

A live Preview shows the name of the first asset before you commit. Click Create and the new rows appear in the grid, ready to edit.

💾 Import & Export

Round-trip your data through standard file formats.

Export

The Export toolbar drop-down writes the current table to a file:

Import

The Import button reads a CSV, TSV or JSON file back into the current table, matching columns by header and updating the corresponding asset fields. After an import the grid refreshes so you can review and validate the new values.

📋 Scratch Pad

A scratch area for moving tabular data into a table.

Open the Scratch Pad from Window → DataForge → Scratch Pad. It is a simple text area: paste a block of rows and columns copied from Excel, Google Sheets or a CSV, then send it straight into the active DataForge table with Paste to Table.

It's handy when you want to stage and eyeball external data before it lands in your assets — especially large blocks that you'd rather not paste cell-by-cell.

📁 Google Sheets Sync

Two-way sync between a ScriptableObject type and a Google Sheet.

DataForge can connect to Google Sheets so designers can balance data in a shared spreadsheet while the project stays the source of truth. Each type syncs with its own tab in a bound project spreadsheet.

Controls

🕔 Change History

Every edit recorded — and revertible.

Click History in the toolbar to open the Change History window. It logs each value change with its asset, field, old → new value, timestamp and author.

⚙ Settings

Tune DataForge to your project.

Open settings from the gear icon in the toolbar. Settings are stored per-project in UserSettings/DataForgeSettings.asset.

📁 File Structure

Everything DataForge ships lives under Assets/DataForge/.

💡 Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to fix them.

❓ FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

📬 Support

Need help? We're here for you.