Try the browser demo and download the complete source project on itch.io.

Your NPC just did something strange. See why.

Motive Engine scores your authored motives against live game context, returns a response key, and shows why the decision won.

Built by PrettyNerdee for NPCs, factions and narrative systems, this Godot edition brings Motive's decision layer to native GDScript. Define the situation, give your agents different traits, and inspect the alternatives before wiring the chosen intent into your game.

Decisions you can inspect

Every evaluation includes the winning motive, ranked alternatives, each signal's contribution, trait effects and the runner-up gap. See whether an agent chose to hide because of danger, personality, or the available hiding place. Change the inputs and watch the result update.

Try the four Decision Labs

• Tactical combat: cover, pressure, health and ammunition.
• Horror NPCs: threat, escape routes, noise and panic.
• Faction pressure: competing priorities and different faction profiles.
• Narrative tone: authored intents for reactive narrative systems.

The browser demo runs the actual Godot decision lab. Choose a profile and scenario, then move the sliders to explore the result. Use fullscreen for more room.

Keep your game's behaviour

Motive chooses intent; your game executes it. Route keys such as seek_cover, hide or negotiate into your own movement, combat or dialogue code. The included response-bridge scene demonstrates this separation with a small working example.

Included in the download

• Native GDScript runtime with validated JSON configuration.
• Direct and inverse trait adjustments, positive and negative weights.
• Ranked utility and structured decision explanations.
• MotiveAgent node with decision, transition and error signals.
• MotiveConfig resource for Inspector assignment.
• Four interactive Decision Labs and a response-bridge example.
• Setup guide, complete source, tests and MIT licence.

Get started

Download the addon and copy addons/motive_engine into your project. Or open project.godot from the complete source project and press Play. The runtime works without enabling an editor plugin; enabling it adds a shortcut to the Decision Lab.

Godot 4.7.1 Standard · GDScript · Compatibility renderer · Godot edition 0.1.0. This is the tested baseline; older Godot releases are not yet verified. No .NET, accounts, API keys, cloud services or runtime LLM calls.

Free to use in your game

The Godot addon and examples are MIT licensed, including commercial use. Keep the licence notice when redistributing. Unity and Unreal editions retain their own licensing.

Motive Engine is also available for Unity. This Godot release includes the features listed above; Unity-specific editor tools and integrations are separate.

Official Powered by Motive credit assets and project showcase are available from PrettyNerdee. Attribution is optional. Questions or feedback? Leave a comment here or visit PrettyNerdee.com.