In-Game Images/Video lets you show players a picture or a short video at the exact moment your story reaches it. You describe the moment as a simple question, like “Clara sits down across from the player at the cafe”, and attach an image or video. After every narration, an AI reads the latest turns and checks your questions. When one comes true, the player sees your image or video on screen, and it unlocks in their Gallery.
How It Works
What happens after every narration.
- The narration finishesThe player makes a move and the story continues, the same as always. Continue and Redo count too.
- A quick checkA decision AI reads the recent turn + last 2 turns, and reads your instruction for displaying each image.
- Yes shows the mediaIf the AI is at least as sure as you asked (50% by default), your image or video appears on screen and unlocks in the player’s Gallery. Any triggers you picked for Yes run too.
- Each one shows onceA question that answered Yes is done for that playthrough. A No just means “not yet”: the question is asked again after the next narration.
Example: A Cafe Date
Two questions, two turns.
Your story is a cozy first date with Clara. You have a photo of Clara sitting at a cafe table and a short clip of her laughing, so you add two media:
| Condition | Shows |
|---|---|
| The player is meeting Clara in a restaurant or cafe and Clara sits down in front of the player. | Photo of Clara at the table |
| Clara laughs out loud at something the player said. | Video of Clara laughing |
“Clara spots you from the counter, waves, and slides into the chair across from you, cradling her latte.”
Asks every question still waiting, in one check.
Clara at the cafe table fills the stage behind the story text.
“You tell Clara about the time your cat stole a whole croissant. She nearly spills her latte laughing.”
Only the question still waiting is asked.
The clip of Clara laughing loops on the stage, with sound.
Adding Media
From an empty list to your first image.
- Open In-Game Images/VideoOn the Mana Game Engine tab of story setup, set In-Game Images/Video to Enabled. You can also open it in the trigger editor (see below).
- Press New MediaPress New Media. A new, empty question opens.
- Describe the momentWrite what has to happen in the story for the image to show, for example “The player is meeting Clara in a cafe and Clara sits down in front of the player.”
- Add the image or videoOn the Mana Game Engine tab, drag and drop the file into the upload box at the top of the question, or click the box to browse. In the trigger editor the Yes box has Upload for a file, or Variable to use an image or video the story already has.
- Choose how sureLeave “Show image/video when AI is at least 0.5 sure (50%)” as it is, or change the number.
- SavePress Save. A question needs its text plus an image, a video or a trigger before it can be saved.
Inside A Question
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Question | The moment to look for, in plain words (up to 500 characters). The AI gets this text, not the question’s place in your list or the image, so it has to make sense on its own. |
| How sure | “Show image/video when AI is at least … sure.” 0.5 means 50%, the default. Raise it if the image shows up too early; lower it if it doesn’t show when it should. |
| Yes and No notes | Optional: what counts as yes, and what counts as no (up to 300 characters each). Use them to rule out near misses. |
| Condition Check | In the Yes box. Adds a Variable Check, such as “Variable affection is greater than or equal to 50”. The media only shows if every check passes; if one fails, nothing happens and the question is asked again next time. |
| Image / video to show | On the Mana Game Engine tab it’s the upload box at the top of the question: drag and drop a file or click to browse, Replace swaps it and Remove clears it. In the trigger editor it sits in the Yes box, where Upload adds a file and Variable picks an image or video the story already has (Change picks a different one). |
| Triggers | Press + trigger to run up to 5 of your triggers when that answer is picked, for example one that raises Clara’s affection after the photo shows. |
Writing Good Questions
The AI reads the story text, nothing else.
The AI never sees your image. It reads only the last 3 turns of story text, your question and its Yes and No notes, so describe the moment the way it would read in the story.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| “Clara” | “Clara sits down across from the player at a cafe table.” |
| “Show the dragon picture” | “The party enters the dragon’s cave and the dragon wakes up.” |
| “The player finds the letter, reads it, and burns it” | One question per moment: “The player finds a hidden letter in the desk drawer.” |
| “Clara really likes the player” | “Clara kisses the player on the cheek”, plus a Condition Check on your affection variable. |
- Say who, where and what. Name the characters and the place.
- Match the picture. If the photo shows Clara by the window in a red coat, ask for that moment, not just “Clara is at the cafe”.
- Use the Yes and No notes for near misses. Yes: “Clara is seated at the player’s table.” No: “Clara only waves, walks past, or sits somewhere else.”
- The AI reads 3 turns at once, so a moment can still count a turn or two after it happened.
- Variables only reach the AI if you write them into the question, like “Clara is in a {{clara_mood}} mood and sits down with the player.” They’re filled in with their current value first. To make a number decide things, add a Condition Check instead.
Testing With /mana
See every check and the AI’s scores while you play.
To see why an image did or didn’t show, play your story on the web, type /mana in the message box and send it. The Mana panel opens beside the story; pick its In-game media tab. Every narration adds a card for that turn’s check, newest at the bottom. Type /mana again to close the panel.
| In each card | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Score | “model: 72% yes (Yes at 50%)” is how sure the AI was that your question’s moment happened, next to the number you set. When the score reaches your number, the answer is Yes. |
| Answer | Yes or No for that question this turn. “none” means the AI gave no usable answer; the reason is shown next to it. |
| Condition check | passed, failed, or none when the question has no Condition Check. A Yes with a failed check shows nothing, and the question is asked again next turn. |
| media and runs | The image or video variable that showed, and the triggers that ran. |
| left pool | The question answered Yes and is done for this playthrough. |
| Card header | How many questions were asked and how many are still waiting, the Decision Model used, how long the check took, what it cost in coins and how many turns the AI read. |
| State sent to the decision model | Open it to read the exact story text the AI read. If your moment isn’t in there, the AI couldn’t have seen it. |
| Raw request / answers | The exact request and the AI’s raw answers, for when you need every detail. |
- Score just below your number? Lower the number a little, or reword the question to match how the narration actually describes the moment.
- Score high on the wrong turn? Raise the number, or add a No note that rules out that near miss.
- Score low even though the moment clearly happened? Open “State sent to the decision model” and check the moment is in the text the AI read.
- A card marked skipped means there was nothing left to ask. A card marked error means the check failed or couldn’t be paid for, so no media showed that turn.
Folders
Folders keep a long list tidy, for example one folder per character or per chapter.
- Press the folder button next to New Media and give the folder a name (up to 40 characters).
- Drag media to reorder them or to drop them into a folder. Drag one onto “Drop here to move out of folder” to take it back out.
- Folders hold media only; a folder can’t go inside another folder.
- Deleting a folder keeps its media: they move out of the folder.
- Folders are only for organizing. Every question is checked after each narration, whatever folder it’s in.
On The Mana Game Engine Tab
Its own Disabled / Enabled switch and Save.
On the Mana Game Engine tab of story setup, the In-Game Images/Video block sits under the Mana Game Engine switch. It has the same list as the trigger editor and a simpler question editor (upload box on top, no variable picking), so you can set up media without leaving the tab.
Enabled shows the list and editor. It also turns the Mana Game Engine on, because the questions are part of the story’s Mana Game Engine setup.
The block has its own Save. “Unsaved changes” shows until you press it, and saving the whole story saves them first.
Disabled means no in-game media: nothing is shown after narrations. If the story already has saved questions, saving with Disabled removes them, along with the images and videos uploaded for them.
If the Mana Game Engine switch itself is Disabled, the story is saved without its Mana Game Engine setup, in-game media included.
In The Trigger Editor
Press Edit Triggers on the Mana Game Engine tab (or Create New if there’s nothing there yet) to open the trigger editor. Pick In-Game Images/Video from the menu at the top of the left panel, next to Triggers, Characters, Story Progression and Variables. Both places edit the same questions; in the trigger editor, use its Save button.
Uploads And Limits
File types, sizes and caps.
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Images | .webp, .png or .avif, under 1 MB each |
| Videos | .mp4, under 20 MB each |
| All images and videos | 50 MB per story, shared with every image and video variable |
| Media questions | 50 per story |
| Question text | 500 characters |
| Yes / No notes | 300 characters each |
| Triggers per answer | 5 |
| Folder names | 40 characters |
What Players See
The image or video fills the stage behind the story text, like a See image. Videos loop with sound.
It unlocks in the player’s Gallery under Story Media, where they can tap it to show it again any time.
It stays on screen, turn after turn, until the player closes it or something else takes its place, such as your next image or video.
If several questions answer Yes on the same turn, they all unlock in the Gallery, and the one furthest down your list stays on screen.
Text stories have no image area, so no media is shown there. Questions that run triggers are still asked, and their triggers still run.
The check is billed to the player like the NPC status check, priced on their Decision Model (Workflow Models). All questions share one check per narration, it’s charged even on free narration turns, and it stops once every question has answered Yes.
If a player can’t cover the check, they see a short notice and in-game images are skipped for that turn.
Can the same image show more than once?
Not by itself. Once a question answers Yes, it isn’t asked again in that playthrough. Players can reopen the image any time from their Gallery under Story Media. If the player rewinds or redoes the turn where it showed, the question goes back in and can show again.
Why didn’t my image show?
The AI may not have been sure enough (try a clearer question or a lower number), a Condition Check under Yes may have failed, or the story is a text story. A question that answers No is asked again after every narration, so it can still show later. To find out which, type /mana while playing and open the In-game media tab: it shows the AI’s score for every question, next to the number you set.
Can an image show on the very first turn?
Yes. Early in a story, before there are 3 turns, the AI also reads the opening scene, so it can answer from the start.
Can I use the same image in more than one question?
Yes. Upload it once, then open the trigger editor and use Variable in the other questions to pick the same image or video.
Who pays for the check?
The player. Each narration runs one check that covers all the questions still waiting, billed like the NPC status check on the player’s Decision Model. When no questions are left, there is no check and no cost.
Do folders change anything in play?
No. Folders only organize your list. Every question is checked after each narration, whatever folder it’s in.