Singletons

The Singletons subsystem provides a generic, attribute-driven singleton pattern for the three Paragon base object types: MonoBehaviour, plain C# object, and ScriptableObject. Each singleton variant uses a lazy-initialization chain (find → load → create) with auto-creation of persistent assets in the editor, and an optional auto-initialization system that eagerly loads singletons at startup.

Architecture

Initialization Flow

Key Concepts

Concept	Description
Lazy initialization	Singletons are created on first access to Instance. The resolution chain varies by type (find → load → create).
Auto-creation	In the editor, if no asset exists, one is automatically created and saved to Resources/{AssetPath}.
[SingletonSettings]	Attribute controlling behavior: asset path, DontDestroyOnLoad, InitializeOnLoad, visibility flags.
SingletonInitializer	Runs before scene load, eagerly initializes all singletons marked InitializeOnLoad = true.
Three variants	SingletonBehaviour<T> (MonoBehaviour), SingletonScriptableObject<T> (ScriptableObject), SingletonObject<T> (plain C#).

Quick Start

MonoBehaviour Singleton

[SingletonSettings(InitializeOnLoad = true, DontDestroyOnLoad = true, AssetPath = "Game Manager")]
public class GameManager : SingletonBehaviour<GameManager>
{
    public int Score { get; set; }

    protected override void Awake()
    {
        base.Awake();
        // Custom initialization
    }
}

// Access from anywhere
GameManager.Instance.Score += 10;

ScriptableObject Singleton

[SingletonSettings(AssetPath = "Game Settings")]
public class GameSettings : SingletonScriptableObject<GameSettings>
{
    public float MasterVolume = 1f;
    public int MaxPlayers = 4;
}

// Access from anywhere
float volume = GameSettings.Instance.MasterVolume;

Plain C# Object Singleton

[SingletonSettings(InitializeOnLoad = true)]
public class EventBus : SingletonObject<EventBus>
{
    public override void Initialize()
    {
        base.Initialize();
        // Setup event channels
    }
}

// Access from anywhere
EventBus.Instance.Publish(myEvent);

Classes

Class	Description
SingletonBehaviour<T>	MonoBehaviour singleton — find → load → create chain, DontDestroyOnLoad support
SingletonObject<T>	Plain C# singleton — creates via new T(), no Unity asset backing
SingletonScriptableObject<T>	ScriptableObject singleton — load → create chain, auto-saves .asset in editor
SingletonSettingsAttribute	Attribute controlling singleton behavior (asset path, initialization, visibility)
SingletonInitializer	Runtime bootstrap that eagerly initializes InitializeOnLoad singletons

See Also

• Objects System — parent system with Paragon base types

• ParagonBehaviour — base class for SingletonBehaviour

• ParagonScriptableObject — base class for SingletonScriptableObject

• ParagonObject — base class for SingletonObject