Your first game

This page is a checklist: it walks the whole first session through in order, from signing in to a released, testable version. Each step says only what you have to do there, and sends you on to the page with the detail; it does not repeat them.

If you are unsure how the interface is laid out, skim The screen first.

The order at a glance

#	Step	Without it you cannot go on
1	Sign in
2	New game	everything else belongs to a game
3	A set	an item only exists inside a set
4	Images into the set	an item is born from an image
5	Size	no release starts without a size
6	A rule	(not needed for a release)
7	Release	nobody can play a draft
8	Testing

The game’s Overview page carries the same list under Ready to release?, and on every missing point the Fix this button takes you straight to where the gap is. It is worth using as you go.

The Builder offers three ways in: Discord, Facebook and Google. There is no guest entry here, editing needs an account, the same one you use on the rest of the platform.

Once you are in, you land on the Games page.

2. New game

The New game tile opens a modal. It asks for two things only: the title (in at least one language), and where the game comes from. The form opens on A game I own, so for a game of your own making flip it over to My own creation.

After Create game the interface takes you straight to the game’s Overview page, and the game’s menu appears in the sidebar. The rest of the details (author, cover, minimum age, player count, play time, categories, description) you can fill in at any time on the Details page.

In detail: The game’s details.

3. A set

In the sidebar’s Components group, the New set row opens a modal. The title (in at least one language), the type (Card, Board, Dice, Token, Figure) and the container are all required. The container list only comes alive once you have picked a type. The icon is free to choose and can be left out.

A game has several sets: the deck, the board and the dice are each a set of their own. Start with the one that will hold the most items.

In detail: Sets.

4. Images into the set

Items are born from images, not from a button. Open the set’s page and drop the images onto the gallery. Each image becomes one item, with the image on the item’s front.

The game’s Images page is a separate matter: you can upload images there in advance, and search and filter among them. From there an item comes about by dragging the images onto a set row in the sidebar, or by selecting them on the Images tab of the set’s panel and pressing Create items.

⚠ Two images upload at a time and the rest queue up; do not navigate away while it runs. ⚠ PNG, JPEG and WebP get through, everything else the interface turns back before the upload starts.

In detail: Images and Items.

5. Size

Every item needs a width and a height (mm). You either give them per item (select the items and fill in the Dimensions fields in the right-hand panel), or once, on the panel’s Set defaults tab, and then every item inherits them.

Starting from a default is quicker: the cards of a deck are all the same anyway, and you can still write its own size onto the odd item later. No release starts without a size: the New release modal lists per set how many items are incomplete, and takes you there.

In detail: Items.

6. A rule

The sidebar’s Rules row opens the rules editor, where the + New Rule button creates a document. A game can have several. The languages are tabs, and on a wide screen the Side by side switch shows both at once.

The text saves itself, there is no save button. Players only see it once you press the Publish button, though; until then an Unpublished changes tag stands in the header.

A rule is not a condition of a release, and is not part of one either: a version can be released without it, and a published rule does not wait for a release.

In detail: Rules.

7. Release

The draft saves itself all along; the top bar says where it stands. You release on the sidebar’s Releases page, with the New release button.

The modal tells you what it will be: a Major release if an image or a size changed (the images are then packed again, which takes a few minutes), a Minor release in every other case (that one is instant). The Start release button stays greyed out if an item has no size or no required image, or if nothing has changed since the last release.

The packing runs on the server: you can close the modal and carry on working.

In detail: Draft and versions.

8. Testing

A tester only gets the released versions, never the draft, so without step 7 there is nothing to test.

Three steps:

On the sidebar’s Playtest groups page, create a group with the New group button. A group does not appear by itself.
Open the group and hand the code out to the testers with the Invite code button. They redeem it in the controller app.
Add the game to the group from the game’s Access page, and switch on at least the Play right. ⚠ Without it, members see the game is there but can do nothing with it.

Once the group is in place, the testers start a party on their own device in the usual way; there is nothing extra to do on the display or on the controller.

In detail: Playtest group.

What is fixed in the order, and what is free

Fixed, because the interface allows no other way:

No game, no sets, images or rules: they all belong to a game.
No set, no items: an item is born from an image that landed in a set.
No size and no required image, no release: the release button stays greyed out.
No release, no testing: a tester does not see the draft.

Free, in whatever order you like:

The optional fields of the details page can be filled in at any time, even after a release.
You can write and publish the rules whenever you like; they are not a condition of a release.
You can upload images to the Images page in advance, but that alone makes no items of them.
A size can be given per item, or in one go as a set default.
With several sets, it makes no difference which one you start with.
You can create the group and invite the testers before the release as well.

What is beyond the first session

Making it public is a road of its own: you have to ask for a review first, and the game can only appear publicly once it is approved. The Making it public page covers that.

An organisation and a brand come into play once you are not working alone, or you release the game under your own name and domain. The Organisations and the Brands pages cover those.