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From Game Editor

File

New Game

[New Game] will create a new blank game, removing all your actors and scripts. Most of gameEditor's configurations will remain unchanged in the newly created game. For instance the view's size, and all grid settings will be the same as from the previous game. The only settings that are reset are the game title and the game's icon file (both found in Config -> Game Properties). For a complete reset to gE's default settings you must close and reopen gameEditor. Clicking [New Game] when working on a game with unsaved changes will ask if you want to discard the current changes.

Load Game

[Load Game] will discard the current game you are working on and load another one into the editor. Note, [Load Game] does not warn you about losing data from the current game this means if you go to load without saving, you will lose your progress. When clicked, gE will present you with a prompt. Select the desired ged. If no ged, or an invalid ged, is entered when Load Game is clicked, it will present you with an error. If gE is not displaying any new files, you need to go to the GameEditor.ini file and clear gE's recent file path. Another error that may happen while loading is when a .ged file has become corrupt, loading such a file will cause the editor to freeze.

Merge

Merging a game will add any extra information from the selected ged file into the current game. All of the current game's config settings will remain intact. If an actor exists in both games, gE will not attempt to merge any of the actor's properties. This means events, animations, and any other settings will not carry over from the game you wish to merge. The same selection process is true for Global code as well. To prevent loss of data, rename any desired scripts in the game you wish to merge, making sure no script names are the same. Remember, the original game takes priority.

Save

When using gE on windows or mac, clicking save will save the current game if the game file has already been created. Otherwise gE will prompt you for a file name, and when saving, create your game's ged file and data directory. Saving will write over your file when clicked, which removes the .undo.tmp file (used for crash recovery). When using linux, save will act as save as.

Save As

Save As only exists on windows and mac versions of gE. Save As prompts you for a file name, which it uses to create a new game. If the file already exists, it will ask if you want to write over it it. Save As also deletes the .undo.tmp file (from the old and new game file).

Export

Export can create stand alone versions of your game file for various platforms. gE can export to linux, mac, windows, iOS, pocket pc, gp2x, and android. Versions of gE 1.5 and on cannot export to windows mobile or gp2x. The export dialog prompts you for an export name, and an export type. If you choose an executable (windows/macosx/linux exports) you are exporting your game and the gE engine. Since these files include the gE engine, they will appear larger than your ged file and data directory. Note, when exporting to linux or mac, you must give the file execute permission, as gE does not do this for you. To do this open a terminal and run the following command (substituting gamefile with its absolute path).

chmod +x gamefile

The other major export type is game data only. These exports cannot be run without a copy of the gE engine. This export type is useful for separate levels and elements in your game, which can only be loaded with the LoadGame function. When exporting to iOS and android, you must use this export type. If when you click export the dialog does not disappear, then you are missing your engine exports (located in the bin directory). In this case re-download gameEditor.

List of Recent Games

The next section in the File submenu is a list of the last 10 accessed ged files. To clear the list, you can remove the RecentPaths line from the GameEditor.ini file found in the GameEditor directory. If you downloaded gE from the mac app store, the recent files list may not be available. Clicking the names in this section will cause gE to load the game. gE will not warn you about potential lost data.

Exit

Exit game will prompt you if any changes have been made since your last save, otherwise it closes the editor. When you exit game, the .undo.tmp file will be deleted (regardless of discarding or saving changes).

Add actor

When clicked the add actor button brings up a dialog that is used to add actors to your game. To create a new actor, enter a name for the new actor and choose what type of actor you want to add. Names of actors must be unique, and cannot contain more than 25 characters. New actors cannot share the same name as an actor, variable, or keyword. The different types of actors gE supports are normal, canvas, wire frame region, and filled region (in gE 1.5 and later dynamic, kinematic, static, revolute joint, distance joint, and prismatic joint). For a detailed description of each actor type and why you would use them, click [here].

Normal
Canvas
Wire Frame Region
Filled Region

Each of these actor types allow for different events, each having advantages over the others. To see a description of each Actor type, click on this link

Path

The Main Menu's path button brings up the path control dialog, which allows you to create, remove, and edit paths. Paths are a built in tool in gE that allows you to create complex movements without the use of code. Paths are comprised of several points that actors can be placed on using the ChangePath function. Create a Path
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From the path control dialog, click add, which brings up the add path window. From there insert a valid name (no more than 25 characters, and cannot share the name with another path) and the number of frames that it takes to complete the path. The number of frames a path takes cannot be changed, so make sure to get it right the first time. To actually go about creating the path click draw and simply click on the screen to place a point on the path. You can right click the points to edit their settings and/or delete them. The point setting effects the line connecting to the current point. All points default setting is curved, so if you want to deal with a linear path, you must change each node. Each point is placed sequentially, but when a point has been placed you can move it around by clicking and dragging it. When you are done creating the path, click close. When creating and editing paths you'll notice many white dots on the screen. These signify the position of the path at a single frame.

Editing a Path

To bring up the available paths to edit, click the empty box on the left side of the path control dialog. From there click the path you want to edit, and it should appear on the screen. When editing a path the only thing you can edit is the path itself. This means that you cannot change the total number of frames the path takes. Controls to edit the points are identical to the controls used when creating the path.

Removing a Path

Clicking remove from the path control dialog will remove the path from the game. Note that [i]undo does not work when editing paths[/i], and clicking delete will automatically delete the path. So when deleting paths, make sure that you are deleting the correct one.

Regions

The Regions menu button allows you to add activation regions. Activation Regions allow you to control what happens in your game file by creating regions where actors exist in. For more information on activation regions, click [here].

Add Activation Region

Clicking this submenu creates an activation region, which appears in the center of the current screen as a yellow square (like other frame regions, activation regions do not appear to the player) From there you can move the region around by clicking and dragging one of its sides. To increase or decrease its side, click any of the corners of the region, and scale it to the desired size. Since clicking a region does not select it like clicking an actor does, the only way to remove activation regions from your game is to right click them, and choose Remove Region.

Hide/Show Regions

This is used to toggle the visibility of the regions. Clicking it will either display or hide all activation regions, depending on their current visibility state. This can make sure you don't accidentally alter or remove them.

Script

The script menu provides quick access to global code and all actor game scripts. The top element in the submenu is Global Code, which when clicked brings up the global code window. The following is a list of all scripts in your game. This section is broken into two, recently accessed events (last 5 accessed scripts) and all other scripts.

Game Mode

Game Mode is used to test your game. Clicking it will exit the editor and begin to run the game you are working on. If there are any errors in your code (usually in any scripts you have) gE will display a list of all errors instead of playing your game. Any coding error caught by gE will prevent gE from being able to run in game mode (while certain warnings can be bypassed). When testing your game, other errors can occur that were not caught by gE. These can freeze gE (ex. infinite loop) or cause a force exit of game mode and gE will display the error. In rare cases gE can be force closed entirely. If this happens, opening your game should prompt you to restore previous game session (but only if the file has already been saved once). If your game crashes on linux, you must maximize the editor to trigger the crash recovery.

When in game mode you can by default press escape to exit back to the editor. If you have other ways of exiting your game, you can disable this functionality by going to the game properties.

Config

Set Game Properties

• Resolution, Mode, Game Title, etc.

The Game Properties have many different settings. For a list of all the config events along with a description of each one, go to Config. The Game Properties are settings such as screen resolution, frame rate, sound settings and other.

Set Editor Preferences

• (Grid settings, undo levels, etc.)

The Editor Preferences effect the editor. Some editable factors within the editor are grid color and size. For a list of all the config events along with a description of each one, go to Config.

Help

• Game Editor's help center. Click here to find the documentation and tutorials

When clicked, help is comprised of

• Demo Making of
• Events and Actions
• Game Stuff
• Getting Started
• Script
• About...

To see a description of each of these and a more general help questions, go to GameEditor Help.