The workspace¶

Everything in the creator is a tool: Room, Paint, Dialog, Play and so on. Tools open as tabs in a workspace that you arrange the way you like.

The workspace with its parts: top bar, tool bar on the left, Room in the middle, Paint and Library on the right, and the footer

Part	Where	What it does
Top bar	Top	The game's title (click to rename), Undo and Redo, the save state, Commands, and your account
Tool bar	Left edge	One button per tool. Click one to open it or bring it to the front.
Workspace	Middle	The open tools, as tabs in groups. Drag a tab to move it beside, above or below another group. Drag the line between groups to resize them.
Footer	Bottom	Whether you are in Chili Platform, the number of problems, Help, the Layout menu, and a reminder of `Ctrl`+`K`

Your arrangement is remembered in this browser.

The tools¶

Icon order	Tool	For
1	Projects	Your games: new, open, import, release
2	Room	Draw the room, place sprites and items, add exits and endings
3	Paint	Draw a tile, sprite or item, and animate it
4	Library	Every tile, sprite and item; pick one to paint or place
5	Colors	The palettes
6	Dialog	What sprites and items say
7	Exits & endings	Where exits lead, locks, transitions, ending text
8	Variables	Numbers and words the dialog remembers; starting items
9	Tunes	Music for rooms
10	Blips	Short sounds for sprites and items
11	Problems	Things that would break the game
12	Play	Play the game, record a GIF, set the cover
13	Game	Title, font, text direction and size, raw `.bitsy` text
14	Download	`.bitsy` file or a web page
15	Find	Search everything, see where a drawing is used

Layouts¶

The Layout menu in the footer sets the tools up for one kind of work. Choosing one replaces the current arrangement.

Layout	Opens
Everything	Every tool, where it opens by default
Drawing	Room, with Paint beside it and Library and Colors below Paint
Writing	Room, with Dialog, Exits & endings and Variables beside it, and Play below
Sound	Room, with Tunes and Blips beside it
Playtest	Play, with Room beside it and Problems below

The Drawing layout: Room on the left, Paint top right, Library bottom right

Reset layout in the command palette goes back to the default.

The command palette¶

Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac), or choose Commands in the top bar. Type a few letters and press Enter. Every tool, layout and editing command is there, with its key shortcut on the right.

The command palette open over the workspace, listing Paint, Room and Layout commands with their keys

All shortcuts are listed in Keyboard shortcuts.

Undo and redo¶

Every change can be undone, in every tool: Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y to redo, or the arrows in the top bar. While you type in a text field, Ctrl+Z undoes your typing instead.

Help and the tour¶

Help in the footer lists every tool with one line on what it is for, an Open button and a Learn more link to its page here.

The Help panel listing the tools, with links to these docs

The first time you open the creator, a six-step tour shows the tool bar, Projects, Room, Paint, Play, and the commands and layouts. You can try each tool while the tour explains it. Skip tour closes it. Start it again with Take the tour in Help or in the command palette.

The first step of the tour outlining the tool bar

Next¶

On a phone? Read On a phone. Otherwise start the tutorial.