Creating Systems

Create a system from the project tree, set its properties, and understand the GameSetup system.

Creating Systems

A system is a state machine that models a flow in your game — a quest line, a tutorial, a daily routine. You create systems from the project tree on the Design tab and build them on the canvas.

How a System Works

• States — a player is always in exactly one state of each system. Every player starts in the system's starting state.
• Exits — a state's exits move the player on to another node, either as soon as their conditions pass or when an event they wait for is fired.
• Randomizers — pass-through nodes: when a player reaches one, it draws one of its outcomes by weight and moves on at once.
• Operations — changes that run when a player enters a node, takes an exit, or draws an outcome.

The system below is the one every new project starts with. Click a state to see its details as the Inspector shows them:

Creating a System

In a workspace, hover the row in the project tree that the system should go in — Player for the top level, or a group or folder — click + (on Player it's always visible) and choose System ("A state machine you edit on the canvas"). Under System name, enter a name (e.g. "Main Quest") and confirm. Leap creates the system inside the row you clicked and opens it on the canvas. Its slug is derived from the name — main_quest — and if another system already uses that slug, Leap adds a suffix such as _copy.

A new system has a single state, Start, which is where every player begins. Add more states and connect them with exits — see States and Randomizers and Exits and Transitions.

System Properties

Click the system's name in the header above the canvas to open the system's own properties in the Inspector. They're the fields every element shares — see Navigating Leap Studio — and Save keeps your changes.

The GameSetup System

Every project starts with a system called GameSetup. It runs once for every new player: the player starts in NewPlayerSetup, whose exit Setup complete is taken straight away, and ends in SetupDone. Add operations to NewPlayerSetup — under On enter operations — to give each new player what they should start with.

GameSetup can't be deleted: its Delete button explains "GameSetup initializes new players' data and can't be deleted."

Duplicating and Deleting a System

Use Duplicate and Delete in the Inspector header while the system's properties are open. A duplicate is named "{name} (Copy)" and opens straight away; deleting asks you to confirm first, and removes the system with all of its states.

Next Steps

Continue to States and Randomizers to add the nodes of your system.