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Working with Workspaces

Make changes in isolated workspaces, deploy one to try it in your game, resolve conflicts and merge your work into Main.

Working with Workspaces

When your project is set to Use workspaces, you change your design in a workspace — an isolated editing environment, like a branch in version control — without affecting Main, the state everyone on your team shares. When you're happy with your changes, you merge the workspace back into Main. Workspaces suit teams: nobody sees half-finished work, and every change is reviewed before it reaches Main. Leap recommends this mode when your organisation has more than one member.

If you work alone, you may prefer to edit Main directly; see Editing Main Directly.

Choosing This Mode

Pick Use workspaces in any of three places:

  • When you create a project — the New project form asks How will you work on it? on its second page (in the first sign-in wizard, under the project's name). See Creating a Project.
  • The first time you open a project without a mode — Leap asks "How do you want to work on “{project name}”?" and shows each mode as a card, with the recommended one badged Recommended and the reason under the title. Click Use workspaces. If someone in your organisation edits the project's Main directly, the dialog says so. Not now leaves the choice for later: the project works with workspaces until you choose, and Leap asks again the next time you open it.
  • At any time — open the project menu in the header, click the cog to open Project settings, choose Work mode and click Use workspaces. It applies straight away; there is nothing to save. If you were editing Main directly, everything you saved on Main stays on Main: Leap checks Main first, the same way it does before creating a version. If Main has a problem, the mode doesn't change, and Work mode shows "The work mode wasn’t changed:" with each problem and how to fix it.

The choice is saved on this device; others in your organisation choose for themselves.

Main Is Read-Only

In this mode you can't change Main itself. When no workspace is selected, you're looking at Main and everything is read-only: buttons that would change something are dimmed with the tooltip "Select a workspace to make changes", and the Inspector shows the same message. Create or switch to a workspace to start editing.

Creating a Workspace

Step 1: Open the Workspace Menu

On the right of the header, click the branch icon. Its tooltip shows Main when no workspace is selected.

Step 2: Click "Create Workspace"

At the bottom of the menu, click Create Workspace. A dialog opens.

Step 3: Name Your Workspace

Enter a Workspace Name (e.g. "Balance Update Sprint 1") and click Create Workspace. Leap shows "Creating workspace…" and then switches you into the new workspace.

Step 4: Start Editing

The branch icon turns violet with a dot, and its tooltip shows your workspace's name. Everything you create or change is saved to this workspace and doesn't affect Main until you merge. A new workspace starts from Main as it was at the moment you created it.

Switching Workspaces

Open the workspace menu and pick Main or any workspace from the list; each one shows who created it. Leap shows "Switching workspace…" and reloads the project.

Important: Unsaved Inspector edits are discarded when you switch. Save your work first.

Trying a Workspace in Your Game

You don't have to merge a workspace to try it in your game. While you're in it, Create version in the Deployment menu makes a version of the workspace's saved changes — named after the workspace, e.g. w-stronger-archers-1.0.0 — and Deploy to can send it to an environment in the same step. Main doesn't change. Keep working, deploy again whenever you like, and merge when you're happy with the result. See Versions and Deployments, "Creating a Version from a Workspace".

On the Playtest tab, This workspace plays the workspace's saved changes without deploying anything; see Playtesting Your Design.

Merging Back to Main

Step 1: Start the Merge

While you're in the workspace, open the workspace menu and click Merge to Main.

Step 2: Review Changes

The dialog opens on Review changes before merging. After "Analyzing changes...", Leap lists everything the merge will change, counted as New, Modified and Removed and grouped by kind of element. Switch between High-level and Detailed, or use Search changes… to find something specific; expand a row to see exactly which fields changed. If your workspace matches Main, you'll see "No changes to merge."

If nobody changed the same elements on Main in the meantime, click Continue to Merge and skip to Step 4.

Step 3: Resolve Conflicts

If an element you changed was also changed on Main since your workspace was created, click Resolve Conflicts. For each conflict, choose Keep main or Keep workspace, or click Choose changes individually to keep some changes from each side. Under Resolve all remaining, Take main and Take workspace settle everything that's left in one click. When a system is in conflict, its Main and Workspace versions are shown side by side as graphs.

If the only difference is where nodes sit on a canvas, Leap resolves it for you and keeps your workspace's layout.

Step 4: Confirm and Merge

On Confirm and merge, review the summary once more and enter a Merge Message describing the change. It's required: Merge to Main stays disabled until it's filled in. Then click Merge to Main.

When the merge completes, you're back on Main with your changes in it, and the workspace is removed. A message confirms the merge: "Merged "{name}" to main." Versions you created from the workspace stay, unchanged, and can still be deployed. Create a new workspace for your next round of changes.

When a Merge Is Refused

Merging checks that your whole design fits together. If it doesn't, the dialog shows "This workspace can’t be merged until these are fixed:" and lists each problem: what is wrong, the elements involved, and How to fix it. Click an element to open it — a system opens in its editor, anything else is highlighted in the Element Explorer. The most common problems:

  • Uses an element that no longer exists — an element still uses one that has been deleted. Open it and choose another element, or remove that value.
  • Uses a state that no longer exists — a condition or an exit names a state that is no longer in its system. Choose an existing state.
  • Uses an element it can’t reach — an element uses another one that is out of its reach. See Organizing Your Project for which elements can use which.
  • Uses the wrong kind of element — a field points at an element of a kind it doesn't take. Pick one of the right kind.
  • Elements use each other in a loop — change one of them so the loop is broken. See Formulas.

Fix the elements in your workspace, save them, and click Check again. Technical details under a problem shows Leap's own message, and Copy details copies the whole list if you need to send it to support.

Closing a Workspace

To drop a workspace without merging it, switch into it, open the workspace menu and click Close Workspace.

Important: Closing a workspace permanently deletes it, together with every change in it that hasn't been merged. This can't be undone. Versions you created from it are kept and can still be deployed.

Turning Workspaces Off

To edit Main directly instead, open Project settings → Work mode and click Edit main directly. If the project has open workspaces, Leap asks first (Edit main directly?): they stay as they are, but can't be opened while you edit Main directly. Switch back to Use workspaces to merge them. See Editing Main Directly.

Next Steps

Once you're in a workspace, head over to Creating Resources to add your first resource.