Cinematics

A cinematic is a cutscene: someone walks over, says a few lines, the camera follows them, the screen fades, a sound plays. It plays in the real game on the real map, with your real sprites, effects and sound.

You build a scene as a story — a numbered list of beats, where each beat is one thing that happens ("Elder walks to (5, 7)", "Camera follows Elder", "Elder says: Welcome…"). You author it on the map itself: the editor docks under the map, you click tiles to draw paths, and the map preview shows each moment as players will see it.

Where to author it#

Each scene is staged on one map — that's the map it opens on for editing. It can still play on any map (see Gotchas).

Build your first scene#

1. Open a map in the editor and switch to Events mode.
2. In the Events panel header, press Cinematics and start a new scene. The editor docks under the map on the Story tab.
3. Click the name at the top and type a name for the scene.
4. An empty scene offers templates. If the scene stars someone, pick them under Starring (an event on this map, or Someone (choose later)).
5. Pick a template, for example NPC walks up and talks, then click the spot on the map the scene is about — where the NPC walks to, the door, or the boss.
6. The template fills in a few beats. Click the Say beat to open it and change the lines.
7. Click the Move beat, press Redraw path on map and click the tiles the actor should walk through. Press Enter (or double-click) to finish.
8. Press Preview (or Space) to watch it in the map preview. Switch to Camera view to see it framed the way players will.
9. Press Save.
10. Under When does it play?, press Play when the player steps here…, click the tiles, press Enter, then Add. Save the map.
11. Publish. Step on the tile in your game and the scene plays.

Templates#

Start blank gives you an empty scene with just the player in the cast. Every template is ordinary beats — change or delete anything.

The editor dock#

The dock sits under the map. Drag its top edge to make it taller or shorter, or press Expand to give it most of the screen with the map still visible above (Restore shrinks it back).

The Story view#

The top card holds the scene's name, its length, Preview, and When does it play?. Under it is the Cast, then the beats, then the Add a beat bar.

Working with beats#

• Add a beat — press a button on the Add a beat bar, fill in the short form, and press Add beat. New beats go at the end of the story.
• At the same time as the last beat — tick this on the bar before adding, and the new beat starts together with the last one instead of after it.
• Select a beat — click it. Its fields open under it, and the playhead jumps to that moment, so the map shows it.
• Change its length — click the time on the right of the beat and type the seconds. The beats after it move to keep the story in order. Music, ambience and hidden actors show plays on instead: they last until the next beat like them, or the scene ends.
• Run it with the beat above — press the link button on the beat. Linked beats are indented and marked at the same time.
• Reorder — drag the handle on the left, or use the up/down arrows that appear when you hover.
• Delete — the bin button. The beats after it close the gap.

Keys, while the beat list has focus: ↑ / ↓ pick a beat, Ctrl + ↑ / ↓ move it, Delete removes it.

Beats#

Positions are in tiles. Zoom 1 is the game's normal zoom.

A Flash on a Screen beat is subject to the same safety limit as the Flash Screen event command: at most three flashes a second for everyone, and one soft pulse for players with Reduced motion on. See Events & Cutscenes.

Drawing a path#

When you add a Move beat (or press Redraw path on map), click the tiles on the map to walk through, in order.

Cast#

The Cast strip lists everyone in the scene. The player is always there. Add actor adds:

An actor nobody plays yet (for example, from a template with Someone (choose later)) shows choose who — press it and pick an event. The × on an actor removes them and all their beats.

The Scene & cast side panel has the same cast with more detail: each part's Played by (The player, An event on this map, A temporary actor), Pick on map to click the event that plays it, and a temporary actor's start tile and facing.

Record an actor#

Instead of drawing a path, you can act it out:

1. Move the playhead to where the actor should start moving.
2. Press the record button (the circle) on the actor in the Cast strip. The scene starts playing and a Recording chip shows in the header.
3. Walk the actor with the arrow keys, or click tiles on the map to send them there.
4. Press Space or Esc (or Stop on the chip) to stop. Recording also stops when the scene reaches its end.

The whole take is one undo step, so Ctrl+Z throws it away in one go.

NPCs as actors#

Cast an event bound to an NPC (see Bound NPC in Events & Cutscenes) and the NPC acts in the scene — with Pick on map, Add actor, or right-click → New cinematic with this NPC.

• In game, the NPC stops where it is when the scene starts — its wandering and daily schedule pause. It walks, turns, emotes and plays animations as your beats say, then goes back to where it was and carries on once the scene ends.
• In the editor, the NPC's look is shown for the actor when the event has no graphic of its own. Play in game shows a stand-in with the NPC's look.
• The NPC must be spawned on the map where the triggering player is. If it isn't there (not spawned yet, or on another map), its part does nothing and the rest of the scene plays on.

When does it play?#

The top of the Story view lists every event on this map that plays the scene, for example "Plays when the player steps on ▶ Old Well (12, 8)". The crosshair button shows it on the map.

To add one:

1. Press Play when the player steps here….
2. Click the tiles that should start it (a doorway can be several tiles), then press Enter.
3. Leave Only the first time each player steps there ticked to show the scene once per player, or untick it to play it every time.
4. Press Add, then Save the map to keep the new events.

This places one invisible, walk-through event per tile, named "▶" plus the scene name. They are ordinary events — open one in the event editor to change it.

With Only the first time each player steps there ticked, each event gets a second, empty page with the Cinematic page condition set to this scene, Watched (see Page Conditions). Once a player has seen the scene, that page takes over, so the scene never plays for them again — from any of its tiles, or from any other event that plays the same scene. A scene counts as watched as soon as it starts for the player who triggered it. Party members or others watching along are not marked, so they can still trigger it themselves.

You can use the same condition on any event of your own — for example, an NPC who says something new once the player has seen the scene.

The Play Cinematic command#

Any event can play a scene: Event commands → Visual Effects → Play Cinematic.

In a common event only the player who triggered this, this event and the scene's default are offered, because a common event doesn't belong to one map.

The event editor's test run lists the command as 🎬 Play cinematic … with its length, so you can check an event's order without playing it.

Scene settings#

These are in the Scene & cast side panel.

Director view and Camera view#

Going back to Director view puts the map back at the zoom you had before.

In Director view you can also drag an actor on the map to set where they stand at the playhead (hold Alt to place freely instead of snapping to half tiles), drag inside the camera frame to move it, and scroll over the frame to zoom. Each drag is one undo step.

Timing tab#

The Timing tab shows the same scene as a timeline, one lane per track. Use it when you need exact timing — overlapping clips by a fraction of a second, keyframing a camera pan, or setting a volume. Anything you change here shows up in the Story view, and the other way round.

• Scrub — click or drag the ruler.
• Move a clip — drag it. Resize — drag its right edge. Clips snap to other clips and the playhead; hold Alt to place freely.
• Add a clip — double-click an empty spot on a lane, or add a track with the + Camera, + Actor, + Dialogue, + Effect, + Sound and + Screen buttons.
• Scroll — the mouse wheel scrolls tracks, Shift + wheel scrolls time, Ctrl + wheel zooms the timeline.
• The Details side panel shows every field of the selected clip, including keyframes.

Keyboard shortcuts#

These work while the editor dock has focus.

Play in game#

Play in game saves the scene, then opens the game client in preview mode (Dry Run) on this map and plays the scene exactly as players see it: cinematic bars, real sprites, fades and flashes, emotes, temporary actors, effects, sound and dialogue. Events on the map are shown, so actors cast from events really move. Press R to replay.

Nothing is published — your live game is untouched.

In your live game, a Say beat with Wait for a key before continuing holds the scene until the player presses a key, and the event that started the scene waits with it (for up to 5 minutes). When Can players skip it? allows it, players press Esc to skip the rest.

Cinematics publish to your game server with the rest of your content when you Publish.

Gotchas#

• Monsters don't wait for a scene. Only the NPCs cast in a scene are held still. A monster placed on the map can't be cast, so it keeps its own mind: an aggressive boss still walks up to a player who is frozen in its intro and attacks. Start the scene before the monster can notice the player — put Play when the player steps here… on the doorway rather than next to the boss. A monster notices players inside its Aggro Range (5 tiles unless you changed it) and wanders a little, so leave a few tiles to spare.
• An NPC actor must be spawned on the player's map. A part played by an NPC that isn't spawned on the map where the triggering player is does nothing. The NPC pauses its wandering and schedule only for the scene, then returns to where it was.
• Older triggers remember per tile. Step-on triggers added before the Cinematic page condition existed use the event's own self switch, so each tile remembers separately. Delete them and add them again with Play when the player steps here… to get once per player across every tile.
• Save the map after adding a trigger. Play when the player steps here… adds events to the map; they are kept only when you save the map, and players get them when you publish.
• A scene that ends on a fade-out stays black so you can move the player with a Transfer Player command and fade in on the new map. If no fade in or transfer follows within about 4 seconds, the screen fades back in on its own.
• Skip needs "Can players skip it?" Set to No, Esc does nothing and the scene always plays to the end.
• Use Wait beats for pauses. Beats run one after another with no gaps, so add a Wait where you want a beat of silence.
• Sounds use the same names as the Play Sound command. A sound missing from your media library plays nothing — press the play button in the picker to check it.
• A scene plays on the map of the event that starts it. The stage map is only where you edit it. If the triggering event is on another map, the scene plays there, at the same tile positions.
• An event actor must be on the running map. A part played by an event that isn't on the map where the scene is playing doesn't move.
• Errors show on Save. For example, a clip that runs past the end of the scene. Fix the clip (or make the scene longer) and save again.
• Nothing shows in game? Check the Cinematics feature flag (on by default, Beta). With it off, Play Cinematic finishes instantly and nothing is shown.
• Publish after editing. Players see the version you last published. Play in game always shows your latest save.