☉Getting Started

Interface Basics

Your Machinations Workspace is where you’ll create your game designs, set parameters, run simulations and plot results.

From the header you can easily access some of our most important features:

• ​Collaborative Editing
• Share
• User Profile
• Tags
• Saving Prompts > Version History

Clicking on the diagram’s Title reveals the file management setting.

Click on the Manage file button Share; Make a copy or Delete your diagram.

In the Main Menu you will find everything you could expect from a Docs suite.

1. My Machinations – where we store your diagrams that are not shared with your team members
2. Shared with me – the diagrams that were shared with you
3. Team – under Team, you’ll find the diagrams your team shares, available with our paid plans
4. Import from G Drive – here’s where you can access the diagrams you have exported to your Google Drive.
5. Templates – a repository of ready-made deconstructions of games and game mechanics

Public

Access a searchable repository of ready-made subsystems. Drag and drop them onto the canvas to get you started.

Private

The section in which you’ll find public, ready-made systems to get you started. Just drag and drop them onto the Canvas.

Add systems for easy drag and drop access. Select the Nodes and Connections you’d like added right-click and select Add to private library (see below).

Team

This is a PRO feature, available with paid plans. For anyone working in teams, you can save library items and easily make them available to all team members.

Access all Nodes and Connections to drag and drop them onto the canvas.

💡 When no component is selected on the diagram, the Properties panel displays the options for changing diagram properties.

1. Global Properties
   1. Dice: use this to set the default number of faces the dice that generate random values have. For example, on a diagram that has the Dice Global property set to 10, a Resource Connection with the Label D will transfer a random amount of Resources between 1 and 10.
   2. Skill, Multiplayer, Strategy set these to any value you may want to call upon when building your diagram, then use S, M or St as Labels on the Connections that should have that value. For example: if Skill is set to 7*8, a Resource Connection having the Label S, would transfer 56 Resources.
2. View: choose if you want to have de Grid or Page View on/off
3. Options: Toggle on/off Connection arrows or Guides

🔧 When components (Nodes & Connections) are selected, the Functional panel displays the properties settings for that component. Check out the documentation for each Node/Connection to learn about each available setting.

Once you have a system diagrammed, at the bottom of the canvas you can find the diagram’s Play Modes. Read all about it here:

Opens the Execution Chart of your diagram. Learn all about Charts at the link below.

Use Layers for different sections of your diagram, so you can hide them if you need better visualisation at a micro or macro level.

1. Open Layers controller by clicking the Layers icon (image above)
2. Make a selection of Nodes and Connections then you can
   • Add Layer
   • Move selection to a different Layer by Selecting the target Layer from the list
   • Duplicate
   • Delete
   • View/Hide
   • Lock/Unlock ​

Use this as a minimap, by dragging the outline to navigate the diagram.