Stage Engine documentation
How to install Stage Engine, build a world by hand, work with Director 1, and find your project on disk. Every page here describes the app as it ships. If something is not documented, it is because it is not in the app yet.
Getting started
Install on Mac
Stage Engine for Mac is a disk image you download from flockbay.com and drag into Applications. It is signed and notarised by Apple, so it opens without a security warning.
Install on Windows
Stage Engine for Windows is a code-signed installer you download from flockbay.com and run. It installs for your user account only, so it does not ask for an administrator.
System requirements
Stage Engine is a desktop app for Mac and Windows. There is no browser version, no phone version and no Linux build.
What happens on first launch
The first thing Stage Engine asks for is a sign-in. After that you land on an empty Projects screen with two ways forward.
Your account
Downloading Stage Engine needs no account. Building with it does — the account is what entitles you to run Director 1.
The builder
Arrange: the builder
Arrange is the window where you build your world by hand. It opens on top of your game, gives you a set of tools, and writes what you make back into your project.
Sculpt
Sculpt shapes the ground. You pick a verb, set the brush, and drag on the terrain until the land is the shape you want.
Paint
Paint decides what the ground is made of. Sculpt gives you the shape; Paint gives you the rock, grass, sand or mud lying on it.
Plants
Plants scatters vegetation across the ground. You choose what to plant, then drag to plant it or erase it.
Water
Water is a panel, not a brush. You raise a level and the land decides where the water goes.
Sky
Sky sets the time of day and the sun. It is a panel of settings, with no brush and nothing to drag.
Weather
Weather adds rain or snow over time. The panel appears only in worlds that have a weather system, and most of what it shows comes from that system rather than from us.
Characters
Characters is where you tune how it feels to walk around your world. It is a panel of sliders for the player, not a brush.
People
People is the panel for the inhabitants of your world. It is the one tool that is not always on the menu.
Director 1
What Director 1 does
Director 1 is the part of Stage Engine that writes code. You describe what you want; it edits the files in your project and tells you what it did.
Asking for a change
You ask in the chat, Director 1 works, and the thread shows you what it did. Reading that thread well is most of the skill.
When to use the manual controls
There are two ways to change your world, and they are good at different things. Asking is good at code and at scale. Doing it yourself is good at judgement.
Your project
Where your project lives
Your project is a folder, in a place you picked, containing a real Godot project. Stage Engine does not hide it somewhere and does not own it.
Opening your project in Godot
Stage Engine can open your project in the Godot editor. It is a real Godot project, so nothing about it is locked to this app.
Exporting your game
Export turns your project into a standalone application someone else can run without Stage Engine. There are two targets: macOS and Windows.