So you want to get started making games in Tabletop Playground? You’ve come to the right place. This page will walk you through the basics of creating a game, linking you to more in-depth articles along the way.

Creating Packages

To create a new game package go to “Editor” in the Main Menu. This will bring up the “Select Package” dialogue. 

The left pane of the dialogue shows your packages, and the right pane shows the starting table states you’ve saved for each package. 

Click “New Package” in the upper left corner, followed by “Continue.” (Your only option on the right will be “Start With Empty Table,” which should be selected automatically.)

You will then be prompted to select a Table, followed by an Environment. (Both selections are only necessary when starting with an empty table.)

You’ll then be taken to the table scene, where you’ll be prompted to name your package, and provide a logo for it if you wish. Both steps are optional (if you decline to enter a name, it will remain “New Package”). Should you wish to add a logo image, you can mouse over the “Select Image” button to see the suggested parameters. You can change the name and image later by choosing “Package Properties” from the top menu.

Using the Object Library

Once you close “Package Properties,” the “Object Library” window should appear. You’ll use the Object Library to create all the components your game needs.

Clicking outside the Object Library will close it. To re-open it, you can either click the second button in the upper left toolbar, or right-click on any empty bit of table and select “Object Library” from the Context menu.

To learn the basics of component creation, read Creating and Using Object Templates.

After that, you may want to check out some of the following:

• Cards, Tiles and Tokens if your game contains any of those.
• Dice if you need to make custom dice.
• Use Player Colors if your game includes things like pawns or cubes that you want each player to have distinctly colored versions of.
• Web Images if you’d like to use web-hosted images rather than in-package assets.

Setting Up Your Table

Once you’ve created your object templates, you’ll naturally want to arrange them on the table. Simply click templates in your library to spawn them, as you learned in tutorial.

As you do, you may want to set up seats for each of your players. Read Setting Up Player Slots to learn how.

Saving Your Table

When you’re happy with the state of your table, pull up the Menu by clicking on the top center of the screen or hitting escape

Then choose “Save State” 

If you have your package selected on the left, your state will be saved as a “Starting State” for your package. The next time you go to the Select Package menu, you’ll see that state as an option, in addition to “Start With Empty Table”

This will not only return you to the state you left your table in, but will allow you to bypass selecting your table and environment. (Should you wish to change your environment later, you can do so from the Menu on the playmat.)

The “Local Saves” folder meanwhile is intended for saving specific game states. As the name implies, these will not be included with your package should you ever upload it to Mod.io.

Note: Changes to your package and object templates save independently from table states. This has a few implications to be aware of:

• Any work you do on your object templates will be preserved, even if you close without saving the table state or experience a crash. (You could also recover the table state itself if desired by choosing “Autosaves” on the package select screen.)
• If you change a template in the middle of a game, those changes will be reflected in your saved start states (and any other saved games) as well.

Playing Your Game

If you want to play your game solo, we’d recommend just doing that in the Editor, moving pieces around as you’ve been doing when setting up.

But if you want to share your game with others and play multiplayer, you have a few options. First you could upload your package to Mod.io by choosing “Upload Package” from the main menu. If your game isn’t ready for public consumption, read Playtesting and Playing with Private Packages to learn more about how this works.

Alternatively, you can simply start a game with your package, allowing anyone who joins to download it directly from you via Peer-to-Peer Package Sharing. Note that while simpler, this will likely be slower.

Further Reading

• Managing Assets will explain more about how files are handled, and how you can easily clean up unwanted ones with the Asset Cleanup Tool.
• User Interface Basics will explain how to add custom UI elements to your game.
• Scripting 101 offers a quick tutorial on how to add scripted functionality to your game. You may also want to read Scripting Basics for a more in-depth explanation.
• If you already have a Tabletop Simulator save you’d like to pull into TTP, you can try the TTS Importer (WIP).