Edit a room

Français · Type: how-to · Audience: author · Context: local Studio · Status: ready · Applies from: 4.2.1

The local Studio · contract: stable · verified by CI (support matrix of 4.4.0, 2026-10-23): Chromium end to end (the Studio's checks); Windows: the unit suite only · automated checks: jobs e2e, windows; CI plan e2e, windows; 2 test files · people's passes: studio-hero-matrix not run (#238) · known limits: texts-only-literals

The Rooms tab edits a room's texts, reactions, talk topics and stage without opening its TypeScript file, and writes the change back into that file as readable code.

What you get

A room changed from the Studio: a look line added, a reaction edited through a form, a prop added and placed. Each change is in rooms/<room>.ts (or layout/<room>.json) as if you had typed it, validated, and undoable.

Context and versions

The local Studio (npm run studio), in the engine repository or a created project. True from 4.2.1, when every Studio write became one operation of the game's journal, judged before it is written. The hosted Studio uses the same tab, with leases and roles on top (Working together day to day).

Prerequisites

• The Studio running: The local Studio: overview and launch.
• A room declared in the game (index.ts / game.ts); a room the game does not list answers room "<id>" is not in the game (index.ts / game.ts).

Where to run the commands

In the browser, on the Studio page (http://localhost:5173/__studio/#rooms/<room>). The only command is the one that starts the Studio, in the engine repository or the created project.

Steps

1. Select something. Pick the room in the Rooms tab. The room is drawn by the engine with the placement editor on top; the list on the right holds its props, actors and hotspots. Selecting one, in the list or in the view, opens its sheet: name, kind, states, visibility, look lines, reactions (verb, targets, condition, and the commands as a list of lines: texts editable, other commands shown), and talk topics, as a list or as a tree (topics, lines, choices and their options, branches, each with its condition; tapping a node jumps to its editor). Under the view: the room's name, hints, on enter lines, the room's scripts and events (structure read-only, texts editable).

2. Edit a text. Change a field, then leave it (or press Enter): the text is saved. Escape cancels. Each save shows a toast and runs Check in the background (Check). A placement in progress in the view is saved first; the view reloads when the room file changes. The text is written into rooms/<room>.ts in place: the string literal is replaced through the TypeScript parser, with the same quote style, and the file stays readable code. Look lines can be added, edited and deleted from the sheet.

3. Add a prop, a hotspot or an actor. "Add prop / hotspot / actor" creates the entry in the room file (the section is created if absent) and gives it a place in the layout: a prop has its foot at the point given and a height of 60; a hotspot is a 60 × 60 box centred on it; an actor has its feet there. A prop or a hotspot needs a name. The id is letters, digits and _, not starting with a digit; an id the room already has is refused (409). The room file and its layout are written as one operation, undone in one step. Then drag it where it belongs (Placement and stage).

4. Edit a reaction or the stage through a form (below, "Structured editing"): Edit… on a reaction, + Reaction at the end of the list, Stage… and the painter on the room sheet. Each form shows the diff before it writes (Preview, apply, undo).

5. Check the timing of a script. Next to every cutscene, arrival script and world script, the Timeline toggle draws how long each command takes and what overlaps: lines, walks, animations, parallel branches, the player's turns in red. Tap a bar to jump to its line; double-click a bar to change a wait's, an animation's or a motion's duration.

Structured editing

• Forms instead of code. Each reaction has Edit… (verb, targets, condition, commands as a form), and the list ends with + Reaction. The room sheet has Stage… (layers with their image, role and condition; lights; particle emitters; the transition; the logic of walk links) and the painter (the game's, DOM or canvas). The forms come from one table of every condition and command, src/studio/schema.ts, checked against the engine's types at compile time: a new command without a form does not compile. What has no simple field (a minigame's parameters, an animation's frame events) is a JSON box.
• Layers, masks, zones. Under the room sheet, the stage editor (src/studio/rooms-stage.ts) draws the backdrop with the occlusion masks (red), the walk zones (green) and the links between zones; the geometry itself is described in Placement and stage.
• Preview, then apply. "Preview the change" shows the diff the server would write, without writing; "Apply" writes it as code in the file's style, then the game is validated: an edit that adds a validation error is refused and nothing is written (Preview, apply, undo).
• Undo / Redo in the header (Ctrl/Cmd+Z, with Shift to redo), over every write of the session: texts, values, layouts, voices.
• Play. The Play tab shows the painter of every room (DOM or canvas, as the game says) and how fast it draws (frames per second, the canvas painter's repaints).

Texts that switch on the hero

Applies from 4.3.0

For a game whose texts hold switches ({form?m=…|f=…}, {hero}), the Rooms tab keeps the raw braces in its text editor. Under a text holding a switch, a read-only line shows the text as a player reads it with the values picked in the Play tab's Text switches ((form=?) while none is picked). See Play and replay a session and Heroes: several characters and hero choice.

Notes about the room

Notes about the room or one of its entities appear at the bottom of the room's section ("Notes (n)"), with a box to add one (Notes).

Limit · texts-only-literals Only string literals the Studio recognises as texts are edited this way: names, look lines, lines of say, topics, hints, toasts, choices, hero lines in command lists. Ids, image references, flags and conditions are never texts, and the API refuses to edit them; a text the room builds with code (a shared constant, a helper) is not reachable. The full rule is in Studio API.

Expected result, and how to check it

The toast says the text was saved; the engine view shows the change; git diff games/<id>/rooms/<room>.ts shows a one-line change in the file's own style. The Check tab's badge shows whether the game still validates.

Common errors

More: Studio troubleshooting.

Files or data changed

• games/<id>/rooms/<room>.ts (texts, reactions, stage, painter, added entities).
• games/<id>/layout/<room>.json (an added entity's place).
• The journal of the game under .cache/studio-journal/ (the operations, for undo).

Recovery or going back

Undo in the header takes back the last write of the session, Redo puts it back. An undo refuses when the file was changed since by someone else (an AI, an editor, git): then use git diff and git checkout -- <file>.

References

• src/studio/rooms.ts, src/studio/rooms-sheet.ts, src/studio/structured.ts, studio-server/src/ops/core.ts.
• npm run e2e:studio -- <studio url> (a CI gate) creates a stage with the form, checks the diff, applies it, sees it in the game and undoes it (scripts/e2e-studio.mjs).
• Rooms, Reactions, Dialogues.

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