Play Mode

Play Mode runs your Arcweave project as a choose-your-path game, emulating the player's experience. It loads one element per turn and the story progresses choice-by-choice.

This process enables structured testing, debugging, and refinement of the narrative flow.

✅ Making changes in your project automatically updates Play Mode.

Breakdown

The following steps describe how Play Mode functions:

1. The game begins at the defined starting element.
2. At each turn, Arcweave renders the content of the current element.
3. The current element's cover is displayed at the top of the Play Mode window.
4. The covers of the current element's components are shown below the element cover.
5. The textual content of the current element appears beneath the components.
6. Outgoing connections from the current element are rendered as clickable option buttons at the bottom of the screen.
7. If an element has only one unlabeled connection, a blinking arrow appears at the end of its text content.
8. The player progresses the story by clicking an option button or clicking anywhere within the content area, in the case of the blinking arrow.

ℹ️ To let others play your project, you must make it public, first.

Play Mode access

Depending on their role, users fall into two primary role-based categories with respect to Play Mode access and functionality:

• Commenters & Visitors
• Owners & Editors

Commenters & Visitors

Workspace commenters, project commenters, and project visitors have limited access to Play Mode. They can play through the story, restart the session, and adjust audio settings. (For a quick overview of roles, see workspace and project roles in the Introduction section.)

Owners & Editors

Workspace and project owners and editors enjoy the following Play Mode features:

• Debugger: Ability to inspect variable changes and force assign values for testing.
• Style Editor: Ability to change the CSS of the Play Mode.
• Reorder option buttons: Ability to reorder the option buttons of any element.