settingsData.json

public/data/settingsData.json holds your game's data: prefabs, base prefabs, presets, animations, layers, and settings for physics, saving and the level editor. You can edit it by hand, but the Chrome extension is made for it.

Pass it to your scene to use it:

import settingsData from '../public/data/settingsData.json';

export class Game extends Scene
{
    constructor()
    {
        super(settingsData);
    }
}

A scene without settingsData gets the built-in defaults only.

Example: the Platformer's settingsData.json.

Overview

Every key is optional. A small file using most of them:

{
  "gravity": 5000,
  "layers": ["background", "objects", "ui"],
  "layersInfo": {
    "background": { "showInEditor": false }
  },
  "basePrefabs": [
    { "name": "block", "baseClass": "ArcadeObject", "hitbox": "FULL", "static": true }
  ],
  "prefabs": [
    { "name": "player", "texture": "player", "components": { "animation": {} } },
    { "name": "grass", "extends": "block" }
  ],
  "animations": {
    "player_walk": { "frames": ["player/player_walk#2"], "framesPerSecond": 10 }
  },
  "categories": {
    "blocks": { "entries": ["grass"], "expanded": true }
  },
  "saveVars": {
    "ArcadeObject": ["color"]
  },
  "settings": { "gridEnabled": true, "gridSize": 32 }
}

Key	Default	Description
prefabs	[]	Named GameObject definitions. See Prefabs.
basePrefabs	ANY and NONE	Building blocks for other prefabs. See Base prefabs.
presets	FULL, CENTER	Reusable property values. See Presets.
animations		Named frame animations, used by AnimationComponent. See Animations.
layers	["objects"]	Layer names, in draw order. See Layers.
layersInfo		Settings per layer. See Layers.
gravity	0	Downward gravity for physics.
saveVars	position, children, components	Properties saved per GameObject class when a level is saved while playing. See What gets saved.
categories		How prefabs are grouped in the level editor's sidebar.
settings	grid off, size 64	Level editor grid: gridEnabled and gridSize. See Grid.
editorObjectSnapToPivot	true	false makes objects fill the level editor grid cell instead of snapping their pivot to the lines.
name		The file name the editor saves to. See More than one settings file.

Layers

layers lists your layer names. Later layers draw on top. objects always exists: if you leave it out, it's added at the start, below your own layers. See Levels & Layers for using them.

"layers": ["background", "objects"]

Settings per layer go in layersInfo, keyed by layer name:

"layersInfo": {
  "background": {
    "save": false,
    "showInEditor": false
  }
}

Setting	Default	Description
collidesWith		Layers this layer's objects collide with. See collision layers.
save	true	Save this layer's objects into the level file.
showInEditor	true	Show the layer in the level editor.
pointerCollisionType	"POINT"	How the pointer picks objects: "POINT" takes the top object, "RADIUS" the nearest one. In code: CollisionHandlingType.POINT / CollisionHandlingType.RADIUS. See Mobile & Touch.

Example: the Shmup defines a layer per kind of object and which of them collide.

Defaults

When a scene loads its settings, the built-in defaults are merged into a copy of your data, so they don't end up in your file:

• A missing key gets its default.
• Lists get the default items they're missing. That's how objects ends up in layers.
• Objects like presets, layersInfo and saveVars keep all your entries and get the default entries you don't have. An entry you share with the defaults is merged with it, so your own FULL preset replaces the built-in one key by key, and a GameObject list in saveVars still includes position, children and components.

ANY and NONE are added to basePrefabs if you don't define them. See Base prefabs.

Editing

The Chrome extension edits prefabs and the level editor's settings while your game runs, and the dev server writes them back to settingsData.json.

Generated names

While the dev server runs, the Data object in src/generated/assets.ts is generated from settingsData.json, so you get autocomplete and typo checks:

import { Data } from './generated/assets';

this.AddGameObject(Data.Prefab.PLAYER);
this.AddGameObject('cloud', Data.Layer.BACKGROUND);
anim.Play(Data.Animation.PLAYER_WALK);

Map	From
Data.Prefab	prefabs
Data.BasePrefab	basePrefabs
Data.Animation	animations
Data.Layer	layers, as layer indices, including objects

Each also has a list, like Data.Prefabs, which is emptied in production builds. See stripGeneratedAssets.

More than one settings file

Each scene has its own settings, so scenes can use different files:

import menuData from '../public/data/menuData.json';

export class Menu extends Scene
{
    constructor()
    {
        super(menuData);
    }
}

Give every extra file a name, like "name": "menuData". The editor saves to <name>.json in public/data/, and without a name it would overwrite settingsData.json.

The Data object is only generated from settingsData.json.

Example: the RPG's map editor uses its own mapData.json. See Example: the RPG's map editor.