Meet theengu editor

Meet the Engu Editor

Here you’ll learn how to use the Engu editor.

In fifteen minutes, you’ll pick up the basics and have everything you need to build something like your own house in the editor. 

Let’s get started!

Creating a new scene in the editor

The editor is easily accessible from the main menu via the tab located in the top-left corner of the screen. 

On the next screen, you’ll see a list of the scenes you’ve created and saved. You can open them here and continue working with them. 

At this moment, the list is empty, so we need to create a new scene. 

Click the Create button.

In the window that opens, you can set the specifics of the scene you’re creating.

The main things to set are its Name (1) and Description (2) for other potential users.

The middle tab bar (3) contains different types of pre-made scenes you can use as a starting point for your own creations. 

For now, we’re interested in the Terrains tab and specifically the Empty terrain. 

Since we don’t need to change anything else right now, confirm the parameters by clicking Done.

The editor window

When the editor starts, you’ll see a top bar with buttons used mainly for choosing different tools, and a green surface (the ground) with an object that has a character icon on it. 

This is one of the so-called Game Logics.

This specific Game Logic determines where the player’s character will appear when the scene starts.

First time running a scene

Let’s try out our first scene right away by pressing the Test button in the top-right corner.

Congratulations, you’re now controlling a character in your very first scene! 

Try moving the character:

Once you’ve tried moving around, return to the editor. 

Press the ESC key, then on the next screen click Exit game and then Return to editor.

Camera controls

Now we’ll learn the basics of controlling the view of the scene in the editor, which we call the Camera. 

Camera controls in the editor are very simple:

What Entities are

The objects you can place into a scene are called Entities. 

Unlike the Game Logics mentioned earlier, which are more like “helpers” and are usually not visible in the running scene, Entities are realistic objects.

Entities come in many forms. 

Smaller ones are used to build larger structures (for example, a small stone or wooden building block). 

Larger Entities usually stand on their own (a statue, a tree). 

Some can be picked up in the running scene (a twig), while others are static (a large rock). 

You can access the list of available Entities in the editor by clicking the Entities button (the cube icon with a plus symbol).

Placing Entities

Let’s place our first few Entities – for example, we’ll try building a small house. 

Open the list of available Entities using the button mentioned above. 

In that list, open the building Blocks. 

Now we’ll show how easy it is to build, for example, a wall out of individual pieces.

Let’s start with something original – from the available blocks, choose the Blocks with hieroglyphs.

In that list, pick one you like, click it, and then click anywhere on the empty green surface. 

The selected block will be placed where you were pointing with your mouse cursor in the scene. 

The newly placed Entity is automatically selected in the scene, which is why you can see the panel on the left side of the screen where you can adjust it. 

Let’s place more blocks into the scene – identical ones or different ones. Try building a wall out of them. 

Once you’re done, exit the placement mode for the selected Entity either by pressing the right mouse button or the ESC key.

Editing the properties of a selected Entity

Now pick any of the blocks you’ve placed earlier – hover over it with the cursor and press the left mouse button. 

The Entity will be selected (a yellow outline will appear around it), and a panel with its properties will open on the left.

Now try changing the color of the selected Entity in its properties – click the colored square in the field called Color. 

In the window that opens, choose any color and confirm with the Confirm button. 

You can change any available property of the selected Entity in this way.

Removing objects and undoing unwanted actions

What if you no longer want an Entity in the scene? 

Maybe you wanted to place it somewhere else, or replace it with another one.

You can remove any currently selected Entity by pressing the Delete (Del) key. 

And what if you deleted something you didn’t mean to? Or accidentally moved something in the scene?

Editor control modes

The way you interact with objects in the scene depends on which Mode you currently have active. 

There are four modes in total, and you switch between them using the buttons in the top-left corner of the screen. 

You can also quickly see which mode is active at a glance.

The four basic modes are:

Select

In this mode you can select objects in the scene by clicking them with the left mouse button. 

Move

In this mode, a gizmo with colored arrows appears on the selected object(s), showing the directions in which they can be moved. 

You can move an object along a chosen axis by hovering over an arrow and dragging it while holding the left mouse button.

Rotate

When you choose this mode, you’ll see a gizmo similar to the one in Move mode, but this time you choose a rotation axis and rotate the object by holding the mouse button and dragging. 

Scale

Most objects cannot be scaled up or down – if you want a bigger wall, you usually have to use more blocks or larger blocks, and so on. 

This mode can therefore only be used with certain types of Game Logics – for example, when setting the size of Activation Areas. 

Summary

In just a few minutes, you’ve learned the basics of working with the editor, and that’s enough for you to create your own scene with any objects you like. 

A foundation grows from a block; you add windows and doors, some furniture inside, and then color everything exactly the way you want. 

And this is only the beginning — just a small taste of what the editor can do. If this introduction caught your interest, you can continue at any time with the next chapter, where you’ll learn many more skills.