The launcher designer

The launcher designer, under Launcher, then Open designer in the dashboard, arranges the launcher your players see: you start from a template, drag elements onto the window, resize and restyle them, add your own headings, text, images and buttons, and choose where a controller goes first. Your colours, fonts, logo and art are the ones from the launcher builder; you can change them from the designer too, under Brand & art.

Nothing changes for players until you publish. The designer saves your draft by itself while you work.

Templates#

A template is a complete launcher you can rearrange and restyle. There are four for games:

• Default: the library on the side, a wide hero, a play bar, and news and patch notes side by side.
• Nova: your key art fills the window behind glass panels: the library, a play dock under the game's title, and floating news cards.
• Vanguard: console style, made for a controller: full-bleed art, big game tiles, a side panel and an action bar along the bottom.
• Blank: just the title bar and the play button. You build the rest.

And four for Unreal apps that aren't games (Atelier, Campus, Showroom and Exhibit), under For apps, not games in the template picker. See Templates for apps that aren't games below.

Choose Templates at the top of the designer to switch. Switching replaces your layout, not your brand: colours, logo, art, games and links carry over. If your current layout has changes you have not published, the designer asks before replacing it. Published layouts stay in Versions on the publish page, so you can go back.

The designer at a glance#

• Elements (left): everything you can add, grouped as Launcher, Content, Basic and Layout. Drag a tile onto the window, or select an element and press Enter on a tile to add it right after.
• Layers (left): the layout as a tree. Select, drag rows to reorder or drop them on a container, and hide or show elements. The title bar, window controls and settings stay fixed and are not in the tree.
• The window (centre): your launcher with sample content, at the size you choose. Click to select; a cyan line shows where a dragged element will land.
• Layout for and the preview state (above the window): which layout you are editing (all games, or one game's own), and the state the window shows, such as Not installed or Offline. See Show when and A layout per game.
• Inspector (right): Content, Style and Advanced settings for the selected element.
• Layers and the Inspector can also float as windows you move anywhere. See Floating Layers and Inspector.
• Brand & art (top bar): your colours, fonts, images, hero art and game art, next to the window. See below.
• Undo and Redo at the top go back and forward up to 100 steps, layout and Brand & art alike. See Undo and redo.
• Copy, Paste, Duplicate and Save as block at the top work on the selected element. See Copy, paste and duplicate and Your blocks.

Floating Layers and Inspector#

Layers and the Inspector can float as windows over the page, so the layer tree stays in view while you place elements.

• Choose Float at the top of Layers or the Inspector. The panel becomes a window. A floating Inspector's column makes room for the launcher window; with Layers floating, the left column shows Elements alone.
• Drag the window by its title bar and drop it anywhere. It stays exactly where you put it.
• Drag its edges or its bottom-right corner to resize it. Collapse folds it to its title bar; Expand opens it again.
• Dock puts it back in its column.
• Click a floating window to bring it in front of the other one. Menus, dialogs and messages still show above both.
• A window never goes fully off screen: its title bar and at least 120 pixels of its width stay where you can reach them, also when you make the browser smaller. The title bar has a grip at each end to drag it by.
• While dragging or resizing, press Escape to put the window back where it was.
• The designer remembers each panel's place, size and whether it floats, in this browser. If your browser blocks site storage, it remembers them until you reload.
• Floating is only offered when the browser window is at least 1024 pixels wide. In a narrower window the panels stay docked, and they float again where you left them once the window is wide enough.

A floating Layers works just as it does docked: select, hide and drag rows to reorder. You can also drop onto it from Elements or from the launcher window (drag the handle of the selected element):

• Drop onto the middle of a container row (a section, column, stack, scroll area, tab) to put the element inside it, at the end. An outline shows around the row.
• Drop just under a container's row, where its first child starts, to put the element first inside it.
• Drop between rows to put it before or after. A cyan line shows where it will go.
• The same rules as on the window apply: columns only inside columns, tabs only inside tabs, and the play button never in a scroll area or in tabs. Where the element can't go beside a row but fits inside it, the outline shows it goes inside. Where the element can't go, or is already there, no line shows and nothing happens.
• Dropped into a tab that isn't open on the launcher window, that tab opens.
• Drag near the top or bottom of the list to scroll it.
• Every drop is one step you can undo.

With the keyboard:

• Press F6 to move between the launcher window, Layers and the Inspector (Shift+F6 goes back). F6 does nothing while you are typing in a field.
• Tab to a floating window's title bar, then use the arrow keys to move it 10 pixels at a time, or 50 with Shift. Alt with the arrow keys makes it bigger (right, down) or smaller (left, up).
• With a screen reader, press Enter on the title bar to start moving the window, use the arrow keys, and press Enter or Escape to stop. The screen reader says where the window moved and its new size.
• Float, Dock and Collapse are ordinary buttons. After Float the focus is on the window's title bar; after Dock it is back on Float. A floating window doesn't trap the focus: Tab moves on to the rest of the page.

Brand & art#

Brand & art at the top of the designer opens your launcher's look beside the window, in four parts:

• Colours & type: the ten colours (text on the accent is picked for contrast, and low contrast is pointed out), the display, body and mono fonts, the corner radius, and your logo, background art and icon.
• Hero: the layered hero art (sky, middle, subject, front), parallax, the ambient effect and its intensity, and where the subject sits.
• Games: each game's cover, whether it uses the studio hero or art of its own, its accent colour and its music.
• Sound: interface sounds and music (see Sound and a colour per game).

The window shows each change at once. Selecting the Hero element offers Edit hero art; the Library and Game art elements offer Edit game art.

These settings are shared with the Launcher page (the launcher builder): a change here changes it there too, and the other way round. Players see it when you publish. If the Launcher page is open in another tab and saves first, the designer asks you to reload, so neither page overwrites the other. Undo in the designer covers these changes too. What your plan includes is the same as on the Launcher page.

Sound and a colour per game#

Brand & art → Sound sets what your launcher sounds like:

• Interface sounds: Off, Subtle or Custom. With Subtle, the play buttons let you hear the launcher's own sounds. With Custom, upload a sound for Select (moving to or pressing a button), Back and Play: MP3, OGG or WAV, up to 200 KB and 2 seconds each. The designer checks the length before it uploads; a sound you leave out is silent.
• Music: upload an MP3 or OGG file, set its Volume (30% to start) and press Play to hear it; press Stop to end it. Nothing plays until you press Play.

In Games, each game can have:

• an Accent: pick a colour or type it as #RRGGBB. While you change it, the window shows that game, in its colour. Use the studio accent removes it. The publish page warns, naming the game, when text on its accent is below 4.5:1.
• Music of its own, with its own volume. Without it, the game plays the studio music.

Every change is one step for Undo, and saves with the rest of Brand & art. Players hear nothing until they turn sound on in their launcher, which asks them once; they can mute it at any time.

Built-in sounds and a colour per game are included from Templates; your own sounds and music from Custom. Choices your plan does not include show the plan that includes them. Sound and a colour per game need launcher 0.8.0: see Launcher 0.8.0.

Elements#

• Play is always there, exactly once, at every window size and for every game. It cannot be removed, hidden or limited to some games.
• Section, Row, Columns, Scroll area and Tabs hold other elements. A column lives only inside columns; columns hold up to four. A tab lives only inside tabs.
• Images come from your own uploads (in the launcher builder, or under Brand & art).
• Text is plain text, up to 500 characters per element.

Install info#

Install info (Launcher group) shows players where their install of the selected game stands, with buttons to check it. It is good for kiosks, labs and support-heavy games, where players or staff need to see at a glance that an install is complete.

Choose the rows it shows, and their order:

• Version: the installed version, and the latest one while an update is due.
• Channel: the channel the player is on, such as Release or Beta.
• Size on disk: how much space the install takes (or will take, before it is installed).
• Install folder: where the game is (or will be) installed.
• Free space: the space left on that drive.
• Last verified: when the files were last checked, and what the check found ("All files verified", or how many files were repaired). Shown once the game is installed.

At least one row stays shown. And the buttons under them:

• Verify files: checks every file and downloads again only what is damaged or missing. It works once the game is installed and nothing else is running for it.
• Open folder: shows the install folder in the player's file manager.

Turn either button off, or both. Like Facts, it has an optional title (a new one says "Your install") and shows as a list or a grid, in up to four columns. While the launcher installs, updates or checks the game, the element shows the progress and Verify files waits; Open folder works whenever the game is installed. The designer shows it with sample values.

Install info needs launcher 0.5.1 or later. Older launchers show the closest built-in look instead. Adding it to a layout needs Custom (adding elements is a Custom change), but it does not count toward your plan's added elements. The Campus and Exhibit templates come with install info, so on Templates you can fill in theirs.

Sizes and spacing#

Every element has a width and a height, set on the Style tab:

• Auto: the size the element needs.
• Fixed: an exact size in pixels.
• Fill space: shares the space left in its row or column with the other filling elements, by weight.
• Fit: as small as its content allows.

Elements sit in rows and columns and reflow with the window; there are no absolute positions. Padding, the gap between elements, surface (none, solid or glass, with its opacity), corners, border, text size, text colour, font and alignment use your theme's colours and shapes.

Scrolling#

When your layout is taller than the launcher window, players scroll to see the rest, with the mouse wheel, the trackpad, the keyboard or a controller; the title bar and the bottom of the window stay put. Elements set to Fill space share the window's height as before, so the templates fit without scrolling. Moving through the buttons with the arrow keys or a controller scrolls each one into view, and pressing down on the last button scrolls on to whatever is below it.

• The designer shows the window at the size you chose and the layout scrolls inside it, as in the launcher. Turn on Show full height at the top to see the whole layout at once while you edit; players still see the window at its size.
• To keep a fixed screen, select the window and set When taller than the window to Cut off.
• The Play button is always on the first screen, at every window size: keep it near the top, or in a bar along the bottom of the window. If it would sit below the first screen in the smallest window, the publish page asks you to move it before publishing.

A Scroll area (in the Layout group) scrolls on its own, inside your layout: a long list of buttons, a strip of art cards side by side, a column of news. It scrolls up and down or side to side, and can fade its edges where there is more to see, show its scrollbar always or only when needed, and (side to side) stop on each item.

• A scroll area needs a bounded size to scroll: a Fixed or Fill space size along the way it scrolls, or a largest size under Grow up to (it grows with its content until then). A new scroll area is 320 pixels high. Without a bound it grows with its content and never scrolls; the publish page warns about that.
• The Play button can't go inside a scroll area.
• With a controller, a scroll area that holds no buttons is a stop of its own: the d-pad scrolls it, then moves on at its end. A scroll area with buttons scrolls to each button in turn.
• A Fill space width inside a side-to-side scroll area makes the element as wide as the area's visible part, one per screen.
• A design that scrolls (a scroll area, or a layout taller than the smallest window) needs launcher 0.4.2 or later. Launchers 0.4.0 and 0.4.1 can't scroll: they squeeze what is below the first screen and leave scroll areas out. To update your players, build a new launcher on Launcher → Launcher builds; players get it the next time they restart their launcher. The publish page tells you when your newest launcher build is older than your design needs.

Window sizes#

The launcher runs in windows of different sizes, so the designer lets you check three: 1280 × 800, 1024 × 680 (the smallest window) and TV 1920 × 1080.

• Below 1240 pixels wide, the launcher uses its small window settings; at 1920 pixels and wider, its TV settings.
• While 1024 × 680 or TV is selected, changes on the Style tab apply only at that size. Use the default size's style here removes them again.
• On the Advanced tab you can show or hide an element at each size.

Frames#

Choose Frames at the top to see the layout you're editing several times at once, under the window. Each frame is a smaller copy of your launcher, drawn live as you edit:

• Narrow (1100), Standard (1280) and TV (1920): the window sizes. They show the state, channel and language picked above the window.
• Right to left: the layout in the first right-to-left language your launcher offers (Arabic when it offers none), at the standard size.
• Not installed, Updating and Offline: the layout in that state, at the standard size.

Choose frames picks which frames show, up to six, and their order (the arrows move a frame earlier or later). Your browser remembers the choice for your studio; if your browser doesn't keep site data, the choice lasts until you reload.

Click an element in any frame to select it: the window and the inspector follow, so you can change it right away. Frames are pictures for the eye: the keyboard and screen readers skip what is inside them. Each frame's name is a button that takes you to the window, where you select and edit with the keyboard. Frames keep animations still, and a frame is drawn only once you scroll to it, so the designer stays quick.

Focus order#

Turn on Show focus order at the top to see how a controller moves through the window and the frames, at each size and in each layout (the studio's and each game's own):

• A number on every element the controller reaches, in the order it reaches them.
• A dashed outline around each controller zone in your layout, numbered in the order the controller moves through them.
• A green ring marked Start on the element the controller starts on: the one you chose under Controller starts on, or else the first button of the first zone.
• A ! on a button or other control the controller never reaches. Point at it for the reason. Change the controller order, or move the element, so players with a gamepad can press it.

Each number sits at the top corner of its element where reading starts: the left in a left-to-right language, the right in a right-to-left one. The numbers come from the launcher's own controller order, the same one the publish page checks.

Buttons and actions#

A button carries one action, chosen under When clicked:

• Open a link: an https address. The launcher asks the player before opening the browser.
• Open a news post: one of your published posts.
• Open patch notes: for the selected game, or a game you choose.
• Switch to a game, or Switch channel (for example to Beta).
• Verify and repair game files, or Open settings. Players can always verify and repair from Settings in the launcher too, whatever your layout shows.
• Launch with options: starts the app with options of your own, such as -lesson=3. See Launch options.

Buttons have a label, a look (primary, outline, text, card or swatch) and an optional icon. On the Advanced tab, any element except Play can show only for some games, only between two dates (for an event, say), or only in some states. See Show when.

Show when#

Show when, on the Advanced tab, shows an element only when something is true: art that says "Install now" before the game is installed, an offline note, a "Join the beta" banner on the Release channel only, a message in one language. Choose any of these:

• The game is: Not installed, Installing, Update available, Updating, or Ready to play (installed, up to date and nothing running for it).
• Connection: Online or Offline.
• A game is running: While a game runs, or While no game runs.
• Channel: the channels of your games, or another channel name you type.
• Launcher language: the languages your launcher offers.
• For games and From and Until (UTC), as before.

Within one condition any choice will do (Not installed or Update available). When you set several, all of them must be true. Clear Show when removes them all. In Layers, an element with conditions shows a short note, such as "Only when offline" or "Hidden unless update available".

The Play button, and the elements around it, always show: players must always be able to install, update and play.

To see each case, pick a preview state above the window: Ready, Not installed, Update available, Updating, Offline, Game running or Signed out, and a channel and a language beside them.

Conditions other than games and dates are included from Custom and need launcher 0.6.0.

A layout per game#

A studio with a shooter and a card game may want different screens. Layout for, above the window, picks what you edit: All games (your studio layout) or one game.

• Pick a game and choose Customize for this game: the designer copies your studio layout for that game, and you change the copy. The other games keep the studio layout.
• Use the studio layout removes the game's own layout again, after you confirm. Undo brings it back.
• Up to 16 games can have their own layout. Each one follows the same rules: Play exactly once and always shown.
• When games have their own layouts and you have more than one game, every layout must show the game Library (always shown), so players can always switch games.

Per-game layouts are included from Custom and need launcher 0.6.0. Every layout adds to the size of your launcher's design: the publish page warns when it gets close to the limit.

Carousel#

A Carousel (Content group) shows one slide at a time, with previous and next buttons, dots, and a swipe. It shows one of:

• Your posts: the selected game's published posts that have a cover image, pinned first.
• Your games: your games with a cover. Selecting a slide selects its game.
• Your own slides: up to 8 images from your uploads, each with a description for screen readers, an optional title (up to 60 characters) and text (up to 140), and an optional action, like a button's.

For posts and games, choose how many slides show (up to 8). Move on by itself turns slides every 4 to 20 seconds (7 to start with); off, players move it themselves. It moves on by itself only with full motion, while the launcher is visible, no game is running and the player's pointer or focus is not on it, and a pause button stops it. A carousel with nothing to show yet shows nothing in the launcher; the publish page tells you.

Tabs#

Tabs (Layout group) put content behind tab buttons, so a screen holds more without scrolling. A new tabs element comes with two tabs, Overview and Details.

• Select the tabs element to add, rename, reorder and remove tabs (2 to 8, names up to 24 characters), choose the look (underline or pills) and the tab that opens first.
• Click a tab in the window or in Layers to edit its panel; drop elements into it like into a column.
• Players switch tabs with a click, the arrow keys, or LB and RB on a controller.
• The Play button can't go inside tabs: players must reach it without switching tabs.

Video#

A Video (Content group) plays a short, muted loop from your uploads, over a poster image. Add one, then upload or pick the video and the poster.

• Formats: MP4 (H.264) or WebM (VP9), checked when you upload. Your plan's limit for one video:

• All your launcher images and videos together have a limit too. Art you no longer use is removed a week after it leaves your design.

• Above 15 MB the designer says the video is large: players download it once, with your launcher's art, so a shorter or smaller video starts sooner.
• Never sound: the launcher always plays videos muted.
• When it plays: only with full motion (players can choose reduced motion in Settings, and the system setting counts), while the launcher window is visible and no game is running. Otherwise the poster shows. A pause button sits in a corner.
• Give it a description for players who use a screen reader, and choose Fill or Fit inside.

Your hero can play a video too: see Prepare your launcher art.

Carousels, tabs and videos are included from Custom and need launcher 0.6.0.

Templates for apps that aren't games#

Not every Unreal project is a game. For architectural walkthroughs, courses, product configurators and training apps, the template picker has four more templates under For apps, not games. Each one uses the words of its field ("Projects", "Open walkthrough", "Start", "Models") and the same brand, art and publishing as the game templates.

• Atelier, for architectural visualisation: the projects on the side, the render up front with Open walkthrough and Open in VR, review channels, project facts and a gallery of stills.
• Campus, for education: the apps on the side, Start and Classroom mode, lesson cards that open the app at a lesson, announcements, and install info so a teacher can check the files before a class.
• Showroom, for automotive and premium products, full-bleed: the model's facts, paint swatches that open the configurator in that paint, Configure, and the models as tiles.
• Exhibit, for industrial products and training: the products on the side, modules as cards (a product tour, an exploded view, safety training, maintenance), specifications, release notes, and install info with Verify files and Open folder.

Your plan's templates apply as for Nova and Vanguard: plans that include every built-in template include these too.

The elements they use#

You can also add these to any layout:

• Facts (Launcher group): a list of labels and values, such as area, floors and location, or engine, range and seats. Up to 12 rows; labels up to 32 characters, values up to 48. Show them as a list (label beside value) or a grid (label over value), in up to four columns, with an optional title. A new Facts element starts with three example rows to change. An empty list shows nothing in the launcher.
• Gallery (Launcher group): up to 12 images from your uploads, in up to four columns, wide (16:9), classic (4:3), photo (3:2) or square. Each image needs a description for players who use a screen reader, and can have a caption. Players select an image to see it large; Escape, or B on a controller, closes it and the arrows step through. An optional View all button under the images takes any button action. An empty gallery shows nothing in the launcher.
• Card buttons: a button that looks like a card, with an image (on top or at the start), a detail line such as "15 min" and a badge such as "Start here". Good for lessons and modules.
• Swatch buttons: a round paint chip in a colour you choose (#RRGGBB). Its label names the colour for screen readers and shows beside the row when it is chosen.
• Words when ready on the Play button: your own words for when the app is ready to start, such as "Open walkthrough" or "Start" (up to 40 characters). Installing and updating keep the launcher's own words.
• Heading on the Library: your own heading, such as "Projects", "Apps" or "Models".

Upload image, beside each image picker in the inspector, adds a new image (PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 5 MB) and puts it where you chose. Images must be your own uploads.

Launch options#

Launch with options, under When clicked, starts the app with options of your own, so one button can open lesson 3, the VR mode or the configurator in blue:

• -lesson=3 opens a lesson.
• -vr starts in VR.
• -paint=blue (with -mode=configure) opens the configurator in a paint.

A button takes up to 8 options. Each is an optional - or --, then letters, digits and _ . : = , + / -, without spaces or quotes, and never ... The designer checks each one as you type. They are passed to the app after its own launch options (the ones set in the plugin). By default the button starts the selected game; you can choose one of your games instead. The button works once that app is installed and up to date; until then it says why ("Install first", "Update first").

The app reads its command line as usual. In Unreal, for example:

int32 Lesson = 0;
if (FParse::Value(FCommandLine::Get(), TEXT("-lesson="), Lesson))
{
    // Open the lesson.
}
const bool bVR = FParse::Param(FCommandLine::Get(), TEXT("vr"));

Which launcher the app templates need#

The app templates and their elements (facts, galleries, card and swatch buttons, launch options) need launcher 0.5.0 or later; Campus and Exhibit, which include install info, need 0.5.1. Older launchers show the closest built-in template instead (Default for Atelier and Exhibit, Nova for Campus, Vanguard for Showroom) in your colours, art and logo. Build a new launcher on Launcher → Launcher builds; players get it the next time they restart their launcher. The publish page tells you when your newest launcher build is older than your design needs.

The publish page also warns about a gallery or fact list that is empty, gallery images without a description, and a launch button set to a game that is not one of yours.

Undo and redo#

Every change you make in the designer is a step you can take back: adding, moving and deleting elements, their content, style, sizes per window size, Show when rules, translations, the controller order, tabs, a game's own layout, and the colours, fonts, images and art under Brand & art.

• Undo (↶) and Redo (↷) at the top say what they will do, for example Undo Move Play or Redo Edit heading text. Hover over them, or listen with a screen reader, to hear the step.
• Press Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac) to undo, and Ctrl+Shift+Z (⌘⇧Z) or Ctrl+Y to redo. While you are typing in a text field, these keys undo your typing instead, as they do anywhere else.
• After an undo or redo, the element the step changed is selected, so you can see what happened. If it was in another game's layout, Layout for switches to it.
• Dragging a slider or picking a colour is one step, however far you drag.

The designer keeps the last 100 steps while the page is open. Going to Publish or Templates and back keeps them; reloading the page starts afresh. Saving does not clear them: if you undo past the last save, the draft is unsaved again and saves itself once more.

Copy, paste and duplicate#

Select an element, then:

• Copy (Ctrl+C, ⌘C): copies it and everything inside it.
• Paste (Ctrl+V, ⌘V): puts the copy into the selected section, row, column or tab, at the end; with another element selected, right after it. Nothing selected: at the end of the window.
• Duplicate (Ctrl+D, ⌘D): a copy right after the element.

The buttons at the top do the same, and so does the menu you get by right-clicking an element on the window (or pressing Shift+F10 with an element selected).

What you copy can be pasted into the same layout, another game's own layout, or the designer of another studio you work for, in the same browser. Pasted elements get names of their own, so nothing clashes, and they keep their place in the controller order and their controller zones. Translations come along for the languages your launcher offers.

Some things can't be pasted, and the designer says why:

• The Play button, and an element that holds it, can't be copied: a launcher has exactly one.
• The same rules as for dragging apply: a column only goes into columns, a tab only into tabs, and nothing goes where the play button can't be reached.
• Elements, button actions and Show when rules your plan does not include, or more added elements than your plan allows.

If what you paste has images or videos that are not your own uploads (copied from another studio, for example), the designer lists them before pasting. Choose Upload a replacement for each, or Remove it; the paste happens once every image is one of yours.

The same goes for games and news posts of another studio: a button that opens another studio's game, or a Show when rule for its games. Pick one of your games for each, or remove the reference. A news post of another studio can't be swapped for one of yours, so its action is removed (a button goes with it, since a button needs an action).

Copy, paste and duplicate from the keyboard do nothing while you preview the launcher or while a dialog is open.

If your browser does not let the designer read the clipboard, Paste uses what you last copied in this tab, and the designer tells you so.

Your blocks#

Keep elements you use often, such as a season banner or a row of community buttons, as blocks for any layout of your studio.

• Select an element and choose Save as block. Give it a name of up to 60 characters. The block keeps the element and everything inside it.
• Blocks appear under Your blocks at the end of Elements, newest first, with what they hold. Choose a block to insert it: it goes where a paste would go, with the same checks.
• Rename and Delete are next to each block. Deleting a block does not change layouts that already use it. If your plan no longer includes blocks, your blocks stay listed so you can rename or delete them; inserting and saving new ones need the plan again.

Blocks belong to your studio: everyone on your team who can design the launcher sees the same blocks, and other studios never do. A studio keeps up to 100 blocks, and a block can be up to 64 KB (text in some scripts takes more room, so a block of Arabic or Chinese text holds fewer characters). Images in a block must be your own uploads, and the games and news posts it names must be your studio's. Saved blocks are included from the Custom designer level (they add elements); see What your plan includes.

Translate your text#

Your launcher can show its own words in six languages. The text you write in the designer (headings, text, button labels, tab names, carousel slides, fact rows, gallery descriptions and captions, image descriptions, the names screen readers hear for sections and scroll areas, and the titles of news, patch notes, facts, galleries and install info) can be translated too.

1. Pick a language in Text language, above the window. The list shows the languages your launcher offers, your default language first. Change which languages it offers in the launcher builder, under Layout and languages.
2. Select an element. Its text fields now edit that language. Each field shows your default text as a hint and says Not translated until you fill it in. Clear removes a translation.
3. The window shows the language you are translating into, so you can check that the words fit. Text you have not translated shows in your default language.

Other settings, such as size, style and what a button does, are the same in every language: switch Text language back to your default language to change them. Removing a slide, a fact row or a gallery image removes its translations too. When you choose Customize for this game, the game's layout keeps your translations.

Players see the text in the language their launcher is set to; untranslated text shows in your default language. Arabic and other right-to-left text reads correctly.

Your default language has no translations: the text you type with it selected is the element's own text. If you change the default language in the launcher builder, translations into the new default are removed when the design is saved, and the page lists what was removed.

The publish page counts what is still missing for each language, for example "Arabic: 6 texts not translated", with a link that opens the designer in that language. Missing translations never block publishing. Text in a language your launcher does not offer does: players would never see it, so remove it or turn the language on first.

Translated text needs launcher 0.7.0 or later. Older launchers show your default text.

Controller order#

Players with a controller move between buttons with the d-pad. Turn on Show controller order at the top: numbers on the window show where each press goes, and the inspector lists the order. Move entries up or down and choose where the controller starts. Without an order of your own, the controller follows reading order; elements you leave out of your order come after it, in reading order, so the controller still reaches them. To see zones, the start and anything the controller never reaches, use Focus order.

Publishing and versions#

Choose Publish at the top. The publish page shows:

• What changes since the live version: elements added, changed, moved and removed.
• Checks, in every layout (the studio's and each game's): text readable on its background (as players see it, over your art and see-through panels), images from your own uploads, the layout fits the smallest window (sideways, with the Play button on the first screen; the rest may scroll), every scroll area has a bounded size, a controller reaches every button and every scroll area (no controller zone, or scroll area, with only buttons that can't always be pressed, such as Verify before a game is installed), and, for a design that scrolls, uses the app templates' elements or has install info, which launcher it needs compared with your newest launcher build. For the app templates' elements it also warns about empty galleries and fact lists, images without a description, and launch buttons for a game that is not yours. It also warns about empty carousels, slides and videos without a description, a large video, a layout for a game that is not one of yours, and a design close to its size limit. A per-game layout that breaks a rule (no Play, no Library) names the game and must be fixed first. Show me opens the right layout. Warnings do not block publishing; a Play button below the first screen and anything your plan does not include must be fixed first.
• Who sees it: launchers from version 0.4 show your design exactly (a design that scrolls from 0.4.2; the app templates and their elements from 0.5.0; install info from 0.5.1; Show when conditions, per-game layouts, carousels, tabs and videos, also in the hero, from 0.6.0; sound and a colour per game from 0.8.0). Older launchers show the closest built-in template in your colours, art and logo until players get a newer launcher: build one on Launcher builds, and players get it the next time they restart their launcher.
• Versions: every publish, with its title and note, kept for 90 days. See Versions: compare, name, restore.

Give the version a title and a note if you like, then choose Publish to players. Installed launchers pick up the new design the next time they start; nothing needs to be rebuilt or reinstalled.

Versions: compare, name, restore#

Every time you publish, the design is kept as a version for 90 days. The Versions list on the publish page shows each one with its title, note, who published it and when.

• Name it. The publish form asks for a title (up to 80 characters) and a note (up to 500), both optional. Use the note for what changed and why. Anyone who can publish can change a version's title and note later with Edit title and note.
• Compare. Under Compare, pick any two of your draft, the live version and the versions you kept, then choose Compare. You see what changed in the layout (for the studio layout and each game's own layout), in the look (the built-in look and its light or dark scheme, colours side by side, fonts, corners, logo, background, icon, hero layers, hero video, effect, parallax and game art) and in your text, language by language. Both designs are drawn side by side at the same window size and state; pick a size, a state such as Offline, or a language to check them together. Compare with draft in the list starts from that version.
• Restore. Choose Restore… on a version, then one of: - Restore: the whole design comes back as your draft. - Restore only the layout: the layout comes back, including each game's own layout; your colours and art stay as they are. - Restore only the look: the built-in look and its light or dark scheme, the colours, fonts, corners, images, hero and game art come back; your layout stays as it is.

Restoring never publishes: players see it only when you publish again. If the designer or the launcher builder is open in another tab, it asks you to reload after a restore, so it never saves over what you brought back.

Checks measured on your art#

Some checks look at the launcher as it is drawn, not only at the layout. When you open the publish page, it draws every layout (the studio's and each game's) at three window sizes, a small window (1100 wide), the standard size (1280 × 800) and TV size (1920 × 1080), in your launcher's default language, out of sight. If your launcher also offers Arabic (a right-to-left language) and it is not your default, the studio layout is drawn again in Arabic at the three sizes, so the right-to-left controller order and the translated text are checked too. Then it measures:

• Text over your art: the hero's title and tagline, and any heading, text or button over the hero or over the window's background art. The page looks at the art right under each line of text, with the shade and the hero's fade in front of it, and warns when the hardest-to-read part of it (the worst tenth) is below 4.5:1, or 3:1 for large text (24 px, or 18.7 px bold). It names the element, the size and the ratio, for example Heading "Season 03" at TV size (1920 × 1080): 2.3:1 where the art is busiest, needs 4.5:1. Raise the hero's Shade behind text, move the text, or pick art that is calmer behind it.
• Controller order: whether pressing the d-pad moves through the window in an order players can follow: a warning when, inside one controller zone, the next button is more than a row higher (or back against the reading direction, right to left in Arabic) without starting a new column, when a button can never be reached, and when the button the controller starts on is not on the first screen. Moving on to the next zone (in Nova, from the library to the dock and on to the side panel) is how zones work, so it is never a warning.
• Overlaps and cut-off text: elements next to each other that overlap (by more than 2 px; an element inside another is fine), text that does not fit its box, and elements that stick out of the window.

These are warnings: they never block publishing. Show me opens the element in the designer. The results belong to the draft as it was measured; once the draft changes, the page measures again by itself. Check again measures now. If an image can't be loaded, the page says so instead of guessing.

Preview in your launcher#

Before players see a design, you can see it in your own launcher. Choose Preview in your launcher on the publish page, or at the top of the designer once your changes are saved. The preview is built exactly as publishing would build it, so a design that can't be published yet can't be previewed either; the message says what to fix.

You get a link that starts with udtk- and your studio's name:

• Open in launcher opens it on this computer, if your launcher is installed here.
• Copy link copies it to send to someone else on your team, and the QR code opens it on another device.

The launcher shows the draft instead of your published design until you choose End preview or restart it. Players never see it, and nothing is published. A preview changes only the look: installing, updating and playing still work.

A link works for 30 minutes, and can be opened as many times as you like while it lasts; the panel counts down. The end time is part of the signed preview, so the launcher ends it on time whatever else it is told. Your studio keeps at most 10 open at once: creating an eleventh ends the oldest, and you can create up to 20 in 10 minutes. Anyone with the link can open the preview while it lasts, so share it only with your team. When a link has ended, the launcher says so and keeps your published design; create a new one. A preview is never mistaken for your published design: the launcher accepts it only as a preview.

The panel also says which launcher version your design needs, and warns when your newest launcher build is older. Opening previews needs launcher 0.7.0 or later. Creating a preview needs the same role as publishing (owner, admin or developer).

Import and export#

Choose Import & export at the top of the designer to share a design as a file or bring one in.

Export (on every plan that has the designer, for any role that can open it):

• Download layout.json: the whole layout, with the studio layout, each game's own layout, the controller order and your translations. Games are written game:1, game:2… in the order of your game library, so the file works in another studio too.
• Download kit (.zip): a folder with layout.json, theme.json (the built-in look, light or dark scheme, colours, fonts, corners and section order, without image addresses), content.json (which game each game: number was, and the hero's parallax and effect) and the images and videos the design uses: the logo, icon and background in brand/, the hero layers, covers and layout images in art/. The JSON names them file:art/sky.webp, file:brand/logo.png and so on, as the sample kits do.

Import (Import layout.json or Import kit (.zip)):

1. Pick the file. It is checked in your browser first, with the same rules as a save: a problem names the element it is on (for example pic: image must be one of your uploads), and nothing changes until it is fixed.
2. Choose how to use it: as the draft layout (it replaces your layout, every game's own layout included), or as one game's layout (only the file's studio layout is used, for the game you pick).
3. Games: the file's game:1, game:2… become the games of your library in order. When the file has more or fewer games than your library, pick which of your games each one becomes; a game's own layout can also be left out. Buttons and Show when rules that name a game need one of yours.
4. With a kit, choose Also use the kit's colours, fonts and corners if you want its look too (off unless you tick it). Your logo, hero art and game art stay as they are.
5. Choose Replace the layout (or Import for this game). The kit's images and videos are uploaded to your studio one by one, with the same checks as any upload, then the layout is checked again on the server and saved as your draft. Undo brings back the layout you had before. Players see nothing until you publish.

Limits: layout.json up to 1 MB; a kit up to 50 MB, at most 300 files, with each image up to 5 MB (PNG, JPEG or WebP) and each video within your plan's video size (MP4 or WebM); uploads count toward your plan's space for launcher images and videos.

A kit also holds your sound: the interface sounds in sound/ and the music in music/, with each game's accent and music in theme.json. They come in with Also use the kit's colours, fonts, corners and sound, and each game's accent and music go to the game it becomes. A kit with files outside its folder, links, a password, or files that unpack to far more than their size is refused. Importing adds elements, so it needs the Custom level of the designer (see below) and a role that can design the launcher.

What your plan includes#

How much of the designer you can use depends on your plan:

• No designer: the launcher builder works as before (a template with its sections in order).
• Templates: pick a template and change the size and style of its elements, show or hide them, and set their small-window and TV styles. Adding, removing and moving elements is not included.
• Custom: also add, remove and move elements, up to the number of added elements your plan allows (headings, text, images, buttons, spacers and dividers count), and save and insert blocks.
• Full: every element and every button action.

The Nova and Vanguard templates, and the app templates (Atelier, Campus, Showroom, Exhibit), need a plan that includes every built-in template; other plans start from Default or Blank. Facts, galleries and install info are included from Templates, so you can fill in the ones a template already has (the app templates' facts and galleries, and the install info in Campus and Exhibit); adding install info elsewhere needs Custom, and it does not count toward your added elements; Launch with options on buttons you add needs Custom.

Undo, redo and copy work on every level; paste and duplicate add elements, so they need Custom.

Elements, actions and templates your plan does not include show a lock and the plan that unlocks them. See Plans and limits for what each plan includes. If you move to a smaller plan, your published design stays until you publish again; the publish page then names what to remove. To go back to the built-in template instead, choose Remove designer layout (in the designer, or in the launcher builder); it works on every plan, and published versions keep the layout so you can restore it later.

The draft saves itself while you edit. If the same design is changed in another tab or by a teammate, the designer stops saving and asks you to reload, so neither change silently overwrites the other.

Designing and publishing need a role that can design the launcher (owner, admin or developer). Viewers can look at the designer and the publish page but not change them.

Launcher 0.6.0#

Show when conditions (other than games and dates), a layout per game, carousels, tabs and videos, and a hero video, need launcher 0.6.0 or later. Older launchers show the closest built-in look in your colours, art and logo. Build a new launcher on Launcher → Launcher builds once; players get it the next time they restart their launcher.

Launcher 0.8.0#

Interface sounds, music and a colour per game need launcher 0.8.0 or later. Older launchers show the closest built-in look in your colours, art and logo. Build a new launcher on Launcher → Launcher builds once; players get it the next time they restart their launcher.