Content Editor

The Content Editor is the visual way to build packs for Crossgate. It writes and edits all the pack files for you, so you can make a complete pack without opening a text editor or learning any of the file formats. If you would rather write the files by hand, the rest of this guide covers everything the editor produces.

Crossgate 2.0 ships first as this editor. The rest of the game is still being built around it.

Create a new pack in a couple of clicks and give it a name and an art style.
Edit a pack’s details later, including which other packs it builds on.
Everything you make lands inside your pack’s folder, ready to zip up and share.

Author your cast

Add new workers to a pack and set their stats, skills, traits, description, and starting gold.
Edit anyone already in a pack, whether you made them or they came with content you downloaded.
Move a worker from one pack to another, keeping their details and artwork together.
Remove a worker safely. Nothing is erased outright (see Recovery).
Traits come from the game’s own list, with suggestions as you type, so you cannot accidentally invent one the game will not understand.

Items, jobs, and traits

Create and edit items in a pack, and move items between packs.
Create pack jobs and edit their details.
Create and edit traits.
The editor changes only the detail you edited and leaves everything else in the file exactly as it was, so content you downloaded keeps whatever the original author put in it.

Organize and tag artwork

Drag image and video files straight into a worker’s gallery.
Sort a loose image into a context (Profile, Sex, Combat, and the rest) with a single “Place in…” action that files it into the right folder for you.
Give an image more than one context when it fits several situations.
Refusal artwork is handled correctly.
Open any image in a focus view to inspect and tag it on its own, and jump to the file in your system’s file manager when you need it.

Built-in recovery

Your work is protected while you edit.

Before the editor changes an existing file, it keeps a pristine copy of the original, so you can undo your changes at any time.
Deleting a worker or an item does not erase it. It is moved to a recycle-bin style folder inside your game files, so you can bring it back.

A short recovery guide ships with the app for the rare case you want to restore something by hand.

Where to put the editor

The editor needs to find your installed game so it can read and write your content. There are two ways to set that up, and you only do it once.

The easy way: drop it in your game folder. Put the editor inside the same folder as your game, next to the resources folder (the one that holds characters, data, and so on). When it starts it looks around its own location for that resources folder and uses it automatically. On macOS the editor is Crossgate.app; on Windows it is the extracted Crossgate folder. Either can sit anywhere inside the game folder.

The manual way: point it at the folder. If you keep the editor somewhere else (for example your Applications folder), it will not find the game on its own. The first time you open it, it asks you to choose your game’s resources folder. Pick that folder once and it remembers your choice from then on.

If you ever move your game, or picked the wrong folder, there is an option to choose the resources folder again.

Platforms

macOS and Windows: supported.
Linux: experimental in this release.

The app is unsigned for now, so the first launch shows an “unidentified developer” prompt. On macOS, right-click the app and choose Open, then Open again. On Windows, choose More info on the SmartScreen prompt, then Run anyway.

Prefer to author by hand?

Every format the editor writes is documented in this kit. Start with Where packs go, then the Authoring Guide and the reference pages in the sidebar.