Map Editor Documentation

Your First Map

A step-by-step walkthrough for someone who has never made a custom map: open The Forge, paint terrain, place gold and start positions, add one trigger, test it, save it, publish it and share the link.

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This page takes you from nothing to a published map with one working trigger: when a unit walks into the middle of the map, a message appears on screen. It takes about twenty minutes, and nothing here needs an account until the publishing step.

A few words you will see:

  • The Forge is the map editor.
  • A tile is one square of the map grid.
  • A start position (also called a spawn point) is where a player's base begins.
  • A region is a named rectangle of tiles that triggers can watch.
  • A trigger is a rule: when something happens, do something.

1. Open The Forge

From the game's main menu, choose The Forge, or go straight to /map-editor.

The first thing you see is the new-map panel, headed Map Editor.

2. Create a blank map

  1. Name: type a name, for example My First Map.
  2. Size: pick the smallest option. Small maps are quicker to test.
  3. Biome: any. It changes how the map looks, not how it plays.
  4. Choose Blank canvas. (Generate random makes a complete playable layout for you; it is a good start for a real map, but a blank canvas shows you every step.)
  5. Press Create map.

You now have an empty field of grass. Along the top are the modules (Terrain, Triggers, Data, Players, Cutscene, Validation) with their function keys, and on the left the tools, the palette and the minimap. The Interface chapter explains all of it; you only need a little of it here.

3. Paint some terrain

You start in the Terrain module (F5).

  1. In the Terrain tool group, choose Paint.
  2. In the Palette, click Water, and drag across the map to paint a river or a lake. Leave plenty of dry ground.
  3. Click Trees and paint a few forests. Workers gather lumber from trees.
  4. Made a mistake? Ctrl+Z undoes it. Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes.

The brush size and shape controls sit above the palette and apply to every painting tool.

4. Place gold and start positions

Every player needs gold nearby, and the map will not test or publish without at least one gold mine.

  1. In the Terrain tool group, choose Gold.
  2. Click on open ground near one corner of the map. A gold mine appears.
  3. Click again near the opposite corner for the second player.

Now the two start positions:

  1. In the Objects tool group, choose Spawn.
  2. Click a few tiles away from the first gold mine. That is player 1's start.
  3. Click near the second gold mine. That is player 2's start. Each click fills the next empty player slot.

A map needs at least two start positions to test. When the match begins, each start position gets a town hall and workers automatically.

5. Draw a region

  1. In the Select tool group, choose Region.
  2. Drag a rectangle in the middle of the map, between the two bases. The status bar says Drew region, and the region's id is region (then region_2, region_3 for later ones).

Give it a better name, because triggers will refer to it:

  1. Press F6 to open the Triggers module, and open the regions tab.
  2. In the region's Region ID field, type crossroads and press Enter.

Region ids may use letters, digits, _ and -. Renaming a region updates every trigger that already uses it.

6. Add a trigger

Still in the Triggers module, open the triggers tab.

  1. Press + Trigger. A trigger called New Trigger appears. Rename it Crossroads message (the name is only for you; players never see it).
  2. Tick Run once, so the message appears the first time and not every time a unit wanders through.
  3. Under Events, press + Add event, type enters in the search box, and choose Unit enters a region. The event reads a unit enters region.
  4. Click the region chip in that line and choose crossroads.
  5. Under Actions, press + Add action, search for text, and choose Show text.
  6. Click the text in the action line, type Someone has reached the crossroads! and press Enter. Leave Shown to as everyone.

That is the whole trigger: when a unit enters crossroads, show this text to everyone, once.

7. Check for problems

Press F10 to open the Validation module. It lists anything that would break the map. Errors must be fixed before you can test or publish; warnings are advice. If the list mentions gold or start positions, go back to step 4. The count in the status bar at the bottom shows the same list.

8. Test it

  1. Press Ctrl+S to save first. (Test Map keeps a recovery copy, but saving is simpler.)
  2. Press Ctrl+F9, or the Test Map button.

The map opens in the real game. If you are not signed in, choose Continue as Guest. Select a worker, right-click inside the crossroads, and watch for your message when it arrives.

If nothing happens, press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to open Trigger Debug. It lists every trigger that fired and every condition that failed, which usually shows the problem straight away (a region drawn somewhere other than where you walked is the classic one). See Testing.

To get back, go to /map-editor and use File → Open… to open your saved map.

9. Save

File → Save (Ctrl+S) always keeps a copy in this browser. If you are signed in, it also saves the map to your account, and saving again updates the same map rather than making a new one. File → Save As Copy makes a separate copy.

It is also worth keeping a file of your own: File → Export Map JSON… downloads the map.

10. Publish

Publishing puts the map in the Custom Games gallery. You need a free account for this step.

  1. File → Publish to Custom Games…
  2. Choose a Category and write a short Description of what the map is.
  3. Check the Validation section is clean.
  4. Press Publish.

If you are signed out, the dialog tells you to save, sign in, and check again. The rules that can block publishing are in Publishing.

11. Share it

When publishing succeeds, press Copy Share Link. The link looks like:

https://www.shardsofstone.com/play?communityMap=<id>

Anyone who opens it plays your map immediately, without an account. You can copy it again at any time from File → Copy Share Link while the map is open and published. To change the map later, edit it and Save: the published version and the link update in place.

Where to go next

  • Make it a real match: Players & Teams sets each seat's race, team and whether it is a person or the computer.
  • Make it do more: Triggers covers waves, counters, timers, victory and defeat.
  • Change the units: Data Overrides.
  • Look at finished examples: the bundled showcase maps (tower defense, hero arena, survival, castle fight) are built entirely from the tools in these pages. Play them from Custom Games.

Next: Interface.