Launching the Editor
Awaken is a single-page app with two routes - a light marketing landing page and the heavy editor - and this page walks you from the landing page into your first oriented workspace.
Landing page vs the /editor route
Awaken is one React single-page application, split into two routes on purpose:
/- the landing page. It is lightweight and loads eagerly: the pitch, the import support matrix, and a Launch Editor button. None of the WebGPU or editor code downloads here./editor- the editor. Visiting it (or clicking Launch Editor) lazy-loads the heavy bundle: the WebGPU renderer, every panel, the import pipeline, and the scripting compiler. This is why the landing page stays instant - you only pay for the editor when you actually open it.
The route match is exact: only /editor (or paths under /editor/) load the editor; anything else - including lookalikes like /editorial - falls through to the landing page.
📸 Screenshot - save as img/guide-landing.png
The Awaken landing page at / - the hero with the "Build games in your browser" headline and the Launch Editor button.
If you are running Awaken from source, the editor dev server is at http://localhost:5180/ (pnpm dev); the same two routes apply.
First load
The first time you open /editor, the browser downloads the editor chunk (a brief "Loading editor…" flash), then Awaken initialises WebGPU. If your browser can't provide a GPU adapter, you'll see the WebGPU-unsupported message instead - see Requirements & Browser Support.
On a machine with more than one GPU, a GPU picker may appear here so you can choose integrated vs discrete.
The default seeded scene
A fresh project is never an empty void. Awaken seeds a small default scene so you can see, light, and orbit something immediately (seedDefaultScene):
| Object | What it is |
|---|---|
| Ground | A wide, flat grey slab (a scaled cube) so objects have a floor and the scene has a sense of scale. |
| Sun | A directional light angled down, tinted warm - so everything is lit out of the box. |
| Main Camera | A perspective camera (60° field of view) placed back and slightly up, so Game view works immediately. |
These are ordinary GameObjects with ordinary components - select any of them in the Hierarchy and edit them in the Inspector, or delete them entirely. A brand-new project ships no starter gameplay content; reusable pieces like a first-person player are importable from the starter content via Assets → Import when you want them.
📸 Screenshot - save as img/guide-first-load.png
The editor on first load: the seeded scene (Ground slab, Sun, Main Camera) in the Viewport, the Hierarchy listing those three objects, and an empty Inspector.
The "reopen last project" prompt
If you've saved a project before (in a Chromium browser, where in-place save works), Awaken remembers the folder handle. On your next visit to /editor, before it seeds a default scene, it asks:
Reopen last project "…"? - Reopen / Cancel
- Reopen restores your saved project - scenes, meshes, textures, prefabs, and scripts - exactly where you left off.
- Cancel leaves you in a fresh default scene.
This uses the browser's File System Access API, so it only appears where that API exists (see Requirements). Saving is explicit - Ctrl/⌘+S or File ▸ Save Project - because Awaken deliberately does not auto-save (auto-save would rewrite every mesh and texture on a timer). More in Saving & Opening Projects.
First orientation of the workspace
The editor is a set of dockable, draggable tabs around a central viewport. Out of the box you'll see:
- Editor - the 3D Viewport where you build, with click-select and Move/Rotate/Scale gizmos.
- Game - the same scene rendered through your Main Camera, i.e. the player's view.
- Hierarchy - the tree of every object in the scene.
- Inspector - the components and properties of whatever you've selected.
- Assets - the asset browser: imported meshes, textures, materials, prefabs, and scenes.
- Console - log output from the editor and your scripts.
- Render, Material, Code - render settings, the material editor, and the code panel.
Along the top sits the Toolbar: the File ▾ menu (new/open/save, import, preview, export) and the ▶ Play / ⏸ Pause / ■ Stop playback controls. See Toolbar & Menus and Interface & Workspace for the full layout, and drag any tab to rearrange the panels to taste.
Ready to actually do something? Take the Five-Minute Tour.