Make Your First Game

Build, play, and export a complete (if tiny) game - a ground plane, a player object you can drive with the keyboard, a light, and a one-file game.html you can share - in a single sitting, without leaving the browser.

This is the foundational tutorial. It walks the whole Awaken loop end-to-end: create objects, edit them in the Inspector, script a behaviour, Play to test, and export a shippable file. Every other tutorial assumes you have done this one, because it teaches the create → edit → Play → ship rhythm the rest of the manual is organised around.

What you will build

A small playable scene: a floor, a cube "player" that slides around under WASD control, and a sun so the scene is lit. You will press ▶ Play to drive it, then export it to a single game.html a friend can double-click.

Before you start

• Read the Five-Minute Tour for basic navigation (orbit, select, gizmos).
• Skim GameObjects & Components and Scripting Overview - you will use both.

Steps

1. Start an empty scene. On the Welcome page pick the Empty scene template (or use File ▾ → New Scene). You get a 12 × 12 m Ground slab, a Sun (a directional light) and a Main Camera looking at the middle of the slab. That is your floor and your light; see PBR & Lighting for how the sun and the ambient sky combine.

   

2. Add the player. In the Hierarchy, open ＋ → Create → Cube. The cube appears at the origin, sitting on the ground, already selected. Right-click its row, choose Rename (or press F2), and call it Player.

   

3. Write a move script. Open the Code tab (Code panel), press + New Game Script, name it Move, and replace its body with:

   export default class implements ScriptBehavior {
     speed = 5; // m/s, 0..20 - a `min..max` in the comment turns this into an Inspector slider
   
     onUpdate(api: ScriptApi, dt: number) {
       let x = 0, z = 0;
       // Keys are KeyboardEvent.key, lower-cased: "a"/"d"/"w"/"s", not "KeyA".
       if (api.input.isDown("a")) x -= 1;
       if (api.input.isDown("d")) x += 1;
       if (api.input.isDown("w")) z -= 1;
       if (api.input.isDown("s")) z += 1;
       api.translate(x * this.speed * dt, 0, z * this.speed * dt);
     }
   }

   Press Compile. The public speed field becomes an Inspector control: a plain number is a drag-to-scrub box, and the 0..20 range in its comment upgrades it to a slider. See Inspector Parameters and the ScriptApi Reference.

   

4. Attach it. Select Player, press + Add Component… in the Inspector, type Script and pick it, then choose Move in the Script component's picker. The speed slider appears under it.

   

5. Play. Press ▶ Play in the Toolbar. The Game tab comes forward; click it to give it the keyboard, and drive the cube with WASD. Press ■ Stop: the scene snaps back to where you left it, because Play runs on a snapshot (see Core Concepts).

   

6. Export. Open File ▾ → Export Game (game.html)…. The Export game dialog asks how much to protect your scripts (leave No obfuscation), then Export… asks where to save. Awaken writes one self-contained file: double-click it, or send it to a friend. It runs the same runtime you just played. See Export game.html.

   

Where to go next

• Give the player real collision and mouse-look in the First-Person Controller tutorial.
• Put your game on the web with Ship to a URL.

See also

• Five-Minute Tour - orientation before you start
• Scripting Overview - the behaviour model your move script uses
• Input - reading the keyboard from a script
• Export game.html - the export step in full