Get your map played

Publishing makes your map accessible to everyone, but they still need to click on it to play! Here we'll talk about some best practices to make your map seem fun to people browsing.

This is not a discussion of how to make your work public. That discussion is in sharing and publishing.

The three things people judge

Players will decide whether to play your map based on the page alone. So before they've seen how awesome your map is, you'll need to hook them with your page display.

All three live in the inspector with nothing selected: Map Title, Description and Preview.

• Title. Descriptive titles are best. "Ultra Robot Bowling" is easier to understand at a glance than "Strikemaster 4000".
• Description. One or two sentences on what the player does, and who they can talk to. What's the coolest part of your map? Start off with that.
• Thumbnail. The editor takes the picture for you, framing the whole map, and keeps it up to date as you build. A scene densely packed with interesting stuff makes a better thumbnail, and a better map. If the automatic shot misses the good part, line the view up yourself and press This view under Preview in the inspector — that framing sticks until you press Automatic again.

Post it in Discord

The share window has a Share on Discord button, and that's the quickest path to show it to players. Most of Robotopia's community is there and that's where you'll find people interested in playing your map.

Post the link with a sentence suggesting some cool things players should try and do. Ex: "Ask the mechanic about his soap addiction." Infinite dialogue is an awesome thing, but it can also be intimidating to players if they aren't sure where to start.

Clips travel further than links

The best way to show off your map is sharing a clip of a robot doing or saying something hilarious or surprising.

We recommend recording yourself playing, and share the best moments. The Robotopia team also loves seeing clips like these, and it helps promote the game. Streaming, posting clips, it all helps! We also want to promote your maps on our own social media accounts.

One awesome clip will do way more for your map than any amount of text describing it.

Give players a challenge

Players love trying to talk a robot out of something. Make one robot that guards a secret or refuses to say something, then tell people it's there.

That's a challenge, and challenges get shared. See writing personalities that behave for making one that holds up.

Test with one person first

Before you post anywhere, watch one person play and fix what trips them up.

If your map confuses its first player, it will confuse the hundredth. More in playtest in the game.

Build with a friend

Collaborate lets a friend build the same map with you, live. Two people on one map finish faster than two people on two half-finished maps.

Only share that link with people you trust: anyone with it can change or delete your work.

After it's up

• To update your map, change it and publish again. It stays on the same page.
• Only the owner can publish. Friends on a Collaborate link have to make their own copy.
• Download a .roboworld as a backup before any big change.

Something not working? Troubleshooting has the usual fixes.