DUM Documentation
Getting Started
System Requirements: Windows (note: your computer may need to scan the exe the first time it runs)
After opening up DUM you will be given three options!
create
create a new .DUM file, start here if you want to make a new dress up game!
open
open an existing .DUM file, use this to open up a game you’ve already started working on
play
open a .DUMY file, use this if you’ve been given someone’s game to play (but not edit)
Edit Mode
This is where the fun starts to happen, click create or open an existing .DUM file to begin! This mode lets you create your dress up games and test them in real time!
Edit mode has the following areas:
workshop (left side panel)
The workshop is where you will add your images, create and organize them into categories, and change the way images function in your game.
stage (center screen panel)
The stage at center of the screen is where you will move your images around and align them onto your dress up game. This screen will reflect changes in your play mode. For example, if you move an image here it will change it’s default location in the play mode, but more on that later!
closet (right side panel)
The closet is where players of your game will grab images (clothes, etc) and pop them onto your dress up game. In edit mode, this reflects their “stored” closet position, which the images will default back to when not in use by the player.
Workshop
The workshop lets you create categories, add, and edit images.
Categories:
Before you can add an image, you need a category for it to go into. A user playing your game will find images from different categories, for example shirts, pants, accessories might be categories you choose. You can only have a limited amount of categories so use them wisely!
Click the teal “add category” button on the top left of the workshop. A popup will come up!
Choose a name for your category (this will show up for your end player when they are selecting categories)
Choose an icon from the options (this will show up for your end player when they are selecting categories)
Click create! Your new category will now show up on the left of your workshop. When you click the icon it will show you all the images inside the category.
You can also do the following with categories:
hide all images in category in editor - Clicking the check box on the category icon will toggle the visibility of the whole category. This can be helpful if you don’t want to see anything in that category while working on a different category.
drag and reorder categories - You can affect the order categories will show up for your user’s on the selection panel by dragging and reordering the category icons. This will also affect the layer order of your images within the category. For example, you might want to put base images below shirts.
change category name - Click the edit button next to the category name to edit it.
change category icon - Click the edit button next to the category icon (top of the workshop panel) to edit it.
delete a category - Click the trashcan icon on the top left of the category to delete it, but be careful! This will also delete all images inside the category.
Images:
Images are the foundation of your game. These are what your players use to play, by dragging and adding them to the stage!
Click the teal “add new image” button on the bottom of the workshop. A popup will come up!
Choose a name for your image (this will show up for your end player when they hover over it!)
Click the upload button and find your image (.png, .jpg). 2000x2000 px max. Transparent pngs are recommended, but not required!
Click create! Your image will be added.
Note: you probably want to start by uploading your “key” images. These are the images that might be static, for example the body of your dress up character.
Each image will be given an image “block” where you can edit the behavior of the image and perform the following tasks:
change the image picture - If you made changes to your image’s picture file, don’t worry you can keep your image block and just reupload it by clicking the “upload image” button.
edit the image’s name - Click the edit button to the left of the image name to change it.
drag and reorder images - This affects the layer order of your images on the stage. Higher items will appear above lower items.
image editor visibility (eyeball icon) - Toggle this on and off to hide or show your image in the editor only (it will still show up in play mode). Open eye (default) will show the image, closed will hide it.
click through type (window icon) - Toggle this to change how a player can click on your image. Open window (default) means that transparency in your image won’t be clickable (good for big images! Closed window means that your entire image will be clickable (good for small images, or images with a lot of scattered transparency).
Other workshop features:
change editor background - For editing clarity, you can change the editor background between lavender gradient (default), checkerboard, white, or grey. These are not final backgrounds for your game just editor backgrounds.
Stage and Play Preview
The stage at the center of the screen is where you can move images, change their size, and preview their layers. All images will show up here, but you can hide them via the category hide toggle or the individual eyeball visibility toggle. When you play your game, the stage becomes the play zone! Here are some things your stage can do in edit mode:
Drag images around to change their default location on the play stage. If a player has “autosnap” enabled, this location is where the image will show up in your game. Use this to place clothes on your characters in the right spot, etc. Locked images will show up red with a lock icon when you try and drag them.
Resize images by clicking and using the scroll wheel to change its size smaller or bigger.
Preview layers by seeing which images show up on top of each other. This reflects their layer, which you can adjust by reordering the images in the workshop.
On the top the screen are play controls. By default you’re in edit mode! If you click space bar or the play button, it will take you to play preview mode. Play preview mode mimics the real play mode, and let’s you try your game in real time, swapping back and forth between editing and playing.
Return to edit mode by clicking the stop button or space bar again!
If you make layout, position, or size changes in the workshop, the play preview will show them immediately; however, certain changes like image play type require using the reset button on the right of the play controls..
lock image (padlock icon) - Toggle this to lock an image from dragging changes. Unlocked by default, lock it when you’re happy with where your image is placed on the stage. This is helpful for making sure you don’t accidentally move an image you' were satisfied with, or an important image like a base image.
image play type (key icon) - Toggle this to change the way your image behaves:
basic - (see through key) (default) - your image will be an option for your players to drag and drop onto the stage from the closet
key - (solid key) - same as basic but will start on the stage instead of in the closet (can be removed)
star key (solid key with star) - image will start on screen and not be removable by player
delete an image - Click the trashcan icon on the top left of the image block to delete it, but be careful, you can’t get it back!