Presets & Prefabs
Presets and prefabs are reusable building blocks you save once and drop into any splash. A preset carries the style and content of a single object. A prefab is a whole selection of objects saved as a group, layout and wiring intact. Both live in the same library and both show up in the same picker.
What a preset stores
A preset is one of five kinds, matching the object it came from:
| Kind | What it carries |
|---|---|
nineslice | A nine-slice panel image and its slice widths. |
button | A button's labels, image sets, and tints across its normal, hover, and click variants. |
animation | A reusable entrance or exit animation. See Effects & Animations. |
sprite | A single object's content and style, with its placement stripped out. |
spriteGroup | A group of objects with their layout and click actions kept. This is what a prefab is. |
Single-object presets travel as pure style. The placement an object had in its source splash (states) is removed, so when you apply the preset it lands fresh wherever you put it. A button preset also drops its click action: a saved button keeps how it looks, not what it does. Group prefabs are the exception. A prefab keeps each member's placement and onClick, so applying it reproduces the whole arrangement, wiring and all.
The library
Presets are stored as journal pages in a single world journal entry named Splash Presets. The library is created lazily the first time a GM saves a preset, and only a GM can create it or save into it. Players who try to save get a notification and nothing is written.
Saving is create-only. There is no overwrite. To replace a preset, delete the old page and save a new one.
Saving a prefab
In the editor's object tree, select more than one object. A floppy-disk button appears in the panel header. Click it, confirm the name in the prompt, and the current selection is saved as a spriteGroup prefab in the library.
The save captures each selected object's raw data, so the prefab reflects exactly what those objects look like and do at that moment.
Applying a preset or prefab
Open the + (Add object) menu in the Objects panel and choose Prefab…. That opens the preset picker, a searchable list of every spriteGroup preset in the library. Each row shows a thumbnail, the preset's name, and a kind chip. Type in the search box to filter by name.
The picker pulls from two sources and merges them: presets in your world's Splash Presets journal, and any presets shipped in an installed compendium. World presets win when a uuid collides. The list refreshes live as the library changes.
When you pick a prefab, ids regenerate and groups remap before it drops in, so it never collides with objects already in your splash. The copy lands cleanly as its own group.
Behavior-backed prefabs
A prefab can be backed by a behavior instead of baked sprites. A normal prefab stamps a fixed set of objects. A behavior-backed prefab runs a config dialog when you apply it, then builds its objects from your answers. The picker entry looks the same, but applying it asks you a question first.
The objects a behavior produces are self-contained. Once built, they carry no link back to the behavior, so the result is a plain, portable splash you can edit like anything else.
The Tumbler Lock
Splash ships a compendium with one behavior-backed prefab: the Tumbler Lock.
Drop it in and it asks for a code word (default OPEN). The word is uppercased and stripped to letters A–Z. The build then lays out one letter wheel per character, plus an Unlock button beneath them:
- Each wheel is a panel with ▲ and ▼ buttons and three stacked letters. The middle letter is the current pick; the top and bottom show the neighbors. The arrows rotate the wheel through the alphabet.
- The Unlock button reads the middle letter of every wheel, joins them, and compares against the code word. A match shows a success notification and unlocks the door. A miss shows a wrong-combination warning.
Players dial the wheels to spell the word, then press Unlock. The interactivity rides in inline-macro scripts on the buttons, so the placed lock works on its own with no dependency on the prefab system. See Actions & Interactivity for how inline-macro buttons work, and Triggers for launching the lock from a clicked door.