The Workshop and Play Area are two central components of ChipWits, each serving a crucial role in programming your ChipWit and monitoring its actions during missions.
The Workshop Grid #
- Grid & Sockets: The Workshop features a grid made up of sockets where you place chips to program your ChipWit. The grid allows you to lay out your ChipWit’s behavior in a logical, step-by-step sequence. The Starting Position Rule requires you to place your first chip in the top-leftmost socket of the grid (or next to the Stoplight chip in Classic missions).
Main Panel and SubPanels #
- The Main Panel is the area where you arrange your core sequence of chips to control your ChipWit’s behavior.
- SubPanels can be added to extend your ChipWit’s capabilities (they are on tabs labeled A-G), and above these SubPanels tabs are helpful code editing buttons like Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, and Redo, which help you easily manage your code.
Workshop Buttons #
- Play/Pause, Step, Restart: These buttons allow you to control the flow of your ChipWit’s program during a mission.
- Play: Runs your ChipWit’s current program.
- Pause: Stops the execution of the program.
- Step: Advances the program one chip at a time, so you can see how your ChipWit performs each action.
- Restart: Restarts the mission from the beginning.
- Speed Slider: This controls the execution speed of your ChipWit’s program, allowing you to speed up or slow down the actions.
UI Components #
- Cycles Left: Located in the top right corner, this shows the number of cycles left in the mission, indicating how much time your ChipWit has to complete its objectives.
- Score: Found in the top left of the screen
- ChipWit’s Name and Level Name: these are displayed roughly in the center of the screen over the play area where the ChipWit and the level are visible.
Missions Button & Field Manual #
- Missions Button: This button (which looks like a house in the top right corner of the screen) takes you back to the Select a Mission screen at any point.
- Field Manual: Found below the Missions button is the Field Manual, which serves as a reference for important game information and chip functions.
Mission Objectives #
At the top portion of the screen, the Mission Objectives are displayed, keeping you informed of the goals you need to accomplish in the current mission, such as collecting items or avoiding enemies.
Toggle Workshop View #
You can toggle the Workshop in and partially out of view to give you more screen space to observe the play area, making it easier to focus on your ChipWit’s actions during missions.
The Workshop is your primary coding space, while the Play Area shows your ChipWit executing the program. Together, they offer a balance between planning your ChipWit’s behavior and watching how well your code performs during a mission!
