1) Create scenes with title, text, optional background image, and an End State (None, Game Over, or You Win). Ending scenes auto-show a Restart button; non-ending scenes render choices.

2) Add choices. Each choice has button text and a target scene. Use Quick-Create Target (or Continue) to generate and link a new scene instantly. Choices support Condition (to show/disable) and Effects (to change vars when clicked).

3) Arrange in Story Map. Open the Story Map tab, drag nodes, pan/zoom the graph, or click Auto Layout, Fit to Graph, and Reset View.

4) Proofread The Story in the Preview/Canvas tab. The preview shows your project title bar, the game view, and a live HUD of variables. Disabled choices explain why on hover. You can also set/clear a page background for testing here. Click the "Restart" button to update the test with current values.

5) Flow Test / Fuzz Play. In the (Story Map) tab, click Flow Test / Fuzz Play to open the simulator. Set Simulations, Max steps / run, and an optional Seed, then press Start. The tool runs randomized playthroughs from your Start scene using current variables; Conditions and Effects are respected. Results summarize endings (Win/Lose/Dead ends/All choices disabled/Missing target/Step-limit stops), scene coverage (hit count & percent), end-of-run variable stats (min/avg/max), plus a copyable JSON dump for deeper inspection. Use it to smoke-test structure and tune logic fast.

6) Heatmap (Story Map). After a Flow Test / Fuzz Play run, click Fuzz Coverage Heatmap in the Story Map. Nodes and edges are colored by how often they were visited across all simulations—cool colors = fewer hits, warm colors = more. Never-visited items are dimmed, and scenes that are structurally unreachable show a red UNREACHABLE badge. Toggle the button to show/hide the overlay; it refreshes after each new simulation.

7) Publish → Downloads a standalone HTML file. Images are embedded, so sharing is as simple as sending one file—no external libraries required.

8) Images & file size. Imported images are JPEG-compressed and stored as base64 data URLs. Bigger/ more images = larger project and export.

9) Supported Image Formats. Most common image formats will work. As for animated formats, only GIF and WebP are officially supported. (Animated images take up far more storage space than static images. Consider using very short looping animations. Lower resolutions will help too.)

10) Vars/Logic (see the Vars/Logic tab). Define project-wide variables (boolean, number, string). Choices can check variables in Condition and modify them in Effects (e.g., health -= 10; hasKey = true;). The HUD under the game shows live values while testing.

• Naming: letters/numbers/underscore; must start with a letter or underscore.
• Conditions control whether a choice is enabled/visible.
• Effects run when a choice is clicked (e.g., counters, flags, inventory text).
• Importing JSON syncs the preview’s starting vars and opens the Variables panel.

11) Lint & Diagnostics. Flags structural and syntax issues—e.g., no start scene, dead ends, endings with choices, missing/invalid targets, and bad expressions—using error, warn, and info severities. When all checks pass, you’ll see a “ready to publish” message.

12) Export/Import JSON. Use Export JSON to back up/share a project for re-editing later. Import JSON to load a project; variables are preserved.

13) Autosave. Your project auto-saves to the browser, so you can close the app anytime and come back to where you left off.

Condition (expr) — what it means — examples:

	    hasKey                           — has the key
            !hasKey                          — does NOT have the key
            hasKey === true                  — explicitly true
            hasKey === false                 — explicitly false
            
            gold >= 10                       — at least 10 gold
            gold < 5                         — less than 5 gold
            health > 0                       — still alive (> 0)
            stealth >= 2                     — stealth is 2 or more
            health % 2 === 0                 — health is even
            
            name === "Alex"                  — name is exactly "Alex"
            name !== "Morgan"                — name is NOT "Morgan"
            
            alarm && hasKey                  — alarm is on AND you have the key
            !alarm || stealth >= 3           — alarm is off OR stealth is 3+
            
            Math.floor(gold / 10) >= 1       — at least one full “10-gold” chunk
            Math.min(health,stealth) >= 2    — both health & stealth are at least 2
            Math.abs(health - 5) <= 2        — health is within 2 of 5
            Math.random() < 0.25             — ~25% chance (randomized)
            

Effects — what it does — examples:

	    gold += 10                       — give 10 gold
            gold -= 5                        — take 5 gold
            health = Math.max(0, health - 2) — take 2 damage, never below 0
            stealth += 1                     — gain 1 stealth
            stealth = Math.max(0, stealth - 1) — lose 1 stealth, not below 0
            
            hasKey = true                    — you now have the key
            hasKey = false                   — you no longer have the key
            alarm = true                     — trigger the alarm
            alarm = false                    — silence the alarm
            
            name = "Riley"                   — set the player name
            
            gold -= 10; stealth += 1         — multiple effects: pay 10, gain stealth
            blueprint = true; stealth += 1   — found plans, plus a stealth bump
            health -= 2; alarm = true        — take damage and raise alarm
            

Notes:

• Separate multiple effects with ;.
• Allowed operators: =, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=.
• You can only modify variables that already exist in Variables.

Quick “translation” examples

• !hasKey means “does not have key.”
• In Effects, use hasKey = false to remove the key.
• In Conditions, do not write hasKey = false (that’s assignment, not a check).

Variable types (how they behave):

boolean
What it stores: true or false
Good for: flags like hasKey, alarm, blueprint

number
What it stores: integers or decimals (e.g., 10, 3.5, -2)
Good for: health, gold, stealth, counters

string
What it stores: text like "Alex"
Good for: player name, titles, simple tags

Naming rules (apply to all variables):

• Allowed: letters, numbers, underscore; must start with a letter or underscore.
• Examples: health, gold, hasKey, alarm_on
• Not allowed: has-key, player name, 3lives