Your First Game

Understanding the Game Hierarchy

PlayableLabs organizes content in three levels:

• Game — The top-level project (e.g., "Puzzle Quest Ad Campaign")
• Version — A snapshot of the game at a point in time (e.g., "v1.0", "v2.0-holiday")
• Variant — A customized copy of a version for a specific network or audience

This hierarchy lets you manage multiple campaigns, A/B tests, and network-specific builds from a single game project.

Creating a Game

The Create Game dialog offers two creation modes:

Manual Entry

1. From the Dashboard, click Create Game
2. Select the Manual Entry tab
3. Fill in the game details:
   • Game Name — A descriptive name for your project (required)
   • Game Logo — Optional square logo (JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF, max 5MB)
   • Game Category — Select from categories (Puzzle, Casual, Action, etc.)
   • Description — Optional context for your team
   • Status — Set as Draft, Active, or Archived
   • Tags — Add tags for organization (press Enter to add)
4. Click Create

Store Import

Import game metadata from app stores:

1. Click Create Game
2. Select the Import from Store tab
3. Enter an App Store or Google Play URL
4. Review the imported metadata (name, description, logo, category)
5. Click Use This Data to populate the manual form
6. Edit any fields as needed and click Create

Tip: Use clear naming conventions like [Client] - [Campaign] - [Date] to keep projects organized as your library grows.

Creating a Version

Versions are created at the game level and contain your playable ad build:

1. Open your game
2. Go to the Versions tab
3. Click New Version
4. Fill in the version details:
   • Version — Semantic version number (e.g., "1.0.0")
   • Name — Display name for this version
   • Description — Optional notes about this release
   • Engine Type — Select the rendering engine (COCOS, UNITY, PHASER, PLAYCANVAS, CONSTRUCT, DEFOLD, CUSTOM)
   • Status — DRAFT, TESTING, APPROVED, PUBLISHED, or ARCHIVED
   • Parameters — Upload JSON parameters or use the editor
5. Upload your playable ad assets to this version
6. Click Create Version

Note: Assets are uploaded at the version level, not the game level. Each version maintains its own asset bundle.

Versions act as snapshots. You can always create a new version without affecting existing ones.

Next Steps

Great — you've created a game and set up your first version! Next, learn how to invite your team to collaborate.