Try a mechanic with the keyboard

In each project’s Assets tab, as soon as an agent has presented a mechanic to you.

A mechanic is a set of animations tied to what the character is doing: standing, walking, jumping, an action on a key. On its page, in the Assets tab, you move the character yourself to try its animations while it moves. Other animations are watched: see Try your agents’ screens and animations.

The two forms

Two buttons appear first in the bar under the picture. They exist only for a mechanic.

Button	What you see
Playable	The character on a bare floor: you move it and trigger its actions. This is the form shown by default.
Played	A recorded run of the mechanic — standing, walking, a jump, each action once — replayed like any animation. The effects of the actions are not shown in it.

If you choose Played, the mechanic stays in that form until you choose Playable again. Its controls are then those of an animation: see Watch the movement.

Move and act

Click in the view to give it the keyboard; Esc gives it back to the app. While the view does not have the keyboard, the legend adds: “Click in the view to play with the keyboard. Esc gives the keyboard back.” The legend, at the top left of the view, lists the controls:

Key or gesture	Effect
Arrows, or the keyboard letters	Move
Space	Jump
Right-drag	Turn the camera, as on Roblox
Wheel	Zoom
Shift	Lock or free the camera
The key of an action	Triggers the action; the legend gives its name

• The letters depend on your keyboard. The legend shows “WASD or arrows” or “ZQSD or arrows” depending on your layout, and “Arrows” alone when the app does not know it.
• One line per action. The agent chooses the key and the name of each action, a fireball for example.
• Shift locks the camera, like Roblox’s Shift Lock: the character faces where the camera looks, which is how a sideways or backward walk is tried. At start, the camera is free and the character turns to where it walks. The legend shows “Shift: camera free” or “Shift: camera locked”. If the agent put an action on Shift, the camera stays free and this line does not appear.
• Holding Space chains jumps as in Roblox: the character lands, then takes off again; it never jumps again in mid-air. A short press gives a single jump.

Follow the state and restart

• The bar under the picture shows “State: ” followed by the state the character is in, under the name the agent gave it; during an action, it is the name of the action.
• Restart starts the session again from the beginning.
• The speaker button appears when the effects of an action have sounds; it mutes or unmutes them.

The effects of an action, those of a fireball for example, are played when you press its key, at the place where the character stood at that moment. They do not follow it if it keeps walking during the action.

Message	What it means
“The mechanic’s code failed. First error:”, followed by the error line	The mechanic’s code stopped on an error. Restart starts it again.
“The mechanic does not start. Ask an agent to present it to you again.”	The playable view could not start. Click Restart, then ask for a new presentation.
“Limited preview: the new version could not start. The last valid version is still displayed.”	The new version of the mechanic stopped while starting. The view keeps the last one that worked, until the next presentation.
“The playable form needs WebGL, which this machine does not have. The “Played” form stays available.”	This machine does not have the 3D display the playable form needs. Choose Played.

A mechanic is validated like an animation, on its page: see Validate what the agent proposes.

Limits

• A mechanic is tried alone, on a bare floor. The game’s map, its interface and the other players are not in it: the view is there to try animations, not to play the game.
• The body is the rounded mannequin of the “Played” form, in R6 by default. The player’s character keeps its Roblox look in the game: the result on the real model is seen in Roblox.
• The “Playable” form approximates Roblox’s rendering. The note under the view is the same as for a screen: the final rendering is checked in Roblox Studio.
• Without 3D display (WebGL), the “Playable” form is unavailable.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a mechanic?

Ask for it: “make the walk, the jump and a fireball on a key for my character”. It opens in the Playable form.

Is the mechanic in R15?

In R6 by default. Say so in your request for R15: “make it in R15”.

Going further

• Try your agents’ screens and animations
• Your project’s Assets tab
• What your agents can do