Run and Package

Studio has two output paths: Dev Mode for checks during production, and a production build for distributable files. Export Project hands over the editable Studio project and does not produce a player build.

Run in Dev Mode

Start Dev Mode from any of these:

The play button in the upper-right corner of the UI editor, which starts from the current Page or Game UI.
The Run button in the top bar, with Dev Mode selected.
The Develop menu.

Dev Mode opens in a separate window. Reload the running content after changing a UI document or a Blueprint. Runtime logs and node traces appear in the debug tools and the console.

The Dev Mode window running the game, with the debug menu open over it

Editing the title text in the editor, then reloading the Dev Mode window so the running game shows the change

Choose Dev Mode again to stop the session.

The editor canvas does not execute the complete game. Check page navigation, story progression, widget events, and saves in Dev Mode.

Build for distribution

Open the build dialog

Choose Production Build… from the Run dropdown in the top bar, or from the Develop menu. The dialog is titled Build for distribution.

Its rail has up to seven sections — Variant, Targets, Identity, Content, Plugins, Signing, Output. Variant appears only for a project with more than one edition to build, and Plugins only where an installed plugin asks for a value. The steps below walk the ones every project meets.

The Build for distribution dialog on its Targets step, with the platforms and their formats

Select targets

Choose a platform, format, and architecture. The available targets depend on the host system:

Windows artifacts can be built on any supported desktop system.
macOS artifacts can be built on any supported desktop system. On a Mac every format and architecture is offered: Studio itself runs only on Apple Silicon, and packages for Intel Mac players just the same. On Windows only zip is offered, built as a universal app by default so that it runs on every Mac. It cannot carry a certificate signature, so players allow its first launch under System Settings → Privacy & Security.
Linux artifacts can be built on any supported desktop system. On Windows, zip and appimage are offered.
Web, Android, and iOS artifacts can be built on any supported desktop system.

Android produces an APK for direct installation, an AAB for the Play Store upload, or both. iOS produces an IPA.

Check identity and content

Confirm the version, product name, App ID, copyright, and icons. Use a semantic version such as 1.0.0.

The dialog also lists the bundled plugins, locales, network policy, and asset protection. A Web build is a deployable static site, and asset protection does not apply to it. Asset protection does not apply to Android and iOS builds either.

Choose an output directory

Choose a writable directory. Existing artifacts with the same names are overwritten, and the Artifacts list names the files the selected targets will produce before the build starts. Two switches sit here as well: open the output folder when the build finishes, and — for a variant that has any — build this variant's DLC alongside it, each into its own folder beside the installers.

How much the shipped assets are compressed is not decided here. It belongs to the project, under Project → Settings → Compression, and it is one switch each for images, audio and video.

Start the build

Resolve the blocking findings, then choose Build. The build runs in the background, and progress and detailed output appear in the console.

To build without opening Studio, see Command-Line Builds.

To change a game that has already been released, see Patches.

Preflight findings

The dialog separates blocking findings from warnings:

No targets, an invalid version, or an unwritable output directory blocks the build.
A missing icon does not block the build. The default Electron icon is used instead.
Desktop artifacts are not signed unless signing is configured, and players may see a system security warning on first launch.
A project with no distribution key gets a warning on the Content page for a desktop build: the game it produces will not accept patches. Create beside the warning creates the key. See Patches.
The first build for a platform downloads the files that platform needs and takes longer than later ones.

Export the Studio project

To hand over or archive the editable project, choose File → Export Project. Studio writes an .nlspkg package, which the recipient adds from the launcher into an empty directory.

An .nlspkg holds project content. It is not a release build and is not given to players.

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