Automations and Scenes

This is where a room comes to life. Automations react on their own — an objective is solved, the timer hits a moment, a device changes — and do something: release a lock, drop the lights, play a sting, send a warning. Scenes are the same kind of actions packaged as a sequence you run on demand, and Quick Actions put those one tap away on the control page.

All three are scoped to one game: they’re only active while that game runs, and they can read and write that game’s variables and constants and drive its devices and displays. You build them in the Editor — open the game and go to the Automations tab, which also holds the game’s Scenes, Variables, and Constants.

Automations: the three columns

Every automation reads as one sentence: when something happens, if the room is in the right state, do these things. The builder lays that sentence out as three columns.

• When — the triggers, the events that can start the rule. You need at least one.
• If — the conditions, optional checks that must pass for the actions to run.
• Do — the actions, the steps ARC runs, top to bottom.

If you add more than one trigger, you can choose whether any trigger starts the rule or all of them must have happened. Most rules use a single trigger.

When — triggers

A trigger is the event ARC watches for. Pick the one that matches the moment you care about.

If — conditions

Conditions are optional. They let an automation run only when the room is in the right state. With none, the actions always run when the trigger fires. The core checks are:

• Device — check a device’s current value (for example, “only if the room lights are on”).
• Variable — check a saved variable’s current value, with rich comparisons: equals, not equals, greater than, less than, contains, starts with, is one of a set, list contains, and more.

You can combine checks into groups:

• All (AND) — every check inside must be true.
• Any (OR) — at least one check inside must be true.
• Not — the check inside must be false.

Groups can hold other groups, so you can build “if the door is closed and (the code is correct or staff overrode it).”

Do — actions

Actions are the steps ARC runs, in order, from the top of the Do column down. ARC groups them in the action picker so they’re easy to find.

Devices

• Set device — change a device value (turn a relay on, open a lock, set a light).

Game and session

• Set objective / Reset objective — complete, bypass, or reset an objective.
• Timer actions — Start, Pause, Resume, Stop the timer; Add time; or Set remaining.
• Set value / Change number / Toggle value — write to a variable.
• Show message — push a message to the room’s displays.

Audio and speech

• Play media — play a sound or video on a target display.
• Speak text (TTS) — read text aloud using text-to-speech.

Displays

• Display actions — push text, change a layer, set a background, or clear display content on chosen displays.

Flow and links

• Call another automation — enable or disable a different automation.
• Run a scene — run a scene’s action sequence.
• Delay — wait a set number of seconds before the next action.
• Stop — stop the automation early.

Integrations

• Send message (MQTT) — publish a message to an MQTT topic for other systems to pick up.

Overlap mode

What should happen if a trigger fires again while the automation is still running from last time? That’s Overlap mode:

• Single — ignore the new trigger; let the current run finish.
• Restart — cancel the current run and start over.
• Queued — finish the current run, then run again.
• Parallel — run another copy alongside the first.

For most rules, Single is the safe default. Reach for the others when a rule uses Delay steps and could realistically be re-triggered mid-run.

Test Run

You don’t have to start a real game to check your work. Use Test Run to fire the automation on demand and watch what happens. It shows live status as it goes — Starting, Queued, Running, Waiting, and finally Success or Error — along with an activity log of each action. If a step fails, the log tells you which one and why.

Build one: lights drop when the final puzzle is solved

A complete game automation, start to finish.

1. On the game's Automations tab, create a new automation and name it clearly, like "Finale — drop the lights."
2. In the When column, add an Objective trigger. Pick your final objective and set the status to completed.
3. In the If column, optionally add a Device condition so the rule only runs when it should — for example, only if the room lights are currently on. (Skip this column to always run the actions.)
4. In the Do column, add a Set device action that turns the room lights off.
5. Add a Delay of 2 seconds, then a Play media action that plays your victory sting on the room display.
6. Set Overlap mode to Single and the repeat choice to once per game so the finale plays one time.
7. Press Test Run and watch the activity log. When it reads Success and the lights and sound behave, save.

Starter recipes

You don’t always have to build from a blank rule. When you create a game automation, ARC offers presets to start from — common patterns like Lock Release on Solve, Time Warning, DMX Blackout on Timer End, Hue Scene on Game Start, All Objectives → Success, and Game Reset → Reset Devices. A preset fills in the shape of the rule; you still point it at your own devices, objectives, and media, then test it.

Scenes

A scene is an action-only sequence. It has a Do list — the same actions you use in automations above — but no trigger and no conditions. A scene never fires on its own. It runs only when something asks it to:

• a staff member runs it from a Quick Action button on the control page,
• an automation runs it with a Run a scene action, or
• you press Test Run while building it.

Because a scene is just a reusable list of steps, it’s the natural place for any sequence you want to fire the same way from several spots — a “reset the props” routine, a “house lights up” cue, or a “play the intro” sequence you trigger both automatically and by hand.

Quick Actions

A Quick Action is a one-tap button on the control page that runs a scene or an automation. Quick Actions live in the Quick Actions panel of the control page, so staff can fire a cue without digging through menus mid-game.

You set a Quick Action up in the Editor, on the automation or scene you want the button to run. Each button can be tailored:

• Label — the text on the button (for example, “House Lights” or “Replay Intro”).
• Color — the button color, so important or destructive actions stand out.
• Confirmation (press twice) — turn this on and the button stages on the first press and only runs on a second press, guarding against an accidental tap.
• Toggle-state coloring — for a button that turns something on or off, ARC can color it by the current state: green when it’s on, red when it’s off, so staff can see the room’s state at a glance.

Add a Quick Action

1. In the Editor, open the scene or automation you want behind the button.
2. Turn on its Quick Action option and set a clear label and a color.
3. If the action is significant — releasing a lock, ending a game — turn on press twice so staff confirm before it runs.
4. If the button controls something with an on/off state, turn on toggle-state coloring so its color tracks that state.
5. Save, then open that game's control page and check the button appears in the Quick Actions panel and behaves as expected.

Where to go next

• Variables and constants — give your rules memory and math.
• Devices — the props an automation reacts to and controls.
• Displays and audio on the control page — where Quick Actions appear while a game runs.
• System → Automations and Scenes — business-wide rules that aren’t tied to one game.