A game’s own settings aren’t a tab — they live in drawers, each one named after what it edits. The game’s identity sits in the Game details drawer; everything else sits with the part of the game it governs, so hint rules are on Objectives, audio is on Displays, and room sensors are on Devices.
This page covers the Game details drawer and maps the rest.
There is no General tab any more
Older guides describe a General tab holding every game-wide setting. That tab is gone. Open the Game details drawer with the gear button beside the game name, and use the map below for the rest.
The Game details drawer
Open the Editor, choose your game, and select the gear button beside the game name — its tooltip reads Game details. Everything in the drawer saves as you type; a Saving / Saved chip in the header tells you where it’s up to.
Setup check
The top of the drawer runs a check over the whole game. It reads No setup issues found, or tells you how many setup issues need attention with a Review link on each one that jumps you to the problem. It catches things like unfinished auto-complete rules, hints pointing at media that was deleted, devices whose connection is gone, displays that no longer exist, and cameras missing from a wall layout.
Basics
- Game name — the name shown wherever this game appears, on the Dashboard, the control page, and in your history.
- Status — Active, Testing, or Retired (see below).
- Duration — how long the countdown runs by default, in minutes.
- Max team size — the most players this room takes. Optional; ARC uses it to flag oversized teams on session records.
Appearance
- Image — the image that represents the game in lists, on the Dashboard, and across the top of the control page. Around 800×200 (a wide 4:1 strip) works best.
- Accent color — the color used to tint this game’s controls and chrome, so staff can tell rooms apart at a glance.
Management
The bottom of the drawer holds Export game and Delete game. See exporting and importing.
Game status
The status decides how the game behaves and whether staff can run it.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | Live. Sessions run normally and are recorded to your history and Insights. |
| Testing | Runs normally, but nothing is saved. Use it while building or rehearsing. |
| Retired | Hidden from the control page and Dashboard. The build is kept, but staff can’t run it. |
Stay in Testing until you're ready
Keep a game on Testing while you build and rehearse, then switch it to Active for real groups. Testing runs don’t clutter your history.
Where every game-wide setting lives
Each of the settings that used to sit on one long page now sits with the part of the game it affects, in a drawer named after what it edits.
| Setting | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Game name, status, duration, max team size | Game details drawer → Basics |
| Image, accent color | Game details drawer → Appearance |
| Export or delete the game | Game details drawer, at the bottom |
| Auto-end on complete, hold to complete, objective dependencies, Assist, pace | Objectives → Settings → Objectives |
| Hint limit, auto-hide, manual hints, the hint queue | Objectives → Settings → Hints → Hint behavior |
| Alert sound, alert displays, alert volume | Objectives → Settings → Hints → Hint alerts |
| Spoken hints (the synthesized voice) | Objectives → Settings → Hints → Spoken hints |
| Help-request notification, sound, and pending message | Objectives → Settings → Hints → Help requests |
| Intro and outro video, ambient audio, volume levels | Displays → All displays |
| Reset checklist on displays | Displays → All displays → After game reset |
| Temperature sensor, door sensors, start button, help-request button, speech recognition | Devices → Device assignments |
The rest of this page explains the settings themselves; each drawer’s own page covers how to get to it.
Hint behavior
Found under Objectives → Settings → Hints, this is how hints and help requests work during a game.
- Hint limit — cap how many hints staff can send in a session, or leave it blank for unlimited. The control page shows a running count against the limit.
- Auto-hide — how long a hint stays on displays before it clears itself. Leave it blank to keep hints on screen.
- Manual hints — allow staff to type and send free-form hints from the control page, in addition to the saved hints on each objective.
- Hint queue — let staff line hints up in advance, with optional automatic sending after a help request.
- Help requests — let players signal that they’re stuck (a button press or a device). You choose the notification sound staff hear — a tone, an alert, a spoken prompt, or off — and the message shown on displays while a request is pending.
- Alerts — the attention-getting sound that plays before a text or image hint reaches a display.
Audio defaults
A game’s default sounds and videos are set on Displays → All displays, with the alert sound under Objectives → Settings → Hints. Each field picks a file from the game media library or the shared media library.
Intro and outro video
- Intro video — plays at the start of a game, on your countdown displays, to set the scene before the timer runs.
- Outro video — plays at the end of the game.
Pick each from the library, or leave it empty if the game has no intro or outro.
Ambient audio
Ambient audio is the background track for the game. You also choose when it plays.
| Playback mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Manual (called by automation or quick action) | The track doesn’t start on its own; an automation or a quick action starts it. |
| Start automatically when the game is running | The track starts when the game begins running. |
| Start when running, stop when game ends | The track plays while the game runs and stops when it ends. |
| Play continuously whenever a countdown display is open | The track keeps playing any time a countdown display is open — even between games — so the room is never silent. |
During hints decides what the ambient track does while a hint plays: lower ambient volume during hint playback (the default), pause ambient audio while hints are playing, or keep ambient audio playing during hints.
Alert sound
The alert sound plays before a text or image hint reaches players, to get their attention. Use one of ARC’s built-in sounds or a custom file from your library.
Volume levels
ARC mixes game audio across four channels, each with its own level and a lock toggle:
- Alert — the alert sound played before hints.
- Ambient — the background music.
- Media — videos and clips, such as the intro and outro.
- Speech (TTS) — spoken hints read aloud.
The lock controls what staff can do with the channel during a game:
- Unlocked — staff can adjust the level freely, up or down.
- Locked — staff can lower or mute the channel, but not raise it above the level you set here.
Lock to protect your mix
Lock the Ambient and Media channels at the levels you want so a busy game’s audio stays balanced. Staff can still pull a channel down if it’s too loud, but they can’t blow out your carefully set mix.
Spoken hints
The Spoken hints section under Objectives → Settings → Hints controls the synthesized voice that reads hints aloud. You choose:
- the Engine — None (disabled), a local voice that runs on the ARC computer, or ElevenLabs (cloud),
- the Voice, with an optional separate voice per hint language, and
- the Speaking rate, under Advanced settings.
Two switches here decide how a spoken hint behaves: Speak manual hints uses the voice when staff send a typed hint, and Show message on displays puts the spoken text on countdown displays as well.
These defaults apply to the game’s Text to Speech hints, including ones an automation sends with a Hint action.
Local and cloud voices
Local voices run on the ARC computer and keep working without the internet. Cloud voices may sound more natural but need an internet connection. Pick the engine that fits your room. Voices themselves are installed once for the whole business, under System.
Where to go next
- Objectives — build the puzzles, write the hints, and open the Objectives & hints settings drawer.
- Media — upload the intro, outro, ambient, and alert files these settings point to.
- Displays — the screens that show your intro video and hints, and the All displays drawer.
- Devices — the Device assignments drawer for room sensors and player buttons.