Community

Publish the scene you are looking at, hand somebody a link, and they can play it in their browser, open it in the editor, or remix it into something of their own. Contests give you a reason to publish every couple of weeks.

Everything on this page lives on theprototype.app — the hosted app loads it as a cloud plugin. Community, in the line of links at the bottom of the profile menu, opens theprototype.app/community in a new tab: the published scenes and the contests. Browsing, playing and remixing never need an account; publishing, liking, commenting and entering a contest do.

Self-hosted and local builds

A copy you build yourself has none of this: no Publish row, and the Templates window's Community tab shows the open GitHub gallery with Submit yours on GitHub instead.

Publish

The Publish row sits in the logo menu directly under Save. Its hint tells you what a click will do: Publish · sign in when you are signed out, Publish · update when this scene is already published by you, Publish · remix when you loaded somebody else's scene from a link, Publish · to ‹contest› when you arrived through a contest link. With a view-only role it is greyed out (View-only — ask an editor).

The first click walks you through what is missing, once:

Sign in — Continue with GitHub or Continue with Google.
Pick your handle — your pages live at /u/‹handle›. Lowercase letters, digits and dashes, 3–24 characters, and you can change it once every 30 days. Your peer nickname in sessions is a separate thing and is never touched.

Then the dialog itself:

Field	What it does
Destination	Community — your account, instant, with likes, comments and contests. GitHub gallery — the open archive, via a pull request a maintainer reviews.
Hero shot	The image on the card and the page. Current view, or pick a saved camera bookmark; Use current view re-captures.
Title, Summary	80 and 300 characters. The summary is what a stranger reads first: say what to look at and how to play it.
Tags (up to 6)	Type and press `Enter`; suggestions come from tags already in use.
License	CC-BY-4.0 (the default: use and remix with credit), CC0-1.0 (public domain) or MIT. There is deliberately no all-rights-reserved option — remix is the product.
Visibility	Public — listed on `/community`. Unlisted — only people with the link; the page is not indexed.
Contest	None, or an open contest to enter with this scene.
Includes	Read-only chips built from the scene: objects, flow, audio, game, modules, size.

Publishing sends a copy of the open scene, with its assets and flow graph, exactly like saving a .tpscene. Nothing is saved or renamed locally. The bundle must stay under 25 MB; if it does not, the dialog names the largest files. By publishing you agree to the Terms and the Content policy, both linked from the dialog.

When the upload finishes the dialog shows Published with the link — https://theprototype.app/s/‹id› — plus Copy link and Open page.

Updating, and publishing as new

Publish again from the same scene and the dialog offers Update "‹title›" — same link, likes and comments stay or Publish as new. Update replaces the file, the hero shot and the card facts on the same page. Publish as new makes a second scene; if the original was somebody else's, the new one is recorded as a remix of it.

There is no unpublish button in the app yet.

When you publish or update a game, the dialog also shows a This game: … line with its visits — see Your games & stats.

The GitHub gallery destination

Choosing GitHub gallery builds the same submission zip as the Community gallery tab of Publish / Export, with the same two GitHub steps — see The Community gallery tab. Contest entries need the Community destination, and the dialog says so if you pick both.

A scene's page

Every published scene has a page at /s/‹id›: the hero shot, the title, the author's @handle, the license, a heart like button (sign in to use it; the same like as the hearts in the app), the summary, the tags, and four actions:

▶ Play — opens the app with the scene loaded and Play mode already running.
Open in ThePrototype — the same, in the editor.
Remix — opens it in the editor and remembers where it came from, so your Publish credits the original.
Download .tpscene — the file itself, to keep or import anywhere.

3D preview on the hero picture loads the scene right there on the page, through its play link: orbit it, or click into it to play. ⤢ Full screen opens the play link itself and Picture puts the still back (and unloads the scene). Nothing loads until you press it, so the page stays light; on a phone the buttons are thumb-sized.

A public scene also has an Embed button — see Embedding a scene.

Below that: what the scene includes, its lineage (Remix of … by @handle, and how many remixes it has), and comments. Report this scene is at the bottom — see Reporting.

/community is the browse page: Featured, Recent and Top, tag chips, a Mine chip while you are signed in (see below), and a strip for the contest that is open.

Search (the box above the tabs) matches a scene's title, summary and tags and the maker's @handle; every word you type must match (mirror night, @bea). It works together with the tabs and tag chips, and the address keeps it (/community?q=mirror), so a search can be shared.
Top has This week, This month and All time: the most-liked scenes published in that window. A plain /community?tab=top link still means all time.

Links that open the app

A scene link is https://theprototype.app/?s=‹id›, and the app treats it like an invite: the first-run welcome stands down so the scene you were sent is the first thing you see. Two flags ride on it — &play=1 starts in Play mode, &remix=1 loads it for editing and toasts Remixing "‹title›" by @handle — Publish when you're done. If you are already in a session, your peers get the usual load proposal before anything changes. A scene that was hidden or never existed says That scene is not available and leaves you with an ordinary empty app.

Embedding a scene

Embed on a public scene's page copies an <iframe> snippet for your own site or blog. The frame shows /e/‹id›, which opens the play view (1.57) with the scene already playing and no editor in it: no menus, panels or toasts — just the viewport, the game's HUD and the touch controls. Corner links, Open in theprototype.app ↗ and Remix, open the same scene in the full app in a new tab, and a ▶ button re-enters play after Esc. Every way to share a game is on one page: Share a Game.

The full app can still hide its editor on any scene link with &embed=1: https://theprototype.app/?s=‹id›&play=1&embed=1. The flag lasts for the life of the page.

Paste a link, get a game (oEmbed)

New in 1.44. Paste a public scene's link (https://theprototype.app/s/‹id›) into a site that understands oEmbed — Notion, WordPress, Discourse, Ghost and the many sites that use Iframely — and the game plays in place, no snippet needed. Behind it is an oEmbed endpoint any developer can call:

https://theprototype.app/oembed?url=https://theprototype.app/s/‹id›&maxwidth=800&maxheight=600

It answers JSON with type: "rich" and the same <iframe> of /e/‹id› the Embed button copies: 16:9, 640×360 unless you ask for another size (up to 1280 wide), fitted inside maxwidth / maxheight. Every /s/ page also advertises it with a <link rel="alternate" type="application/json+oembed"> tag, so sites find it on their own. Only public scenes embed: an unlisted scene's link answers not found.

Play and remix

The editor is the player. Play opens the real app with the full scene, not a preview: the game's HUD, its flow graph, its physics and its sound all run, and a click on the viewport takes the pointer.

Remix is a local load. Nothing is created on the server until you publish. When you do, the dialog shows a ticked Remix of "‹title›" by @handle line and the new scene carries that lineage on its page. Every license in the picker allows this; a remix of your own scene is simply a new scene, with no lineage line. A remix is also a new game with its own game id.

The Community tab in Templates

Menu ▸ Templates ▸ Community lists published scenes inside the app with the author's handle, the license, the size and the like count on each card. It opens on Featured, the scenes we picked; while there are fewer than 8 picks the list fills up with the newest. All shows every scene, newest first, Top the most liked; tag chips narrow it, and Clear resets it.

The search field at the top (every Templates tab has one) searches the whole community, not just the cards already loaded: titles, summaries, tags and makers' @handles — type bea and @bea's scenes come back. On the other tabs it filters the templates and games by title, description and tags; every word you type must match.

A copy of the app you build yourself shows the open GitHub gallery here, and the search field filters its cards. Clicking a card loads the scene through the ordinary template path: a backup of your current scene is stashed first, and connected peers are asked before anything changes. The small button in a card's corner saves the scene to your Library instead, without loading it.

When a contest is open a notice row says so (Contest: Make a mirror — 9 days left) with a More link to its page, and the tab's Publish yours link opens the Publish dialog.

Hearts

Like a published scene without leaving the app: the heart button sits on every card in Templates ▸ Community, on the start card of a play link (/p/‹id›) and in a published game's pause menu (Esc, top right). Press it and the count updates at once (and goes back if the like could not be saved). Signed out, it asks you to sign in (profile menu, top right). It is the same like as the heart on the scene's page — one like per person per scene.

A play link's start card over the scene: the orange Play button, the heart with its count beside it, and the hint Click to look around · Esc to pause. 1: the heart. — The heart on a play link's start card.

The heart: press it to like it; the count updates at once.

Towers' pause menu: the title Paused with the game's name under it and a filled heart with the count 1 at the top right, then Resume, Restart, Settings, How to play, Main menu and Back to editor. 1: the heart. — The heart in a published game's pause menu.

The heart, filled once you have liked the game; press it again to take the like back.

Mine

While you are signed in, the Mine chip in Templates ▸ Community (and on theprototype.app/community) shows only your own published scenes — unlisted ones too. A scene staff hid shows Hidden by moderation: ‹reason›, so you know why.

Your games & stats

Profile menu ▸ Your games & stats shows how many people arrived from the Made with ThePrototype badge in your play links, embeds and exported builds — for the last 7 days, 30 days or all time, split by source (play link, itch.io, static host, embed). The Publish dialog shows the same count for the game you are publishing or updating.

Your games: visits over 30 days, one row per game, with a moderation notice — Your games: visits over 30 days.

One game, one count

Every scene gets a permanent game id the first time you save, export or publish it. Re-exporting, a new itch.io build and the play link all count toward the same game — including visits from before you published it. A copy (Explorer ▸ Duplicate, Save to Library) or a remix of someone else's scene becomes a new game.

Visits are counted per game, never per visitor: no cookies, no IP addresses.
Builds exported before 1.24 count under their own old id.
Exports made while signed out still count, but show in your stats only once the game is published or exported again while you are signed in.

If a scene of yours is hidden

If staff hide or remove one of your scenes, Your games (and the Publish dialog, when you update it) says Hidden by moderation: ‹reason›. Press Ask for a review — once a day, with an optional note — and staff get it in their queue.

Contests

A contest is a brief, a starter scene, a two-week window and a page at /c/‹slug›: the rules, a live countdown, the starter, the entries, and the results once it ends. The first two are Make a mirror and Follow the beat; windows overlap by a week, so there is always one open and one closing.

Three ways in:

Start from the starter scene on the contest page — it opens in the editor as a remix with the contest preselected in Publish.
Pick the contest in the Contest field when you publish any scene.
Enter with a scene I published on the contest page, from a list of your public scenes.

One entry per scene per contest — a second attempt says Already entered. Once a day, while a contest is open and you have not entered, the app reminds you with a toast and points at Templates ▸ Community. Winners are picked from likes plus a judge's pick, get Featured, and wear a badge on their profile.

Profiles and handles

Your profile is /u/‹handle›: your avatar, your public scenes, your total likes and any contest badges (Winner, Judge's pick). The handle is the one you claimed the first time you published. There is no profile editor yet, so the page shows what the sign-in provided.

Changing your handle

Signed in, your own profile page has Change handle: type the new one (3–24 lowercase letters, digits or dashes) and Save — you land on /u/‹new›.

You can change it once every 30 days; trying again sooner says the date you can next change it.
For 30 days your old handle is held for you — nobody else can take it — and /u/‹old› sends visitors to your new page. Going back to your previous handle within that time is an undo, not a new change.
Your scenes, likes, badges and sessions are untouched; your peer nickname in sessions is a separate thing.
Pages are cached for about a minute, so the old address may show your old page briefly right after a change.

Signing in and creating an account are one flow: the profile menu's Sign in to cloud opens one screen with GitHub, Google and, where it is on, an email code. Your first sign-in needs the I agree to the Terms box ticked (it links the Terms and the Content policy). That is the only box: since 1.64 product updates by email are asked once afterwards, in the profile menu, and live in Settings ▸ Account ▸ Email. An older account sees a small bar asking to accept the Terms once, and again if a new version comes out.

The site and the app share one sign-in. Sign in in the site header offers the same GitHub and Google buttons; signed in, the menu under your name has My profile, Open the app and Sign out. Inside the app the same account is under the logo menu's profile block as Sign in to cloud.

New in 1.54.1. theprototype.app has no passwords: you sign in with GitHub or Google. If you lose access to that one account, you lose the way in. Link both now and either one gets you back: Settings ▸ Account ▸ Sign-in methods (account menu ▸ Manage; it was in the account menu itself until 1.64).

Link next to a provider opens its sign-in window. Afterwards that provider signs you in to this same account, even if its email address is different.
Unlink removes one. It appears only while you have at least two; the last way in can't be removed.
If the provider account you pick already belongs to another account here, nothing changes: you stay signed in as you are, and the panel tells you.

Locked out? The sign-in sheet has a Can't sign in? link, and Account help at the bottom of the profile menu goes to the same page (/cant-sign-in). It says what to send to contact@theprototype.app and what we can and can't verify. One identity per provider on an account; the review account can't link any.

Reporting

Every scene page ends with Report this scene: pick a reason — Spam, Not safe for work, Stolen work, Illegal content or Other — add a note if you like, and send it (this needs a sign-in, and counts once per person per scene). A scene reported by three different people — counting only accounts older than three days — is hidden from every list and page until a maintainer has looked at it.

Report a room or a person (new in 1.44): a public room's card in Rooms has a ⚑ Report button, and in Users right-click someone's Watch ▸ Report…. The same reasons apply, plus Harassment. The person or host you report is never told who reported them; you can send up to 20 room and person reports an hour.

Staff accounts have a Staff · Insights & moderation entry in the profile menu for the report queue and the visit totals; it is not shown to anyone else. Assets an author had no right to license are exactly what Stolen work is for: the license picker cannot express "all rights reserved", so a report and a takedown are how that is handled.

Cloud saves and kept rooms

Signed in on theprototype.app, your scenes, projects and rooms can live in your account. The open-source app has neither; it works exactly as before without the cloud.

Cloud saves

Where: logo menu ▸ Cloud saves (the row under Save), or profile menu ▸ Cloud saves ▸ Open.

What it does: keeps your scenes and whole projects in your account, with versions, so you can open them on another device or go back to an earlier state.

Save this scene saves the open scene. The first save makes a new entry. Later saves of the same scene (the same scene file, even after a reload) go into that entry as a new version. Add an optional note.
Save the whole project saves the project (.tp): every scene and the Explorer library.
Each entry shows a thumbnail, its newest version, its size and when it was last saved.
Open loads the newest version. A scene goes through the usual "Backup before…" safety copy; a project asks before replacing your current project.
Versions lists every kept version (newest, autosave, conflict); Open any of them. Saving after opening an older version makes your save the newest; the others stay in the list.
Rename, Delete (press twice; it removes every version).
Keepers: add people by their community @handle. Keepers can open the save and add versions; only you can rename or delete it.
Two devices, one save: if the save changed somewhere else since you opened it, your save is still kept, as a conflict version, and you choose Make mine the newest or Open theirs. Nothing is overwritten silently.
Storage: the meter shows what you use: 250 MB per account, up to 30 saves, the newest 20 versions of each kept, 50 MB per file.

Kept rooms (persistent rooms)

Where: Connect ▸ Rooms ▸ your room settings ▸ Keep this room when everyone leaves. List the room once to create it. A kept room stays kept if you unlist it later; it just becomes private.

While the room is open, one person in it (you, or one of your keepers when you are not there) saves it automatically about every 90 seconds after a change, and when the tab is hidden. Save room now saves at once.
Nothing is saved while someone is playing a game in the room; play-mode state is not saved.
When you leave, a keeper still in the room takes over and the room stays open. When everyone has left, the room is asleep with its last save.
Your kept rooms (in the Rooms tab) lists the kept rooms you own or keep: Join a live one, Wake an asleep one. Wake loads its last save and you host it. When you open the app, it offers your own asleep room.
Name keepers in Cloud saves ▸ the room's entry ▸ Keepers.
If the same room ends up open in two sessions, one session hands over and tells you, with a button to join the other.

Limits: up to about 90 seconds of changes can be lost if the last person's browser crashes. Only you and your keepers can wake a room; others join it while it is live, as before.

Privacy: saves are private to you and your keepers (see the privacy page, "Cloud saves and kept rooms").

What's new on theprototype.app

Since 1.27 the What's New window (logo menu) on theprototype.app starts with a theprototype.app cloud section: what changed in the hosted service — publishing, community, rooms, hosted AI — above the app's own release notes. A self-hosted or local build shows no such section.