Custom Map Overview

This is a quick-start guide and overview for creating a custom Space in Gather. 

Terms

• Space: A self-contained virtualized world created on Gather. Has an associated URL. Can contain one or more Rooms/Maps.

• Room: An individual Map within a Space. (Room and Map can be used interchangeably.) Each Room/Map belongs to a Space, although some Spaces have only one Room. Note: Some Spaces (many of the templates designed for 2-25 users) are structured as an individual Map with multiple "rooms," indicated by walls and doors. When we refer to a Room, we mean a unique Map that has been connected to a Space.

•  Background: The bottom-most layer of a Map. A Gather Space is like a sandwich: The background is the bottom bread, the characters and objects are the filling, and the foreground is the top bread. Each Room has one background. 

• Foreground: The top-most layer of the Map. This is an optional layer that allows characters to walk under/behind objects.

• Tile Effects:  A setting applied to an individual tile or group of tiles to add interaction or a behavior in your Map. There are five types of tile effects: Impassable, Spawn, Portal, Private Area, and Spotlight.

• Objects: Objects are the images you can place in your Space, on top of your Space's background image. They can be uploaded as custom objects, or selected from the large variety of pre-generated objects inside the Object Picker.

Overview

Creating a custom map for Gather is a four-step process:

1. Create a Space: You can start with any of our templates, or start from scratch with a blank Map. You can also add Rooms to existing spaces.

2. Create a Background (and foreground, optionally): Create the layout and style for the room you’re working on.

3. Add Tile Effects: Indicate where Gather should allow characters to walk or not walk (e.g., walls) and any other special effects that should happen when avatars enter certain tile locations.

4. Finally, add Objects: This includes chairs, tables, and interactive TVs, games, whiteboards, and more.

1. Create a Space 

Create a Space. Select the Start from blank button at the top of the page, or choose one of the three options in the Blank category in the left panel. 

• If you select the Blank (Start from Scratch) template, you will need to upload your own background image or create one using our Background Painter (in beta). Starting from scratch will take you straight into the Mapmaker.

• If you choose either of the Empty Room templates, we provide walls and a floor in a Map designed to initially accommodate 25-50 (Medium) or 2-25 (Small). Starting from one of these templates takes you into your Space, where you then need to select Build in the Left Nav Menu to open the Mapmaker.

2. Add a Background

Backgrounds are managed from the Mapmaker. Select the hamburger menu, then select Background and Foreground. Select Upload Background.

Custom Background Specifications

You can use any photo editing program to create your background and foreground images. Images should be:

• A .png or .jpg file (Foregrounds must use PNG for transparency)

• Scaled to fit a 32x32 pixel tile system (so height and width should both be multiples of 32)

• Files should be under 3MB

• Dimensions should be under 3200x3200 pixels

• Foregrounds and Backgrounds MUST have the same dimensions

Additional Resources

• The third-party program Tiled is extremely helpful for creating backgrounds and objects for use in Gather.

• You can find non-Gather-created Tiled assets that are available from other websites such as:  https://itch.io/game-assets/tag-pixel-art

3. Add Tile Effects

Add tile effects to govern how characters can interact with your Space. For example:

• Add Impassable effects to prevent people from walking through walls or decorative objects like statues or fountains. 

• Add a Spotlight effect so someone can provide announcements to everyone in the Room.  

• Add Portal effects to connect tiles, rooms, or spaces. 

4. Adding Objects

You can add a variety of objects to your Space to perfectly match your aesthetic! We offer a wide variety of objects via our Object Picker, or you can upload your own image assets.