Start a new game from a template

Preview Godot Bevy Unity

A template is an empty starter folder for a new game, with everything Vapour needs already set up: your game's settings file (vapour.toml) and a ready-to-fill store page. One command makes it, and a few more take you from there to a published game.

A template is a starting point, not a finished game. It does not contain an engine project yet, so you add your own game to it. If you would rather start from something that already runs, follow a tutorial instead.

Template or tutorial?

	Template	Tutorial
What you get	An empty starter folder	A complete, working sample game
Best for	Starting your own new game	Learning the whole process once
Has a game inside	No	Yes
Command	`vapour template <engine> <name>`	Clone the sample, follow the page

Pick your engine

Engine	Command	Page
Godot	`vapour template godot "My Game"`	Godot template
Bevy (Rust)	`vapour template bevy "My Game"`	Bevy template
Unity	`vapour template unity "My Game"`	Unity template

From template to published game

These are the same six steps for every engine. Your engine's page has the details.

Sign in once, with a token from your Vapour account. See Vapour tokens.
```
vapour login --token vpr_...
```

Make the folder from the template.

vapour template godot "My Game"
cd my-game

Add your game to the folder, using your engine. Your engine's page shows how.
Make a browser version of your game: an export that has an index.html.
Try it on your computer. This opens your game with a live speed counter and a performance page. See Understand your game's performance.
```
vapour test
```
Check, then publish. The first command checks and packs your game without uploading anything.
```
vapour publish --dry-run
vapour publish
```

Before you publish, fill in your store page: see Create a store page.

What the template command does for you

Makes a folder named after your game (My Game becomes my-game) and stops if that folder already has files in it.
Registers your game on Vapour, so the name is yours. Add --offline to skip this. The game is then registered the first time you publish.
Copies the starter files for your engine.
Adds your store page files and your settings file, vapour.toml.

It needs Git installed, and you must be signed in unless you use --offline.

This is the real output for vapour template godot "Doc Check" --offline:

$ vapour template godot "Doc Check" --offline
Cloning into 'doc-check'...
Created Doc Check in ./doc-check
Next: write your store text in doc-check/store/template.md and edit doc-check/store/page.json,
export your game for Web into doc-check/build/web, then run `vapour publish` from ./doc-check

and the folder it makes:

doc-check/
├── .gitignore
├── README.md
├── vapour.toml
└── store/
    ├── README.md
    ├── page.json
    ├── page.schema.json
    └── template.md

Every setting in vapour.toml is explained in the reference.

What is in each template

Template	Contains	Does not contain
Godot	A README and a `.gitignore`	A Godot project, a scene, a Web export setting
Bevy	A README, a `.gitignore`, empty `src` and `assets` folders	A Rust project or any code
Unity	A README, a `.gitignore` and Vapour's build helper for Unity	A Unity project

If you try to build right after making a template, the tool tells you what is missing:

$ vapour build
error: godot is required; install it yourself or set GODOT

$ GODOT=/path/to/godot vapour build
error: required build input /…/doc-check/project.godot: stat /…/doc-check/project.godot: no such file or directory

That is expected. Add your game first.

Two small things to know:

The README in each template says "Godot Starter", "Bevy Starter" or "Unity Starter", not your game's name. Rename it.
The Unity template's README lists some folders that Unity creates itself and that are not in the template.

Your own templates

A studio can keep its own starters. Publish repositories called vapour-template-godot, vapour-template-bevy and vapour-template-unity under your organization on GitHub, then:

vapour template godot "My Game" --org my-studio

Common problems

You see	What to do
`template engine must be one of bevy, godot, unity`	Use one of those three. For anything else use `vapour create --engine other`
`… already exists and is not empty`	Pick another name, or remove the existing folder
`git is required to clone a template or sample`	Install Git
`not logged in`	Run `vapour login`, or add `--offline`

Status

vapour template is in preview: it is in the CLI's main branch but not in a release yet. The three template repositories are public at github.com/vapour-computer. See what is available today.

Start from a template