Getting started
BuddyMKR is where Buddies are made. This page gets you from a fresh install to a character moving on screen.
Install it
Grab the installer from the download page and run it. Windows may warn you that the publisher is unknown, because the installer is not code signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
The three tabs
BuddyMKR has three modes along the top, and the whole app changes colour depending on where you are.
| Tab | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Cubby | The shelf your Buddies live on. Create, rename, duplicate, delete, export and import them here. |
| Buddy Maker | Where you actually build one: art, sound and its minigame. Only available once a Buddy is open. |
| Flasher | Writes firmware and cartridges to a cube over USB-C. See Flashing a cube. |
The Cubby
The shelf holds ten Buddies to start with, in two rows of five, and grows a row at a time so there is always somewhere to put the next one. Each card shows the Buddy name, how many animations and sounds it has, the name of its minigame, and a small screen playing its idle animation on a loop.
Every Buddy carries a colour of its own. Change it from the picker on the card, and the whole of the Buddy Maker repaints to match when you open it.
Importing
Drag a .buddy file straight onto the shelf to import it.
There is no dialog to go through.
Your first Buddy
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In the Cubby, make a new Buddy and give it a name.
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Open it. A cartridge arcs into the slot at the bottom, the housing fills with the Buddy colour, and the Maker rises up on top.
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You land in Animate. Pick the idle animation from the list on the left and double click the screen to start drawing.
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Draw a couple of frames. The filmstrip along the bottom is your timeline, and the preview loops as you go.
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When you want it on a cube, press Ctrl and E to export a
.buddyfile, or go straight to the Flasher.
Your work saves itself into the Buddy own slot as you go, so there is no save button to remember. Undo and redo work across the whole Maker.
The buttons on the cube
Three buttons on the front, and what they do depends on what the cube is currently doing.
| Button | Normally | In a game |
|---|---|---|
| Left | Turn sound on and off | Game input |
| Centre | Press once to get ready, again to start the minigame | Game input |
| Right | Show the high score | Game input |
Shaking the cube counts as input during a game too. On the result screen at the end, left or right takes you out, and centre plays again.