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Time to Bring Your Scenarios to Life!

You've outlined your scenario structure - now comes the exciting part! The Setup Stage is where you choose your environments, cast your characters, and configure your interactive zones.

Get Your Scenarios Ready for Action

1. Set Up Your Scenes

First, you'll choose the characters and environments to use in your scenarios from the Content Library. Take a look at your scenes in your Outline to decide what you'll need.

How: Click the purple "Choose Environment" button and you'll be guided to set them up.

2. Choose an Environment for Each Scene

Every scene needs its location! Most environments have two character positions (left and right) for natural conversations, though some accommodate three characters or just one for direct learner interaction.

Camera angles let you mix things up using the same environment.

3. Add Characters to Each Scene

Now cast your scenarios! Choose characters (and their voice) in the Content Library and assign them to positions (L | C | R) in each scene.

Characters can start hidden and appear during conversations - perfect for dramatic entrances! You're just deciding where they'll be positioned when they do appear.

4. Set Up Subject & Status System

Think of most scenarios as being "about someone or something" - an employee with performance issues, a patient with symptoms, a building project with milestones, a customer with a complaint history.

The Subject Image appears in the upper left corner and shows whose situation you're dealing with throughout the scenario. It's often a character portrait but can be a custom image.

Status Buttons on the left side show information about the subject that can be updated over time as the scenario progresses.

Together, they create an integrated information system that captures the background for the scenario and can be updated as the scenario progresses.

5. Configure Each Zone Type

Now each zone is made up of blocks of dialogue lines, like building blocks. For example, you can add a "click on a character" block to dialogue zones, and each choice in a decision zone is its own dialogue block.

Dialogue Zones 💬

These are your conversation areas from the Outline Stage. Every Dialogue Zone has two required blocks:

• Introduction: Launches the zone and orients learners

• Objective Complete: Wraps up the zone and transitions to what's next

Other interactions you can add:

• Select Character: Perfect for showing visual panels - display the information, let learners consume it, then "click on me when you’re ready to move on."

• Discuss buttons: Optional deep-dive dialogues, accessible via special buttons near the Subject Image

Decision Zones 👆

Your decisions were already connected back in the Outline Stage. Now you're configuring how learners will interact with them!

Decision Orbs - Create Nuanced, Gamified Decision Points!

Orbs are powerful and fun! For each decision point there are a certain number of orbs. Learners must place all of them in Green optimal choices to continue.

When learners click a choice, an orb moves to that selection and (eventually) changes color to reveal how good that choice is:

• Green orbs = Optimal choice! Locks in place

• Yellow orbs = Suboptimal but not terrible. Resets so they can try again

• Red orbs = Inappropriate choice. Bounces out!

So, you’ll eventually need to write a green, yellow, or red dialogue for each choice that appears in every decision zone. That happens in the Content Stage.

Keep them simple or get advanced - it's up to you!

Color Assignment & Rationale

Now for the important part - telling AliveSim which choices should turn which colors! You'll see a list of all choices from your decision panel.

Click the colored square next to each choice to assign its orb color. The choice background immediately changes to show your selection.

So, you’ll eventually need to write a green, yellow, or red dialogue for each choice that appears in every decision zone. That happens in the Content Stage.

In the Rationale column, explain WHY that color makes sense. These rationales become the foundation for your coaching dialogue in the Content Stage - this is where you capture the expert thinking that makes each choice optimal, suboptimal, or inappropriate.

Advanced Decision Features

Notice those shield icons (🛡️) next to some options? Those are advanced features for complex scenarios. For now, focus on the basics - you can explore advanced features after you're comfortable with the fundamentals.

Time Passes Zones 🕓

The easiest zones to set up - there's nothing you need to configure! You'll customize how time passes during the Content Stage.

Question Zones ❓

Remember from the Outline Stage - these are for knowledge assessment through multiple-choice questions. You can ask opinions, check understanding of key concepts, create pre/post assessments, or gather learner feedback on their experience.

Use conversation to introduce them creatively - not just boring knowledge checks! Your characters can naturally lead into questions that feel like part of the scenario flow.

Click "Add Question" to select questions from your Content Library. If you haven't created questions yet, head on over to the Content Library to set them up.

Ready for the Content Stage!

Look what you've accomplished! Your scenarios now have:

• Fully configured scenes with environments and characters

• Connected interactive elements from the Content Library

• Zone structure ready for compelling content

• Decision orbs configured for gamified learning experiences

• Integrated Subject & Status system for scenario context

What's next? Time to bring these scenarios to life with compelling dialogue, rich interactions, and personalized coaching that helps learners recognize optimal approaches.

Your setup is rock-solid - now let's create some amazing experiences!

Ready for Content Stage? Your setup is complete and your learners are about to experience something powerful.

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