Game Categories – Organize Your Content

Synthesis VR game categories allow you to choose which games are available for customers to choose from. They also can act as filters as you will see below. By default SynthesisVR will include all downloaded games as available game options during sessions. Once a game category is setup and assigned, only those games will be available.

To create a game category navigate to Administration>> Business Setup >> Games, Categories, Licenses.

Followed by clicking on the Categories tab:

To create a new category, click on the large New Category button. This will bring up a new game category window.

• Title: This will be the name of the Game Category and will be visible to your customers.
• The List Type will determine if this Game Category is always visible, is optionally visible (determined at session start on a per station basis), is restricted from showing (specific to the games in this Game category), or optionally restricted (determined at session start on a per session basis). More on the Restricted Game Categories further down.
• Use as Home Screen will set this Game Category as the default one the customer will be taken to when they bring up the menu.

To add games to the Game Category, you can either double click on the games displayed in the left column or drag them from the left column to the right space. Note that the list on the left can be searched using the search field at the top (and additionally, this list only displays games discovered to be installed on your stations). If you are building a Game Category of all your games, you can simply click on the “Assign all your installed games”:

To organize the order your games displayed in you simply need to click and drag the games within the right hand list. Alternatively, if you want them in alphabetical order you can click on the “Sort Alphabetically” button.

Once done, click on the Save button at the bottom.

At this time, you have only created a game category and it is not connected to anything else. To have it shown to customers, you need to assign the Game Category to one or more of your Work Rules. You can refer to this article for Work Rules within Operation Settings: https://synthesisvr.com/knowledge-base/work-rules-by-duration/

Note that you can also reach the Work Rule by clicking on it where it shows it is Assigned in the Categories section:

When you are in the Work Rule, head to the Games tab and simply click on the Assign Game Categories + button to add more Game Categories or click on the red x to remove game Categories. Using the drop down on each Game Category allows you to choose which one will show.

Note that the order the Game Categories show in this section is the order they will display for the customer in the headset.

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Enforced vs Optional

If you create an Available Games – Enforced Game Category, then when you assign the Game Category will show in every session that the Game Category is assigned to.

If you create a Restricted Access – Enforced Game Category, then when you assign this Game Category to a Work Rule, all games in this Game Category will be hidden in any other Game Categories are assigned to that Work Rule. This is most helpful if you want to create different Work Rules with the same Game Categories as your other Work Rules, but don’t want to go through and create different Game Categories to remove individual games and you can just add this Restricted Game Category to the Work Rule.

If you create an Available Games – Optional Game Category and assign it to a Work Rule, than you are able, on a station by station basis, decide to include that category or not in the session. Note that at the start of a session, the Available Games – Optional categories will be selected by default and must be UNCHECKED to have them not show.

If you create a Restricted Access – Optional Game Category and assign it to a Work Rule then you are able, again on a station by station basis, decide to essentially hide the games in this Game Category from a specific station. Note that at the start of a session, the Restricted Access – Optional categories will be unselected by default and must be CHECKED to hide games in this category.

In the below image, the “Easy” Game Category is set to Available Games – Optional and the Medium is set to Restricted Access – Optional. Again, each station can have different options chosen at the start of a session.

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You can also assign games directly from the game itself. From the Your Games tab in the Games, Categories, Licenses section click on any game and go to the Categories tab:

From there you can Enable or Disable a Game Category that a game is assigned to. Once finished, click on the Save button at the bottom. Note that a Game Category must have at least one game assigned to it prior to using this method. You can use the drop down number on the right of an Enabled Game Category to assign where in the list the game should show up.