Stencyl Essentials has been written as a no-nonsense, concise guide to acquiring the functional use of Stencyl in as little time as possible. To achieve this, little or no time is wasted discussing the basic computer science and/or programming concepts, as this fundamental knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader. In line with that, highly detailed instructions on how to download and install Stencyl will not be provided, as this is not considered to be a challenging process for someone with previous computer science experience. However, a simple, lucid outline of the process will be provided.

In this chapter, we will begin by downloading and installing the free version of Stencyl. The free version is all that is required to complete the lessons in this book. Immediately after that, we will begin exploring and rapidly become acquainted with the Stencyl interface, including all of the most important areas and layouts, which are as follows:

By the end of this chapter, we will be comfortable enough to use Stencyl in order to be able to navigate through the most common screens, windows, and tabs at will and with relative ease. This newfound facility and comfort will stand us in good stead in the subsequent chapters, which will be fast-paced and punchy in the manner in which the new information is presented. Redundancy will be avoided wherever possible, which means there will not be a lot of needless posturing or repetition. So without further ado, let's start learning how to build games with Stencyl!