Short answer: Use the Menu view in Forge - the title-screen editor. You build the first thing a reader sees: stacked backgrounds, your title, decorative layers, and the menu buttons, all placed freely by dragging them on a canvas. Then you direct it on the Sequence timeline under the canvas, like a small video editor - every element arrives, can move, hold and leave on its own schedule, backgrounds can hand over to each other, and an idle loop keeps the finished screen alive for as long as the menu is open. Ready-made presets give you a complete starting point, each with its own music, and a "keep my content" option applies a preset's motion to your own art and title.
What you're placing
Everything on the title screen is an element you drag into place:
- Canvas - a permanent solid color or gradient under everything. It has no image slot. New projects start with this fill and no backdrops.
- Backdrops - up to four full-screen images above Canvas. Use Add > Backdrop to add art; each backdrop can be replaced, reordered or deleted independently. Each one fades in and out on its own schedule and can pan or zoom, so one background can drift and fade while the next one arrives.
- Title - your game's name, styled with its own font, size, and color (or an image, if your title is drawn art).
- Decorative layers - up to 12 extra images and text labels, freely placed, resized, and rotated. Text labels cover things like a version tag, "Chapter 3 out now", or a credits line.
- The five menu buttons - more below.
Drag anything on the canvas into place; layers and buttons can also be resized and rotated right on the canvas, and the arrow keys nudge whatever is selected. Every element has precise controls in the inspector when dragging isn't exact enough.
Directing it on the Sequence timeline
The Sequence timeline under the canvas shows every element as a clip on one ruler. The ruler has an intro that plays once when a reader arrives, and an optional idle loop band after it that repeats for as long as the menu is open.
- Arrive: each clip starts with an entrance - fade, slide, scale, blur, letter cascade, typewriter and more - drawn as a ramp at the start of the clip.
- Leave: give an element an out-point and an exit (fade, slide away, shrink, blur out) and it leaves the screen. Title cards, a content note before the menu, a background that hands over to the next one: all of these are clips that leave.
- Move: add moves to a clip - move, zoom, rotate, fade, blur, or a hold - each shown as a keyframe diamond. Moves play one after another, so "drift right for two seconds, hold, then fade out" is three moves.
- Loop: a clip's moves can repeat or ping-pong in the idle loop, like a key that keeps rocking or clouds that keep drifting. Clips placed inside the idle band replay on every pass, which is how a background slideshow works.
- Sound cues: drop a one-shot sound at any moment - a key clink when the key lands, a chime each time the slideshow turns.
- Drag a clip to move it in time, drag its edges to change when it arrives and leaves, drag a ramp to change how long its entrance or exit takes, and drag a diamond to retime a move. Right-click a clip for more, and press K to add a move at the playhead.
- Scrub the playhead to preview any moment, or press play; Loop idle keeps the idle band cycling so you can watch it the way readers will.
The whole picture can also arrive through a reveal - a fade, an iris opening, a pull-back, a blur sharpening into focus, or a shutter - edited alongside the exit transition that plays when a reader leaves the menu. The Transitions panel also sets how long the intro is and turns the idle loop on or off.
Layers and the UI line
The left rail is one stack, front on top, with a UI line around your title and buttons. Decorative layers can sit under the buttons, or over them - drag a layer across the line, or right-click it and choose Move over the buttons. A layer over the buttons never takes a click: readers can always press the buttons underneath, so a foreground frame, falling petals or a glow can sit on top without getting in the way. The eye on each row hides it in the editor only, so you can work on what is underneath.
Menu view shows only its own Sequence timeline. The story timeline and scene strips stay hidden while building the menu.
Keeping the screen alive
After the intro settles, idle motion keeps the screen from feeling frozen: give elements looping motion such as a slow breathe, a sway, or a shimmer. An ambient camera can drift between two framings you draw directly on the canvas - drag each framing box to position it, drag a corner to zoom - and atmospheric particles (with control over density, speed, size, and tint) can float through the scene.
The five menu buttons
Every title screen has the same five buttons: Start, Continue, Load, Settings, and Chapters. You can't add or remove buttons, but each one is fully yours to style and place - position, size, rotation, colors, typography, hover behavior, and its own entrance timing.
Unavailable actions remain visible as disabled buttons: Continue when there is no saved progress, Load when saves are unavailable, Chapters when the story has no chapter list to open, and scene buttons without a valid target. Buttons disappear only when you explicitly hide them in the Menu editor.
Presets and keeping your content
A presets gallery offers ready-made title screens, each a complete composition - background, title treatment, button layout, motion, atmosphere, and its own music track. Some are built to show off the Sequence timeline: backgrounds handing over to each other, a studio card before the menu, a slideshow loop. Hover a preset to preview it live on your canvas; apply it and everything remains editable, because presets are built from the same controls you have.
The keep my content option retains your fill, image backdrops and title while applying the preset's other styling. A fill-only composition stays free of preset images. Older menu presets automatically turn their background image into a backdrop, keeping the same appearance.
What readers experience
Readers can skip the intro with any input. Clicking a menu button as it becomes visible jumps to the end of the intro and activates that button in the same click; clicking empty space or pressing a key only skips. The idle loop then carries on from there. Readers who have reduce motion enabled get the settled screen immediately, with no intro, loops, or particles. Music fades in with the intro and keeps playing while the menu is up.
The intro also waits until the menu's own images are ready, so it never plays over a half-loaded screen - on a slow connection readers see a brief loading state first. And when your menu has music, a reader's first visit may show a single begin prompt before the intro: browsers only allow sound after a click, so that one click starts the intro and its music together. Returning readers usually go straight in.