For one reason or another — maybe you just had kids, maybe the whole Star Wars thing won you over (no regrets) — you've decided to see what Disney Infinity 3.0 is all about. But holy crap — this is a big box with a lot of Stuff inside it. How does everything work?

The basics

Disney Infinity is actually a few different things in one. The heart of the experience is contained within Toy Box mode, which you can use to build play spaces of your own.

Advanced users can also create all sorts of game modes in these spaces: racing, combat, platforming, even exploration. Creations can be saved and shared with the Infinity community, which means you can also play around with the stuff other people make.

Separate from Toy Box are Play Sets, which are themed adventures built by the Disney Infinity team. While Toy Box allows you to mix and match Disney characters and environments to your heart's content, Play Sets tell stories inside a particular Disney universe. For example, the Twilight of the Republic Play Set that comes with the Disney Infinity 3.0 Starter Pack is a Star Wars: The Clone Wars adventure.

All of these pieces are tied together by the toys and plastic pieces, which influence the game in a variety of ways.

How do the toys work?

All of Disney Infinity's plastic playing pieces link up with the game via the USB-powered "Base" that comes with the Starter Pack. Here's what it looks like:

The two circles and the hexagon are where your toys go. Character figurines or Power Discs that affect character abilities go in the circle spaces, while Play Set pieces or non-character Power Discs slot into the hexagon. Here's what a full Disney Infinity Base looks like.

This Base is set up for two players — one as Ahsoka and the other as Yoda — to play in the Twilight of the Republic Play Set. Ahsoka is resting on top of a Mace Windu Team Up Power Disc, which allows her to call on Samuel L. Jackson's bald, badass Jedi Master for aid. A figurine would normally sit flush on top of a Power Disc like that; we left Ahsoka off here just so you could see the Disc beneath her.

In front of the Base, you can see a few hexagonal Power Discs, all of which work in Toy Box mode. The purple ones unlock cosmetic items for building environments and the orange one unlocks a vehicle.

When you're playing in Toy Box, switching to a new playable character is as easy as replacing the figurine on the Base with a new one. Play Sets work similarly, but with a few restrictions.

You can only use designated characters for that Play Set, though additional ones can be unlocked by collecting their tokens in-game. But since franchise crossovers don't happen in Play Sets, you'll never (for example) be able to play as Mickey Mouse in Twilight of the Republic.

Disney Infinity can't be played at all unless you have a Base plugged into your gaming machine of choice, and at least one character figurine in one of the circle slots.

The Toy Box Hub

Assuming you don't jump straight into Twilight of the Republic's Clone Wars story, the first place you land after Disney Infinity 3.0's basic control tutorial is the Toy Box Hub. Think of the Hub as an extensive, multi-faceted Toy Box tutorial that shows you the basics of how everything works and gives you a taste of the possibilities.

But it's also more than that. In most video games, tutorials aren't typically something you'd revisit. And while many of the Toy Box Hub's features can be accessed from the pause menu, you're still likely to find yourself returning to this space an awful lot, at least in the early going.

The first time you arrive in the Toy Box Hub, you'll see a central, circular fountain area with a group of six characters arrayed around it, standing on different-colored pads. (It's the white circle in the image above.) There's landscape beyond each of those characters, but it's all whited out, as if somebody forgot to paint them.

Each of those characters is the "host" for a different portion of Toy Box's various functions. On your first visit, be sure to talk to each of the hosts and ask them every question from the list that appears. As you visit each one and they assign basic tasks, you'll see different portions of the Toy Box Hub painted in.

Once all the different spokes of Toy Box Hub are fully colored, take some time to really explore this space. Speak to the different characters. Try out vehicles and combat. Collect presents (to unlock new items for use in Toy Box) and spark bubbles, which look like the plastic containers that old-school toy vending machines used to spit out.

Sparks boost your character in different ways. Blue ones contain currency that you can spend on Toy Box items at the in-game store. Green ones restore your health. Purple ones fill up the power meter for your character's special ability. And orange ones give you bonus experience points, which levels up your character and unlocks new abilities.

We can't stress enough how worth your time it is to really soak in every corner of the Toy Box Hub. Some characters have mini-missions available that showcase the capabilities of Toy Box and teach you basic game concepts.

On Main Street U.S.A., you can visit the El Capitan Theater to check out other people's creations or head to Flynn's Arcade for some online multiplayer competitions. The sidekick portion of the Toy Box Hub teaches you how Disney Infinity's little in-game helpers work, covering everything from equippable gear to 3.0's new farming (which is used to power up your sidekicks). My INterior shows you how to build your own in-game house.

Toy Box 3.0

Hundreds of pages could be written on the intricacies of Toy Box development. Disney Infinity 3.0 expands it even further with an assortment of new tools. The best advice we can give you: mess around. Don't be afraid to fail. There's a ton of flexibility for building exactly what you want in Toy Box, but the cost of that is a complex set of tools that have a steep learning curve.

The Editor feature (summon it on PlayStation 4 by pressing the touchpad) opens up a menu that allows you to place all manner of items in the world. This is your primary building tool. You have access to everything from non-player characters and enemies to walls, floor/ceiling/sky designs and more. Anything you place in the world can be manipulated in a variety of ways; look for on-screen prompts specific to the item you're placing.

There's a good set of tutorials for Toy Box available on Main Street U.S.A. in the Toy Box Hub. Look for the glowing, purple doorway set into the exterior of the building to the left of the Main Street host. Interact with it and you'll get a list of mini-missions to choose from; each one showcases different aspects of Toy Box.

In addition to the Editor, you've also got a Magic Wand to play with (hold left on the D-pad and select it from the menu that pops up). This is what you use to edit or delete objects that already exist in the play space. There's actually a very brief lesson on Magic Wand use during the pre-Toy Box Hub tutorial, so you'll have a good sense of how it works before you ever get to the Editor.

Many of the more advanced Toy Box features aren't available right away. The Toy Store (accessible on Main Street or from the pause menu) sells a wide number of tools and "Creativi-Toys," which are useful for adding a playable game component to whatever you build. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of these; hold off on buying them all. Instead, wait until you've got an idea you want to act on and find the tools you'll need to facilitate that idea.

Toy Box is big, so don't get frustrated if you can't come up with any game ideas. Try messing around with user-created stuff in El Capitan. Jump into a Play Set. The more you mess around in Disney Infinity and see the range of things it's capable of doing, the more ideas you'll get for creations of your own.