Guides
Practical, in-depth guides for each subsystem and tool of the Small World engine. For the design decisions behind them, see Architecture Decision Records (ADRs); for vocabulary, see CONTEXT.md in the repo root.
Getting Started
| Guide | Description |
|---|---|
| Installation & Setup | Set up the project, launch your first scene. |
| Commercial Indie Roadmap | Strategic roadmap from prototype to a Steam/PlayStation/Xbox release. |
Core Concepts
| Guide | Description |
|---|---|
| Architecture & Overview | Overall architecture and code showcases. |
| Materials & Shaders | PBR material system and shader fundamentals. |
| Shadows | Shadow mapping, CSM, PCSS. |
| Adding a New Material | Step-by-step recipe for new materials across all renderers. |
| Shader Importers | WGSL/GLSL chunk assembly. |
| Configuration & Setup | EngineOptions and engine setup. |
| Coordinate System & Camera Strategies | Right-handed coordinate system, camera strategies. |
| 2.5D Scenes & Backgrounds | Perspective matching, movement zones, camera strategy trade-offs. |
| Gamification & Interactions | InteractionManager, pointer events, octree picking. |
| Physics & Rigid Bodies | Collision detection, solvers, constraints/joints. |
| Audio System | 3D audio, mixer, procedural synthesizer. |
| State Machines (FSM) | Zero-allocation finite state machine framework. |
| EventBus & Game Loop | Central event dispatch and render loop. |
| Modular Ecosystem & Layering | Core engine vs. ecosystem package boundaries (see also Extensions). |
| Building Your Own Game | End-to-end guide for a new project built on the engine. |
Tools & Editors
| Guide | Description |
|---|---|
| Tooling Overview | Recommended external tool chain. |
| Maker (3D World Editor) | Complete professional guide & reference. |
| The Forge (In-Game Window Manager) | In-game diagnostics and tooling overlay. |
| Material Studio | PBR map generator. |
| Pixler (Pixel Art Editor) | Retro 2D sprite editor. |
| Xtractor (Sprite Extractor) | Image cropping & slicing for tile/sprite atlases. |
| Map Generator (ASCII Grid Levels) | Visual grid editor for GridLevelBuilder layouts. |
Standalone Reference Material
Standalone HTML explainer pieces linked to from one of the guides above or from a .agents/skills/ recipe (not part of the VitePress page tree): see .agents/notes/reference/ in the repo.