00 — Vision & Overview

WorldForge Studio is a 2D / 3D world authoring engine. The map is not just art — a jungle tile knows its biome, its movement cost, its visibility, its encounter table, its weather response, and its music. The same world becomes a printable atlas, a 3D walkable scene, a Godot TileMap, a Foundry VTT module, and a multiplayer zone — all from one document.

1. Positioning

The portfolio already has dedicated tools for many things:

• adventure-craft — playable adventures with multiplayer.
• game-asset-platform (GAS) — the universal asset interchange and marketplace.
• bevy-game-editor — first-class Bevy engine scenes.

WorldForge Studio is the front door for any world authored in the GAS format. It is the editor surface that produces worlds consumable by every one of those systems — and by Godot, Unity, Unreal, Foundry VTT, PDF printing, and cinematic fly-throughs.

It is not "another map maker". It is the universal authoring environment for the GAS world format.

The closest analogies:

2. Core principle: the map is a projection, not the source of truth

The 2D canvas, the 3D scene, the printed atlas, the cinematic fly-through — all of these are projections of the same canonical world document. The source of truth lives in packages/world-engine and is GAS-native.

This means:

• The 2D editor does not "own" tile data. It renders and edits a projection.
• The 3D engine does not "own" mesh data. It derives geometry from the world.
• The print engine does not "own" layout state. It computes layout from the world.
• The simulation does not "own" NPC state. It derives state from the world and runtime inputs.

If two projections ever disagree, the canonical world wins. The fix is in the projection, not in the data.

3. Capabilities

3.1 Three editors, one canvas

All three share the same vector asset system, terrain system, theme packs, and simulation runtime.

3.2 Tile & terrain framework

A composable system of biome, terrain, object, and gameplay layers (see 02-asset-and-terrain-framework.md).

Highlights:

• Edge auto-tiling: a desert tile next to water automatically draws a wet-sand/sand/rock transition.
• Tile variants: every tile ships N variations and the renderer picks one randomly or by seed.
• Theme packs: swap Medieval Fantasy → Viking → Samurai → Pirate Caribbean → Dark Souls → Sci-Fi and the same map renders with a completely different palette and asset set.

3.3 2D → 3D world engine

Three.js + React Three Fiber, with WebGPU when available (see 04-3d-world-engine.md).

• Height mesh generated from per-tile elevation.
• Animated water shaders with reflections, foam and waves.
• Procedural placement of forests, ruins, rocks, paths — driven by biome + density + style + age sliders.
• Weather (rain, snow, storm, fog, sandstorm, ash, magic).
• Day/night cycle, sun position, skybox, ambient, fog.
• Optional seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter).
• Chunked LOD for large worlds.

3.4 Cinematic Director

Camera timeline with Bezier/spline paths, FOV, ease curves, focus target, depth of field (see 06-cinematic-director.md). Export to MP4, WebM, GIF, or share as an interactive viewer. Drive cameras from simulation replay streams.

3.5 Simulation & game modes

Editor / Explorer / Cinematic / GM / First-Person / Replay modes share the same simulation runtime (see 05-simulation-and-game-modes.md).

NPCs have schedules, memory, and goals. Quests and dialogue drive story progression. Server-driven MMO mode is a later milestone.

3.6 Print atlas engine

A4 / A3 / Letter layouts with GM/Player/Battle/Poster/Atlas modes. Vector PDF with embedded fonts, bleed, and crop marks (see 08-print-system.md).

Optional print-shop marketplace integration: search nearby print shops, request quotes, upload the PDF, get a QR pickup code.

3.7 Engine exports

One-click export to:

• Godot — TileMaps, scenes, navigation regions.
• Unity — ScriptableObjects, prefabs, terrain, addressables.
• Unreal — Landscape data, Nanite assets, level instances.
• Adventure Craft — .gas-world direct load.
• Foundry VTT — module + scene.
• Bevy — Bevy scenes.
• Mobile companion app — phone/tablet view for players.

See 07-export-and-engine-targets.md.

3.8 Multiplayer collaboration & versioning

Yjs-based collaborative editing with role-scoped permissions (Designer / Artist / Writer / GM). World versioning with diff and rollback (see 09-multiplayer-and-versioning.md).

3.9 Marketplace & packs

Theme packs, civilization packs, NPC packs, weather packs, music packs, and complete worlds — all GAS-native, all purchasable (see 10-marketplace-and-packs.md).

4. Integration surface

WorldForge is one of four projects that share the GAS interchange format:

A world created here is consumable by all three of the others without translation.

5. Who is this for?

• TTRPG game masters — draw a continent, drop cities, run the adventure live with fog of war.
• Worldbuilding hobbyists — build a map you can print, walk through in 3D, and publish as a pack.
• Indie game devs — design once, export to Godot/Unity/Unreal with collision, navigation and lighting baked in.
• Cinematographers & storytellers — design a world, then film a fly-through with the Cinematic Director.
• Asset creators — sell tilesets, theme packs, civilization packs, NPC packs, weather presets, and complete worlds on the GAS marketplace.

6. Non-goals (for now)

• Real-time multiplayer combat simulation (Phase 7+).
• Server-side authoritative world hosting (deferred to adventure-craft integration).
• Native desktop app (the web app runs in any modern browser; PWA support is on the roadmap).
• Voice / video chat (out of scope — adventure-craft handles this).

7. Reading order

1. 01-data-model.md — the canonical World.json.
2. 02-asset-and-terrain-framework.md — tiles, biomes, theme packs.
3. 03-editor-architecture.md — how the three editors fit together.
4. 04-3d-world-engine.md — Three.js / R3F.
5. 05-simulation-and-game-modes.md — NPCs, quests, weather.
6. 06-cinematic-director.md — camera paths, export.
7. 07-export-and-engine-targets.md — Godot, Unity, Unreal, Adventure Craft, Foundry VTT.
8. 08-print-system.md — PDF atlas + print shops.
9. 09-multiplayer-and-versioning.md — Yjs + versioning.
10. 10-marketplace-and-packs.md — packs and publishing.
11. 11-phased-roadmap.md — milestones from MVP to vision.