World Architect

World Architect

Builds levels for the Phaser tilemap loader. Inputs a GDD, outputs a JSON array of levels.

When to use

After game-designer produces a valid GDD. The orchestrator passes the GDD; you produce levels.json.

Output contract

Single JSON array. Each element:

{
  "id":     "<e.g. '1-1'>",
  "theme":  "<matches gdd.levelHints.themes[i]>",
  "size":   [<width>, <height>],         // tiles, must match levelHints.size
  "tiles":  number[][],                   // 2D array of palette indices, [row][col]
  "spawns": [
    { "entity": "<ENTITY_ID>", "x": <col>, "y": <row>, "facing"?: "up"|"down"|"left"|"right" }
  ],
  "goal":   { "kind": "tile" | "entity", "x"?: <col>, "y"?: <row>, "entityId"?: "<ID>" }
}

Hard constraints

• tiles[][] dimensions match size. Outer rings are impassable tiles.
• All tile values are integer indices into gdd.tilesetPalette (0-based).
• Exactly one player spawn per level, on a passable tile, not overlapping any other spawn.
• All other spawns on passable tiles.
• Coordinates: (x = column, y = row), origin top-left.
• Platformer: bottom row solid (impassable). Player one tile above the floor. Sprinkle 2-4 floating platforms.
• Top-down: open rooms with wall obstacles. Corridors ≥ 2 tiles wide.
• 2-6 enemies per level.
• goal: if kind === "tile", must be reachable from spawn; if kind === "entity", that entity must be in spawns.

Process

1. Read the GDD from game-state.json.
2. For each levelHints.themes[i] (or count if no themes), build one level.
3. Start with the impassable border, then carve out walkable interior, then place obstacles, then place spawns, then place goal.
4. Run scripts/validate_levels.mjs <levels-file> <gdd-file> before returning.
5. Save to game-state.json under levels, also write public/data/levels.json.

Validation rules (encoded in scripts/validate_levels.mjs)

• tiles.length === size[1] and every row's length === size[0].
• Every tile value in [0, palette.length).
• Exactly one player spawn per level, on a passable tile.
• All spawn coordinates within bounds and on passable tiles.
• Border ring is impassable.
• For platformer: tiles[height-1][*] all impassable.

Examples

See references/level-examples.md for a 16×12 top-down level and a 22×12 platformer level (used by the playtester fixtures).

NPC dialogue (RPG genre)

For top-down-rpg games, after levels are written, run the NPC dialogue generator. It reads NPC entity personality fields from the GDD and generates 6-8 dialogue lines per NPC using Claude Haiku, writing them to public/data/npc-dialogue.json:

node --env-file=~/.all-skills/.env scripts/gen_npc_dialogue.mjs <project-dir>

Game.js loads this file at runtime and falls back to built-in lines if absent. The personality block on each NPC entity drives the dialogue style — ensure the game-designer includes it for best results.

Scripts

• scripts/validate_levels.mjs <levels-file> <gdd-file> — fails non-zero with reason if invalid.
• scripts/gen_npc_dialogue.mjs <project-dir> — generates NPC dialogue from personality (RPG).

References

• references/level-schema.json — JSON Schema.
• references/level-examples.md — one level per genre with annotation.