World Lifecycle

World Lifecycle & Persistence

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when working on:

• API routes for worlds (api/src/routes/worlds.ts)
• The World database entity (api/src/db/entity/world.ts)
• The Explore page (frontend/src/components/explore-page.jsx)
• Editor page load/save logic (frontend/src/components/editor-page.tsx)
• World creation, forking, or cloning (frontend/src/actions/main-actions.tsx)
• Data migrations for older world formats (frontend/src/editor/data-migrations.ts)
• Anonymous user localStorage handling
• API helper functions (frontend/src/helpers/api.ts)

Key Files

Database Model

@Entity({ name: "worlds" })
class World {
  id: number;              // Primary key
  name: string;            // World name (default: "Untitled")
  data: string | null;     // JSON-serialized game state
  thumbnail: string;       // Preview image (base64 or URL)
  playCount: number;       // Incremented on each load
  forkCount: number;       // Incremented when forked
  userId: number;          // Owner's user ID
  forkParentId: number;    // Reference to original (if forked)
  createdAt: Date;
  updatedAt: Date;
}

API Endpoints

Public Endpoints (No Auth)

Authenticated Endpoints

Explore Page Query

// Returns top 50 worlds sorted by popularity
const worlds = await World.find({
  relations: ["user", "forkParent"],
  order: { playCount: "DESC" },
  take: 50,
});

Create World Logic

// POST /worlds?from=<id>&fork=<true>
if (sourceWorld) {
  if (fork) sourceWorld.forkCount += 1;
  newWorld = {
    userId: req.user.id,
    name: sourceWorld.name,
    data: sourceWorld.data,
    thumbnail: sourceWorld.thumbnail,
    forkParentId: fork ? sourceWorld.id : null,
  };
} else {
  newWorld = { userId: req.user.id, name: "Untitled", data: null, thumbnail: "#" };
}

Frontend Architecture

Two Storage Adapters

The editor uses different adapters based on authentication:

const APIAdapter = {
  load: (me, worldId) => GET /worlds/:id,
  save: (me, worldId, json) => PUT /worlds/:id
};

const LocalStorageAdapter = {
  load: (me, worldId) => localStorage.getItem(worldId),
  save: (me, worldId, json) => localStorage.setItem(worldId, JSON.stringify(...))
};

// Selection based on URL
const Adapter = window.location.href.includes("localstorage")
  ? LocalStorageAdapter
  : APIAdapter;

Auto-Save Mechanism

const saveWorldSoon = () => {
  if (_saveTimeout.current) clearTimeout(_saveTimeout.current);
  _saveTimeout.current = setTimeout(() => saveWorld(), 5000);
};

// Called on every world change via StoreProvider.onWorldChanged

Before-Unload Protection

window.addEventListener("beforeunload", () => {
  if (_saveTimeout.current) {
    saveWorld();
    return "Your changes are still saving...";
  }
});

Anonymous User Flow

Creating a World (Not Logged In)

// 1. Fetch source world (if cloning)
const template = from ? await makeRequest(`/worlds/${from}`) : {};

// 2. Generate localStorage key
const storageKey = `ls-${Date.now()}`;

// 3. Store in localStorage
localStorage.setItem(storageKey, JSON.stringify({...template, id: storageKey}));

// 4. Redirect with localstorage flag
window.location.href = `/editor/${storageKey}?localstorage=true`;

Uploading After Sign-In

// 1. Create empty world on server
const created = await POST /worlds

// 2. Upload localStorage data
await PUT /worlds/${created.id} with { name, data, thumbnail }

// 3. Mark localStorage as uploaded (prevents duplicates)
localStorage.setItem(storageKey, JSON.stringify({ uploadedAsId: created.id }));

// 4. Redirect to real world
window.location.href = `/editor/${created.id}`;

Data Migrations

When loading worlds, applyDataMigrations() handles legacy formats:

// Key transformations:
action.to → action.value                    // Renamed field
action.value: string → { constant: string } // Wrapped in RuleValue
conditions: object → conditions: array[]    // Object to array format
transform: "90deg" → "90"                   // Remove "deg" suffix
transform: "flip-xy" → "180"                // Normalize flip

Migrations run automatically on load, allowing old saved worlds to work with current engine.

Lifecycle Diagram

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      EXPLORE PAGE                           │
│  GET /worlds/explore → Top 50 by playCount                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      PLAY/VIEW                              │
│  GET /worlds/:id → playCount++, return full data            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
              ┌───────────────┴───────────────┐
              ▼                               ▼
┌──────────────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────────┐
│   CREATE (Logged In)     │    │   CREATE (Anonymous)     │
│   POST /worlds?from&fork │    │   Store in localStorage  │
│   → New DB record        │    │   → ls-{timestamp} key   │
└──────────────────────────┘    └──────────────────────────┘
              │                               │
              ▼                               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       EDITOR                                │
│  Load: APIAdapter or LocalStorageAdapter                    │
│  Auto-save: PUT /worlds/:id (debounced 5s)                  │
│  Data migrations applied on load                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
              │
              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   UPLOAD (Anonymous → Logged In)            │
│  POST /worlds (create) → PUT /worlds/:id (upload data)      │
│  localStorage marked with uploadedAsId                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Important Patterns

1. Play Count Tracking: Every GET /worlds/:id increments playCount
2. Fork Tracking: Forking increments source's forkCount and sets forkParentId
3. Tutorial World: Special ID "tutorial" maps to process.env.TUTORIAL_WORLD_ID
4. Basic Auth: All authenticated requests use Authorization: Basic {base64(user:pass)}
5. Debounced Saves: Editor saves 5 seconds after last change
6. Upload Deduplication: localStorage stores uploadedAsId to prevent re-uploads