Epic: Phase 3 Content Authoring and Validation Kit

[keepithandy]

Phase

Phase 3 — Developer Experience

Goal

Create a better authoring experience for people making or editing Depth Engine examples.

This epic should make it easier to build a new RPG theme without reading every engine file or accidentally creating broken content references.

Why this matters

Depth Engine becomes more useful when someone can copy Rat Cellar, rename it, change the data, run a check, and understand what they broke. That is the difference between a cool repo and an actual starter kit.

Proposed work

• Define an example content checklist for authors.
• Add validation docs for example.meta.js, game.config.js, items.js, enemies.js, and zones.js.
• Add smoke or Node checks for missing ids, duplicate ids, invalid slots, missing enemy references, missing loot references, bad stage coverage, and malformed config.
• Consider a reusable smoke_example_content.mjs helper that can validate any example folder.
• Keep validation no-build and beginner-friendly.
• Add clear error messages that explain what to fix.
• Add a small author workflow doc: copy, edit, validate, open browser, test fight.

Acceptance checks

• Example authors have a documented workflow.
• Rat Cellar validation still passes.
• Validation can be reused for future examples or is clearly designed to become reusable.
• Error messages identify the broken file/id/reference.
• No build system is required.
• No TypeScript or schema library is introduced unless separately approved.

Guardrails

• Do not turn this into a full CLI package yet.
• Do not require npm install.
• Do not rewrite content files into JSON unless separately approved.
• Do not block direct browser startup.

Suggested follow-up slices

• Content author guide.
• Shared content validation helper.
• Better Rat Cellar content smoke errors.
• Future example template checklist.
• Optional CLI wrapper later.