Epic: Phase 1 Foundation Hardening Pass

[keepithandy]

Phase

Phase 1 — Foundation

Goal

Lock down the starter engine so Depth Engine remains reliable before deeper extensibility work begins.

This epic is about protecting the thing that already works: direct index.html startup, Rat Cellar playability, save/load behavior, generic engine boundaries, and smoke-tested confidence.

Why this matters

Depth Engine should feel like a trustworthy bare HTML RPG starter. Before adding loader complexity, hooks, plugins, or more examples, the base should be boring in the best way: easy to open, easy to test, and hard to accidentally break.

Proposed work

• Define a direct-startup contract for index.html.
• Document the exact script load order and why it matters.
• Add a startup smoke that checks required globals appear in the expected order.
• Confirm Rat Cellar remains playable after every foundation change.
• Keep engine files free of example-specific names, lore, and data.
• Keep the no-build/no-install rule explicit.
• Review old/deprecated paths like js/content/ and decide whether to retain, archive, or remove later.
• Build a small foundation checklist that future PRs can copy.

Acceptance checks

• index.html still opens directly from a local file path.
• Rat Cellar can still fight, gain XP, earn currency, equip loot, sell, save, export/import, reset, and reload.
• Startup/script order is documented.
• Smoke tests guard startup-critical globals.
• Engine/example boundary checks still pass.
• No bundler, framework, package install, or server requirement is introduced.

Guardrails

• Do not rewrite the renderer.
• Do not add a dynamic loader here.
• Do not change Rat Cellar balance/content unless required for a smoke fixture.
• Do not introduce build tooling.
• Keep changes small enough to review even if the issue itself is large.

Related issues

• Document trusted content rendering rules #6 should remain the trusted-content rendering note and can be completed as part of the broader foundation track.