UnrealPrototyping/Docs/README.md

Documentation

Two layers, kept apart on purpose.

For people. Short, and meant to be read end to end.

Doc	Covers
Design.md	What this is, the three things it proves, the fixed decisions, what it is not yet, the glossary. Start here.
Steps.md	The ladder of work: fifteen rungs, each closed by a proof. The next few in full, the rest sketched.
Ideas.md	The ideas carried over from the two earlier projects as features a world could hold, with what each needs. None scheduled.
Decisions.md	One line per decision with a pointer, the open decisions that block steps, and what is deliberately deferred.
Worklog.md	One terse line per step closed or wall hit. The memory.
World-Pipeline.md	Off the ladder: how a painted world map becomes ground in Unreal, in order — the Go generator, the browser twin, the tiles, the level, the map view. The orientation document for all of it; owns no decisions of its own.
World-Dressing.md	Off the ladder: the plan for what the ground wears — biome paint layers, the landscape material, sky and light, grass and trees. Five decisions taken in D-74, then five phases.

For an implementer that lifts code, which today means Claude. Long, C++-shaped, and meant to be built from.

Doc	Covers
Spec/README.md	Notation, status markers, the twelve cross-cutting rules every spec obeys. Read before any spec.
Spec/Architecture.md	Modules, lifetimes, authority, content, tags, the C++/Blueprint line, testing, conventions, gotchas.
Spec/Stats.md	The one stat block every body carries, effects and where they come from, stacking, counters.
Spec/Movement.md	The character, the movement component, input, the look model, camera modes, the gym, the feel checklist.
Spec/Interaction.md	The one interaction system, carrying, throwing, highlighting.
Spec/Combat.md	Attributes, the damage funnel, the swing, enemies, downed and revive, abilities and kits, projectiles.
Spec/Crafting.md	Families, parts, pieces, traits, substances, the pure rules, stations, activities, enchanting, the weapon seam.
Spec/Networking.md	The authority table, the responsiveness tiers, the posture, sessions, identity, persistence.
Spec/Telemetry.md	The sink, the envelope, the catalogue.
Spec/UI.md	The HUD, the prompt, the theme, world-space text, localisation, the menu.
Terrain.md	Off the ladder: the world's heightmap generator, the canvas, the passes, the Go core, the editor bridge. Not in Spec/ because it never runs in a game; only the determinism rule governs it.
Terrain-Next.md	The generator's working brief: how to run it, what each output map is for, what still looks wrong, what has been measured and rejected. Anything settled here folds back into Terrain.md and is deleted from it.

Reading order

New here: Design.md, then Steps.md, then Spec/README.md and Spec/Architecture.md. About to build a step: the step's entry in Steps.md, then the spec sections it links. About to decide something: Decisions.md first, to see whether it was already decided or deliberately deferred.

Conventions

• Version and status live in a document's header where it has one, never in its filename.
• Links are relative so the folder survives being moved.
• A spec that turns out wrong in the building is corrected in the same change as the code, under a What was built, and where it differs heading at its end.
• A decision goes in Decisions.md the moment it is made. Newest first; never delete, supersede.
• The two earlier projects are referred to by name (Adventurer Guild, Project Malleable) when an idea's origin matters, and not otherwise. Their docs are not copied here; they are in their own repositories.