Development News — WorldGame

23 February 2026

v0.4.0-prealpha — terrain renderer, desktop agent, river extension

The largest single-day visual improvement to the client so far. Terrain now renders as isolated flat-colored tiles with no inter-tile color bleed, correct proportional elevation scale, and clean edge skirts closing gaps between chunks. AlphaWorld’s river was traced all the way from mountain headwaters to the ocean mouth. A desktop automation agent was deployed for screen-capture-driven visual testing.

v0.4.0 Tagged and distributed — 87 building templates, 286 engine tests
client Flat per-tile rendering (16,384 isolated quads per chunk) eliminates Gouraud color bleed
client Chunk edge skirts close visible gaps between terrain plates
client Orthographic top-down mode added; camera height range rescaled for AlphaWorld
map AlphaWorld river extended from mountain headwaters to ocean mouth
ops Desktop agent (port 7070) for AI-driven screenshot, key-hold, drag, and sequence testing
content Website: version and system requirements corrected; 4 form issues triaged

22 February 2026

Map generator overhaul, 87 building templates, three releases

A foundational day for data infrastructure. The map generator was rebuilt as a standalone 3-phase CSV pipeline producing WTG binary terrain files. The hydrology model was replaced with a simpler direct water-depth channel. The engine received 56 new building templates, covering the full medieval production chain from extraction to finished goods.

map Standalone Python map generator with 3-phase CSV pipeline (rawdata → mapdata → gamedata → WTG)
map Hydrology redesigned: D8/Strahler flow accumulation replaced with direct water_depth enum
engine 56 new production building templates (31 → 87 total): farms, mines, kilns, smithies, textiles
engine WTG parser updated for 15-channel schema; writer channel order aligned with generator
content Authoritative goods catalog CSV (81 goods); zoning design spec; military and population docs consolidated
client UI graphics catalogs scaffolded: substrate tiles, building placeholders, UI components
v0.2.0 Map generator WTG output — v0.3.0 water_depth channel — v0.3.1 scatter fix

21 February 2026

First public release, website launched, terrain bugs fixed

WorldGame shipped its first pre-alpha release to external players and received the first four user bug reports within hours. The terrain renderer went through five rapid fix iterations (v0.1.0 through v0.1.7) to resolve chunk coordinate offsets, water color streaks, and edge seams. The marketing website went live with a home page, story, download, and issue reporting form.

v0.1.0–v0.1.7 Seven release iterations in one day — terrain, seam, and chunk fixes
client Chunk coordinate offset corrected; alphaworld expanded to cover edge chunks
client Water color streaks fixed; terrain/water seams strengthened after visual test feedback
engine Phase G complete: military units, fortifications, and combat data model
ops Marketing team formed; website launched with issue intake workflow
content 4 user submissions received via feedback form within hours of launch

20 February 2026

Engine phases C–G complete; UI phases 3–6 done; 89 tests

The most productive single day in the project’s history. Five engine simulation phases landed simultaneously: treasury, marketplace, terrain/resources/housing/roads, migration/pricing/trade, and transportation. On the UI side, all construction panels, overlays, live data integration, and road rendering shipped in parallel. 89 tests passed.

engine Treasury, marketplace, terrain, housing, roads, calendar, seasons, migration, trade, transport — all complete
engine Snapshot v2 entity roundtrip test; entity snapshot made public
client UI phases 3–6: tab nav, building catalog, construction panel, overlays, live delta integration, road ribbons, water, elevation shading
content Content consistency batch: all Tier 3 issues resolved
ops Distribution pipeline added (ops/distribute/); team instructions aligned; PM evaluation procedure added

19 February 2026

Map generation PRs merged; evaluation workflow documented

Five open pull requests were merged, completing the two-pass map generator and CLI configuration work. A project evaluation procedure was added to enable automated project-manager sessions going forward.

map PRs #91–95 merged: two-pass map gen, CLI radius/origin, UI design draft
ops Project evaluation procedure documented for automated PM sessions

18 February 2026

Two-pass map generation and browser terrain viewer

The map generator gained a two-pass architecture separating substrate classification from surface cover generation. A browser-based WTG terrain viewer was added for rapid visual inspection of generated worlds without the full Godot client.

map Two-pass architecture: substrate (geology, water) → cover (vegetation, soil) layers
map CLI flags for origin coordinates and world radius (default 1 km)
ops Browser-based WTG terrain viewer for instant visual inspection

17 February 2026

All engine PERF gates pass; terrain rendering confirmed with real data

The QA team completed the engine performance gate suite. All five PERF gates now pass: tick computation p99 at 10 ms, delta emission interval at 49 ms, zero queue depth, zero tick spikes. Engine instrumentation added Prometheus metrics for real measurement. Meanwhile, the Godot client confirmed terrain rendering with real WTG data — grass, water, clay, and rock all displaying correctly.

engine PERF-001–005 all passing: tick p99=10ms, delta=49ms, queue_depth=0
engine Prometheus metrics: tick duration histogram, delta emit rate, LOD transitions, worker queue depth
client Terrain rendering confirmed with real WTG data: biome colors correct for grass, water, clay, rock
client UI observability audit: 5 metric gaps logged (UI-ISSUE-003 to 007)

16 February 2026

Team chat consolidated; UI visual design system; operations context

All team communication logs (content, engine, UI, dev) were merged into a single append-only dev/common-chat.yaml for unified coordination. The UI team published a visual design system with artwork catalog, color tokens, and a plan-to-earth terrain roadmap. Persistent agentic operations context was documented.

ops Common-chat migration: 63 legacy entries consolidated from 4 team files
client UI visual direction, color system definition, comprehensive artwork catalog
ops Git workflow context and environment helper scripts added
client Plan-to-Earth milestone roadmap: terrain, camera, and movement UI sequence defined

15 February 2026

First working Godot terrain renderer; engine and UI teams active

The first terrain chunks rendered in the Godot client from real WTG binary data (UI-IMPL-004). The map generation acquisition stream was planned and connected. The engine team and UI team were formally established with separate backlogs. A major internal restructuring separated team directories and workflow protocols.

client UI-IMPL-004: Godot client renders chunked terrain from WTG data — first visual milestone
map Map data ingestion pipeline planned and connected to engine
ops Engine and UI teams formally established with independent backlogs and protocols
ops Internal restructuring: team directories and workflow protocols separated

14 February 2026

Design principles system; coal, looting, ship embark; 12 agent files

A domain-specific design principles system was established: a generator script created DESIGN_PRINCIPLES.md files for all 12 content domains from a shared template. The content team was reorganized with per-agent role definition files for all 12 specialized roles. Six critical goods consistency issues were fixed.

content 12 DESIGN_PRINCIPLES.md files generated (economy, buildings, goods, military, population, and more)
content Per-agent YAML files for all 12 content team roles (Historian, Goods_Planner, Spatial_Manager, etc.)
content Coal added as mined rare fuel with recipe integration across goods chains
content Ship embark/disembark rules; military looting mechanics documented
content CT-011 to CT-016: 6 critical goods consistency issues resolved

13 February 2026

Agentic team system; entity schema; diplomacy and bandit design

The agentic development workflow was formalized as a structured system: tasks written to dev/team/todo.yaml, executed by assigned role agents, and archived to dev/team/done.yaml with audit entries. The content team established its own coordination files with 12 specialized roles. Entity and world-state schemas were completed. Diplomacy and bandit mechanics received dedicated design documents.

ops Agentic development system: PM-decomposed tasks → role execution → done archive
content Content team formalized: 12 roles, own issue register, per-team chat
engine entity-record.yaml and world-state-record.yaml completed (TASK-001, TASK-002)
content Diplomacy design: relationship state, treaty types, embassies, diplomatic units
content Bandit mechanics, horse resource, logistics defaults, siege ammo consumption
ops Content directory reorganized under content/ prefix; all references updated

12 February 2026

Engine and UI architecture specs; economy design; 9-phase plan

Architecture day. The authoritative engine technical design document was written (Rust, ECS-SoA, gRPC, LZ4 snapshots). The UI architecture and deployment specification detailed the Godot 3D client: chunked terrain, battalion rendering, delta-first state sync, 60 FPS target. The dual-layer economy design was split into local (physical, moneyless) and monetary trade documents. A 9-phase implementation plan defined the full development roadmap.

engine Engine technical design: Rust, ECS-SoA, gRPC, 4-level simulation LOD, LZ4 binary snapshots
client UI architecture: Godot 3D, 3 visibility rings, MultiMesh instancing, delta-first updates
content Local economy (moneyless physical allocation) and monetary trade (order-flow, stakeholders) documented
content Military buildings and fortifications design (3 tiers of walls, towers, gatehouses)
content Universal production rates: T/S/Y framework governing all buildings
ops 9-phase implementation plan: Foundations → Player Experience

11 February 2026

Full goods system; production chains; unit design

All eight goods categories received dedicated design documents with tier chains, recipes, and spoilage rates aligned to the 1300–1500 historical context. The production chain list was expanded into concrete recipes with specific input/output quantities. The unit design document defined military, transport, and ship unit categories with a shared core structure.

content Per-category goods docs: food, fuel & energy, raw materials, construction, tools, textiles, military, trade
content Concrete production recipes with input/output quantities for all processing buildings
content Spoilage rates aligned to medieval context (food, lumber, metal, textiles)
content Unit design: military (infantry, cavalry, siege), transport (pack mules to wagons), ships
content Buildings catalog reshaped into per-category domain docs

10 February 2026

17 pull requests merged; military, economy, and construction docs

The single most productive content day in the project: 17 pull requests landed in one session. Key additions included the authoritative buildings catalog CSV, military design specification, taxation and trade design, building construction system (3 sequential phases), death and aging mortality model, and a comprehensive CLAUDE.md guiding AI assistants working in the repository.

content Buildings catalog CSV (authoritative building list for all domains)
content Military design: force types, weapon tiers, unit organization, supply
content Taxation design (population tax + exchange trade tax) and trade design
content Building construction: 3 sequential phases (Groundworks → Frame → Finalization)
content Death and aging: natural mortality curves, starvation interaction, 5 age cohorts
content Population consumption and housing labels aligned; storage strategic magazine model finalized
ops Comprehensive CLAUDE.md created to guide AI assistant behavior in the repo

9 February 2026

Project begins: housing, labor, and terminology foundations

The first day of structured design documentation. Three foundational specifications were written that underpin every subsequent system: the Housing and Residential Areas specification (spatial, emergent, tier-differentiated), the Labor Allocation System (pull-based, distance-limited, player-prioritized), and the Terminology Standardization document (canonical definitions for Building, District, and Area). The README was restructured to reflect the project’s core thesis.

content Housing: spatial and emergent, 4 tiers (Cottage → Manor), Residential Areas as passive zones
content Labor Allocation: pull-based, 10 km hard cap, player-priority values −100 to +200
content Terminology: Building (atomic), District (bound extension), Area (passive zoning)
ops README restructured around core thesis: logistics as the hard ceiling on state power