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Downbeat Scenario

Downbeat is the entrance lobby scenario. It serves as the initial shared experience when a player initializes and joins the simulation.

What This Scenario Does

Downbeat establishes the entrance experience through a zine-based interface—a large-scale "wall" type layout where characters appear as if in a comic book. The layout dynamically reflows as characters appear and disappear.

Key Characteristics

  • Zine-First Design: Uses Walker's zine panel with dynamic layout composition
  • Entrance Experience: Initial activity for all players upon joining
  • Dynamic Cast: NPCs appear, perform, and depart; the panel layout adjusts in real time
  • Reference Scenario: Reference implementation for zine-based content authoring and Walker integration

Documentation

  • AGENTS.md — scenario-specific tracks and invariants
  • Tutorial — guided walkthrough of zine authoring patterns
  • Plans — active and completed engineering work (see repo)

Content Structure

area/          Entrance area specs
region/        Geographic containment for entrance areas
creatures/     NPCs that populate the entrance experience
quests/        Entry quests and tutorials
ren/           Cutscenes and narrative moments
ren_triggers/  Trigger definitions for ren scenes
scripts/       Lua/Rhai scripts for NPC movement, zine layout

Running Downbeat

cd /home/srussell/src/plantangenet
cargo run -p plant_runner --features server -- \
  --load-dir ../plantangenet-core/scenarios/downbeat \
  --bind 127.0.0.1:7322

Then connect Walker to http://127.0.0.1:7322.

Key References

  • Scenario AGENTS.md — repository model and content rules
  • Zine Authoring Tutorial
  • Walker Zine Panel — see waldo/src/panels/zine/ in the waldo repository