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Downbeat Tutorial

Welcome to the downbeat scenario. This directory contains guided walkthroughs of how downbeat's content is organized and why each part exists.

Documents

  • TUTORIAL-zines.md — Comprehensive guide to zine authoring. Start here if you're new to zine-based scenarios.
  • TUTORIAL-regions.md — How regions work in downbeat. Covers region structure, features, and when to use regions vs areas.
  • TUTORIAL-areas.md — How areas work in downbeat (imported from schema docs). Explains area specs, affordances, and corporation types.

Reading Order

If you are new to downbeat:

  1. Read TUTORIAL-zines.md first. It explains the design philosophy and gives you a walkthrough of building a minimal entrance.
  2. Read TUTORIAL-regions.md to understand the geographic containment structure.
  3. Read TUTORIAL-areas.md for reference on area fields and corporation types.

If you are extending downbeat:

  1. Consult the active plan at scenarios/downbeat/plans/PLAN-downbeat-content.md
  2. Refer back to tutorials as needed (they are reference documents, not sequential guides).
  • Downbeat AGENTS.md — Scenario-level tracks and working practices
  • scenarios/AGENTS.md — Repository-wide rules and practices
  • Walker docs/HOWTO-HUDYML.md (walker repo) — If you need to emit HUDyML surfaces from downbeat content
  • Walker docs/HOWTO-PANELS.md (walker repo) — General reference on Walker panel architecture

What Downbeat Proves

Downbeat is a reference scenario for:

  • ✓ Zine-based narrative UI
  • ✓ Dynamic character entry/exit
  • ✓ Frame-based choreography
  • ✓ Entrance experience design
  • ✓ Content-driven rendering (YAML-to-panel)

It is not a reference for:

  • Complex dialogue trees (that's kurzz)
  • Civic systems and institutions (that's solace)
  • Multi-player competition or trade
  • Persistent state or save files

Start small with downbeat. Add complexity only as new scenarios demand it.