build-game-map-editor

Build Game Map Editor

Build a paused director tool around the real game world. Let designers inspect and draft placements quickly while keeping production data, gameplay saves, and release integration explicit.

Establish the authority boundary

Inspect the repository before designing the editor:

• Locate authoritative world, zone, encounter, spawn, pickup, gate, interactable, and enemy-AI definitions.
• Locate the production world builder and reusable runtime assets.
• Locate collision, navigation, flat-plane, persistence, and deployment contracts.
• Identify the repository-approved browser, tests, release path, and access-control requirements.

Do not create an independent map source of truth. Derive the initial editor document from production definitions through adapters. Keep stable source IDs so every draft value can be traced back to authored code.

State the lifecycle in the UI and implementation:

production source -> editor document -> isolated draft -> validated export -> reviewed source integration

Treat export as a proposal. Do not claim that a draft changes gameplay until a separate integration updates authoritative source, passes gameplay tests, is committed, and is released.

Define a versioned editor document

Use a small serializable document instead of storing Three.js objects or React state.

Include:

• a fixed schema identifier and document version;
• a world or level version;
• a save timestamp;
• stable entity id, sourceId, kind, label, zone, position, facing, and typed settings;
• explicit entity kinds such as enemy, player spawn, pickup, interactable, and gate.

Keep editor position data on the gameplay plane. For a flat-world game, use { x, y: 0, z } and reject nonzero Y rather than silently flattening imported data.

Validate at every import and integration boundary:

• require the exact schema and supported version;
• cap document size, file size, entity count, coordinates, and setting ranges;
• reject duplicate IDs, non-finite values, unknown kinds, invalid bounds, and malformed nested settings;
• require the imported entity manifest to match the current production manifest unless entity creation or deletion is an explicit feature;
• preserve source IDs and zone ownership through edits.