Content Development Guide

Content Development Guide (v3)

This is the canonical hub for creating and validating custom content in v3.

Content model

DSPACE supports three in-game editable content types:

Quests (branching progression, dialogue, requirements, rewards)
Items (resources/tools/currencies)
Processes (timed item transformations)

All three can be created, edited, exported, imported, and submitted.

Authoring routes

Create

Quests: /quests/create
Items: /inventory/create
Processes: /processes/create

Manage

Quests: /quests/manage
Items: /inventory/manage
Processes: /processes/manage

Built-in content remains read-only. Custom content is editable and removable.

Storage and persistence

Custom content is stored in IndexedDB (CustomContent database).
If IndexedDB is unavailable, the app falls back to in-memory storage (non-persistent).
Records are marked custom and include created/updated timestamps.

Validation expectations by content type

Quests

Valid title/description/dialogue graph is required.
Dialogue options support goto/finish, item requirements/grants, and process links.
Validation catches broken node references and invalid dependencies.

Items

Name, description, and image are required.
Optional fields include unit, category/type, pricing, and dependencies.

Processes

Title, duration, and at least one item relationship are required.
Duration parser supports shorthand (45s, 1h 30m, 0.5h).
Requires/consumes/creates item counts must be positive.

Export and submission workflow

Build and validate content in local profile.
Export from /contentbackup.
Re-import the export on a clean profile to verify integrity.
Submit via /bundles/submit.
Include matching docs updates in your PR.

Reference docs:

Pre-PR checks

Run from the repository root:

npm run lint
npm run type-check
npm run build
npm run test:ci
node scripts/link-check.mjs