Your First World

Your First World

This guide walks you through building a complete zone — a small dungeon with connected rooms, an NPC enemy, a chest with loot, and a kill quest. By the end you’ll understand the full content creation workflow.

Planning Your Zone

Our zone: The Rat Warrens — a small underground rat colony beneath an abandoned farmhouse.

[Farm Cellar] ← starting room
      ↓ south
[Warren Entrance]
      ↓ east
[Rat Nest]          ← boss room
      ↓ south
[Hidden Cache]      ← reward chest

Step 1: Create the Rooms

1. Open the Creator UI at http://localhost:8010/admin

2. Navigate to Rooms → New and create each room:

   Farm Cellar

   Name: Farm Cellar
   Area: rat_warrens
   Description: The earthen floor of an abandoned farmhouse cellar.
                Broken crates line the walls. A smell of rot drifts up
                from a hole in the floor — something has been digging.
   Exits: south → [Warren Entrance ID]

   Warren Entrance

   Name: Warren Entrance
   Area: rat_warrens
   Description: A low tunnel gnawed through the dirt. Claw marks score
                the walls. The smell is overwhelming.
   Exits: north → [Farm Cellar], east → [Rat Nest]

   Rat Nest

   Name: Rat Nest
   Area: rat_warrens
   Description: A large chamber packed with shredded cloth, bones, and
                the detritus of a rat colony. The Rat Queen holds court here.
   Exits: west → [Warren Entrance], south → [Hidden Cache]

   Hidden Cache

   Name: Hidden Cache
   Area: rat_warrens
   Description: A small alcove, partially hidden behind a collapsed section
                of dirt wall. Something glints in the darkness.
   Exits: north → [Rat Nest]

3. Save all rooms and note their IDs — you’ll need them for exits and spawners.

Step 2: Create the Enemy NPC

1. Navigate to NPCs → New

2. Create the basic rat:

   Name: Warren Rat
   Description: A large grey rat with yellow eyes and matted fur.
   Enemy Trait: enabled

3. Set enemy stats:

   Level: 1
   Max HP: 12
   Attack: 2
   Defense: 0
   XP Reward: 8
   Gold Drop: 0

4. Create the boss:

   Name: Rat Queen
   Description: A massive rat, twice the size of the others. Her grey
                fur is streaked with white, and her eyes glow faintly red.
   Enemy Trait: enabled
   Level: 3
   Max HP: 45
   Attack: 5
   Defense: 2
   XP Reward: 50
   Gold Drop: 15

5. Save both NPCs and note their IDs.

Step 3: Add Spawners to Rooms

1. Edit the Warren Entrance room

2. Add spawners in the Spawners section:

   NPC: Warren Rat
   Max Count: 2
   Respawn Time: 90 seconds

3. Edit the Rat Nest room

4. Add spawners:

   NPC: Warren Rat      Max: 1  Respawn: 60s
   NPC: Rat Queen       Max: 1  Respawn: 300s

Step 4: Create Items and the Chest

1. Navigate to Items → New

2. Create a consumable:

   Name: Weak Health Potion
   Type: consumable
   Quality: normal
   Stackable: yes
   Max Stack: 10
   Base Price: 5
   On Use Script: [create a heal script later]

3. Create a weapon:

   Name: Sharp Claw
   Type: weapon
   Slot: main_hand
   Quality: normal
   Attributes:
     damage: 4
   Base Price: 12
   Description: A large rat claw, still sharp enough to cut.

4. Create a chest (container item):

   Name: Buried Chest
   Type: collectible
   No Pickup: true
   Is Container: true
   Max Items: 5

5. Edit the Hidden Cache room → add the Buried Chest as a room item.

Step 5: Create a Quest

1. Navigate to Quests → New

2. Fill in the quest:

   Name: Rat Problem
   Description: The farmhand wants the Rat Queen dealt with once and for all.
   Category: side
   Level: 1

3. Set the source:

   Source Type: npc
   Source NPC: [a quest-giver NPC you create in the Farm Cellar]

4. Add objectives:

   Objective 1:
     Type: kill
     Target: Warren Rat (NPC ID)
     Amount: 3
     Description: Kill 3 Warren Rats
     Order: 1
   
   Objective 2:
     Type: kill
     Target: Rat Queen (NPC ID)
     Amount: 1
     Description: Kill the Rat Queen
     Order: 2

5. Set rewards:

   XP: 80
   Gold: 20
   Item Rewards: Weak Health Potion (x2)

6. Write dialog text:

   Accept: Those rats have gnawed through half my grain stores. Kill three
           of the common ones and find their queen. I'll pay well.
   Progress: Have you dealt with them yet? I can still hear them at night.
   Complete: That's the last of them, I hope. Here's what I promised.

Step 6: Wire It All Together

Create a quest-giver NPC in the Farm Cellar:

Name: Worried Farmhand
Description: A tired man in worn work clothes. He keeps glancing at the floor.
Quest: Rat Problem (via source NPC ID)

Testing Your Zone

1. Start the server: make run-server
2. Log in and create a character
3. Use the admin panel to teleport your character to Farm Cellar
4. Talk to the Worried Farmhand to pick up the quest
5. Go south, kill rats, find the Rat Queen
6. Return and turn in the quest

Tip

Use the World Map in the Creator UI to visualize room connections as you build. Rooms with coordinates show up on the visual map.

Next Steps

• Creating Rooms — Detailed room configuration options
• NPCs & Spawners — Full NPC configuration
• Quest System — Complete quest authoring guide
• Lua Scripting — Add custom behavior