Build Rigged Game Assets

Build Rigged Game Assets

Build one truthful actor package from source reference through gameplay and catalog proof.

Establish the contract first

Inspect repository truth before generating or editing files:

• Locate the source image/model, runtime loader, skeleton conventions, action API, equipment system, collision system, catalog schema, review routes, budgets, and tests.

• Classify the actor as character or monster.

• Classify delivery as catalog-only, review-only, or runtime. Do not call an asset implemented until gameplay loads it.

• Preserve immutable source artifacts separately from optimized runtime files.

• Decide target formats before using a credit-bearing generator.

Copy the matching template from assets/, fill it in, and keep it beside the implementation or in the project’s asset metadata location:

• character-asset-manifest.template.json

• monster-asset-manifest.template.json

Run scripts/validate_asset_manifest.py <manifest> before building. Re-run with --root <repo> for shipped-file checks and --require-verified only after every acceptance check has actually passed.

Read references/requirements.md before creating the model, rig, actions, equipment, sockets, or collision data. Read references/catalog-and-testing.md when adding the catalog card, inspector, moveset route, telemetry, or release tests.

Build the common actor package

1. Preserve the source.

   • Record reference images, source tasks, imported files, licenses, generator/model, and material provenance.

   • Never overwrite the high-detail source with the runtime optimization.

2. Produce the main model.

   • Normalize scale, Y-up, forward axis, pivot, ground contact, materials, textures, and triangle budget.

   • Ground from feet or authored contact sockets, never a weapon tip, cloth tail, shadow, or VFX.

   • Remove isolated triangles, non-manifold fragments, duplicate surfaces, hidden generator debris, and unused nodes.

3. Build one stable rig.

   • Name root, hips/center mass, head, limbs, feet, and attachment sockets explicitly.

   • Keep at most four normalized skin influences per vertex unless the engine contract says otherwise.

   • Preserve a deterministic bind pose, finite transforms, positive usable scale, and compatible skeleton identity across every clip.

4. Build the action library.

   • Give every clip a stable id, semantic role, loop policy, root-motion policy, duration, contact events, and source.

   • Prefer animation-only GLBs for separate clips. They must not smuggle duplicate meshes, materials, or textures.

   • Make non-looping actions restartable and return to the intended locomotion/idle state.

5. Build runtime integration.

   • Use one asset-specific loader/factory with disposal for geometry, materials, textures, mixers, events, observers, renderers, and animation frames.

   • Publish source, model, rig, socket, action, equipment, collider, triangle, material, and status metadata.

   • Keep a truthful rollback path when replacing a shipped runtime asset.

Apply the character profile

Treat the main model as the persistent body/base layer. Do not fuse swappable equipment into it.

• Declare every canonical slot: headgear, vestment, gloves, leggings, boots, main hand, offhand, and back/ranged.

• Mark unsupported slots explicitly instead of silently omitting them.

• Store supported swords, shields, bows, helmets, armor, and accessories as separate assets or independently addressable roots.

• Bind equipment to named sockets. Declare active and stowed sockets when an item changes state.

• Toggling a slot off must leave no floating trim, grip, one-triangle shards, duplicate baked weapon, or incidental gameplay prop.

• When the source contains no body beneath occluded equipment, create a fitted rig-following underlayer and record that limitation. Do not invent invisible anatomy claims.

• Require the character action roles idle, walk, run, primary-attack, hit, dodge, and death. Add block/ward, charged attack, cast, bow aim/shoot, jump, interaction, or class actions when gameplay exposes them.

• Keep equipment visibility independent from action selection unless the action deliberately changes active/stowed state.

Apply the monster profile

Treat a monster as one authored combat actor, not a player wardrobe.

• Do not require wearable slots. Separate only weapons, breakable parts, dropped parts, projectiles, or props that must animate, hide, detach, or collide independently.

• Require the monster action roles idle, locomotion, primary-attack, hit, and death.

• Add secondary attack, ranged attack, pounce, cast, summon, block, stagger, roar, spawn, or phase-transition roles only when the combat design uses them.

• Define navigation and hurt colliders plus per-attack telegraph, active, and recovery windows.

• Bind attack origins, projectiles, VFX, audio, head/torso targeting, and feet to named sockets.

• Keep visual animation separate from authoritative attack volumes, damage timing, AI state, and navigation.

• Test every attack at its authored range, facing, contact window, interruption, death, and cleanup boundary.

Build the catalog lab

Create both surfaces:

• Catalog card: transparent PNG, truthful label, zero WebGL canvases.

• Selected inspector/review route: exactly one live model canvas with source, status, budgets, rig, sockets, actions, and known boundaries.

Provide:

• drag-to-rotate while preserving page scroll;

• action selection for every shipped clip, including visible Walk, Hit, and Death controls;

• restart and pause/play;

• equipment toggles for characters, including clean all-off and active/stowed states;

• combat-state or attack controls for monsters instead of character gear controls;

• a fallback image until the real model is ready;

• deterministic runtime telemetry defined in the catalog/testing reference.

The inspector must load the same runtime model, rig, clips, equipment rules, and action API claimed by gameplay. A screenshot or separate look-dev mesh is not runtime proof.

Verify and commit

Run the project’s focused asset tests, manifest validator, build, lint, full tests, and git diff --check.

In the repository-approved browser:

• verify the card has one transparent image and zero canvases;

• verify the inspector has one model host/canvas;

• click every action and confirm the selected/playing state;

• toggle every character slot individually and all equipment off;

• inspect front, back, and both sides for fragments, holes, grounding, and socket errors;

• drag the model, scroll the page, and test the supported narrow/mobile layout;

• verify fallback and model-load failure behavior;

• verify no broken media or console warning/error.

Commit only the narrow asset lane. Report the manifest, main/runtime models, gear files, rig and sockets, actions, catalog route, status, verification results, known boundaries, and exact commit SHA. Report full-suite baseline failures separately.