PACE Core

A minimal data-driven point-and-click adventure runtime. The Last Light is an original, hand-authored three-room fixture with pickups, inventory-gated actions, branching dialogue, room transitions, versioned save/load and a reachable ending.

Play

Requires Rust 1.97.1+. This project pins Bevy 0.20.0 (stable) and commits Cargo.lock. See Bevy's learning resources for the engine API and platform setup. The old Bevy 0.6 scaffold has been updated.

cargo run --locked --features desktop --example last_light
# Optional path to another v1 scene:
cargo run --locked --features desktop --example last_light -- path/to/game.json path/to/slot.json

Click the labeled rectangles, or press their numbers (1–9). Items are used automatically by matching hotspots. Dialogue is modal. N starts a new game. F5 saves; F9 loads (also available as buttons). The desktop player uses native Bevy UI; on Linux it needs X11 and a Vulkan-capable driver (Mesa software rendering also works). Audio, gamepads and 3D are disabled.

For a terminal player or a complete self-checking demonstration (no GPU):

cargo run --locked --example console
cargo run --locked --example console -- --walkthrough

Follow the playable walkthrough. The automated run saves and restores an active conversation, a repaired lantern and the ending, using an isolated temporary slot. Normal play saves to last_light.save.json in the current directory. Failed loads preserve the running game.

Editor integration

• Versioned scene contract
• Save format and compatibility
• Generated JSON Schema
• Fixture source and asset license

cargo run --locked --example validate_scene -- assets/last-light/game.json
cargo test --locked
cargo clippy --locked --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --all -- --check

Core tests use Bevy's headless MinimalPlugins; the default feature set does not compile a renderer or need a display. Game::apply is the deterministic transition boundary. Its state is read-only to callers; errors never partially mutate it. AdventurePlugin exposes ordered AdventureCommand and AdventureResult messages. Insert a validated Game resource, send commands before AdventureStep, and consume results after it. The desktop viewer uses this same plugin.

The implementation intentionally omits navigation/pathfinding, animation, scripting, audio, item counts, localization and editor UI. PACE's original empty build and debug modules remain available.