Asset Manifest

The asset manifest is a JSON list of the media files used by the game. It separates files into two loading tiers, or stages: shell assets load first, and game assets load with the main loading screen. npm run build writes the manifest to disk, and npm run dev creates it as needed.

Structure

{
    "version": "1734567890123",
    "shell": [
        {
            "path": "assets/images/studio-logo.png",
            "type": "image",
            "size": 42301,
            "tier": 1
        }
    ],
    "game": [
        {
            "path": "assets/images/banners/tavern-banner.jpg",
            "type": "image",
            "size": 185432,
            "tier": 2
        }
    ],
    "shellSize": 42301,
    "totalSize": 227733
}

Fields

Field	Type	Description
version	string	Build timestamp that tells browsers when cached assets have changed
shell	AssetEntry[]	Tier 1 assets (shell screens), loaded first
game	AssetEntry[]	Tier 2 assets (gameplay), loaded with progress
shellSize	number	Total bytes of shell assets
totalSize	number	Total bytes of all assets

Each AssetEntry:

Field	Type	Description
path	string	Asset path. Local assets usually start with assets/; external URLs are allowed.
type	'image' | 'audio' | 'video'	Determined from file extension
size	number | undefined	File size in bytes. Remote/data/blob URLs may omit size
tier	1 | 2	Loading tier

How Assets Are Discovered

The CLI scans these sources to build the manifest:

Shell assets (tier 1): read from config.shell in game.yaml:

• shell.splash.logo, shell.splash.background, shell.splash.sound
• shell.loading.background
• shell.title.logo, shell.title.background, shell.title.music
• shell.uiSounds.*

Game assets (tier 2): collected from the content registry, which is the loaded set of game content:

• location.banner, location.music, location.ambient
• player.portrait
• character.portrait
• item.icon, item.image
• map.image
• interlude.background, interlude.banner, interlude.music, interlude.voice, interlude.sounds[]
• Media referenced by built-in dialogue effects: MUSIC, SOUND, VIDEO, and INTERLUDE
• dialogueNode.voice, dialogueNode.portrait

An asset already listed in the shell tier appears only there.

Empty strings and undefined fields are skipped.

Local asset paths under assets/ must exist. npm run build fails when a referenced local asset is missing so broken media is caught before release. External http, https, data, and blob URLs are allowed and may not have byte sizes.

The /api/manifest Endpoint

In development (npm run dev), each GET /api/manifest request generates the manifest. Its version is always "dev", so the browser does not cache it as a production manifest.

In production (npm run build), the manifest is written to:

• dist/api/manifest (served at /api/manifest)
• dist/asset-manifest.json (human-readable copy)

Types

import type { AssetManifest, AssetEntry } from '@doodle-engine/core';

Both types are exported from @doodle-engine/core.