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🛠️ Steamforge Systems – Developer Wiki
Welcome to the Steamforge Systems Wiki, your guide to the core C++ systems that power the Steamforge project. This wiki provides technical documentation, usage guides, and design notes for contributors, collaborators, and curious developers.
Steamforge is a modular, systems-driven roleplaying game set in a grimy, gear-choked world where arcane steamcraft meets rusted industry and fractured empires. Designed with flexibility at its core, it blends high-concept world-building with hands-on survival, exploration, and community simulation. Players engage with a reactive environment shaped by a living time system, faction politics, and evolving NPC behaviors, all underpinned by a rich, expandable C++ backend meant to support both tabletop-style gameplay and video game integration.
The game world of Steamforge is populated with layered conflicts—between old magic and new machines, decaying nobility and rising guilds, human ambition and the echoing remnants of stranger things. From scavenging the haunted boiler-tunnels of a forgotten district to negotiating tense truces among war-hardened factions, every player action has weight. The modular design supports plug-in systems like a crafting framework, item logic, and dialogue engine, letting creators shape the kind of campaign or game loop they want.
At its heart, Steamforge is a game of survival, invention, and philosophical decay. Whether players are lone wanderers, city-state schemers, or part of an emergent society trying to rebuild from the cinders, they’re forced to contend with the rusted machinery of history grinding around them. Its tone evokes the literary density of Frank Herbert, the atmospheric grime of early industrial revolution fiction, and the creeping dread of Lovecraftian unknowns—mechanized and made flesh.
📌 Project Goals
- Create modular, extensible C++ systems for gameplay, time progression, item logic, and NPC interaction
- Stay engine-agnostic where possible, relying on clean data and scalable architecture
- Maintain full compatibility with Unreal Engine 4, with potential for UE5 migration
📦 Major Systems
| System | Description |
|---|---|
| Item System | Base item classes, item types, inventory logic, stackable vs. non-stackable rules |
| Time System | In-game calendar, days/months/seasons, time progression and event scheduling |
| Conversation Engine | Data-driven NPC dialogue trees, choice branches, and response vignettes |
| Editor Utilities | Billboard components, debug actors, editor-only visuals |
🚧 In Progress
- Crafting Framework
- NPC AI Integration
- Steam Magic Mechanics
- Faction Influence + Reputation
📚 Getting Started
💬 Need Help?
Open an issue or start a discussion to get help or offer ideas. This project is evolving, and collaboration is welcome.