BENNE

Bennethon Engine for Nifty Narrative Experiences

Web-based point-and-click adventure engine (Phaser 4 + TypeScript + Vite). Internal resolution and other bootstrap settings live in src/game/game-config.json (default 352×198).

To make games with BENNE, start at benne.games. It has the user guides, from the introduction and installation and new game setup, and the BenneScript API reference. The rest of this README is about working on the engine itself.

Scripts

npm run dev      # Vite dev server
npm run build    # Typecheck + production bundle
npm run preview  # Serve production build locally
npm run snapshot # Pack the engine source into benne-snapshot.md (Repomix) for LLM chats; not tracked

Testing

See the regression testing guide for setup, suite commands, CI gates, coverage and remaining test priorities. Start with npm run test:ci; run browser, extension-host and artifact suites before releases.

Documentation

• benne.games: the user guides and the scripting API, and the main place for usage documentation. Their source is website/guide/ and docs/bennescript-api.md.
• docs/architecture.md: how the engine and editor fit together.
• docs/bennescript-ergonomics-refactor.md: the BenneScript design record and its decisions.
• docs/roadmap.md: open work and ideas.
• docs/history/: dated reviews and logs, kept for background only.

Conventions

• TypeScript: strict mode; prefer explicit types for public engine APIs and JSON-backed shapes under src/types/.
• Data-driven content: Author game JSON and room/character scripts under src/game/. Put raw images (and later audio) under src/game/assets/. Room JSON references asset paths relative to that folder; resolveGameAssetUrl() maps them to Vite URLs for Phaser’s loader.
• Events: Use gameEvents from src/engine/events/EventBus.ts for cross-system interactions (inventory, puzzles, UI). Phaser’s own events remain for input and scene lifecycle.

Project structure

• src/game/assets/ game media (images/backgrounds, images/characters, audio, …) — bundled via Vite
• src/game/ game logic and data: game-config.json, globalScript.ts, rooms/, characters/, …
• src/engine/ reusable systems and scenes; src/engine/content/ finds and loads the game's content
• src/types/ JSON and engine contract types

AI guidance

See AGENTS.md for which docs are current, and .cursor/rules/benne.mdc for project-wide conventions.

AI Usage

I built BENNE with the help of AI tools. ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude wrote much of the code, while I provided the architecture, direction, and feature design. I also designed the user experience for the BENNE Editor.

My goal was to spend less time building a game engine and more time doing what I love: making adventure games.

Some of my game artwork is AI-assisted and hand-edited.

License and contributions

BENNE is released under the MIT License. Use it, fork it and change it however you like.

Third-party assets keep their own licenses. The fonts in game-templates/*/assets/fonts/ are CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, which forbids commercial use, so replace them before you sell a game made from a template.

This is my personal engine, shared as-is. Bug reports and questions are welcome as issues. I'm not trying to build a contributor community around it, so pull requests may not be reviewed or merged.