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Ludo Atlas · About This Repo

Ludo Atlas (the Game Development Panorama Handbook) is a Chinese-first, structured, open-source knowledge base for game development: the whole path from getting started to shipping, with both international and Chinese resource lines. The name comes from Latin: ludo (I play) and atlas (a map collection) — the goal is to draw as complete a map as possible. This page is the repository overview: positioning, content map, quality standards, structure and how to take part.

01 What This Is

  • A learning and production path: not a pile of tutorials, but an ordered route plus executable checklists (what counts as done).
  • Chinese-first: Simplified Chinese is the primary language, with an English edition across the library; terminology is listed in GLOSSARY.md.
  • Two resource lines: every stage lists both international and Chinese tools, platforms and communities.
  • Continuously maintained: content advances by versions; questions and suggestions go through Issues / PRs.

Who it is for:

  • Newcomers: walk from Getting Started to your first playable game.
  • Working developers: use the genre handbooks as checklists and fill the gaps.
  • Indie developers and small teams: kickoff, scope control, launch and postmortem.
  • Contributors: expand, proofread and translate along the shared templates.

Out of scope: news and hot takes, zero-to-one tutorials for a single engine, paid-course funnels.

02 Content Map

Section What you get Entry
Getting Started The big picture, role map, engine choice, first game, learning paths Getting Started
Fundamentals Game design, programming, art & audio, production, level design, engine internals, graphics Fundamentals
Genre Handbooks Development handbooks for 81 game genres (four volumes) Genre Handbooks
Engine Tracks 12 engine and framework tracks Engine Tracks
Pipelines & Workflows Build & release, playtesting, version control, localization, telemetry, asset pipelines and more Pipelines & Workflows
AI Workflows Boundaries for using AI, agents, skills, and end-to-end workflows AI Workflows
Teams & Scale How solo devs, small teams and studios work Teams & Scale
Publishing & Monetization Launch, legal, live-ops, mini-games, consoles, VR/AR, esports Publishing & Monetization
Pitfalls & Postmortems The anti-pattern collection and project postmortems Pitfalls · Postmortems
Playbooks End-to-end processes: idea to demo, vertical slice, launch and more Playbooks
Templates Ready-to-use templates: one-pager, GDD, tech design, milestones Templates
Examples The example plan covering six engine tracks Examples
Resources The full directory of engines, tools, assets, publishing and services (650+ entries) Resources
History & People A brief history of games; indie developers and companies History · People

03 Quality Standards

  • Single source of truth: reference existing content instead of copying it; cross-references use the form Handbook §X.
  • Verifiable: links are checked one by one (method and records in Resources §11); figures and conclusions state their source or basis.
  • Writing conventions: written in Simplified Chinese, consistent terminology (see GLOSSARY), no unverified promises.
  • AI use: AI output must be human-verified; outward-facing assets are disclosed as platforms require, with a ledger (see the AI Workflows Handbook §8).
  • Link policy: only entries that are reachable and genuinely useful for game development; one most-useful entry per category, no duplicates.
  • No empty talk: no "empowerment" or "ecosystem" filler; every recommendation lands on an action.

04 Repository Layout

gamedev-atlas/
├── docs/            # reading content: start / fundamentals / genres / engines / pipelines / AI / teams / publishing / pitfalls / postmortems / meta
├── playbooks/       # end-to-end playbooks
├── templates/       # ready-to-use templates
├── examples/        # the example plan
├── resources/       # the resource directory
├── site/            # reading-site build (Material for MkDocs)
├── scripts/         # maintenance scripts
└── .github/         # CI: lint / link check / site deploy

Current scale: 140+ Chinese documents · ~960k characters · 81 genre handbooks · 12 engine tracks · 650+ resource links.

05 Versions & Status

  • Current version v2.6.2: full English coverage; the reading site is bilingual (Simplified Chinese / English).
  • Milestones: v0.1 first 26 handbooks → v2.0 all tracks complete → v2.4 migration to Material for MkDocs → v2.6 full English coverage → v2.6.2 deduplication and trimming.
  • Full log in CHANGELOG.md; next directions in the Content Roadmap.

06 Licensing

  • Documents and collected listings: see LICENSE.
  • Code and scripts: see LICENSE-CODE.
  • Third-party resources: each link belongs to its owner; inclusion is not a license.

07 Taking Part

Version log: CHANGELOG.md · Roadmap: Content Roadmap