Bubbly Games
How we at Bubbly Games actually work: the conventions, the tools, and the order things happen in. It is documentation for the team, for modders, and for anyone curious about how a small studio keeps a project from turning into a pile of files nobody can name.
→ Start Here puts the right five pages in front of you in the right order, for your role.
Come back to this page when you know what you are looking for.
The four kinds of page
Everything in this folder is one of these. Knowing which you are reading saves a lot of time.
| Start Here | A path | Read in order, once. Day one, first week, then your role. |
| How-To | A recipe | "I have to make a chair." Start to finish, in sequence. |
| Workflows | Reference | The rules and why they exist. Looked up, not read through. |
| Tools | Our software | What we built, and how to use it. |
The split matters: a How-To tells you what to do next, a Workflow page tells you what is
true. When they disagree, the Workflow page wins, and the How-To needs fixing. Please report it.
The one rule above the rules
Asset conventions are not written here. They live in the bubbly-asset-rules repo as JSON, and the Blender add-on, the Unity importer and the Asset Editor all read that same JSON. The tables on these pages are transcluded from Asset Rules (Generated), which is generated from it.
So a table on a page here cannot disagree with the tool that checks your file. It is the tool's own copy. To change a rule you change the rule, then run npm run docs && npm run vault. Editing a table in Obsidian does nothing at all.
Everything, by kind
Recipes
| Page11 | Area |
|---|---|
| Add a Sound | audio |
| Add Translations | content |
| Build a Level | level-design |
| Check Your Work | meta |
| Import & Export | content |
| Make a Build | code |
| Make a Hairstyle | 3 days |
| Make a Kit Piece | 3 days |
| Make a Prop | 3 days |
| Make a Texture Set | texture |
| Run Tests | content |
Reference
| Page25 | Area |
|---|---|
| 3D Models | 3 days |
| Balconies | 3 days |
| Characters | 3 days |
| Curves | 3 days |
| Grooming | 3 days |
| Hair | 3 days |
| Hair Cards | 3 days |
| Hair Motion | 3 days |
| Modular 3D Assets | 3 days |
| Openings | 3 days |
| README | 3 days |
| Roofs | 3 days |
| Splitting a Piece | 3 days |
| Audio Workflow | audio |
| Builds | code |
| Core Concepts | content |
| Level Design | level-design |
| Scene Structure | level-design |
| Naming Conventions | naming |
| Project Folder Structure | naming |
| The Words We Use | naming |
| Materials | texture |
| Modular 3D Assets - Texturing | texture |
| Texture Workflow | texture |
| Version Control | version-control |
Tools we built
| Tool5 | What |
|---|---|
| Bubbly Asset Editor | Where we author dialogue, narrative, characters and data. |
| Bubbly Backup | In-house backup, with quick file uploading. |
| Level Design Tools | The level design suite inside Unity. |
| Q-Dex | Our in-house asset manager. Search, filter, preview. |
| Software UI Design & Consistency | The shared CSS package for our own tools. |
Software you install
| Software4 | What |
|---|---|
| Bubbly Games Launcher | Installs and updates everything we made in-house. |
| Gitea & Git LFS | Version control. Our self-hosted Git server, with LFS for binaries. |
| Unity | The engine. Most of the team never opens it. |
| Workspace Check | Checks a whole project folder against the rules. One portable .exe. |
Known gaps
Pages that exist but are not written yet. They say so at the top, and each one lists what is
missing. That way an empty page is a visible task rather than a dead end you assume is your own fault.
| Page8 | What's missing |
|---|---|
| Bubbly Backup | Everything past one sentence. What it is for, how to reach it, what belongs in it. |
| Bubbly Games Launcher | Where it is downloaded from, and how access is granted. |
| Characters | Bodies, heads and faces, clothing, armour, and the rig itself. |
| Gitea & Git LFS | Server address, account process, and the client's own documentation. |
| Import & Export | The actual steps. Add Translations already points here for them. |
| Level Design | The process itself, from brief to blocked out to dressed to signed off. |
| Q-Dex | Most of the toolbar, and what to do with it day to day. |
| Unity | Version, install route, and required packages. |
If you hit one of these and you know the answer, write it. You are not overstepping. Nobody else is going to fill it in faster than you.
Changing how we work
Workflow changes are discussed with the whole team, tested, announced before they happen, and approved by the studio leads. That includes rule changes. See Workflows > Changing workflows.