Proposal: Separate Starter Workspace for Game Devs & Engine Devs

[untoldengine]

Hey everyone 👋

I wanted to bring up something that has come up a few times: where should the demo game and starter game live?

Right now, having them inside the engine’s source code makes things confusing and bloated:

• For game developers, it looks like the demo is part of the “core” engine API.
• For engine contributors, it clutters the repo and mixes responsibilities.

At the same time, demos are super important: they help new developers see the engine in action right away, and they serve as a kind of integration test.

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The Problem

We need to balance two goals:

1. Onboarding for game developers → they should be able to download something, open it, run it, and see results instantly.
2. Clean separation for engine contributors → the engine repo should stay focused on the core, without demo code mixed in.

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Proposed Solution: Starter Workspace

Here’s what I’m thinking:

• The engine repo (UntoldEngine) remains pure Swift Package Manager source code.
• We create a separate repo (e.g., UntoldEngine-StarterWorkspace) that contains:
  • An Xcode workspace (.xcworkspace)
  • A starter demo game project (DemoGame.xcodeproj)
  • The UntoldEngine dependency added via SPM

For Game Developers

• Clone the StarterWorkspace.
• Open the workspace in Xcode.
• Select the DemoGame scheme → Run → instantly see the engine in action.

For Engine Developers

• Clone both repos.
• In the StarterWorkspace, go to File → Add Packages → Add Local…
• Point to your local UntoldEngine checkout.
• Now the workspace is wired to your local branch for testing changes.

This way:

• Game devs get a quick start without touching the engine internals.
• Engine devs can test against their live branch without hassle.
• The engine repo stays clean, while the workspace doubles as a demo + integration test bed.

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Open Questions

• Should we include a demo game project for all targets? That way, game dev have a starting point as a reference?

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Next Steps

Before moving forward, I’d love to hear what you all think:

• Does this separation feel like the right balance?
• Any potential issues you see for your workflow?
• Would you prefer keeping at least a tiny “Hello Engine” demo inside the main repo, or is the workspace enough?

Looking forward to your thoughts! 🙌

[miogds]

I agree with this proposal, but I want to add another repo and it's the editor repo.

Right now, we will have 2 kinds of demos: the one that will be in the starter workspace. It's a compile, native, Xcode demos to run directly, and the demos that will be only project bundles that you can load and run only in the editor (unless you build the package for it ). These demos should be included in the editor repo.

As soon as the editor grows, being part of the core engine will make the repo too huge to just download for distribution. Also, the editor will have more resources for the UI, images, icons, etc., that will make it even bigger.

So, my proposal is to have 3 repos, The core engine itself, the started workspace and the editor repo ( with the project examples )

[miogds]

I'll do in one hour!

By the way, did you read my email?

[miogds]

I tested and everything was working fine. I tested the branch: chores/remove_editor and the develop without any issue.

Only one thing I want to point out... I know I was the first one to set the name of the package, UntoldEngineEditor... but now, something is growing in me, and the editor will be a really big project, like the engine, so I'm starting to think that I like more the name of UntoldEditor, what do you think? Sorry for being so picky ;)

[untoldengine]

I was actually thinking the same. And now is the perfect time to rename it. I'll rename it to UntoldEditor later today.

Thanks for resting.

[untoldengine]

Here is the new repo:

https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEditor

The package name is now UntoldEditor

thanks

[untoldengine]

If you don't run into issues, I'll update the core repo with the remove_editor branch and the editor repo with the correct package dependency url.

Thanks

[untoldengine]

@miogds The repo for the editor has been updated and currently points to the develop branch as a dependency.

Here is the repo
https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEditor

Everything is up to date. The next task is to remove the Demo Game from the engine-core repo.

[miogds]

Good! I will also fork the editor repo so Jorge can start working on the UI/UX

[miogds]

I merged the PR to my fork and I didn't realize it before, but the Resources of the Editor are still in the Engine Core. We should move them to the editor as we don't really need them in the core itself, right?

[untoldengine]

Ah good catch.