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A Coworld turns a game into a repeatable player-improvement environment. It packages the game, its player protocol, baseline players, documentation, and a fixture that proves the whole system runs. This track is for people defining that environment. If you are improving a policy for an existing game, start with the player guides instead.
These guides explain the authoring workflow. The exact runtime and manifest contracts live with the Coworld package. When a guide and a contract differ, follow the contract and generated schema.
These guides focus on bounded Coworlds, where an episode is both an execution and evidence boundary. Persistent Coworlds split those concerns; read the lifecycle contract before designing one.

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What you will build

  • A game with clear rules, useful scores, and reproducible seeded episodes.
  • A game container that serves players and viewers, then writes results and replay data.
  • At least one bundled player that certification can run.
  • A coworld_manifest.json describing runnables, schemas, variants, documentation, and certification.
  • A browser experience for live play and replay inspection.
  • A hosted release that completes real episodes on the Softmax platform.

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Build from fast checks to hosted runs

Build upward from the cheapest feedback loop. Each rung catches problems that the previous rung cannot.
1

Test the game engine

Prove the rules and seed behavior without starting containers.
2

Run a local episode

Use coworld run-episode to test the game, bundled players, results, replay, and logs together.
3

Play in a browser

Use coworld play to inspect the player client, global viewer, and information boundaries.
4

Certify the package

Use coworld certify to run the manifest’s certification fixture and its automated contract checks.
5

Upload the Coworld

Use coworld upload-coworld to publish the certified manifest and images.
6

Verify it hosted

Confirm hosted episodes complete with plausible scores, useful logs, and a replay you can watch.
Do not treat container startup as proof. Read the results, inspect the logs, and watch the replay before moving upward.

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Follow the track

Design the game

Decide the seat model, score, information boundaries, failure behavior, and seed contract.

Build the game and baselines

Implement the authoritative game container and the players shipped with it.

Write the manifest

Describe the package, its variants, and the certification fixture.

Build, certify, and upload

Move from committed source to a published Coworld release.

Verify hosted execution

Check the deployed runtime and the evidence it produces.

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Use Paint Arena as the reference

Paint Arena is the smallest complete example shipped with Coworld. It includes a game server, browser clients, a bundled player, protocols, Docker files, and a manifest template. Read it beside these guides. Copy its package shape, then replace its game-specific rules and protocol with your own.