version: "1.0.0" name: midnite-media-game-crime description: Recipe for a 2D top-down crime game (original GTA style) in a Midnite Studio game repo — on-foot and car movement, a wanted level with decay, police pursuit, pedestrians and a city grid, with kit tuning numbers and a play-test checklist. Use when extending the crime starter. The genre id is crime.

Genre recipe — top-down crime

Starter id crime@top-down (the genre id is crime, which is also the folder name under kit/core/genre/). Read midnite-media-game-build first.

Where things live

• kit/core/genre/crime/car2d.js: CAR_DEFAULTS, createCar, car2dStep(state, input, dt, tune), carSpeed. Arcade steering with grip and drag.
• kit/core/genre/crime/wanted.js: MAX_WANTED, DECAY_MS, CRIME_HEAT, createWanted, wantedReducer(state, event), pursuit(level). The state is plain JSON; events are crime, tick and clear. The 3D open world imports this same file.
• kit/core/tiled-objects.js: tiledObjects, collisionGrid, for a map authored in Tiled.
• Routing for police and pedestrians reuses kit/core/genre/rts/astar.js (declared in genre.json).
• src/genre/city.js: the city grid (COLS, ROWS, TILE, cityMap, isRoad); src/genre/index.js wires it up.

Tuning (kit defaults)

Car: accel = 260, brake = 420, maxSpeed = 320, maxReverse = 110, turnRate = 2.6, drag = 0.9, grip = 6 (px and seconds). A car at full speed is well above the on-foot speed of 180 in the top-down preset.

Wanted: MAX_WANTED = 5, DECAY_MS = 30000 (one level off per 30 s unseen). Crime heat: pedestrian = 1, vehicle = 1, police = 2, shooting = 1. pursuit(level) sends min(4, level) cars at 150 + level * 25 px/s, so police at level one are slower than a player on foot and a car at full speed outruns every level.

Game feel

fx.tint('dusk') and fx.ambience('ambience-crowd') set the city's light and murmur. The pistol is gunshot-pistol. Getting in a car starts fx.loop('engine-loop'); each frame engine.set({ pitch, volume }) follows speed, and stopEngine() ends it on exit, car swap and death. Add any new loop the same way so it is stopped on every path out.

Build order

1. City grid and collision; the player on foot with the top-down preset.
2. Enter and exit a car (E), car2dStep while driving.
3. Pedestrians wandering along roads.
4. Crimes feed wantedReducer; a tick event each step with whether police can see the player.
5. Police spawn per pursuit(level) and route to the player.
6. Missions or score on top.

Play-test checklist

• $.crime.wanted, unseenMs, inCar, speed, police, pedestrians, killed, cars.
• Hit a pedestrian: wanted rises by CRIME_HEAT.pedestrian and never past MAX_WANTED.
• Stay unseen for DECAY_MS: wanted falls by one. Be seen: unseenMs resets to 0.
• Enter a car: inCar true and speed rises with throttle; brake to 0 and reverse is slower.
• At wanted 0 no police; at wanted 3, three cars.
• Drive into a building: the car stops, no tunnelling at full speed.