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Tutorials
Structured courses for the AshForge tools. Each is written to be worked through and applied, with practice gyms along the way to build the foundation, and each ends with a finished piece of work you can be proud of.
Two shapes, and the difference is deliberate. A ladder — beginner, intermediate, advanced — climbs one tool slowly and deliberately, and assumes nothing. An accelerated course covers the same ground end to end at pace, for anyone who would rather take the crash course. Neither is a short read: both are many hours of work.
Mod Kit
Canvas
Beginner
First Coat
Your first painted asset in an evening, assuming nothing. What you are actually painting, five habits worth having from move one, and nine steps to a finished piece.
What you're actually painting · Five habits from move one · The nine steps · When it goes wrong · …
Intermediate
The Canvas Bench
Nine steps from a bare mesh to an asset that holds up: six channels as one material, smart material layers, wear that reads as history, and judging the result honestly.
Get a mesh that can hold paint · Six channels, one material · Values that don't lie · Smart material layers · …
Accelerated
Texture like a pro
Take one mesh from bare grey to a game-ready PBR asset — the six channels, masks and material layers, wear read off the mesh itself, and an export the game actually loads.
Land a stroke · What each map is for · Layers & masks · Material layers · …
Sentinel
Beginner
First Patrol
Open a behaviour tree, read it before you touch it, change one thing and watch it run. Fifteen minutes, no prerequisites, nothing installed but the tool.
Open it and read the guide · Start from a template · Read the tree first · Change one thing · …
Intermediate
The Contract
The idea the rest of the tool hangs off — why the Blackboard is a declaration rather than a memory, and which piece of the logic the editor genuinely owns.
The idea everything hangs off · A declaration, not a memory · The logic the editor owns · Two version numbers
Advanced
Reading the Run
Four instruments in the order you should reach for them, and the correction that matters most: a node that never fired is not the same as a node that is broken.
Get something worth debugging · Four instruments, in order · Dead is not broken · Scrubbing · …
Chronicles
Beginner
The Shape of a Quest
Read a quest before you write one. An objective is a row rather than a sentence — and what Validate can check for you, versus what it cannot.
Read one before you write one · An objective is a row · Write your own · What Validate can't do
Intermediate
Making It Branch
Two editors over one model, the third slot, and the one check that earns its keep when a quest stops being a straight line.
Notice what's missing · Two editors, one model · The third slot · The check that earns its keep
Advanced
What the Game Actually Reads
Three files at three fidelities, why a count is not a check, and a shipping pass that ends with the game loading what you wrote.
The hint that isn't a link · A count is not a check · Three files, three fidelities · Crucible hands over the last thing you touched · …