Documentation
Keep engine assets, game assets, and hosted data separate
MDL works best when the platform owns shared engine surfaces, each game package owns its own creative materials, and hosted infrastructure owns the published runtime data that eventually needs to live beyond a local filesystem.
Belongs in MDL
- Shared platform UI and engine-owned branding.
- Account flows, operations surfaces, and runtime code.
- Anything intended to stay stable across multiple games.
Belongs in a game package
- The prompt, openings, and structured output contract.
- Runtime UI metadata for that title.
- Game-specific assets such as sprites, backgrounds, music, and world content.
Hosted data direction
Published runtimes should gradually move away from depending on sibling filesystem repos. The long-term model is platform-managed metadata and hosted storage for heavy media, while local package mode remains a useful builder workflow during development.
Practical rule
If something is part of one game's identity, it should live with that game. If it supports many games or the platform itself, it should live in MDL or in platform-managed hosted data.