Windowstead

Windowstead is a Godot 4 desktop-resident idle colony sim: an ambient, edge-mounted companion interface where a tiny settlement keeps working while you use the rest of your desktop.

Current MVP slice

• always-on-top, borderless desktop companion window
• bottom and side dock modes with orientation-specific grid shapes
• in-game startup menu for new/load/settings/exit and dock-style selection
• 2 autonomous workers
• priority-based gather / haul / build task loop
• wood, stone, and food stockpile counters
• 3 buildables with light progression unlocks: hut → workshop → garden
• random ambient events about every 30 seconds
• save/load through an autoload (user:// on desktop, localStorage on web)
• starter export presets for Linux, Windows, and macOS

If transparency is not available on a platform/export template, the game falls back to a compact frameless window positioned near a screen edge.

Run locally

With just:

mise exec -- just --justfile .justfile run

Directly on macOS:

./.tools/macos/Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot --path .

Directly on Linux:

./.tools/Godot_v4.2.2-stable_linux.x86_64 --path .

Smoke test

With just:

mise exec -- just --justfile .justfile validate

Directly on macOS:

./.tools/macos/Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot --headless --path . --script res://tests/test_runner.gd

Directly on Linux:

./.tools/Godot_v4.2.2-stable_linux.x86_64 --headless --path . --script res://tests/test_runner.gd

Exports

export_presets.cfg includes starter presets for:

• Linux/X11 (.x86_64)
• Windows Desktop (.exe)
• macOS (.app)

Local export helpers:

mise exec -- just --justfile .justfile build-macos
mise exec -- just --justfile .justfile build-linux
mise exec -- just --justfile .justfile build-windows

To validate and build for the current platform:

mise exec -- just --justfile .justfile local-build

Tooling is pinned with .mise.toml. Run mise trust once in the repo if mise prompts before installing or executing tools. The Godot binary defaults to the repo-local .tools path. Override it with GODOT_BIN=/path/to/Godot if needed.

Contributors

Windowstead is maintained by Miso Space with help from local and AI-assisted contributors. Contributions should preserve the desktop-companion dock UX: bottom strip first, temporary popup menus, and low-attention colony behavior.

test fix: _assert_empty accepts Variant