Development

Development

Concise guide for building and contributing.

Build

• Windows 10 2004+; Visual Studio 2022; .NET 8 SDK; Windows SDK
• Install workloads: .NET desktop, UWP, Desktop C++ (WinAppSDK), MSVC v143
• Open HGEngineGUI.sln → set config/platform (x86/x64/ARM64) → Build
• CLI (avoid AnyCPU packaging errors):

 dotnet build HGEngineGUI\HGEngineGUI.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64 -r win-x64

Run

• Unpackaged: ensure Windows App SDK runtime installed → F5
• Packaged: Publish → Create App Packages → sign with dev/test cert

Project structure (high level)

• Pages/ UI pages (Species, Trainers, Moves, Encounters, Items, Config)
• Data/ parsing and serialization
• Services/ file watcher, change log

Contributing

• Branch → changes + tests → PR with description and screenshots for UI changes
• Keep docs current; update wiki when adding user‑visible features

Debugging tips

• Log parse/write steps; capture crash logs in LocalState (last_crash.txt, first_chance.log)
• Check file encodings and exact macro formats when parsing fails

Future areas

• Headbutt encounters UI; enhanced evolution editor; ability editor; batch ops

Happy hacking!