MVT Games Documentation

Canvas and game applications tend to mix state, rendering, and timing into tangled code that is hard to test, debug, or extend. MVT (Model-View-Ticker) solves this by splitting applications into three strict layers, giving you deterministic models you can unit test, stateless views you can swap, and frame-consistent rendering across the board.

The Three Layers

Layer	Owns	Receives	Must not touch
Model	State, domain logic	deltaMs	Views, rendering, time
View	Presentation	Bindings/model	Domain state, timers
Ticker	Frame loop	Animation frame	Domain logic, rendering code

The Frame Sequence

Every frame follows the same strict order:

  Ticker (frame loop)
    ├── 1. model.update(deltaMs)   ← Models advance state
    ├── 2. view.refresh()          ← Views read state, update presentation
    └── 3. renderer draws          ← Frame drawn to screen

Models always settle before views read them. Views never see a half-updated world.

How This Documentation Is Organized

Section	What you'll find	When to use it
Architecture	The transferable MVT specification - contracts, constraints, and patterns in language-neutral terms	Understanding the architecture independent of any implementation
Building with MVT	Progressive guide from quickstart to advanced topics - models, views, bindings, reactivity, testing, and more	Learning MVT and building with it
Reference	Terse lookup pages - rules, style guide, glossary, project structure	Quick lookups while working

Architecture

Want the pure MVT specification without implementation details?

• Architecture Overview - The problem, the solution, the three layers
• Architecture Rules - Universal MVT constraints
• Heritage - The proven patterns MVT assembles

Building with MVT

The progressive guide takes you from a working example to advanced topics:

1. Quickstart - build a bouncing ball in under 5 minutes
2. The Game Loop - the frame sequence your code lives inside
3. Simulating the World - Models, Time Management, Model Composition
4. Presenting the World - Views, Bindings, View Composition
5. Reacting to Changes - Why Polling, Change Detection, Events and Signals
6. Adding Visual Polish - Presentation State, Taming Complex Views
7. Animating Transitions - Phase-Based, Open-Ended Phases, Complex Sequences
8. Iterating with Confidence - Testing, Testing Models, Testing Views
9. Avoiding Pitfalls - Common Mistakes
10. Performance - Why Performance Matters, Hot Paths, Performance Measurements, Benchmarking Methods

Reference

Already familiar and need to look something up?

• Architecture Rules - All rules on one page
• Style Guide - Code conventions and naming
• Glossary - Term definitions
• Project Structure - Directory layout and barrel files

Common Mistakes

Making something work but not sure if you're doing it right? Common Mistakes covers the most frequent anti-patterns and how to fix them.

AI Agents

AI coding agents should start with AGENTS.md for compressed orientation.