The .ow package #

A .ow is one text file that carries an oskiewar level, objects, or both. It is object-lisp (xbox/OBJECT-DIALECT.md) with section banners, so the reader that reads an object reads it, and an object section is byte-for-byte the .lisp it came from. Written 2026-10-02 for the monowheel desert; the shipped example is xbox/live/levels/monowheel-desert.ow.

;; ow 1
;; level monowheel-desert
title "monowheel desert"
kind island
home 2840 0
middle 7340 0
island radius 7400 shore 900 sea 40 deep 300
dunes 150 70 14
hill 5600 2900 2300 1900 760
hill 9900 -2300 2800 2300 980
hill 11200 2600 2100 2000 700
hill 3400 -3600 1900 1600 560
supply chalk 420
supply paint 760
supply monowheel 260
;; object monowheel
…the object's source, unchanged…

The file opens with ;; ow 1. A banner ;; level <name> or ;; object <name> starts a section; names are kebab-case. One level a package, any number of objects, in any order. Everything else is ordinary object-lisp: ; comments, a word-led line is a call, strings in quotes.
Objects replace the game's by the name the game asks for (gameObjects.<name>): today monowheel and figure. An object the game never draws costs nothing; a replaced one compiles on its next ask.
Levels have a kind:
- island — the monowheel desert machine. home x z (where you start, flat sand), middle x z (the island's centre; pushed out past home so the dunes run on before the sea; a level with a home and no middle is centred on its home), island radius shore sea deep, dunes a b c (the three dune amplitudes; they grow with distance from home), hill x z rx rz height (one line a hill, an ellipse with the park's rounded profile; hills none for a flat island), supply chalk|paint|monowheel <ring radius>. The world's grid is sized from middle and radius. What a level leaves out keeps the shipped default (ISLAND_DEFAULTS in ow.mjs). title is what the title screen and the HUD call it.
- arena — the 2D map, exactly ac.oskiewar.map v1 (oskiewar-map.mjs): flat from to [lift], bank|transition from to rise dir [lift], deck col cols row, spawn a b, pickup KIND col amount (a kind with a space in quotes), skateboard no. levelToMap / levelFromMap convert both ways, and the workshop and the coach keep speaking JSON.
- pool, park, indoor, halfpipe — a built-in freeskate course by name, nothing else.

Loading one #

Web: oskiewar.com/?ow=<url> fetches the file before the game boots; ?level=desert|pool|indoor|halfpipe|park opens freeskate on a course.
Any host: set globalThis.__oskiewarOw to the text before the game loads; the first freeskate reads it.
Live, from the coach: coach_workshop with op: "level" and ow: <text> installs it under the rider at once; course: "pool" swaps a built-in course. The rider keeps what they ride and hold (a go-kart only between 3D courses). The pause menu's level row does the same by hand.
Code: installOw(text, now) in oskiewar.js; swapCourse(course, now) is the fast swap underneath.

Tools and tests #

node xbox/tools/ow.mjs check  levels/monowheel-desert.ow     # read, validate, compile each object
node xbox/tools/ow.mjs pack   --level map.json --object monowheel=objects/monowheel-flat.lisp > out.ow
node xbox/tools/ow.mjs unpack out.ow dir/                     # level.json | level.ow + one .lisp an object
node --test xbox/live/tests/ow.test.mjs

ow.mjs has no imports — the game carries it inside the gameObjects block (node xbox/tools/embed-objects.mjs after editing it, or the game keeps the old one) — and takes the reader as an argument (readOw(text, { read })).

Rooms #

Everyone on a course shares one public park room, named by the course (desert1, park1, indoor1, pipe1, long1) in the speakable-id shape every host and the relay accept, so friends meet from the website and the Xbox without a link. ?park=<name> or OSKIEWAR_ROOM picks a private room that stays private through course swaps; following a public room's link opens its course. Presence is shared on the 3D courses (desert, park); the 2D courses publish none yet.