DeepFieldGame

The session. One instance, on the entity df_game, put there by game/df_boot.module. It is the only thing in Deep Field that decides.

It owns: the phase machine, the control scheme, the depth ceiling, the attention pressure, when something rises out of the black, what a committed identification did, and when the water below opens up.

It does not draw, move the lure, or animate an animal. That is DfLure, DfCreature and the species modules.

Phases

Core.state.phase, mirrored on the phase field, and announced on the "phase" event.

What other slices call

local g = entity.find("df_game").component.get("DeepFieldGame")

g:beginDive()                        -- a title screen's Begin button
g:setPhase("dive")                   -- move the machine by hand
g:endDive("quit")                    -- put the lamp out
g:submitIdentification("moonjelly")  -- what the journal commits; returns the result table
g:raise("moonjelly")                 -- call one up on purpose; "" if the water is busy
g:onCutscene("opening", "end")       -- forwarded from the `cutscene` event by df_boot

submitIdentification is also reachable as the "identify:submit" event ({ guessId = ... }), which is what the journal actually emits; game/df_boot.module forwards it. Either way the answer arrives back on "identify:result" with the whole outcome:

{ correct, reason, actualId, guessId, confidence, band, newly, apex,
  attentionDelta, leaveReason, burn, note }

reason is "correct", "wrong", "gone" (it had already turned), "no-sighting", "no-guess" or "already-called". band is "certain" / "probable" / "glimpsed", graded off Core.readability. note is a line of naturalist's prose the journal can print as-is.

A slice that owns the title screen

The game starts itself so a missing shell cannot strand it. A slice that puts up a real title turns that off from its own start():

local g = entity.find("df_game").component.get("DeepFieldGame")
if g then g.autoBegin = false end

Readouts for the HUD

phase, nextSightingIn, depthCeiling, sightingSpecies, sightingConfidence, lastResult, lastNote, diveSeconds. Everything else the HUD needs is on Core.state.

depthCeiling is the progression gate — the line stops there, and it moves deeper as strata unlock. It is a readout, not a setting.

Two events beyond df_core's list

df_core is frozen, so the input map's two remaining edges carry their own names. Listen for them if you want the keyboard as well as your own button:

• "input:journal" — { open }, the journal key
• "input:pause" — {}, the pause key

Slice owner: core-loop.