Parley Hatch 2abfe4abd1 Initial commit: design docs

Working title 'tgame' is provisional. Top-level samples/ and
docs/samples/ are gitignored; visual/art pipeline lives outside
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2026-05-17 11:16:07 -06:00

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Concept Glossary

Scannable index of every concept across the design docs. One-paragraph blurbs, source-linked. Categorize / prioritize / cull in later sessions.

Format: Concept — short blurb. (source)

0. Pinned Principles

North Star. You start as an apprentice with rough tools and rough work. You grow into a guildmaster whose named legends bear your maker's mark across the realm. Every session, the visible world is a little richer — and that richness is the reward. (20-north-star)

Visual progression tenet. Every meaningful progression beat has a visual expression. Stat increases without visual change are not events; visual changes are. (20-north-star)

Discovery not demonstration. The peak is never shown upfront. Players discover the climb as they make it. Aspirations expand outward as the player progresses, never the whole ladder revealed at once. (20-north-star)

Morning-after test. Would a player who put 30 minutes in last night wake up feeling fine? Not addicted, not wrung out. Mechanics that only work by failing this test are out. (17-foldins)

Always something shiny. Every interaction — completed craft, returned expedition, new applicant, level-up, discovery — produces a moment worth a tap. The game pulses. (00-concept, 05-economy-progression)

Crafting is the engine. Every other system exists to feed crafting better inputs or give crafted output a destination. (00-concept)

No grindy skill-ups. Progression comes from unlocks (recipes, stations, regions, hires) and quality bands, not from repetition counters. (00-concept)

Breadth over depth-per-skill. Many trades, broad recipe catalog, multiple paths to chase. (00-concept)

Pre-rendered, fully offline runtime. AI tooling lives in production, not in the shipped game. No network calls except cloud save. (00-concept)

1. Strategic / Production

Steam-first. Platform primary is Steam (PC), not mobile. Mobile deferred or dropped. Existing docs that say "mobile" need revision. (17-foldins)

Premium upfront monetization. ~$10–15 on Steam. No live service, no IAP, no FOMO, no energy timers. Demo + full purchase via Steam Next Fest is the marketing path. (17-foldins)

Modest earnings target. Realistic envelope $5k–$30k for "modest indie success" tier. Not designed for blockbuster. (17-foldins)

Niche positioning. "A crafting-guild idle with Wartales-style provisioning, CK3-style event streams, and open-ended expedition sessions you recall at will. Pixel-art, single-screen, Steam premium." (17-foldins)

Solo + AI-augmented production. ~6 month project. AI batching covers procedural content (names, events, illustrations, prose). User owns the visual asset pipeline (ComfyUI + scripts). (17-foldins)

Stack candidates. TypeScript + Phaser + Tauri (top), LÖVE + Lua (runner-up), pygame-ce (backup). Weekend spike in top two before committing. (17-foldins)

Production feasibility profile. Not asset-heavy. No bespoke animation pipeline. No combat to simulate. No twitch mechanics. Young-player accessible. Retention engine is care, not pressure. (17-foldins)

Worldbuilding stance. Deep lore, shallow world. No walking around. Lore lives in item descriptions, event text, character barks, Library entries. (17-foldins)

Working title is provisional. tgame is a placeholder. Route the name through a single config constant. Real title deferred until the game has shape. (99-open-questions)

2. Target Player & Engagement Profile

The Savvy Professional (primary target). Programmers, designers, technical professionals with disposable income looking for an alt-tab break between focused work sessions. Wants cerebral engagement without MMO overhead. Premium price acceptable; quality over volume. (brainstorm-2026-05-13)

Alt-tab compatibility. Game pauses and resumes cleanly. No real-time pressure that punishes leaving the window. Session state survives the player tabbing back to their IDE for 20 minutes and returning to find the world exactly as they left it. (brainstorm-2026-05-13)

Cerebral but accessible. Mechanical depth rewards the curious; surface play works without it. Master's Touch is opt-in. The latent party matrix is invisible. Multi-tier supply chains are discoverable, not tutorialized. The game has hidden depth; it doesn't force-feed it. (brainstorm-2026-05-13)

Non-hand-holding discipline. Treat the player as an adult after onboarding closes. Contextual one-line hints on first encounter, never multi-step popups. No nagging UI, no "are you sure?" friction, no condescending tooltips. (brainstorm-2026-05-13, 12-onboarding)

Four valid play modes. Play by accident (low engagement, ambient companion). Vibe in a background tab (passive enjoyment, no pressure). Figure out and optimize (mid-engagement, deliberate). Min-max (deep mastery, all systems engaged). All four produce coherent experiences; the game serves whichever the player picks per session, and per session-segment. (brainstorm-2026-05-13)

Adjacent audiences served by accessibility. Young-player accessible (no twitch, no reading-speed pressure). Color-blind palettes for quality bands. Independent audio bus controls. Larger Master's Touch green-zone option. The game targets the Savvy Professional but design discipline keeps the door open for adjacent demographics. (brainstorm-2026-05-13, 17-foldins)

Disposable-income permission. Target audience justifies Steam premium pricing ($10–15). No need for IAP, ads, FOMO, or live service. The economic model and the audience match — premium price for premium time. (brainstorm-2026-05-13, 17-foldins)

Cerebral pacing. The Savvy Professional brain comes off a complex codebase. The game should feel like a different kind of thinking, not the same kind less. Crafting decisions, party-build puzzles, expedition routing — all reward thought, but the thinking is playful, not productive. Recovery-shaped engagement, not work-shaped. (brainstorm-2026-05-13)

3. Player Identity & Engagement

Omnipresent observer. Player has no avatar, no name, no in-fiction position. They watch the cast and occasionally intervene. Closest reference is Black & White's spatial framing — without the deity-role implications. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Player as character volition. When the player makes a decision for a character, they are that character in that moment. No override-friction, no compliance dialogue, no resentment. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Three valid engagement levels. Lean-in (read every bark, weigh every fork). Check-in (drop in periodically). Walk-away (launch and read the report later). All produce coherent runs; player picks per session. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

In-character play rewarded by access, not bonus. Decisions route which content chains fire. No hidden coherence score. Out-of-character runs feel thinner, not punished. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

4. Core Loop & Pacing

The loop. Gather → Refine+Craft → Equip/Sell/Fulfill Patrons → Hire+Upgrade → Send better-equipped teams to richer zones → better materials. No dead ends; every step pulls into the next. (01-core-loop)

Hybrid active + idle. Active when sitting down (deciding, dragging, planning). Background while away (long crafts, expedition timers). (01-core-loop)

Session-based pacing. Expedition durations resolve in in-session minutes, not real-world hours. Loop Hero / FTL shape. The "AFK" is within the session, not while the game is closed. (17-foldins)

Expedition as session spine. A 30–90 minute Steam session has an arc — launch → orchestrate → recall → wind down. The expedition is the spine; everything else happens around and during it. (18-expedition-engagement)

Pacing curve. Apprentice (0–2h tutorial ramp) → Journeyman (2–15h discovery) → Master (15–30h mastery) → Grandmaster (30–50h plateau & effort) → Legend (50+h endgame questline). (20-north-star)

5. Roster & Characters

Named characters with persistent identity. Portraits, traits, backstory. Loseable in the worst case. You grow attached — that's the point. (02-roster)

Roster cap 10–30. Scales with Guild Rank. (02-roster)

Classes. Gatherer, Soldier, Engineer, Merchant, Scholar/Cartographer, Beastmaster. Fixed at hire; subspecs branch later. (02-roster)

Traits. Rolled at hire. Modify outcomes. Examples: Greedy, Brave, Lucky, Devout, Ill-tempered, Drunk. Trait pool grows; some traits gained/lost via events. (02-roster)

Paper-doll portraits. Layered sprite composition. Base pose + gear overlays + face/hair/costume layers combined combinatorially. (02-roster)

Relationships (Nemesis-style). Bonds, Rivalries, Mentorships, Grudges. Emerge from shared expeditions. Depth-or-flavor TBD. (02-roster)

Hire pool. Daily refreshed applicant pool. Pool quality scales with Guild Rank. Combinatorial portraits + backstories. (02-roster)

Hire-pool constraint forces exploration. Players can't hand-pick the ideal party; they work with who applied. That constraint is where combo surprises live. (18-expedition-engagement)

Character lifecycle. Generic role → named identity → signature crafts/feats → arc evolution → legacy. Unified across patrons, engineers, adventurers, specialists. (17-foldins)

Naming triggers. Crit on signature craft / survival of high-tier expedition / milestone count / rare encounter / discovery moment / time-in-roster + activity. Trigger flavor shapes the identity. (17-foldins)

Procedural naming + signature items. AI-batched at crystallization: name with backstory + signature variant of craft + flavor blurb for Library. (17-foldins)

Three patron origins. Encountered (met in field), Groomed-from-roster (your master leaves and becomes a patron), Reputation-unlocked (notice you at a Guild Rank). All variations on one system. (17-foldins)

Titles (LotRO-style). Each named character earns a pool of titles via deeds; player picks one to display. Whimsy + Serious pair per trigger ("The Harebrained" / "Keeper of Hares"). (17-foldins)

Lost characters become legacy. On death/retire, is_locked flips: display freezes, item attributions become permanent. "It's never not Dora's bear." (17-foldins)

Item attribution permanence. Items remember their maker as the maker was at craft time. Legacy items carry identity even after the maker dies. (17-foldins)

6. Expeditions

Sealed-run principle. Once an expedition launches, the player cannot reach into it. No mid-flight gear swap, courier, or resupply. Engagement lives in book-ends and the event stream. (18-expedition-engagement)

Three engagement surfaces. Brief (pre-flight planning) / Stream (in-flight events) / Report (post-flight debrief). Each is a real verb, not a checkbox. (18-expedition-engagement)

The Brief. Routing within zone, declared goal, risk dial, provisioning as commitment, party-comp synergies that read. Pre-flight is a puzzle. (18-expedition-engagement)

The Stream. In-flight events as the only interactivity. Flavor pings ~70%, light decisions ~20%, capability-puzzle events ~5%, chain events ~3%, NPC encounters ~2%. (18-expedition-engagement)

The Report. Triage sort, story compile, trait evolution moment, patron payoff. Debrief is a verb. (18-expedition-engagement)

Optional legs. Expedition has discrete phases (Approach → Subzone A → optionally Subzone B → Return). Between legs the party radios in; player decides next leg. FTL-map shape inside one expedition. (18-expedition-engagement)

Player-controlled recall (Pattern C). Adventurer lives in field generating events and loot until the player recalls them. Closest analog: Stardew daytime + CK3 events. (17-foldins)

Forcing functions for return. Fatal injury, out of rations, captured, patron deadline pressure. (17-foldins)

5-tier risk model. Tier 1 (Moo-Moo Meadows, time-only) → Tier 5 (Inverted Spire, party wipe, story consequences). Tier 1–2 frequent and chill; Tier 4–5 are campaigns. (17-foldins)

Telegraphed visible math. Before sending: "Dora vs. Ravenwood: 60% severe injury, 25% death." Telegraphed deaths are story; surprise deaths are punishment. (17-foldins)

Death/loss mixed roll. When things go wrong: permadeath, captured/ransomed, long-term wounded, or lost gear only. Permadeath stays on the table for severe mismatches. (17-foldins)

Auto-resolve via character traits. If the player ignores an event, the party defaults to a trait-driven auto-choice. The auto-choice IS the character. (17-foldins)

Interactive event stream (CK3 layer). Events surface as a queue (sidebar feed), not modal interrupts. Player works them at their own pace. (17-foldins)

Carry capacity. Slots-with-weight-tiers. N normal slots; heavy items take 2 slots. Bag/saddlebag/cart capacity is a crafted-item axis. (17-foldins)

Consumables as expedition envelope. Rations (duration), carry (haul), survival kits (zone access), combat consumables (encounters). Prepped party = 2–4× net multiplier vs. unprepped. (17-foldins)

Procedural event log. No runtime LLM. Templated text snippets with slot fills, selected by zone + risk + composition + trait rolls. (04-expeditions)

7. Latent Party Matrix

Four-axis latent model (MBTI-adjacent). Engagement (Bold ↔ Withdrawn), Lens (Concrete ↔ Curious), Disposition (Pragmatic ↔ Sentimental), Tether (Disciplined ↔ Wandering). Never surfaced to player. (18-expedition-engagement)

Character latent vector. 4-tuple computed from heritage + traits + class. Clamped [-1, +1] per axis. (18-expedition-engagement)

Party aggregation. Per-axis mean. If members agree on sign → tilted; if they disagree → "conflicted on that axis" flag set. Conflicted axes are spice, not wash. (18-expedition-engagement)

Event weighting. Each event has axis affinities (required = hard gate, preferred = soft weight, conflict-affinity = fires when axis is conflicted). Sampler weights toward party's vector. (18-expedition-engagement)

Folk-knowledge target. Players notice a pairing's chemistry within 3–5 runs. Tilted axes produce >75/25 outcome bias. Signature finds are latent-gated. (18-expedition-engagement)

Token-budget party model. Each party has shared budgets: Reach, Stamina, Carry, Insight, Standing. Build = budget shape. Small World–inspired. (18-expedition-engagement)

Builds as a real noun. Emergent shapes players name: The Foothold, The Wedge, The Plunder Run, The Quiet Path, The Wraith Detail, The Mentor Run. System produces them; players christen them. (18-expedition-engagement)

8. Auto-Quests & Content

Auto-quests with loot tables. The expedition system reduces to a quest catalog with conditional triggers and weighted loot tables. Each quest = small state machine of nodes. Bounded, simulatable, AI-batchable. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Quest catalog target. ~200–500 auto-quests for v1, ~5 nodes each, 2–3 branches per fork. Tagged with axis affinities, capability gates, zone+leg constraints. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Bark catalog target. ~50–100 lines per named character, latent-vector-shaped, context-tagged (route start, encounter, decision-pending, ration-low, wounded). (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Illustration target. ~1000 quest-node images AI-batched. Plus character expression sets, zone backdrops. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Capability-puzzle events. Some events gated on party composition. "Strong clears it; Lettered reads the inscription; Lucky finds the cache." Comp retroactively matters. (18-expedition-engagement)

Chain events. Multi-stage events that span the run. Event 3 plants a clue; event 7 calls back; event 11 closes the thread. (18-expedition-engagement)

NPC encounters in the field. Recurring named strangers across runs. Build relationships that pay off in future expeditions or patron emergence. (18-expedition-engagement)

9. Crafting

Stations. Forge, Alchemy Table, Loom, Enchanting Circle, Kitchen, Glassworks, Jeweler's Bench, Tannery, Carpenter's Shop. (03-crafting)

Station tiers I–V. Upgrade with materials + a master Engineer. Higher tiers unlock more slots, higher-quality recipes, faster crafts. (03-crafting)

Drag-to-station mechanic. Drag ingredients into station slots (3–6), hit craft. Multi-tier supply chains feed inputs from upstream crafts. (03-crafting)

Quality bands. Crude → Common → Fine → Masterwork → Legendary. Output is a function of ingredient quality, station tier, engineer skill, traits, and luck. (03-crafting)

Critical success. Promotes one band. Can be earned via lucky engineer rolls OR perfect Master's Touch timing. Same dopamine moment, different earning paths. (03-crafting, 13-reveal-choreography)

Three discovery paths. Library research (Scholars convert time + reagents), Patron/expedition rewards (recipes drop as loot), Experimentation (drag off-recipe and see what happens). (03-crafting)

Recipe catalog. ~500–1000 catalog entries shipped. Players don't know all; experimentation reveals which combos map to which entries. (03-crafting)

Master's Touch. Brief opt-in skill-timing per craft. Two meters (Quality, Critical) sequential — tap to lock in the green zone. Difficulty scales with recipe baseline, target quality, engineer skill. Ignorable; no penalty. (16-engagement-layers)

Themed Master's Touch skinning. Universal input mechanic, station-specific visual (hammer-strike rhythm at the Forge, stir-and-pour at Alchemy, shuttle-pass at Loom, etc.). (16-engagement-layers)

Trait integration in Master's Touch. Lucky widens green zones; Steady slows meters; Hasty narrows zones; Drunk wobbles erratically. Traits become felt during play. (16-engagement-layers)

Juice (engagement Layer 1). Drag-snap, particles, audio per placement, idle station animation that intensifies on hover, ambient SFX layer during craft. The bubble-wrap layer. (16-engagement-layers)

Adjacent-station synergy (engagement Layer 3). Shared-warmth (parallel crafts sharing ingredient type), chained refining, engineer cross-assist, discipline pair. Thoughtful parallel-craft scheduling pays off. (16-engagement-layers)

Veteran auto-craft. Toggle to skip Master's Touch meters by default for queued bulk crafts. The mini-game is for items that matter, not sale queues. (16-engagement-layers)

10. Materials

Categories. Raw / Refined / Components / Consumables & Catalysts / Trophies & Curiosities. (14-materials)

Supply chain depth. Raw → Refined → Component → Final Item (3-step pipeline). Some items skip a step; legendaries add sub-sub-assemblies. (14-materials)

Quality at every stage. Every tier supports the same five quality bands. Crude Iron Ingot stacks separately from Fine Iron Ingot. (14-materials)

Material sources. Expedition drops (primary), patron rewards, scholar research, beast taming, future bazaar. (14-materials)

v1 envelope. ~30 raw, ~25 refined, ~20 components for a playable starting set. (14-materials)

Material provenance. Same material name behaves differently by source. Burned Hills moonsilver smelts hotter than Mire moonsilver. Set on drop. (18-expedition-engagement)

Material state. Fresh / aged / cured / cursed-by-storage. Time-evolves. Some materials improve with age; some decay. (18-expedition-engagement)

Material property discovery. Properties surface through use, not on first drop. "You notice moonpetal strengthens in moonlit recipes." Library populates. Resource collection becomes investigation. (18-expedition-engagement)

Axis-tagged drop tables. Drop tables are tagged with axis affinities; sampler weights drops by party shape. Same zone, different haul shape depending on who you sent. (18-expedition-engagement)

Material as expression of party choice. Whimsical parties bring back whimsy-tagged materials → whimsy recipes → whimsy items. Tonal character of a save emerges from pairings. (18-expedition-engagement)

11. Economy & Patrons

NPC merchants. Always-on, instant sell, base prices. Merchants in your roster boost prices and unlock distant markets. (05-economy-progression)

Patron orders. Specific finished items requested by named NPCs. Quality requirements, sometimes time-limited. Premium rewards: gold, reputation, recipes, relics. (05-economy-progression)

Patrons with personality. Named NPCs with factions and grudges. Filling one's order may anger another faction. Patron tier raises with Guild Rank. (05-economy-progression)

Patron board. Main "directed objectives" surface. Players who want a quest will look here. (05-economy-progression)

Future bazaar. Player-to-player auction house — architecturally stubbed, not v1. Stable IDs, event-sourced state, signed saves. (05-economy-progression)

12. Progression

Guild Rank. Meta-progression spine. Earned from completed orders, discoveries, masterworks, expeditions, achievements. Unlocks roster size, hire-pool quality, station tier cap, region access, patron tier, workshop slots. (05-economy-progression)

Multiple visible progression surfaces. Guild Rank, Recipe Library (% discovered), Material Catalog (Found), Patron Favor (per patron), Engineer Career Arc (Apprentice → Master), Quality Records (best per recipe), Region Map (% explored). Session opening shows multiple "almost there" hooks. (17-foldins)

Capability stack. A craft attempt's success = sum of engineer career stage + traits + station tier + tools + materials + target quality band. Effective capability vs. recipe demand → outcome. (17-foldins)

Attempt risk gradient. Mild over-capability = result drops one band. Moderate = chance of total failure. Severe = engineer fatigue/injury, occasional cursed outcomes. Long-shot = small chance of against-the-odds Masterwork. (17-foldins)

Tier transitions as celebration scenes. Backdrop swap, banner unfurl, narrator beat, new anchors filling in. Not a stat popup — a moment. (20-north-star)

Visible-but-locked aspirations. Drip-fed at the edges of the player's reach. Patrons whose orders you can't yet fulfill (tier-gate visible). Zones greyed on the map. Station-tier silhouettes. Heritages you've heard about but haven't seen. (20-north-star)

The Lamborghini. The legendary-tier visual peak. Animated holo + ornate paperdoll + bespoke art + named-and-titled cast. Fully revealed only on arrival. (20-north-star)

Endgame questline. Legend tier (50+ hours) is the equivalent of MMO raid content. Bounded epic questline with prestige rewards. Content volume can be modest; what matters is that it exists and is worthy. (20-north-star)

Cosmetic-only customization stays earned. Visual style is achieved, not picked. No free-form transmog. Title choice and gear-within-tier are fine; tier-aesthetic itself is climbed to. (20-north-star)

Context-switched screens. Each screen is a complete composition (hall, workshop, world map, expedition view, library). No always-on persistent HUD; UI belongs to the screens it serves. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Guild Hall (home screen). First-person view of the great room. Scene-as-navigation — tap zones (forge corner, alchemy nook, roster wall, patron board, library doorway, strongroom, front door) to enter subviews. (08-ux-ui)

World Map. Parchment-style fantasy map. Top-down — the one perspective exception. Regions are illustrated nodes; tap to zoom to zones. (08-ux-ui)

Persistent bottom tab bar. Always-available shortcuts (Hall · Roster · Workshops · Map · Patrons · Library). Speed; scene navigation is atmosphere. (08-ux-ui)

Inventory tiers. Stackable raw (list rows), Stackable refined (rows by quality), Unique instances (full cards). If two items are interchangeable, they stack; if they have identity, they get a card. (08-ux-ui)

The Vault. Three tabs: Equipment (uniform grid of card thumbnails), Stockpile (list rows + filters), Special (recipes, relics, tokens, trophies). (08-ux-ui)

Card view modes. Compact grid (small thumbnails, fast scroll) vs. Showcase view (full card, lingering). (08-ux-ui)

Wall of Masterworks. A Library room displaying the player's best-ever crafts as a permanent wall. Pure cosmetic, deeply motivating. (08-ux-ui)

"Alive hall" minion overlays. Minions render at named backdrop anchor points; subtle work-loop animations. Empty anchor when minion isn't assigned. The hall populates as the guild grows. (08-ux-ui)

Notification surface. Glowing badges on scene elements signal ripe things (completed craft → workshop, returned expedition → front door, new applicant → recruiting desk, patron deadline → board, rank-up → altar). (08-ux-ui)

Eye-of-the-Beholder portrait bar. Persistent UI element within the expedition view. 4–6 framed portraits, status overlays, expression shifts, speech banners. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Journey graph (Oregon Trail × FTL). Expedition view's central artifact. Branching node graph; party-marker advances stepwise. Branches visible — decisions are geographically committing. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Not a card game. Cards-the-genre signifier is overloaded. Game uses illustrated artifacts (portraits, journal pages, dispatches, item cards in inventory) but never "cards in hand" or "decks." (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Mixed-resolution UI vocabulary. Pixel art world + HD vector chrome (UI frames, buttons, dialogs, tooltips). Shaders on pixel art respect the pixel grid when visible. (09-art-style)

UI chrome aesthetic. Burnished brass with riveted iron — something a craftsman would actually make. Substantial, weighty. Serif text with weight. (10-tone)

14. Art Style

Late-90s pixel art era. Diablo II / Infinity Engine / Fallout 1-2. Detailed, atmospheric, painterly — not iconic-pixel. (09-art-style)

640×360 native canvas. Pixel-native. Cards integer-scaled from ~256×384. Backdrops at 640×360 or fractional multiples. (09-art-style)

256-color palette. Kmeans-derived from a library of diffusion-model art. Calibrated and locked. (09-art-style)

Floyd-Steinberg dither pipeline. Diffusion-model generation → downsample → Floyd-Steinberg dither against the locked palette. The dither pass is what erases the "AI look." (09-art-style)

Asset production pipeline. Generate at high-res → downsample → dither → optional hand-clean → commit. It's a script. (09-art-style)

First-person POV discipline. Backdrops are from the guildmaster's vantage. Workshops, hall, library, patron court, regions — all first-person. World Map is the parchment exception. (08-ux-ui, 09-art-style)

Per-category silhouette scale. Tiny (rings, gems) ~50%, small (daggers) ~70%, standard (swords) ~90%, large (polearms) rotated diagonally to fit. Card canvas is fixed. (09-art-style)

Anchor-point depth scale. Backdrops define named anchors with depth-scale values (1.0 close, 0.5–0.7 deep). Sprites render at anchor depth automatically — no giant-figure-at-back-of-room moments. (09-art-style)

4 fps animation. Era-correct for late-90s reference. Validated by the user's production pipeline. (09-art-style)

Atmospheric foreground animation. Drifting smoke, bubbling liquid, embers, rain, fog. Looping particle layers + shader effects on top of static backdrops. (08-ux-ui)

15. Item Cards (Composition)

Layered sprite composition. Items composed at runtime from layers: frame → background → base silhouette → material tint → component overlays → effect aura → quality flourish → maker's mark. (07-item-cards)

Anchor points for components. Base sprites define pommel/blade/stopper/etc. anchors; components are authored to land on them. The gem inhabits the pommel rather than floating beside it. (07-item-cards)

Combinatorial asset count. ~30 silhouettes × ~20 material tints × ~30 component overlays × ~15 effect auras × 5 frames = variety from a small authored library. (07-item-cards)

Visible crafting choices. Every craft decision has visible consequence — the strongest feedback loop possible. Two players who craft the same recipe with different components see visibly different items. (07-item-cards)

Composed procgen names. [quality adjective] [material] [base] of [effect noun] gives Diablo-style names from the layer stack itself. (07-item-cards)

Effect shaders (zero-asset effects). Outer glow, holo foil, foil shimmer, heat haze, frost crackle, cursed corruption, holy radiance, first-reveal sweep, faded/locked. Implemented as shaders, not PNGs. (07-item-cards)

Quality bands shader-driven. Crude/Common = no shader. Fine = subtle outer glow. Masterwork = animated foil + drifting particles. Legendary = holographic + animated frame glow + bespoke art. (07-item-cards)

Bespoke Legendary art. When the player discovers a truly unique recipe, that one gets full hand-finished treatment. Composition for 99%, bespoke for 1%. (07-item-cards)

Pass model. Pass 1: layer composite. Pass 2: post-process shader stack. Pass 3: UI compositing. (07-item-cards)

Composition data model. Every item instance stores a recipe {base, materials, components, effects, quality, maker}, not a baked image. Save data is tiny; renderer reconstructs on demand. (07-item-cards)

16. Reveal Choreography

Length scales with magnitude. Buildup is the signal, not manufactured suspense. Players learn the visual/audio language quickly. (13-reveal-choreography)

Anti-slot-machine. Common items get quick honest reveals — the reveal is the result, not a teaser. No fake-outs. (13-reveal-choreography)

Five band tiers. Crude (~0.5s soft thump) → Common (~0.8s crunch) → Fine (~1.5s ring) → Masterwork (~2.5s clang + choir) → Legendary (~4–5s rumble + slow-mo + crack-of-light). (13-reveal-choreography)

Critical success break. Choreography starts at expected band, then mid-flip upgrades. "Wait — no" beat. Player thought Common, got Fine. Best feeling in the game after Legendary itself. (13-reveal-choreography)

New Discovery overlay. Stacks on top of quality reveal — parchment whoosh + book shut sound + ribbon. Runs concurrent on a separate channel. (13-reveal-choreography)

Time-slow reserved for Legendary. Rarest cue for the rarest moment. Don't dilute. (13-reveal-choreography)

Skippable after first. Long-press skips after ~0.5s. First-of-tier never skippable; subsequent skippable. Veteran time matters. (13-reveal-choreography)

Reveal framework extends. Same toolkit, different presets for expedition haul / new applicant / patron payment / rank up. (13-reveal-choreography)

17. Voice & Character Expression

Character voice as personality channel. The latent matrix expresses through how each character speaks. Bark library + journal voice + decision phrasing all flow from the character's profile. Players develop favorites by mouthfeel. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Mixed addressing dynamic. Characters chatter among themselves, narrate their own observations, occasionally address the player during decisions. Loose, not rigid. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Chronicler is a party role. A character with the right traits (Scholar, Lettered, Cartographer) chronicles the run. No chronicler = sparse, garbled updates. Knowledge is a capability gate. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Writing voice (middle register). Atmospheric, occasionally dry, never quippy. Not juvenile, not edgy, not purple. "Stuff happened, here's what happened, here's what it cost." (10-tone)

18. Tone & Setting

Confident fantasy stylization with muted weight. Substantial enough for adults, accessible enough for anyone. Never juvenile or edgy. (10-tone)

Tone triangulation. WoW (stylized exaggeration, weighty silhouettes) × Quake (muted earthen palette, weathered materials) × Machinarium (atmospheric environmental storytelling). (10-tone)

Tonal anchor: darker WoW × Shrek. Confident fantasy with whimsy as texture. "We know this is silly, and also this matters." (17-foldins)

Muted palette weighting. Poison = olive (not neon-green). Fire = ember-amber (not arcade orange). Holy = dusty gold (not pure white). Curse = bruised wine. Cold = foggy slate-blue. Arcane = faded lapis. (10-tone)

Tools of voice. Play on words (Lumbass Bread, Plaguebringer's potpourri). Pop-culture jabs in moderation. Anachronisms welcome (rhinestones, propeller hats, teddy bears, the absurd-weight onyx). Earnest emotional beats when they come. (17-foldins)

Don't get carried away. World is mostly serious; whimsy is texture on top. If everything's a joke, nothing lands. If the joke surface is too thin, whimsy becomes a tic. (17-foldins)

Optimization creates absurd outcomes — lean in. Crafted gear identity overrides character aesthetic. Necromancer in propeller hat because it's BiS. No transmog. Comedy emerges from the system, not from authored jokes. (17-foldins)

Generic medieval fantasy setting. Swords, dungeons, cauldrons, hooded figures. Lean on the player's existing fantasy vocabulary; no original world-building. (11-setting)

Three flavor pockets. Mainline (standard medieval). Gnomish steampunk (brass, gears, clockwork). Dark elf necromancy (obsidian, bone, shadow). Variety without lore burden. (11-setting)

Naming conventions. Human → Latin/Germanic/Celtic (Theodric, Mira). Dwarven → Norse-hard (Brokk, Durin). Elven → Latin-flowing (Aelandir, Sylvana). Dark elven → sibilant (Vae'shar). Gnomish → alliterative-quirky (Tinkin Tappet, Glia Greaseworth). (11-setting)

Texture in one sentence. "Grobb Plaguebringer just returned from the depths of Ravenwood Crypt with essence of nightshade to put the final touches on his spring potpourri mastercrafted skill-up." If we ship 200 sentences with this texture, we have a game. (17-foldins)

19. Audio

Kelethin-style mellow fantasy ambient. Slow, modal, woodwind-forward with string accompaniment. Long compositions, breathing room. References: Everquest, Diablo II Tristram, Machinarium, Bastion. (15-audio)

MIDI generation pipeline. AI-generated MIDI → curate → MuseScore cleanup → soundfont render via FluidSynth → OGG export. Tiny working files, procedurally controllable. (15-audio)

Anti-repetition strategies. Long compositions (3+ min loops). Multiple variants per location, crossfaded randomly. Time-of-day mixes. Silence is allowed. Same key signature across related themes. (15-audio)

SFX from sample packs + layering. Sonniss GDC bundles as foundation. Layer simple sounds for complexity. Pitch/tempo shift for variants. (15-audio)

Anti-Wilhelm discipline. Frequently-played UI sounds have 4–6 variants in rotation, never repeat consecutively. (15-audio)

Reveal audio signature per band. Crude soft thump → Common hammer crunch → Fine hammer + chime → Masterwork hum→rising chime→clang→choir → Legendary rumble→swell→crack→organ. (13-reveal-choreography, 15-audio)

Accessibility audio. Independent volume sliders per bus (Music/Ambient/SFX/UI). "Reduce ambient loops" setting. Music-off mode. Visual feedback for all important audio cues. (15-audio)

20. Onboarding

Five beats in 5 minutes. Drop-in → Returning expedition → Patron board → First crafts → Equip and send → Release. (12-onboarding)

Caewin the Steady. Starter minion, authored character. Stays a real minion after the tutorial. (12-onboarding)

Skip the wait. Pre-completed first expedition so the player doesn't hit a 30-min timer in beat 1. (12-onboarding)

Forced critical success. Designed wow-moment on the player's first Lantern craft. Two slow wide-green meters; both lock; Masterwork ribbon; particles; the hook is set. (12-onboarding)

Hidden tutorial crit. Result panel shows plausible math ("Caewin's steady hand + Lucky trait + perfect timing"). Player attributes the win to themselves. Never told it's tutorial-rigged. (12-onboarding)

Soft, not modal. Badges glow in priority order. Contextual one-liners on first-open of each screen. Player can tap around freely. (12-onboarding)

Authored, not procgen. Caewin, the foreman, the starter haul, the recipes — hand-tuned. Procgen kicks in for the next of everything. (12-onboarding)

No second tutorial. Contextual one-line hints only after the door closes. Treat the player as an adult. (12-onboarding)

First tier transition. Apprentice → Journeyman is the tutorial graduation. First independent expedition concludes in a promotion ceremony — backdrop shift, banner, named acknowledgement. (20-north-star)

21. AI & Data Pipeline

TOML + Pydantic data sources. Source format is TOML per domain (data/materials/, data/recipes/, data/patrons/). Git-versioned, text-editable. Validation at the tooling layer. (17-foldins)

CSV bulk-import escape hatch. For AI-generated or spreadsheet-brainstormed batches; converted to TOML once imported. (17-foldins)

Procedural expansion. Templates × materials × quality bands × affixes → 10k+ permutations. (17-foldins)

SQLite runtime artifact. Same engine for content and save state. (17-foldins)

Python sim first. Sim + recipe scope locked first; then game code. Lock the 30–60 hour content envelope by simulation before touching the runtime. (17-foldins)

Sim-tractable expedition shape. Quest state machine + decision routing + loot rolling + character state evolution. Monte Carlo 10k runs per zone-tier per party policy to measure content variety, loot balance, outcome gaps. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

AI authoring loop for events. Prompt = "30 events for biome X targeting party reading [latent vector]." Output tagged with axis affinities. Sampler weights at runtime. Per-axis authoring, not per-pair. (18-expedition-engagement)

AI authoring loop for voice. Prompt = "bark library for character [latent + heritage + traits + contexts]." Output is coherent voice corpus. Generated at crystallization. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Signature event gating. Rare character-naming events are latent-gated. Found the 90lb onyx only fires for high-Curious + Wandering parties. Player gets their characters' stories. (18-expedition-engagement)

Asset pipeline (user-owned). ComfyUI + Python scripts. Out of scope for design tooling discussions. (17-foldins, user-feedback memory)

22. Open Threads & Parking Lot

Replayability shape. Steam expects 8–30 hr. NG+ with kept signature heirlooms? Open sandbox post-arc? Both? Single-arc-and-done? (17-foldins, 99-open-questions)

Per-discipline capability vs. single engineer rank. Master Smith AND Common Loom-worker, or one rank-per-engineer? UI/state complexity vs. breadth pillar. (17-foldins)

Per-recipe memory. Does the guild remember masterworking a specific recipe? Diminishing returns on familiar recipes vs. fresh thrill of new? (17-foldins)

Multiple expeditions in parallel. Tabs? One screen with multiple journey-graphs? Strict serial (one at a time as v1 simplification)? (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Pacing of marker advancement on the journey graph. Real-time tick? Player-step? Hybrid auto-step that pauses on decisions? (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Axis selection prototyping. Latent matrix axes (Engagement/Lens/Disposition/Tether) are load-bearing. Prototype with placeholders, verify events slot in naturally before locking. (18-expedition-engagement)

Combination math weighting. Per-axis mean + conflicted flag is the working sketch. May need weighting by trait strength. Sim-tuneable. (18-expedition-engagement)

Folk-knowledge surfacing aids. Library notes patterns observed, never underlying axes. Music stings, narrator-tone shifts, journal voice as latent cues — explicit or invisible? (18-expedition-engagement)

Stable-pairing pull. Folk knowledge requires repeated pairings. Bond-via-shared-runs is the natural lever; may need other nudges. (18-expedition-engagement)

Material property authoring. How many distinct properties per category? Procedural vs. hand-authored? (18-expedition-engagement)

Patron interaction shape. Patrons appear everywhere as motivation but their interaction model isn't designed. Do they have voice? Are they latent-matrix tagged too? (handoff-from-brainstorm)

Economy friction. Loop is designed; scarcity model isn't. What prevents trivial repetition once the player has a working forge and a tier-2 party? (handoff-from-brainstorm)

08-ux-ui language revision. Reframe "guildmaster you" / "your space" → "the observer" / "the guild" to match the omnipresent-observer identity. (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Push notification opt-in. When asked? Granularity? (99-open-questions, 08-ux-ui)

Quality cascade rules. Can a great engineer rescue a Crude component, or does quality fully cascade from components? (03-crafting, 99-open-questions)

Experimentation penalty. How aggressive — wasting rare ingredients should sting but not feel cruel. (03-crafting)

Recipe book surfacing. How without becoming a spreadsheet? By-station view, by-discipline view, "in progress" filter? (03-crafting)

Scrap/salvage mechanic. Break finished cards for partial refund? (99-open-questions, 14-materials)

Special material properties beyond quality. Is moonpetal fundamentally magical regardless of band, or is everything type+quality? (14-materials)

Pocket gating. Are gnomish/necromantic materials zone-locked or do they crosscontaminate? (14-materials)

Color-clash policy. Lapis blue + ruby red on one sword can look muddy. Gameplay-prevent dissonant combos, or embrace as feedback? (07-item-cards, 99-open-questions)

Inventory grid model. Uniform 1-cell cards vs. Diablo-style multi-cell? (99-open-questions)

Onboarding skip threshold. Beat 1 feels right, but worth testing. (12-onboarding)

Time-of-day cycling for hall backdrop. Real time, game time, or fixed sequence? (08-ux-ui, 99-open-questions)

Diegesis discipline for in-flight journal/graph. Does the journey graph exist in fiction or is it pure UI metaphor? (19-concepts-player-and-ui)

Notes on the glossary

Each section is roughly topic-coherent but cross-references are common — concepts overlap. Source links point to the canonical doc but most concepts touch multiple docs. Sorting / prioritizing into must-have / nice-to-have / parking-lot is the next session's work.

Status of the doc set after this glossary:

00–16 are the original topic docs (verbose, but the substantive design substrate)
17–18 are session fold-ins that significantly extend 04/05 and add new structural pieces
19 introduced the glossary blurb format
20 pinned the north star
This file is the unified index — concept-first rather than doc-first

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