kronic
e362aaeb43
Add BefourStudios SciFi environment packs, Gabriel Aguiar VFX, and the ShaderCrew Toon Shader embedded packages, plus combat/enemy/wave/death gameplay systems and supporting vault docs/screenshots. Rename 11 vendor textures from uppercase .PNG/.HDR to lowercase so the case-sensitive Git LFS filters (*.png/*.hdr) match on case-sensitive filesystems (Linux CI, case-sensitive macOS), not just locally where core.ignorecase=true masks the gap. Each .meta moved with its asset so GUID references are preserved. All ~1000 binaries tracked via LFS. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
68 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
68 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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tags:
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- vision
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- identity
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status: draft
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updated: 2026-06-02
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permalink: gamevault/01-vision/identity
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---
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# Game Identity — Frontier colony (sci-fi)
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> The fiction that turns the [[Pillars|mechanical pillars]] into a *place*. Decided 2026-06-02 to bridge the "tech-demo → game" gap. It is a **skin over the locked pillars — no mechanical rework**: every pillar already built (M1–M5) keeps its systems and gains a fictional role below.
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## One-sentence pitch
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> **A 2–4 player co-op action-RPG about holding a frontier outpost on a hostile world: twin-stick combat against the Husk swarm, a shared base you build and automate, and production chains that keep running while you fight.**
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## Setting
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An off-world **colony foothold** — a small crew anchoring a survivable outpost on a frontier world that does not want them there. A spreading corruption — **the Blight** — turns drones, machinery, and fauna into aggressive **Husks** that probe and swarm the perimeter. The outpost is the safe anchor you grow and defend; beyond it lies the blighted frontier you push into for resources.
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## Player fantasy
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A **frontier operator**: mobile, lethal twin-stick gunplay; you and your friends raise an outpost, wire up automation so the colony *compounds* even while you're out fighting, and push the perimeter back against the Husks. Setup is rewarded over grind (per the automation pillar).
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## Tone
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Grounded near-future **industrial sci-fi** with an edge of cosmic/biotech corruption. Not cute, not horror — **tense frontier survival with a power-fantasy payoff**. Reference feel: *Helldivers* frontier grit × *Factorio* logistics satisfaction × *V Rising* base-growth loop × *Diablo / PoE* combat readability.
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## Art north-star
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**Dark, readable, high-contrast.** A desaturated industrial world (metal, regolith, dim ambient) so that **bright emissive gameplay elements pop and bloom**:
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- **Cyan / teal** → the player crew, friendly energy, owned structures.
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- **Hostile orange / red** → Husks and Blight corruption.
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- **White-hot** → impacts, muzzle flashes, deaths.
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Silhouette-first readability (ARPG legibility from the top-down frame), bloom on emissives, vignette to focus the frame, ACES tonemapping. **Primitives + emissive + post-processing now**; stylized low-poly hard-surface (crew/structures) and corrupted biomech (Husks) later. The palette is the identity even before real models.
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## The enemy — Husks
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Corrupted rogue drones/lifeforms driven to swarm the colony. They are the **threat that makes combat *combat*** and gives the base a reason to exist.
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- **First Husk (this slice):** a melee charger — seeks the nearest operator, closes, strikes. Server-authoritative interpolated ghost.
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- **Later:** ranged "spitters", armored "brutes", a "broodmaker" spawner, and eventually a corrupted-fabricator boss. Wave/threat director over time.
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## Automation flavor
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Colony **fabricators, conveyors, assembler drones, and power** — the self-running production chains of the locked automation pillar, fictionalized as the outpost's industry that keeps growing while the crew fights and expeditions.
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## How it maps to the locked pillars (no rework)
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| Pillar ([[Pillars]]) | Fictional skin |
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|---|---|
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| Action-ARPG combat (twin-stick) | Frontier operator gunplay vs. the Husk swarm |
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| Co-op base power fantasy (V Rising feel) | The crew's outpost — built, defended, grown together |
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| Automation as progression | Colony fabricators/drones/conveyors compounding output |
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| Persistent base + instanced expeditions | The safe **outpost anchor** (`BaseAnchor`) vs. the blighted **frontier** beyond |
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## Audio / UI identity (direction)
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Industrial synth, weighty impacts, a low hostile drone for Husk proximity. UI reads as a **clean diegetic colony-terminal** — functional HUD (health, ability charge, threat count), neon-on-dark.
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## Related
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- [[Pillars]] — locked mechanical decisions this fiction skins.
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- Established in the "First Blood" game-feel slice (2026-06-02) — see the session log + decision record for the presentation/enemy architecture that first expresses this identity.
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