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Game design overview
This folder holds vision-level design: what we want players to feel, do, and discover before we lock schemas, APIs, or content pipelines. Use it for brainstorming and alignment; when something is ready to drive implementation, it should gain a path in docs/decomposition/ or docs/plans/.
Summary
Neon Sprawl’s design work here starts from concrete visions of progression, places, risk, economy, social play, combat, and the items/abilities that express them. Documents below are added as we write them; each should stay opinionated and specific enough to argue with, without pretending to be a full GDD.
Vocabulary (skills.md): gig = combat role; skill = non-combat trained capability only. Gig design detail: gigs.md.
Artifact index
| Document | Focus | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| skills.md | Hybrid progression; vocabulary; gigs ↔ skills seams | With gigs.md |
| gigs.md | 9-gig roster (v1 cyberpunk names); hub, sub-gig, party | Recruitment deferred; PvP open indefinite; niche LFG if tool ships |
| (add rows as files land) |
Planned topics (stubs)
Link new files here when they exist; remove or rewrite this subsection once the table is populated.
- Gigs — gigs.md: combat roles, hub swap, sub-gig, progression, party/encounters; recruitment channel deferred until more vision exists. Skills (non-combat): skills.md. Professions stay folded into skills + rep unless a future doc defines something separate.
- Zones — tone, danger, faction or economic role of a place.
- Travel & connections — how places link (gates, costs, downtime, danger en route); complements zone identity.
- Mechanics — loops, constraints, what the server vs. client must honor.
- Items — categories, rarity philosophy, crafting vs. drops.
- Abilities — inputs, timing; combo with items; gig vs skill gates (see skills.md vocabulary).
- Gathering & resources — nodes, competition, exhaustion, what “open world” contesting feels like.
- Crafting & recipes — depth vs. breadth, failure, specialization; pairs with items but is its own loop.
- Economy — currency velocity, sinks, trade vs. self-sufficiency, how wealth shows up in play.
- Factions & reputation — who remembers you, grudges, access gates; gig story arcs: gigs.md, rep + seams: skills.md.
- Combat pillars — PvE vs. PvP stance, readability, time-to-kill, what “fair” means here.
- Death, loss & recovery — stakes on failure, recovery paths, anti-grief boundaries.
- Risk & security bands — safe pockets vs. wild space; where optional PvP and theft sit (aligns with security-tier thinking).
- Social play — squad scale, corps, trust, betrayal affordances, async cooperation.
- Encounters & enemy roles — archetypes, what a fight teaches, variety without noise.
- Onboarding — first session hook, clarity vs. mystery, how much systems the new player sees.
- Tone & narrative — how lore shows up (quests, environment, UI), voice of the world.
Related repo docs
| Area | Location |
|---|---|
| Module / epic breakdown | docs/decomposition/ |
| Implementation plans | docs/plans/ |
| Architecture | docs/architecture/ |