3.9 KiB
3.9 KiB
Light & Dark — Roadmap
Destination: polished vertical slice — Regions 1–2, save system, skill upgrades. Proves the core loop is fun before scaling to the full vision.
Design decisions (locked)
- Death penalty: on death, coins drop into a corpse (faded player model) at the death spot; touch it to reclaim them. Dying again without reclaiming keeps only 50% (a new corpse appears, the old one vanishes). Butterfly jars are lost for good on death. Void deaths (falling out of the world) leave no corpse.
- Skill upgrades:
- Vendor (smith/trainer) gives direct linear power upgrades. Upgrades one selected spell; changing selection costs coins.
- Gems / rings give alternate behaviors / sidegrades.
- Ranged identity: keep the bolt, add upgrades (no charge-up / homing rework).
- Fairy (in slice): guide + ambient light source (bonus flow regen near player). Scout mode, teleport, fairy holes deferred to regions 3+.
- Ascended armor: cut for now. Awakened is good enough at the start; less balancing needed.
Milestones
M0 — Foundation (the game remembers)
| Item | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| L | DONE (2026-09-28): JSON save to saves/, save via pause menu. Stores player state, room, coins, equipment, inventory, quests, tokens, boss diary, defeated bosses, broken doors. |
|
| Charge -> Flow rename | S | Code + UI + configs. |
| M | DONE (2026-09-28): Select Game (greyed with no saves), New Game (name entry), Settings (rebinding), Quit. Wipe-all-saves button (bottom right) with confirmation dialog. | |
| M | DONE (2026-09-29): Lanterns are explicit save points — walk up and press F to save; you respawn at your last lantern. Visible radius removed. |
M1 — Region 1 complete loop
| Item | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| M | DONE (2026-09-29): corpse at death spot holds 100% of coins; a repeat death before reclaiming keeps only 50% and the old corpse vanishes. Butterfly jars are lost for good on death. | |
| M | DONE (2026-09-29): fairy follows behind the player's head; flips with facing. | |
| More quests (repeatable + one-time; system exists) | S | Just content. |
| Lore dialogue for fairy / NPCs | S | Needs written copy. |
M2 — Skill upgrades
| Item | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor (smith/trainer) NPC | M | Reuses NPC + coin systems. |
| Vendor upgrades (linear): Dash = lower cooldown, Ranged = more damage, Tether = longer bind/fear | S | Data + UI. |
| Ring slot + gems (sidegrades): Dash = speed-stacks / refund-on-kill / afterimage taunt; Ranged = pierce (light) / aoe (shade) / kill-stacks; Tether = boss effects / higher threshold | L | New slot, new item type, build UI. |
M3 — Region 2: shade matters
| Item | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shade-gated interactions (doors, an NPC, an area) | S-M | Room JSON + existing toggle. |
| New enemy behaviors (patrol, dodge-and-leap, burrow-shooter) | M | Enemy system supports it. |
| S | DONE (2026-09-29): butterfly jars — collect up to 3, press G to instantly refill Charge. Lost on death; respawn at their points after saving at a lantern in a different room or reloading. | |
| Ability tweaks: ranged upgrades, ground-slam knockback/iframe, light-step buffs | M | Picks up remaining notes ideas. |
| Region-2 boss + ability pacing | M | Re-align pacing (Ranged already exists). |
Stretch / core (post-slice, in order)
- Fast travel (rune stones)
- Fairy scout + bond teleport + fairy holes
- Regions 3-5 per pacing notes
- World-change weapon (stretch-end, decide variant)
Cut
- Ascended armor (removed).
Dependencies
- Save is the keystone: death penalty, main menu, and any progress feature hang off it.
- Fairy and Flow rename can run in parallel with M0.