Game design

Pillars

1. Being there, always in first person. There is no external camera. The game will be ported to VR, so everything is designed to work with the player's hands from the start (see "VR-ready"). Spectacle comes from scale, verticality and light.
2. The world changes with the hour and with events. Each time of day has its own enemies, quests, NPCs and loot. Night is the most dangerous time, and in it the lantern (light, vision range, resource) becomes the central tool.
3. MMO progression, ARPG combat. Zones, quests, dungeons and groups as in WoW; enemies in numbers, loot with affixes and builds as in Diablo.
4. A huge world that feels inhabited. Dense villages, NPCs with routines, routes between them, and every building enterable (see 10).
5. A real economy, made by the players. Professions, shops, houses, mounts and services produce goods that other players buy; what goes to real money is only cosmetics and deeds, never combat power (see 08 and 09). Gameplay comes before everything; what you receive from the economy is an extra, never a substitute for work. The game must be good for those who will never trade.

VR-ready (from PC onward)

The PC version comes first, but the rules below apply from Phase 1, so the VR port does not require redoing the game:

• Physical interaction: opening doors, picking up items, pulling a lever, harvesting a plant and raising the lantern are actions on the world object, not menus. On PC, the mouse plays the role of the hand; in VR, the real hand.
• Diegetic interface: health and resource on the wrist or the lantern, inventory in a bag, map as a paper map in hand. The PC on-screen HUD is an extra layer that disappears in VR.
• Camera never taken from the player: no animations that turn or move the head on their own (finishers, camera cuts) and with light shoves and falls, to avoid motion sickness.
• Combat designed as gesture: strikes, blocks and spells designed as arm movements (on PC, mapped to buttons); nothing that depends on seeing your own character.
• Locomotion with comfort options (snap turn, vignette when running, optional teleport) planned in the movement system.
• VR performance: 90 fps in stereo, with two lighting profiles (full PC; reduced VR) and a budget defined from Phase 1A (see 05 and 12).

Comfort profile per mechanic (VR)

Test with VR players already in Phase 1A (comfort prototype), before the port.

Loop

• Minute to minute: explore with the lantern → find groups of enemies → fight → loot → equip.
• Session: take quests or orders in a village → clear an area, gather or escort a caravan → return to the village to sell, craft and tend the shop, the house and the mount.
• Long term: levels and talents, item sets, group dungeons, raids, seasons (Diablo style) with ladder and rewards. A season never resets character, land or NFT: only ranking and season cosmetics start over.

First-person combat (the biggest design risk)

WoW and Diablo work in third person or isometric view because the player needs to see several enemies and their own character. In first person this is lost, so combat must compensate:

• Reading by sound and light: off-screen enemies are indicated by directional audio and by the lit edge of the vision.
• Area skills in front (cone, line, aimed point) instead of tab targeting; aimed action, as in shooters and first-person action RPGs (Skyrim, Dark Messiah, Vermintide).
• Dodge and block with arm animation, so the player feels the hit.
• Groups of 10–30 weak enemies (Diablo style) only in open areas; corridors with few strong enemies. Hordes are weak enemies, with no need for parry; directional parry only applies against elites and bosses (see 17).
• Prototype before everything: Phase 1 of the roadmap exists to validate that fighting 20 enemies in first person is fun and readable.

Combat details in 17, magic in 18 and clans and alliances in 19.

Classes (initial proposal, 4 at launch)

Each class has a talent tree and "build affixes" coming from items.

Loot

• Rarities (common → legendary → set), random affixes, unique items with visible effect on the hand/weapon.
• Individual loot (each player sees their own) to avoid group disputes.
• The lantern is also an item: fuels and lenses change radius, color and effects (e.g., light that reveals invisible enemies).

Times of day and events in the loop

• The time of day decides what to do: in the morning the market opens and delivery and hunting quests appear; by day you travel and do crafts; at dusk the villages light up and night quests arrive; at night the strong creatures come out, loot improves and the lantern is mandatory; in the late night rare enemies appear.
• Dynamic events interrupt the loop: a caravan attacked on the road, a village invasion, a world boss, a storm that brings its own enemies. Any nearby player takes part, with no need for a group (public events style).
• Calendar events: moon phases, seasons and festivals (harvest, solstice, lantern festival) with their own rewards and cosmetics, plus Diablo-style seasons.
• Details in 04-mundo.md.

Social

• Groups of 5 for dungeons, raids of 20.
• Villages as meeting points; regional auction houses.
• PvP at launch, in contested zones, arenas and clan wars, with no loss of NFT or equipped items (see 13).

Interface

• Minimal HUD: discreet health and resource in the corners, skill bar that disappears out of combat, no permanent minimap (compass + lantern).
• Map, inventory and talents full screen, in a diary/parchment style.

Scale goals (concurrent)

Designed for 10,000 concurrent players per world at launch, ~500 per region server, ~100 visible in a city; clan wars of at most 50 vs 50 and alliance wars 100 vs 100, in instanced battlefields (05).

Out of scope at launch

Own boat, flying mounts, wings (36, only in Chapter 6) and player-created content. (NPC ferries and fishing arrive in Chapter 1; own boat in Chapter 3.) (Housing, shops, land mounts, farming, the economy and PvP entered the scope: see 08, 09, 10 and 13.)