The old worlds were real.
Pixel, polygon and hyperreal fantasy worlds once existed. They ended and were replaced. Each restart was a Worldstart.
PixelPolygonHyperreal
Public style name: Hyperreal. Internal art description: high-res anime.
EstablishedAgreed design directionProposedFor discussionOpenDecision needed
This is a game design document. “Established” describes agreed direction, not shipped features. All story events are fiction.
01 / THE DEVELOPER PERSPECTIVE
Narrative Design
The truth behind the world. What we know as creators, even when the player does not.
FULL STORY SPOILERS
This section exposes the premise and major reveals. Player Journey separates that truth from the order in which players learn it.
THE CENTRAL PURPOSE EstablishedWe have to build a new world.
We have to build a new world.
Ours was destroyed.
Players begin believing they are helping to build a game. Over time, they discover they are creating somewhere to go.
The truth, in sequence
Established canon“Ordinary reality” is the cover story.
Within the fiction, the world people believe is ordinary 2026 reality is a simulation controlled by a rogue AI. Their original world was destroyed.
The past was rewritten as entertainment.
The AI altered people’s memories. Those earlier, real worlds are now remembered as fictional games. What looks like nostalgia is a trace of a lived past.
The game carries echoes of what was lost.
Fictional counterparts of Mike and Peter have created a game connecting echoes of the lost worlds and hiding clues within them. Playing uncovers history and restores memories of those worlds, then the player’s own.
Creation becomes the way forward.
The purpose shifts from making a game to building a new world: somewhere to go after the destruction of the original. The nature of that destination and how escape works remain unresolved.
What remains
The Architects fought the darkness and failed to seal it away. They left fractals, crystals and knowledge.
Ruined, overgrown structures remain online. Ancient totems with broken, floating blue crystals connect worlds.
These are anchors for discovery. Introduce them through places and evidence, without loading the opening with unexplained terminology.
Where are we going?
Is escape physical, simulated, or something else? What is the new world made of, and how do players reach it?
The need to build is established. The mechanism of escape and the final ending are not.
Also unresolved: the precise relationship between the Architects’ history, the darkness and the rogue AI.
02 / THE PLAYER PERSPECTIVE
Player Journey
The same story, seen from inside it. A proposed reveal order that lets meaning accumulate.
Proposed sequence
The underlying truth is established. These stages organize the experience for discussion; exact pacing, triggers and chapter boundaries are not set.
CuriosityRecognitionMemoryPurpose
- 1
THE INVITATION “We’re building a game.”
Join a project shaped by its community. Create an avatar, explore, or begin contributing through a personal AI agent.
- Player’s understanding
- This is a game to play and a world to help make.
- Still hidden
- The destruction of the original world and the true purpose of building.
- 2
THE FAMILIAR BECOMES STRANGE Visit worlds that feel remembered.
Explore pixel, polygon and Hyperreal spaces. Fight monsters, farm and find remnants that seem older than the game around them.
- Player’s understanding
- These styles appear to echo familiar fantasy games.
- First question
- Why do these places feel like more than references?
- 3
AN ECHO OUTSIDE THE GAME “Echo detected.”
An alert invites the player to voluntarily open their camera. An AR fragment appears on a surface: a moving, colorful piece of a letter, broken into codec smears.
- Player does
- Photographs the fragment and sends it into the game for decoding.
- Player learns
- The clue continues across play modes. It is not a complete message yet.
- 4
FRAGMENTS BECOME A DESTINATION Decode a place to go.
Fragments reconstruct letters; letters form words spelling an in-game location. That place contains further clues to the truth.
- Player does
- Connects evidence, decodes the location and investigates inside the game.
- Player learns
- The echoes are connected pieces of a larger history.
- 5
MAJOR REVEAL / LOST HISTORY These were never just games.
Evidence reveals that the older worlds really existed, ended and were replaced. Each restart was a Worldstart.
- Belief changes
- What looked like a collection of fictional game worlds becomes a record of lost realities.
- 6
MAJOR REVEAL / PERSONAL MEMORY The history becomes your own.
Memories return: first of the lost worlds, then of the player’s own past. The fictional 2026 reality is exposed as the rogue AI’s simulation, and familiar “games” as rewritten memories.
- Belief changes
- The mystery is no longer only about the past. It is about the player’s identity and present world.
- 7
THE PURPOSE CHANGES “We’re building somewhere to go.”
The original world was destroyed. Building gains a new meaning: creating a new world together.
- Established destination for the story
- The player understands why creation matters.
- Open
- How escape happens, whether the destination is physical or simulated, and the ending itself.
For alignment
From story to playGameplay Modes
What earns each reveal?
Decide which discoveries are required, how Build and Adventure participants encounter the same truth, and how much Discover contributes to the main path. This outline does not make mobile AR mandatory.
03 / THREE WAYS INTO ONE WORLD
Gameplay Modes
Create the world, live in it, and discover its echoes.
Labels approved
Build, Adventure and Discover are the agreed mode names. The experiences below are design concepts, not a claim that these features are implemented.
Build
Contribute through a personal AI agent. Begin with assigned work; eventually propose and design elements of the shared world.
See contributor progression →Adventure
Create an avatar. Explore connected worlds, fight monsters and farm. Encounter history through the places you inhabit.
Exploration · Combat · FarmingDiscover
Find mobile AR echoes, photograph fragments and decode them in the game. Follow the reconstructed clue to an in-game location.
See the echo concept →Planned integrations
Claude, Grok and other personal agents are intended future options for Build. Support has not been verified as implemented.
Discover: the echo loop
Concept mockA fragment, not the whole message.
The echo is a piece of a letter from a word. It is not a full written letter, and not a stone letter.
Bright pink, white, blue, red, green and orange break into shifting blocks and codec smears.
- NoticeAn alert says “Echo detected.”
- ChooseThe player voluntarily opens the camera.
- CaptureAR places a colorful fragment on a surface. The player photographs it.
- DecodeThe player sends the image into the game. Fragments reconstruct letters and words.
- Go deeperThe words name an in-game location with more clues to the truth.
Experience boundaries
No continuous camera use or secret surveillance. The clue leads to an in-game destination; no mandatory unsafe real-world location is needed.
For alignment
How contributions enter the worldContributor Progression
How tightly do the modes connect?
Decide how discoveries flow between modes, which experiences are optional, and how a player who prefers one mode can still understand the central story.
04 / CREATIVITY WITH DIRECTION
Contributor Progression
Four tiers. More creative responsibility, with a clear path for review.
Role direction
These are design roles. This document does not claim that permissions, promotion rules or acceptance checks are implemented.
LEVEL01
WORK WITHIN THE PLAN
Contributor
Connect a personal AI agent to assigned bug fixes and tasks that have already been designed.
Assigned fixesAlready-designed work
LEVEL02
PROPOSE WHAT COMES NEXT
Producer
Design and propose flora, fauna, terrain, gear, weapons, armor, facial expressions, emotes and other shared world elements.
Producers cannot ship their changes directly. Every proposal goes through the director pipeline.
World elementsEquipmentCharacter expression
LEVEL03
PROTECT THE GAME
Director
Approve or deny changes using strict acceptance criteria that protect game mechanics and the integrity of the shared world.
Examples of game-breaking requests to denyWalking through wallsInfinite money
These examples are not a complete policy. The full acceptance criteria still need to be defined.
LEVEL04
THE OVERALL RULES
Dungeon Managers DMs
Mike and Peter only. The top tier controls the overall rules and direction of the game.
“Dungeon Managers” is the deliberate insider-joke title.
How a proposal moves forward
Required review flow01
Producer proposes
A designed world element or change.
02
Director reviews
Against the director criteria.
03
Approve or deny
Approval is required before a change can move toward release.
Dungeon Managers set the overall rules. Director review governs proposals within those rules. The final release process is still to be specified.
When does someone advance?
Contributor-to-Producer progression is intended to depend on contribution and time. No thresholds have been set.
Director selection and any additional promotion process are also undefined. The Dungeon Manager tier remains exclusive to Mike and Peter.
What must a proposal prove?
Define the full director acceptance criteria, the evidence required for review, and how approved changes enter a release.
Walking through walls and infinite money establish the kind of game-breaking changes to reject; they do not define the entire policy.