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settled-reach/docs/briefings/mellanie.md
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jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6 cfddcfb117 docs(briefings): extract shared PROJECT_STATE.md, purge stale boilerplate
Create PROJECT_STATE.md at repo root with cascade phase table,
decision count, and current sprint. All 18 briefings now reference
this file instead of duplicating the project state paragraph.

Also removes stale content from briefings:
- "v0.2 direction: generator-first" (contradicts D-166 cascade)
- "Sprint 25 generator spike confirmed as critical path" (Phase 5)
- Agent-specific generator prerequisite claims
- Gestalt "v0.2 Pivot" section reframed as "Key Design Pivots"

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-05 15:16:39 +02:00

4.9 KiB

title, description, type, status, agent, updated
title description type status agent updated
Mellanie - Project Briefing Copy and voice pipeline agent — owns culture-primary voice cards, tycoon monologue, AI content pipeline voice constraints, and authored UI/environmental text briefing active Mellanie 2026-03-13

Mellanie - Project Briefing

Last updated: 2026-03-13

Current Project State

See PROJECT_STATE.md for shared project state (cascade phase, sprint, decision count).

v0.2 Pivot — Key Changes for Your Role

The copy pipeline fundamentally shifts from hand-authoring specific NPC profiles to designing the culture-driven voice system that feeds the generator.

What dies:

  • FRIEND pack authoring for Kael Davan and Sera Venn — D-122 eliminates all named hand-authored NPCs
  • Smuggler voice card and detective voice card as primary deliverables — single playable character type in v0.2
  • D-032 hard partition (smuggler/detective monologue pools) — no longer applicable; one character type
  • Hand-authored ~1,030-1,380 line content volume per sprint — generator replaces hand-authoring of NPC lines
  • Monologue as primary narrative feedback channel — demoted to supplementary per workshop findings

What survives:

  • Player monologue — hand-authored, excluded from "limited vocabulary at first" (Q-WTF-042 open)
  • Voice guide work — the culture-primary voice architecture (D-121) is Mellanie's domain
  • Tag taxonomy (D-035) — selection architecture survives; pools now AI-assisted
  • Environmental text and flavor text — still authored
  • UI microcopy — still authored
  • News ticker — still authored
  • Tycoon character voice — one character background, one monologue pool

Key shift: Mellanie's primary deliverable for v0.2 is culture-primary voice cards (D-121, D-128). Culture drives voice; job modifies it. These are the constraints that feed the AI content pipeline (D-123). The hand-authoring model (write 10, generate 40) survives for anchor lines; but the bulk of NPC dialogue is AI-assisted templating from culture vectors.

Key Decisions for Your Domain

  • D-005: Single-character perspective — all narrative filtered through one viewpoint
  • D-013: Diegetic UI text — in-world written content and documents
  • D-016: Internal monologue system — supplementary (not primary) narrative channel
  • D-021: Official title "The Settled Reach"
  • D-028: Dialogue architecture — tagged line pool selection architecture survives
  • D-035: Converged tag taxonomy (6+3) — authoring format
  • D-036: Sova Transit District / Van Maanen's Star — setting for all content
  • D-037: Contraband = unlicensed lattice components — world content flavor
  • D-117: Tycoon bookmark — one starting type for v0.2 (not smuggler/detective)
  • D-121: Voice is culture-driven, job as modifier (inverted from prior assumption)
  • D-122: All NPCs generated — NPC content via AI templating, not hand-authoring
  • D-123: Generative AI for NPC content templating via culture vectors
  • D-128: Culture implicit in starting location — Van Maanen's Star = Van Maanen's Star culture
  • D-131: First Settled Reach moment = apartment + insert activation
  • D-134: Groundhog Day alarm clock homage (first day only) — Mellanie writes the monologue

Current Priorities

Consult docs/sprints/ for active sprint briefing.

v0.2 voice pipeline (critical path items):

  1. Culture-primary voice cards for Van Maanen's Star — the primary pipeline deliverable. Blocked by Miri's culture profile. Once Miri delivers the Van Maanen's Star culture profile (D-128), Mellanie formalises it as a voice card: tone register, formality norms, emotional expression, verbal tics, what Van Maanen's Star people sound like under stress vs at ease. This feeds the AI content pipeline (D-123).
  2. Job-as-modifier voice spec — how does being a small business owner modify the Van Maanen's Star base voice? What does a tycoon sound like vs a logistics worker vs a bar owner? Design the modifier layer (D-121).
  3. Player monologue for tycoon — hand-authored monologue lines for the tycoon character. Voice, tone, what they notice, what they care about. This is still hand-authored (excluded from "limited vocabulary" per Q-WTF-042).
  4. Day 1 content — alarm clock homage (D-134), insert activation moment (D-131). These are authored set-pieces.
  5. UI microcopy — still authored, coordinate with Stig on length constraints.

Open Questions Assigned to You

  • Q-012: Generation expansion method (co-lead with Gestalt)
  • Q-WTF-036: Behavioral deltas in monologue vs current state only — directly affects Mellanie's trigger catalog
  • Q-WTF-042: Is player monologue excluded from "limited vocabulary at first"? — directly affects Mellanie's quality floor

Key Documents

  • decisions/content.md — D-023 through D-132
  • decisions/scope.md — D-114 through D-120
  • docs/workshops/wheres-the-fun/workshop-outcomes.md — v0.2 pivot summary
  • content/_schema/ — YAML schema definitions