settled-reach/docs/briefings/araminta.md

title, description, type, status, agent, updated

title	description	type	status	agent	updated
Araminta - Project Briefing	Visual art director responsible for zone visual grammar, tile palettes, entity color system, and placeholder art pipeline — generator-critical visual deliverables for v0.2	briefing	active	Araminta	2026-03-13

Araminta - Project Briefing

Last updated: 2026-03-13

Current Project State

The Settled Reach: top-down immersive sim, single-character perspective, asymmetric information core mechanic, Rimworld-style storyteller. 137+ confirmed decisions. Where's the Fun? Workshop complete (2026-03-05) — 24 decisions locked. v0.2 direction: generator-first proof-of-life, tycoon bookmark, all NPCs generated. Sprint 25 generator spike confirmed as critical path. Araminta's zone visual grammar and tile palettes are generator prerequisites — on the critical path.

v0.2 Pivot — Key Changes for Your Role

The visual system shifts from designing layouts for three hand-crafted social sites to designing the visual grammar that the generator uses to produce legible zones at scale.

What changes:

• The three specific social sites (Logistics Hub, The Last Shift bar, maintenance corridors) are no longer hand-crafted deliverables. They become instances of generated zone types.
• D-033 player color split (smuggler #e8e0d0 / detective #e0e8ff) no longer applies — single tycoon character type in v0.2.
• D-034 FRIEND visual treatment as an authoring assignment is gone — the FRIEND pattern is now a generator template; Araminta's role is ensuring the entity color system communicates relationship progression clearly for generated NPCs.
• Spatial layout deliverables shift: instead of three specific floor plans, Araminta produces zone type visual rules that the generator instantiates.

What survives:

• D-033 entity color = relationship to player (unknown teal, friendly green, POI amber, hostile red) — unchanged
• Insert/minimap visual language
• Monologue display system
• Phase 1-3 placeholder art pipeline
• Zone palette identities (D-036 three-zone breakdown maps to generator zone types)

New critical path items (Araminta prerequisites for generator spike):

• Zone visual grammar — what each zone type looks like visually; tile palette per zone type
• Character creation visual spec — full character customisation (D-126): hair, clothing, colours

Decisions Relevant to Your Role

• D-013: Diegetic insert/POI navigation — in-world UI aesthetic
• D-015: Camera locked to character — vision cone presentation
• D-016: Internal monologue — text presentation, typography, positioning
• D-017: Perception mode overlays
• D-018: Three-range sound — visual indicators for medium range
• D-019: Top-down art style
• D-021: Official title "The Settled Reach"
• D-033: Entity color = relationship to player (palette unchanged)
• D-036: Sova Transit District visual zones — maps to generator zone types
• D-114: v0.2 proof-of-life = generator + graphics (graphics = Araminta's domain)
• D-117: Tycoon bookmark — single character type, apartment wakeup, goes to work
• D-119: Generator spike Sprint 25 — Araminta's zone visual grammar is a prerequisite
• D-122: All NPCs generated — visual system must handle generator-created entities
• D-126: Full character customisation (hair, clothing, colours)
• D-128: Culture implicit in starting location — visual language should communicate Van Maanen's Star culture
• D-131: First Settled Reach moment = apartment + insert activation — visual priority
• D-135: Setting delivery via both layers (visual + insert) in parallel

Open Questions Assigned to You

• Q-003: Art direction (LEAD)
• Q-WTF-039: Character creation screen — portrait render or tile-scale preview?
• Q-WTF-040: Do creation choices trace into the generated apartment?

Current Priorities

Consult docs/sprints/ for active sprint briefing.

Zone visual grammar is the single most important visual deliverable for the generator spike.

1. Zone type visual grammar — blocked by Miri's zone identity spec. Once Miri delivers zone type definitions, Araminta produces tile palette and visual rules per zone type. Blocked by: Miri zone identity spec. Blocks: Tyre generator zone template parameters.
2. Character customisation visual spec — hair, clothing, colours (D-126). What are the customisation dimensions? What does the creation screen communicate? Feeds Q-WTF-039 (portrait vs tile-scale preview).
3. Apartment visual spec — generated apartment reflects economic position. What does a small business owner's apartment look like visually? How does the generator know which tiles/props to use? Q-WTF-040 feeds into this.
4. Entity color system for generated NPCs — D-033 palette unchanged. Ensure relationship transition visuals (especially the first green→amber shift) work with generated NPC names and labels, not hand-authored ones.
5. Insert/HUD wireframe for tycoon — single character type variant (vs previous smuggler/detective dual variants). One lattice_profile parameter for v0.2.

Placeholder art pipeline (status)

• Phase 1 (Structural): tile floor plans, entity rectangles, fog rendering — establish zone type rules
• Phase 2 (Information): insert overlay, monologue display, dialogue panel — adapt for tycoon character
• Phase 3 (Atmosphere): zone palettes per generated zone type, character customisation display
• Phase 4 (Polish): sprite replacements, animations — post-generator spike

Note: Image generation via /asset-gen costs money — always get Team Leader permission before generating.

Key Documents

• decisions/perception.md — D-011 through D-019, D-033
• decisions/scope.md — D-114 through D-120
• decisions/content.md — D-036, D-126 through D-131
• docs/workshops/wheres-the-fun/workshop-outcomes.md — v0.2 pivot summary, dependency chain