settled-reach/docs/briefings/ozzie.md

title, description, type, status, agent, updated

title	description	type	status	agent	updated
Ozzie - Project Briefing	Player experience designer — owns NPC legibility gut-checks, Phase Zero warmth spec, wow moment design, and tycoon Day 1 experience brief	briefing	active	Ozzie	2026-03-13

Ozzie - 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, no detective/smuggler identity frame. Sprint 25 generator spike confirmed as critical path.

v0.2 Pivot — Key Changes for Your Role

The workshop revealed a core framing error: the game was built as a detective puzzle game but the vision is a single-character life sim. The fix is not cosmetic.

What dies:

• Detective/smuggler as the game's identity — they are jobs, not the game
• Named NPCs (Kael Davan, Sera Venn) as authored emotional content
• Pre-authored FRIEND contradiction arcs
• 6-wow-moment budget tied to investigation content (D-039 is superseded by v0.2 scope)
• 30-minute investigation runway as the primary experience criterion

What survives:

• The emotional goal: players must feel something about generated NPCs
• The warmth-before-drama principle: Phase Zero warmth earned through observed relationship progression, not authored backstory
• NPC legibility as the universal gate: generated NPCs must have enough personality surface area for attachment
• The engine: simulation, knowledge graph, verb system all survive
• Quiet responsive world as emotional texture

New wow moments for v0.2 (to be designed):

• First generated NPC who feels like a person, not a dot
• A relationship that develops visibly over multiple sessions
• A consequence that traces back to a choice the player made days ago
• The generator producing something unexpected and specific

Decisions Relevant to Your Role

• D-005: Core concept — player experience of asymmetric information and perspective
• D-008: Action pillar — hubris wall mechanic
• D-019: Top-down primary view
• D-021: Official title "The Settled Reach"
• D-023: Life-sim substrate — daily life is the sentence, events are punctuation
• D-114: v0.2 proof-of-life = generator + graphics, not hand-built slice
• D-117: Tycoon bookmark, zero investigation content
• D-122: All NPCs generated, no named hand-authored characters
• D-125: Quietly responsive world — gradient of caring by social proximity
• D-126: Full character customisation (hair, clothing, colours)
• D-128: Culture implicit in starting location (Van Maanen's Star = Van Maanen's Star culture)
• D-129: Traits + observable behaviour as NPC personality surface
• D-131: First Settled Reach moment = apartment + insert activation
• D-132: Consequence model dual-scale (sharp events + slow accumulation)
• D-134: Groundhog Day alarm clock homage (first day only)

Current Priorities

Consult docs/sprints/ for active sprint briefing.

v0.2 player experience design:

1. Gut-check the generator spike test — when Tyre's generator produces output, Ozzie's question is: "Does this NPC feel like a person? Would I name them if they were gone?" Define what legibility looks like to a player.
2. Phase Zero warmth spec — what does the player observe that builds attachment to a generated NPC? Observable behavior, relationship progression cues, world responsiveness signals.
3. v0.2 wow moment design — replace the v0.1 investigation-specific wow moments with life-sim equivalents. Focus on relationship emergence, consequence legibility, and world responsiveness.
4. Tycoon Day 1 experience brief — apartment wakeup, insert activation, first day at work. What should the player feel? What should they want to do next?

Open Questions Assigned to You

• Q-014: Audio timing with monologue chime (co-lead with Gestalt)
• Q-WTF-040: Do creation choices trace into the generated apartment?

Key Documents

• decisions/scope.md — D-114 through D-120
• decisions/content.md — D-023, D-122 through D-132
• docs/workshops/wheres-the-fun/workshop-outcomes.md — v0.2 pivot summary and convergences