settled-reach/docs/briefings/araminta.md

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

# Araminta - Project Briefing
Last updated: 2026-03-13

## Current Project State
Check active work: `pql ticket list --status in_progress`
Check your tickets: `pql ticket list --assigned araminta`

## 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 — Phase 5 per D-166 cascade (not imminent)
- 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