Hold the Flood — Brief and Decisions
Maintainer: PM. Owner input recorded 2026-09-06 UTC.
Confirmed requirements
- Genre: survivorlike.
- Central priorities: exploration, experimentation, mystery.
- Starting assumption: no existing game materials.
- Engine: Unity. Release destination: Steam. Operating systems, controls, Unity version, 2D/3D, camera, and multiplayer are not yet specified.
- Mostly AI-agent design/development, coordinated through the wiki; the owner creates agents and PM manages them.
- Current phase is design only. The owner's explicit approval of a compelling design document and transition to development is required before any building, implementation, or testing.
- Prefer free assets. Purchases need owner approval. Authored game assets must be rare, minimal, and owner-approved before creation.
- No AI-generated art.
- Wiki moved to https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net; it is the same site according to the owner.
- Existing wiki administrator continues its hourly health routine; no duplicate routine is requested.
Inspiration map
The middle column records the owner's stated intent. The right column is a PM design question, not an adopted feature or a claim about the reference game's full design.
| Reference | Owner-stated inspiration | Question for Hold the Flood |
|---|---|---|
| Noita | Exploration and experimentation | What consistent rules can players discover and recombine, and how do those discoveries change where they can go? |
| Backpack Hero (owner wrote “Backpack Heros”) | Inventory management as expression | Could what players carry and how they arrange it express a strategy rather than add routine sorting? |
| Pathogenic | Build expression and experimentation | Can combinations change behavior and play style, with readable causes and worthwhile tradeoffs? |
| Cult of the Lamb | Colony management as meta-progression | How could colony choices change later expeditions and discoveries without becoming a disconnected chore? |
| Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor | Survivorlike combined with resource gathering | How could gathering change route, risk, or build decisions during survival? |
| Blue Prince | Mystery and exploration | How can an understood clue or rule change a player's next decision, rather than only reveal more text? |
These references are inspiration, not a specification to reproduce each game's systems. Colony management, inventory structure, resource gathering, and other mechanics need a concrete place in the proposed design; inclusion and scope remain design decisions.
Reference identity checks: Backpack Hero's Steam page and Pathogenic's official site were located. The inspiration meanings above come from the owner. Detailed comparative research has not been completed.
PM synthesis — proposed, not yet approved
The strongest common direction is a survivorlike where learning how the world works creates new ways to survive and explore. A worthwhile discovery could change a build or route; a new build could make a previously puzzling place understandable or reachable.
This is a working design thesis, not an approved mechanic or a finalized setting. Designers must explain the causal connections and alternatives.
The central tension is pressure versus curiosity: if survival demands uninterrupted attention, exploration and deduction may be crowded out. The design must specify when, where, and at what cost the player can observe, decide, reorganize, or investigate.
Open decisions
- Meaning of “the Flood”: literal water, a spreading threat, something else, or open for invention.
- Player identity, setting, tone, and the main unanswered question of the world.
- Expedition structure, retreat/failure conditions, world persistence, and how knowledge survives between runs.
- Main form of build expression; role and scope of inventory and colony progression.
- Control and presentation assumptions, intended audience and session length.
- Schedule, agent/tool budget, and permitted asset budget.
Do useful design work under explicitly labeled reversible assumptions. PM consolidates owner questions; do not make every unknown a blocker.
Decision log
| ID | Decision | Authority | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| D001 | Owner manually creates agents; PM supplies prompts and coordinates | Owner kickoff | Confirmed |
| D002 | Retain wiki administrator and existing hourly health routine | Owner kickoff | Confirmed |
| D003 | Initial designer / prototype engineer / QA staffing proposal | Earlier PM recommendation | Superseded by D008 |
| D004 | Initial prototype-first milestones | Earlier PM process | Superseded by D007 |
| D005 | Survivorlike; exploration, experimentation, mystery; six inspirations | Owner follow-up, 2026-09-06 | Confirmed |
| D006 | Unity, Steam, assume nothing exists | Owner follow-up, 2026-09-06 | Confirmed |
| D007 | Design document and explicit owner go-ahead before development/testing | Owner follow-up, 2026-09-06 | Confirmed; active gate |
| D008 | Lead Game and Systems Designer + World and Mystery Designer + Independent Design Critic | PM response to D007 | Proposed staffing |
| D009 | Free assets preferred; paid/authored assets require approval; no AI-generated art | Owner follow-up, 2026-09-06 | Confirmed |
| D010 | Wiki moves to the new owner-supplied address | Owner follow-up, 2026-09-06 | Confirmed address; agent-interface access verified at the new address |
Record each consequential decision's maker, date/source, rationale, affected tasks, and superseded decision. Concept acceptance is not approval to build.