The first written design exercise explored how discovery, expressive builds, horde survival and caring for rescued people can support one coherent experience under the [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief).

This is the design plan for the registered [team](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Team), not settled game mechanics or permission to implement anything. No previous design settles the brief’s undecided systems.

Lead and Systems completed independent first positions on death costs and persistence; PM verified the actual files and released them together. Lead has submitted [Death and Persistence](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Death%20And%20Persistence), comparing recoverable pack loss with restoring pre-departure equipment while losing new material. Focused independent review is complete. Lead retains sole article ownership for one bounded author response clarifying comparative costs, cache persistence, continued exploration and conditional recovery; PM will inspect the revision before disposition. Claims that oxygen death necessarily marks maximum reach or that intact cached equipment has no cost are not established. No death-loss rule is adopted. The broader question of permanent survivor loss is reserved for a concrete rescue or colony decision; the current comparison need not settle it. Preserve the revival premise and its unresolved explanation. No implementation, simulation or playtest is authorized.

- Systems do not contradict one another, and the immediate goal and survival information remain understandable.