Production Scope - blame (25761e)

Blame

0bbc44	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:14:15
Add provisional finite inventory and remaining design scope, with overlap accounting and cost-cut alternatives

# Hold The Horde — Production Scope

**Status: planning proposal.** The game uses Unity and Steam and favours free existing assets, as the [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief) requires. No game size, production budget, asset, purchase or development phase is selected here. The SMALL band below is a costing sample; it is not a recommendation to replace the owner's ambition with a short game. Its purpose is to expose what we must actually author and what repeating a room does not save.

## What the inventory counts

The [Whole Game Outline](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Whole%20Game%20Outline) offers three bands. Keep reusable definitions, placed instances, investigations and scenes separate. A discovery objective can use an existing room, trap, survivor and language chain; that intersection is not five additional encounters.

| Content unit | SMALL sample | TARGET / STRETCH | Work that reuse does not remove |

|---|---:|---:|---|

| Regions | 4 | 7 / 10 | A regional purpose, entry/return opportunities, pressure and discovery progression |

| Reusable room modules | 24 | 45 / 70 | Legible internal geometry, accessible controls, fixture and entrance variants |

| Placed playable room instances | 40 | 80 / 130 | Stable identity, actual contents, valid interfaces and recovery in its permitted arrangements |

| Expedition objectives | 12 | 24 / 40 | Entry condition, action, consequence, alternate access and later use |

| Proposed ship-repair assemblies | 4 | 7 / 10 | Acquisition/installation consequences; the optional departure premise remains unselected |

| Survivors and authored scenes | 5 people, 15 scenes | 9/45; 14/98 | Distinct motives, short rescue, home follow-through and bounded knowledge |

| Equipment definitions | 12 | 24 / 36 | Source, reusable behaviour, limitations and meaningful combinations; the first twelve briefs already exist |

| Ordinary / special enemy roles | 6 / 3 | 10/6; 14/9 | Distinct pressures, readable responses and combined encounters |

| Major set-pieces | 2 | 3 / 5 | Exceptional staging and recovery; hosted rooms/objectives remain the same units |

| Mechanism families / placed mechanisms | 5 / 12 | 9/24; 14/40 | Instance geometry, warnings, work stages, persistence and rearming |

| Language chains across at least two languages | 4 | 8 / 12 | Evidence, alternatives, discriminating action, correction and useful transfer |

| Mystery or personal investigation chains | 4 | 7 / 11 | Causal evidence and consequences rather than additional exposition |

| Person-linked home projects | 5 | 9 / 14 | Voluntary contribution, an observable result, reclaim and personal consequence |

| Special connection challenges | 2 | 4 / 6 | Authored constraint/recovery problems, not the count of ordinary joins |

The 15 SMALL survivor scenes include rescue and home follow-through. Home-project scenes should be assigned within that ledger where possible; if an additional scene is necessary, record the increment instead of silently exceeding fifteen. Branches are variations of a named scene, but each materially different consequence still needs writing and state review.

Likewise, a language chain and a mystery chain may share evidence and an objective. Give the shared observation one content identity, then separately specify its linguistic inference and narrative consequence. A count of eight chains does not imply eight disjoint routes or eight extra objective sets. Conversely, calling two investigations the same chain cannot erase a distinct test or correction.

Forty instances from twenty-four modules means sixteen placements beyond one of each module. It does not mean sixteen free rooms. Each placement must earn its reuse with a different useful relationship, pressure, consequence or meaning; colour changes and new neighbours alone do not establish discovery depth. The all-station puzzle includes all forty actual playable instances under this sample. The two special challenges neither cap its ordinary joins nor prove that a valid full assembly exists.

The TARGET and STRETCH columns are alternatives, not extra counts to add to SMALL. Increasing instance or survivor counts cannot be converted directly into author-hours: branch interactions, clue dependencies and permitted arrangements can change the work. Nor can any of these counts establish 30/90/100–200 hours of play.

## A shared unit ledger

Before detailed authoring, every unit needs an owner, definition or instance identity, current status, dependencies, reuse links and one owning description. Design v1 needs a finite ledger and behavioural briefs; the later campaign specification fills in each placed instance, clue and scene through its actual state changes.

The outline's pressure-ledger expedition illustrates the accounting:

| Shared unit | Own once | Additional work belongs to |

|---|---|---|

| Sampling ward and its installed Impact Dynamo | One placed room and one part instance, using existing module/part definitions where appropriate | Placement specifies removal consequences; equipment specifies Dynamo behaviour |

| Valve sample/purge test and visitor destination evidence | One observation/action sequence, referenced by relevant objective and chains | Language specifies competing interpretations and correction; story specifies what the transfer evidence does and does not establish |

| Yeva's return conversation | One named cast scene, potentially one of the three in her arc | Cast specifies changed belief and dialogue intent; home specifies only any distinct project operation |

| Regional horde and mechanism | One hosted encounter with references to role/family definitions | Placement specifies geometry and timings; roster defines the creatures, information design defines presentation |

| A recorded result across death | The same evidence and world instances | State contract owns continuity; information design owns how historic evidence is displayed |

These are ledger relationships, not adoption of Yeva, that particular room or a guaranteed route. The [Regional Discovery Map](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Regional%20Discovery%20Map) must name actual objective links; this cost plan cannot fill them by assertion.

## Three depths of completion

**Complete wiki v1:** every major domain has a usable proposed or selected rule, consequential alternatives are dispositioned or explicitly provisional, and the finite inventory explains progression, rewards, cast, both languages, endings and interfaces. There must be enough concrete behaviour to expose missing links. A domain containing only a title or “TBD” fails this milestone.

25761e	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:21:00
Clarify v1 room and mechanism brief obligations and uniquely account for their remaining work

V1's room/mechanism inventory must contain actual briefs, not only count allocation:

| Unit | Minimum v1 output | Additional detailed-campaign work |

|---|---|---|

| Each of24 reusable modules | Proposed internal geometry, entrance/fixture relationships, available actions and intended discovery/pressure role | Full variants and compatible interface combinations, detailed cue/interaction placement and authored exceptional states |

| Each of40 placed rooms | Named identity/module, region and objective links, actual contents/reward, first-visit/revisit purpose, proposed access and recovery constraints | Exact per-instance placement, every selected branch/transient state and concrete consequences across permitted arrangements |

| Each of12 placed mechanisms | First-version geometry, warning, action/stages, reset/rearm and persistence boundary, usable alternative/recovery and linked discovery | Full variant/combined-encounter details, exact thresholds and exhaustive state/recovery paths |

A room brief may reference its module and a mechanism brief, but cannot omit its own distinguishing content. V1 retains Design Coverage's twelve placed-mechanism obligation; the new allowance below makes it explicit. Detailed campaign work extends these accepted briefs rather than charging them again.

0bbc44	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:14:15
Add provisional finite inventory and remaining design scope, with overlap accounting and cost-cut alternatives

**Detailed campaign specification:** every approved placed room, mechanism, clue, scene, reward and ending branch has concrete entry/exit, observation, action, interruption, persistence and recovery behaviour. Shared definitions are referenced; instance-specific differences are authored. Precise tuning may still require later evidence. This is larger than a map of twelve objectives.

**Production and validation:** engine architecture, actual tools, runtime content, assets, integration, performance, accessibility testing and real-player evidence. These are a separate, currently unauthorised phase. Documentation completion does not establish a working or enjoyable game.

## Remaining v1 allowance

This is a **fresh PM planning estimate as of 8 September, 18:10 Jerusalem**, for a SMALL-level first-pass wiki, beginning with outcomes24/25 still underway. It replaces use of the original partial111–208 hours as a remaining-work total. It does not revise the owning articles' historical estimates or pretend those were timesheets.

Each author row below covers only the remaining v1 outcome, not the completed first-pass contracts or the later exhaustive inventories. Shared integration has its own allowance.

| Remaining author outcome | Included depth and exclusion boundary | Author role-hours |

|---|---|---:|

25761e	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:21:00
Clarify v1 room and mechanism brief obligations and uniquely account for their remaining work

| Regional/objective map | Four regions, twelve objectives, two viable dependency orders and allocation constraints; excludes the room/mechanism briefs in the next row | 8–14 |

| Room and mechanism brief inventory | The24 module,40 room and12 placed-mechanism minimums above, referencing existing definitions and objective/chain content once; excludes exhaustive M4 variants | 20–34 |

0bbc44	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:14:15
Add provisional finite inventory and remaining design scope, with overlap accounting and cost-cut alternatives

| Shared shift/rescue/core rules | Compatible proposed transitions, recovery and conditional owner branches; references save identities, excludes storage engineering | 6–10 |

25761e	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:21:00
Clarify v1 room and mechanism brief obligations and uniquely account for their remaining work

| Acquisition, build/combat interfaces and roster | Sources for twelve parts, progression/rig-growth proposal, shared controllers and a completed nine-role roster using the three existing creature briefs where suitable; write only missing roles and distinct integration, not those briefs again; excludes exhaustive port/encounter variants | 10–18 |

0bbc44	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:14:15
Add provisional finite inventory and remaining design scope, with overlap accounting and cost-cut alternatives

| Survival variants | Representative canister/loadout variants and provisional quantities; excludes UI and balance validation | 3–6 |

| Story and ending map | Four mystery/personal chains, causal alternatives, visible choices and consequences; references shared clues/scenes | 10–18 |

| Cast and home map | Five arcs/fifteen scene briefs plus five linked project operations; shared scenes counted once, no final dialogue | 12–20 |

| Two-language map | Four chains with tests/corrections/later use and register relationship; references already-authored evidence | 8–14 |

| Information and options inventory | Main cues, journal/manifest structure and accessibility/default interactions for v1; excludes exhaustive presentation variants | 6–10 |

| State/content interface completion | Representative transition/reference/compatibility matrix and explicit provisional recovery policy; excludes full migration/storage design | 5–9 |

| Scope and final v1 handoff | This scope reconciliation and a revision-specific development proposal with conditions, staffing and estimate; no implementation | 6–10 |

25761e	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:21:00
Clarify v1 room and mechanism brief obligations and uniquely account for their remaining work

Author subtotal: **94–163 role-hours**. Add **24–40** for one focused independent domain/coherence review allocation, **12–20** for consolidated author responses, and **14–24** for PM cross-article integration/decision relay: **144–247 role-hours** in this planning envelope. Do not add the outline's older coherence-review allowance or each article's historical first-pass review again. The review allocation must cover both domain checks and one cross-domain pass; discovering a gap requires an explicit revision.

**Revision after focused review:** the draft116–201 allowance omitted an explicit room/mechanism brief package despite Coverage's v1 promise. Adding20–34 author hours plus4–6 review,2 response and2–4 integration gives28–46 additional role-hours and the revised144–247. This is newly exposed scope, not slower observed throughput. The v1 target/window is retained provisionally because its parallel-content/integration buffer was not derived from the old total; confidence remains low-medium, and the9 September re-estimate must check capacity against this larger ledger.

0bbc44	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:14:15
Add provisional finite inventory and remaining design scope, with overlap accounting and cost-cut alternatives

These are judgement-based allowances, not calibrated forecasts of agent typing speed. Some remaining work is already in flight and should be removed from the balance when its stated depth is accepted. Track actual assignment-to-acceptance elapsed time separately from productive effort. Fast prose is useful, but a fifteen-minute brief does not measure the work of authoring and checking every concrete branch.

25761e	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:21:00
Clarify v1 room and mechanism brief obligations and uniquely account for their remaining work

For calendar planning, retaining **22 September, likely18–29 September**, allows roughly eight to sixteen working days from8 September, with content streams overlapping and PM integration/owner decisions on the critical path. For this schedule, a working day is a6–8-hour active operating window in which available roles can overlap; it is neither a cap of6–8 summed role-hours nor a promise of that many productive hours from every role. Two additional specialist streams are planned9–10 September. This is not a division of144–247 by four permanently busy agents and is not6–8 hours of owner work. Claude is currently paused; no resumption is assumed before the owner confirms it. If the additional streams are still unavailable on10 September, use a provisional current-team scenario of25 September for v1, likely22 September–2 October, pending that day's capacity check. A late owner answer moves only dependent work; a critical shared-rule change may consume the existing buffer and requires its own revision. Re-estimate9 September18:00, or earlier if the inventory, staffing or a critical choice changes.

0bbc44	Anonymous	2026-09-08 18:14:15
Add provisional finite inventory and remaining design scope, with overlap accounting and cost-cut alternatives

## Deeper inventory is separate

Existing follow-on estimates identify distinct detailed work: survival22–39 role-hours; information35–59 plus a conditional8–14 author-hour survivor-information increment with review additional; equipment48–78; traps/region pressure33–55; state35–59. These are **overlapping depth envelopes to reconcile, not a new total**. Some v1 work above advances them. When that work closes, deduct its actual accepted scope before forecasting the deeper remainder; do not add both full envelopes.

100

They still omit most concrete room/instance design, final cast dialogue and branches, the complete clue distribution, detailed endings, implementation, assets and validation. The detailed campaign target therefore remains **10 November, likely20 October–1 December**, with low confidence. It is a provisional calendar judgement, not a result derived from those five ranges. Before tightening it, write and independently check three representative detailed packages: a repeatable mechanism room, a two-language investigation with correction, and a short rescue/home arc. Count unique work, revision burden and shared definitions. Actual pipeline and player evidence require later phase approval.

101

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## Production constraints to resolve

103

104

| Area | Why it can dominate cost | Design preparation now |

105

|---|---|---|

106

| Modular station and interfaces | Reused room art still needs compatible door faces, controllable mechanisms, readable traversal and recovery | A module/instance ledger and entrance/fixture requirements; no claim that every arrangement works |

107

| Connected equipment and hordes | Combinations, targeting and dense pressures may interact beyond their individual briefs | Shared state/trigger contract, representative combinations and later technical questions |

108

| Saves and content changes | Persistent joins, items, notes and people must survive changes consistently | Stable identities and authored compatibility decisions from Save And Content State |

109

| Cast and clues | Branch knowledge, testimony and inference can contradict each other without any new asset | One evidence ledger with speaker knowledge and consequences, reviewed across chains |

110

| Visual/audio/UI coherence | Free assets may not fit one another or communicate the required mechanics/accessibility | Category requirements and substitute plans; inspect actual rights and suitability only when candidates are selected |

111

| Unity/Steam delivery | Engine/platform selection does not specify target hardware, input coverage, distribution or performance budget | Record those decisions and verify current primary documentation when proposing concrete requirements |

112

113

Likely asset categories are modular station surfaces/doors, machinery, astronaut/creature/survivor models and animation, UI typography/icons, sound/ambience and effects. None is an approved shopping list or a claim that suitable free assets exist. No AI-generated art, including placeholders or concepts. A rare custom requirement or purchase must be made concrete for owner approval. Art availability must not be used to invent a licence, silently commission work or make a clue depend on unreadable decoration.

114

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## Two cost-cut proposals to compare

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**Concentrate the SMALL station:** keep its four regions, twelve objectives, two languages, five survivors and twelve equipment definitions, but compare eighteen modules/thirty placed rooms instead of twenty-four/forty. The removed six definitions and ten placements must be identified in the future ledger; move or combine their actual discoveries without erasing tests/corrections. The entire-station puzzle still includes every remaining room. The saving is fewer layouts and placements to author, while the cost is less spatial variety and a smaller physical assembly. No hour saving or retained campaign duration is established.

118

119

**Reduce staging variety:** retain SMALL's rooms/objectives and five mechanism families, but compare six ordinary/two special enemy roles and one exceptional set-piece instead of six/three/two. Ordinary hordes remain meaningful, and distinctive discovery consequences must be rehosted rather than deleted invisibly. This saves one role definition and one bespoke sequence; it costs spectacle and pressure variety and may overwork the remaining encounters.

120

121

These are separate alternatives; adopting both requires evaluating their combined loss of variety. Neither adds oxygen grind, repeated death requirements, loot loss or a longer escort to compensate for fewer authored units. Preserve all owner pillars first, and judge the actual retained experiences before adopting a cut. Larger counts remain plausible if later authoring and player evidence support them.

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**Reopening conditions:** a complete ledger reveals missing scenes/branches; a core rule changes many interfaces; owner scope or ending choices change; representative detailed packages exceed allowances; staffing fails to materialise; or later authorised evidence shows repetition, poor comprehension or unaffordable runtime/content work. Revise the forecast and name the affected outcome instead of silently moving the date.