- 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.

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](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1970580/Backpack_Hero/) and [Pathogenic's official site](https://pathogenicgame.com/) were located. The inspiration meanings above come from the owner. Detailed comparative research has not been completed.

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.

- 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.

| 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 |