Quartz 5

Game Design

5 min read

Game Design

This document details the game concepts, loops, mechanics, and design decisions for CROSS.

🔁 Core Game Loop

graph TD
    A[Viewer Joins Chat / Uses Extension] --> B[Spawn Avatar on Stream Screen]
    B --> C[Wave Spawns: Monsters attack rooms]
    C --> D[Avatars auto-fight & Viewers trigger abilities]
    D --> E{Defeated?}
    E -- Yes --> F[Earn XP, Gold & Resources]
    E -- No --> G[Rooms damaged, Gold spent to repair]
    F --> H[Use Gold to upgrade own Character]
    F --> I[Contribute Resources to Streamer's Rooms]
    I --> J[Unlock global/local buffs & unique cosmetics]
  1. Spawning: Viewers spawn their character by sending a message in chat (e.g., !join) or interacting with a Twitch overlay extension.
  2. Defending: Waves of enemies spawn from the left side of the screen and march rightwards toward the streamer’s rooms. Active avatars engage them.
  3. Rewards: Clearing waves grants Gold (for personal character progression) and Resources (for room building).
  4. Base Building: Viewers donate their resources to help the streamer build and upgrade rooms.
  5. Progression: Personal characters maintain their level, class, equipment, and resources when moving from one streamer’s channel to another.

🛡️ Character Classes & Progression (Inspired by “The Dark Herbalist”)

To support a deep RPG system suitable for both cross-stream play and a future standalone solo game, character profiles are split into three layers: Race, Combat Class, and Profession.

🎭 Character Layers

  1. Races (with stat/social modifiers):
    • Goblin: Low physical stats, stealth/trap-finding bonuses, faster gathering, but carries negative faction rep with standard towns.
    • Human: Balanced stats, increased reputation gains, standard vendors friendly.
    • Elf: Magical affinity, faster organic resource collection, lower physical defense.
    • Dwarf: High armor/HP, mining and blacksmithing bonuses.
  2. Combat Classes: Traditional archetypes (Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Priest) that branch into specialized subclasses in the solo game.
  3. Non-Combat Professions: Essential for gathering/crafting.
    • Herbalist: Passively gathers virtual herbs on the stream plane, identifies rare flora, mixes raw poultices.
    • Alchemist: Brews complex potions, poisons, and buffs using gathered ingredients.
    • Scribe / Translator: Deciphers ancient scripts, writes spell scrolls, translates languages.
    • Miner / Blacksmith: Extracts ores and crafts unique equipment.

⚔️ State-Based Chat Commands (No Chat Spam)

Rather than spamming commands to trigger instant actions, chat commands toggle character states. Once a state is entered, the character acts automatically until the state is changed or all enemies are dead.

State CommandTarget/ArgumentBehavior
!attack[enemy_name] (optional)Pathfinds to target or nearest enemy; hits automatically at weapon speed until combat ends.
!support<username>Pathfinds to player and stays in range to heal or buff them.
!goto<position>Walks to coordinate (e.g. left, right, room1). Autodefends/attacks if blocked on path.
!defendNoneStands still at current location, gaining +20% armor bonus but refusing to initiate combat.

💥 Physical Interception Aggro

  • Aggro Draw: A player draws an enemy’s attention simply by moving their character’s collision boundary directly into the enemy’s path. Intercepting or blockading an enemy stops it from marching towards the building.
  • Subclass Skills: Taunts (like a Warrior’s area-of-effect cry) are secondary active abilities used to pull multiple enemies in a wider radius.

📦 Interactive Object Components (Post-MVP)

Objects and rooms crafted by streamers/viewers can have predefined, configurable behaviors attached to them:

  • Bottle / Flask: Fillable, Drinkable
  • Chair / Throne: Sitable
  • Door / Gate: OpenClosable
  • Chest: Storable, Lockable

These components allow high gameplay extensibility without writing custom scripts for every custom asset.

🏰 Room Building System

Streamers start with a bare plane and a few empty slots on the right side of the overlay screen. Viewers can contribute to construction projects.

Room Types

  • The Blacksmith:
    • Function: Upgrades viewer weapon damage while in this stream.
    • Viewer Benefit: Contributor gets a permanent discount on blacksmith gear.
  • The Tavern:
    • Function: Increases passive XP gain rate.
    • Viewer Benefit: Unlocks unique food/potion buffs.
  • The Keep/Core:
    • Function: Represents the overall health of the streamer’s base.
    • Viewer Benefit: Provides defensive shields to defending avatars.

Contributions & Cooperation

  • Viewers pool their resources (e.g., Wood, Stone, Iron) gathered from any stream to fund construction.
  • Upgrades require streamer approval (or automatic criteria met) to complete.
  • Dynamic visual growth: Rooms start as scaffolds and morph into complete, animated 2D buildings.

🔮 Twitch-Specific Integrations

1. Chat vs. Overlay Extension

  • Chat Commands: Low barrier to entry, works on all platforms (mobile, TV, web). However, can lead to spam.
  • Twitch Overlay Extension (WebGL/HTML5): Clickable visual interface on top of the video player. Viewers click buttons to use abilities, view their inventory, and equip gear. Highly recommended for premium UX.

2. Raid Boss Events

  • When another streamer raids the channel, the game triggers a Raid Boss event.
  • The Raid Boss is styled or named after the raiding streamer.
  • Viewers must cooperate in real-time to defeat the boss, rewarding both chats with loot and bonuses.

3. AFK Prevention

  • To prevent viewers from farming rewards in 24/7 lurk streams, players must perform active actions (e.g., using an ability, chatting, clicking active events) to receive full rewards.
  • Auto-sleep mode: If a viewer has not interacted for 15+ minutes, their avatar goes to “sleep” and stops gaining rewards.

Graph View

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