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Game Design Document

Ascension: The Lost Archives - A tower-climbing ARPG

Overview

Players create a character, fight monsters in town wilderness or tower dungeons, level up, unlock skills, and climb the tower floor by floor. Each floor increases in difficulty with stronger monsters.

Core Loop

Town (hub) → Kill Monsters → Level Up → Tower (challenge) → Return to Town
     ↑                                         │
     └────────── Death/Complete ←─────────────┘
  1. Town - Safe zone, heal at well, prepare for adventure
  2. Wilderness - Hunt monsters around town, gain XP
  3. Tower - Procedural dungeon floors with rooms, corridors, monsters
  4. Return - Exit portal returns to town

Controls

Action Input
Move Click on ground/floor
Attack monster Click monster (enables auto-attack, moves to range)
Toggle auto-attack Press 1
Use skills Press 2-0
Character screen Press C
Heal Click well
Enter tower Click tower entrance (requires 5 kills)
Exit dungeon Click exit portal

See CONTROLS.md for full reference.

Classes

Class Primary Stat Specialization
Warrior Strength Melee damage, AoE, buffs
Archer Agility Ranged damage, multi-target, evasion
Mage Intellect Spell damage, AoE, healing

Combat

Auto-Attack System

  • Toggle: Press '1' or click monster to enable
  • Range: 3.5 units
  • Cone: 180° front arc
  • Behavior: Automatically attacks nearest enemy in cone when cooldown ready
  • Disable: Click floor or interactable

Attack Cooldowns

Entity Cooldown
Player 500ms
Slime 1000ms
Rat 800ms
Skeleton 1200ms

Damage Calculation

baseDamage = 8 + (primaryStat * 2)
finalDamage = baseDamage * skillDamageMultiplier

Floating Damage Numbers

  • Yellow: Damage to monsters
  • Red: Damage to player
  • Size scales with damage amount

Progression

Experience

Monster XP
Slime 15
Rat 12
Skeleton 30

Level Up

  • XP threshold: floor(150 * 1.5^(level-1))
  • Grants: +3 attribute points
  • Skill unlocks at levels 2, 4, 6

Skills

Warrior:

Level Skill Type Cooldown
1 Attack Enemy 0
2 Power Strike Enemy 5s
4 Whirlwind AoE 4u 8s
6 Battle Cry Self 20s

Archer:

Level Skill Type Cooldown
1 Attack Enemy 0
2 Aimed Shot Enemy 4s
4 Multi Shot AoE 8u 7s
6 Evasion Self 15s

Mage:

Level Skill Type Cooldown
1 Attack Enemy 0
2 Fireball Enemy 4s
4 Frost Nova AoE 5u 8s
6 Heal Self 15s

Attributes

Attribute Effect per Point
Strength +2 melee damage (Warrior)
Agility +2 ranged damage (Archer)
Intellect +2 spell damage (Mage)
Stamina +10 max HP, +1 HP regen/30s

World Layout

Town

         [Tower Entrance] (0, 38)
                │
                │ path
                │
    ┌───────────────────────────────┐
    │           TOWN                │
    │   Cottage  Tower    Shop      │  ← Safe zone (radius 12)
    │      │      │       │         │
    │      └──────┼───────┘         │
    │            Well              │
    └───────────────────────────────┘
         │                    │
    [Western Field]      [Eastern Field]
    (monsters)           (monsters)

Tower Dungeons

  • Rooms: 5 + floor * 2 per floor
  • Layout: Sequential rooms connected by corridors
  • Monsters: 1-2 per room, scaled by floor
  • Lighting: Torches in corners and corridors
  • Exit: Portal in final room

Monster Scaling

Per floor multiplier: 1 + (floor - 1) * 0.3

Floor HP Mult Damage Mult
1 1.0x 1.0x
2 1.3x 1.3x
3 1.6x 1.6x
5 2.2x 2.2x
10 3.7x 3.7x

Monster Leash

Monsters return to spawn point if they chase 20+ units away.

Persistence

Characters saved to localStorage:

interface CharacterSave {
  id: string
  name: string
  class: 'warrior' | 'archer' | 'mage'
  stats: {
    level: number
    xp: number
    xpToNextLevel: number
    kills: number
    highestFloor: number
    playTimeMs: number
    attributes: { strength: number; agility: number; intellect: number; stamina: number }
    unspentPoints: number
  }
  position: { floor: number; x: number; z: number }
}

Save migration handles older versions without attributes.

Multiplayer

  • Up to 5 players per session
  • WebRTC peer-to-peer via Go signaling server
  • Host authority for combat/AI
  • Client prediction for movement

See signaling/README.md for setup.

Future Features

Short Term

  • Equipment system (weapons, armor)
  • Consumables (health potions)
  • More monster types
  • Boss fights every 5 floors

Medium Term

  • Loot drops
  • Town NPCs (merchant, blacksmith)
  • Quest system
  • Dungeon themes (cave, ruins, fortress)

Long Term

  • Skill trees
  • Persistent world
  • Guild system
  • PvP arena
  • Seasonal events

Balance Notes

Current Philosophy

  1. Deliberate combat - Attacks have weight, cooldowns matter
  2. Positioning matters - 180° cone requires facing enemies
  3. Risk/reward - Higher floors = better XP but more danger
  4. Progression feel - Each level unlocks tangible power

Target Balance

  • Player kills slime in ~4 hits (early floors)
  • Slime kills player in ~15 hits
  • Level 2 achievable after ~10 kills
  • First skill unlock feels impactful

Content Pipeline

Adding New Monsters

  1. Define stats in types/entities.ts MONSTER_DEFAULTS
  2. Add 3D model in entities/Monster.tsx
  3. Add XP value in systems/LevelingSystem.ts
  4. Add spawn points in scene

Adding New Skills

  1. Define in types/skills.ts
  2. Add to CLASS_SKILL_BARS
  3. Handle special logic in systems/SkillSystem.ts if needed

Adding New Floors

Floors are auto-generated. To add variety:

  1. Add room size variations in generateDungeon()
  2. Add new monster types to spawn pool
  3. Adjust scaling in FloorScene.tsx