GameDesign.md

Gameplay

Controls

Key	Description
Mouse	Look around. Depending on your current action and held object, character turn speed might be limited.
WASD	Walk.
Space	Hold to jump higher, then release. Slows you down while you're charging your jump.
Shift	Sprint. Uses stamina, similar to other actions.
Ctrl	Walk / sneak (different animation depending on stance). Reduces the amount of sound you make.
Tab	Switch stances (Passive / Combat). Draws the weapons you were holding last or puts them away if possible.
Tab x2	Switch to Combat stance and draw sheathed / equipped weapons, dropping whatever you were holding.

Advanced movement

Key	Description
Ctrl + Shift	Hold for some time to start crawling. Automatically exits Combat stance. Hold Space to stand up again.
Shift + WASD x2	Short dash, with minor short slowdown afterwards.
Shift + WASD x2 + Space	Long dash, with medium, slightly longer slowdown afterwards?
Ctrl + WASD x2	Roll?

Depending on your equipment and held objects, certain movement options might not be available or you will be slowed down, for example when carrying a heavy object.

Held objects

Character is two-handed, each mouse button controls one hand. It is possible to carry large and/or heavy objects with both hands. Different modifier keys affect how the held object is used. The modifier key only needs to be held when you press the mouse button. You may let go off the key afterwards to prepare a different type of action.

Modifier	Description
None (Passive)	Use. (This will never hurt entities to avoid accidents.)
None (Combat)	Attack. Hold to charge. (Move mouse to swipe a certain direction?)
Interact (F)	Pick up / place down / switch. Highlights possible objects to interact with. Depending on the size / weight of the object, this may take some time.
Throw (T)	Drop. Hold to throw. Distance depends on weight.

Pressing Interact followed by clicking both mouse buttons, the objects in your hands will be swapped out with each other. Holding the mouse buttons instead will attempt to use both hands together. (Such as combining objects, taking an item out of a pouch with an empty hand, ...)

For most items, an ongoing action, especially ones that are charged up and are waiting for you to release the mouse button, can be cancelled by pressing the other mouse button at the same time. As such, there's only very few special items which may be used at the same time.

One exception to this rule is for example shields. Another item can be used while the shield is being used (held up to block). However, if you're charging an attack, pressing the button for the shield will cancel that attack, instead.

For objects held with both hands, both buttons must be held down.

Crafting

Tools

Category	Material	Description
Smash	Many	Breaks things into smaller bits, possibly dust. Useful for early game resource collection, not any meaninful precision work.
Shape	Stone/Metal	Changes the shape of things, either by breaking off parts or hammering metal into the desired shape. Material loss depends on a number of factors.
Shape (Soft)	Soft	Clay or similar soft and sticky materials may also be shaped by hand.
Chop	Wood/Plant	Breaks apart wooden things, possibly into smaller pieces. Also allows for harvesting plants in a crude way.
Mine	Stone	More effective alternative to Smash for breaking stone materials and ores.
Cut	Plant/Food	More precise alternative to Chop for harvesting plants, animals, preparing food and fine crafting.
Dig	Soft	For moving around soft ground materials.
Saw	Wood/Stone	Even more precise alternative to Chop / Mine for quick crafting of certain shapes.
Carve	Wood/Stone	Even more precise alternative to Chop / Mine for fine crafting. May require a Smash tool to drive the object into the material.
Sharpen	Stone/Metal	Increases the sharpness and therefore effectiveness of a tool / weapon. The sharpened tool loses some of its material, depending on hardness, permanently reducing its weight / durability.

Attaching

By holding an item over another item which has a recipe defined to combine both, a highlight will be shown where the held item may be "attached". If there's no space for the item, the highlight will be red.

Attachment Type	Description
Temporary	After placing a temporary attachment, either side of the attachment may simply be taken away as their individual pieces. The recipe will always be unfinished after one of these steps.
Binding	Applying a binding attachment connects the binding part and one or more other parts, either permanently or in such a way that the binding has to be removed first. A binding recipe may result in a finished, usable tool or item.

Voxel crafting

As you're starting an individual micro-block "project", and possibly upon request, show a list of available recipes. Upon selecting one of these, show a highlight / wireframe of the target shape.

Some of the crafting systems may behave like little puzzles, requiring you to experiment with and learn a set of steps, possibly refining it as you gain experience as well as access to new tools and automation.

Knapping

Stone materials can be shaped into a different form using a hammer, pick, chisel, hard rock or similar. rock, breaking off smaller pieces.

Tool	Size	Shape
Large Rock	4x4	◯
Medium Rock	3x3	◻
Small Rock	2x2	◻
Hammer	3x3	◻
Pick	3x3	+
Chisel	1x1	·
Saw	1x∞	―

When using lower quality tools such as rocks, multiple attempts may be required to "break through" and remove the desired shape.

Clay shaping

Essentially like knapping for clay except with different mechanics. Unlike knapping, crafting is be three-dimensional, and materials won't be lost if you make a mistake.

Using a turntable the process of forming "round" clay objects such as bowls and pots becomes much easier and faster. It does this by rotating and mirroring all actions 8 times.

There's different "techniques" to manipulating clay:

Category	Technique	Description
Add	Single	Adds a single voxel anywhere.
	Line	Adds an axis-oriented line to any continuously flat part.
	Layer	Adds a horizontal layer over an area. If there's free space under a voxel, it may move "fall" to one voxel downwards.
Remove	Single	Takes away a single voxel anywhere.
	Squach	Gradually squashes all connected voxels together into a generic ball, destroying the shape and eventually picking up the raw material.
Mold	Press	Continuously presses against a flat surface, pushing voxels away from the pressure point up to 2 voxels outwards.

Individual voxels of clay must be supported sufficiently, otherwise they will slide down after a short amount of time.

Smithing

Heating

Melting

Progression

Tiers

• Stone
• Copper
• Bronze
• Iron
• Steel

Survival

Food

Farming

Health

Building

Combat

World generation