seperating play

docs/rpg.md

@@ -0,0 +1,320 @@
+## Title: **Ash Below the Lake**
+
+### Premise
+
+A quiet town sits beside a black lake that never reflects the sky.
+
+Every year, one person disappears into the water.
+
+Nobody talks about it.
+
+You play as a teenager named **Ilyas**, who arrives in the isolated town of **Morrow’s End** after receiving a letter from a sibling who vanished there years ago. The letter contains only one sentence:
+
+> “Don’t let the lake remember your name.”
+
+The game begins normally — odd townsfolk, quirky humor, strange shops — but slowly becomes darker as the player realizes the town itself is alive in a subtle, dreamlike way.
+
+---
+
+# Core Themes
+
+* Memory vs identity
+* Grief and denial
+* The fear of being forgotten
+* Whether pain should be erased or accepted
+
+Like *Undertale*, the game balances:
+
+* humor
+* emotional character writing
+* eerie atmosphere
+* choices that genuinely matter
+
+---
+
+# The World
+
+## Morrow’s End
+
+A sleepy lakeside town with:
+
+* crooked houses
+* underground tunnels
+* abandoned train stations
+* old flood barriers
+* glowing flowers near the shore
+
+The town is split into districts:
+
+1. **Harbor Row** – fishermen, markets, friendly NPCs
+2. **The Red Streets** – entertainment district with unsettling performers
+3. **The Roots** – underground caverns beneath the town
+4. **The Drowned Chapel** – sunken cathedral inside the lake
+5. **The Hollow Shore** – final area where reality begins collapsing
+
+---
+
+# Main Gameplay Twist
+
+The lake “remembers” people.
+
+If someone is forgotten by everybody, they slowly become erased from reality.
+
+Not dead.
+
+Erased.
+
+Photos change.
+Dialogue changes.
+Rooms disappear.
+Music distorts.
+
+As the player progresses, NPCs begin forgetting characters the player met earlier.
+
+Eventually the player questions:
+
+* Is the town cursed?
+* Or is the lake protecting people from painful memories?
+
+---
+
+# Main Characters
+
+## Ilyas (Player)
+
+Quiet protagonist searching for their sibling.
+
+The player can shape Ilyas:
+
+* compassionate
+* detached
+* manipulative
+* fearful
+
+Choices affect dialogue, endings, and combat resolution.
+
+---
+
+## Mira
+
+A sarcastic runaway girl who joins you early.
+
+She uses humor to hide panic and becomes emotionally attached to the player.
+
+She remembers things others forget.
+
+That should be impossible.
+
+---
+
+## The Ferryman
+
+A masked boatman who appears throughout the game.
+
+He speaks in riddles and always knows where the player has been.
+
+Sometimes he appears before important choices.
+
+He may not be human.
+
+---
+
+## Brother Cinder
+
+Leader of the Drowned Chapel.
+
+Believes forgetting pain is mercy.
+
+Wants to feed memories to the lake so humanity can become “peaceful.”
+
+Not purely evil — deeply tragic.
+
+---
+
+## Your Sibling
+
+You spend the whole game searching for them.
+
+Late-game reveal:
+They willingly entered the lake.
+
+And they may no longer fully exist.
+
+---
+
+# Combat System
+
+Similar vibe to *Undertale*:
+
+* turn-based encounters
+* bullet-hell dodging
+* dialogue options during fights
+
+But instead of MERCY/FIGHT:
+
+## Three Main Actions
+
+* **Confront** — direct resistance
+* **Listen** — understand enemies emotionally
+* **Forget** — erase enemies from memory
+
+Using “Forget” makes encounters easier…
+
+…but causes side effects in the world.
+
+NPCs disappear.
+Music tracks vanish.
+Areas become inaccessible.
+
+The player slowly realizes:
+They are becoming part of the lake.
+
+---
+
+# Major Story Beats
+
+## Act 1 — Strange Town
+
+* Meet Mira
+* Discover townsfolk avoid speaking certain names
+* Encounter first erased person
+* Learn your sibling stayed at the old chapel
+
+Tone:
+cozy + unsettling
+
+---
+
+## Act 2 — The Roots
+
+You descend beneath the town.
+
+Find:
+
+* memory archives
+* abandoned homes nobody remembers
+* creatures made from forgotten people
+
+The player discovers:
+The lake feeds on emotional suffering.
+
+---
+
+## Act 3 — The Drowned Chapel
+
+Brother Cinder reveals the truth:
+The lake was created long ago to contain humanity’s collective grief.
+
+Without it:
+people would drown in their pain.
+
+But now it has grown hungry.
+
+---
+
+## Final Act — The Hollow Shore
+
+Reality breaks down:
+
+* menus glitch
+* save points speak
+* NPC dialogue rewrites itself
+* your own name occasionally changes
+
+The player must choose:
+
+### Ending 1 — “Silence”
+
+Join the lake.
+All pain disappears.
+The town becomes peaceful… empty.
+
+---
+
+### Ending 2 — “Carry”
+
+Destroy the lake.
+Everyone regains painful memories.
+The town survives but suffers.
+
+Hopeful but bittersweet.
+
+---
+
+### Ending 3 — “Forgotten”
+
+Use “Forget” too often.
+
+Eventually:
+the protagonist themselves is erased.
+
+The final scene shows the game continuing without you.
+
+No one remembers the player existed.
+
+---
+
+# Tone & Style
+
+Visual Style:
+
+* pixel art
+* heavy shadows
+* warm interiors vs cold outdoor areas
+* subtle environmental animations
+
+Music:
+
+* soft piano
+* detuned music-box melodies
+* distorted ambient tracks late-game
+
+Humor:
+
+* weird NPC dialogue
+* absurd side quests
+* fake advertisements
+* awkward interactions
+
+The humor makes the emotional moments hit harder.
+
+---
+
+# Extra Mechanics
+
+## Memory Journal
+
+Instead of a quest log, the player keeps memories.
+
+Entries can:
+
+* change
+* disappear
+* rewrite themselves
+
+The player cannot always trust it.
+
+---
+
+## Name System
+
+NPCs react differently depending on whether you tell them your real name.
+
+Some characters literally gain power if they know it.
+
+---
+
+# Optional Secret Route
+
+If the player never uses “Forget” and resolves conflicts peacefully:
+
+* hidden areas appear
+* erased characters return temporarily
+* Mira reveals she died years ago and is only remembered because of you
+
+This leads to the true ending:
+The lake is not destroyed.
+
+It is forgiven.
+
+And finally allowed to rest.