aetherbound-guild/docs/product/GAME_PRODUCT_CONTRACT.md

Aetherbound Guild: Game Product Contract

Authority: player promise, scope, experience cadence, progression shape, and product boundaries for the complete pre-production package.

Revision: design-batch-01 / 2026-08-10

Companion authorities: SYSTEMS_AND_BATTLE.md, ECONOMY_AND_BALANCE.md, and SAVE_AND_FAILURE_CONTRACT.md.

1. Authority And Decision Order

This document answers what the game promises and why a system exists. The systems document owns combat and progression mechanics, the economy document owns numeric pacing and resource movement, and the save/failure document owns transaction and recovery behavior. When wording conflicts, use this order:

1. Frozen repository specification and Owner decisions.
2. Save and transaction safety rules.
3. Explicit formulas and boundaries in the systems and economy authorities.
4. This product intent.
5. Content, presentation, and prototype instances.

The design is implementation-ready but is not evidence that the experience is fun, understood, visually accepted, device-safe, or ready for production. Those remain later prototype, independent-review, and Owner gates.

2. Product Definition

Aetherbound Guild is a premium, landscape 2D party-building strategy RPG. The player leads a magic guild restoring a network of ruptured aether routes. They recruit persistent adventurers, assign professions and skill loadouts, equip them, arrange a six-person formation, choose a route, and watch a deterministic auto-battle execute their preparation. During battle, the player may spend at most two Command charges on prepared tactical directives.

The product is not an idle game, gacha, live-service treadmill, or action RPG. Its skill is diagnosis and preparation:

read a visible threat
-> predict the party's first failure point
-> change one or more high-leverage rules
-> watch those rules execute
-> compare prediction with result
-> secure rewards or accept more risk
-> permanently change the guild and the next route

2.1 Audience

Primary players enjoy party composition, job systems, equipment interactions, route planning, and the satisfaction of seeing a prepared plan work. They want meaningful strategy without continuous high-frequency control.

Secondary players include completionists who want to master all 36 professions and 320 items, and challenge players who want stricter route modifiers after a finite campaign ending.

The game must remain usable by players who pause often, play in 8-20 minute segments, use touch only, or return after a long break.

2.2 Fixed Commercial And Platform Boundary

Field	Contract
Business model	One-time premium purchase; no ads, loot boxes, paid energy, paid currency, battle pass, daily streak, or pay-to-skip
Platforms	Landscape 16:9 target for mobile, PC, and console; current design must support touch, mouse, keyboard, and controller semantics
Languages at first release	English and Simplified Chinese, authored from message IDs rather than concatenated strings
First campaign	25-35 hours, eight authored chapters, finite ending
Build completion	60-80 hours for broad profession/build mastery
Collection/high difficulty	Approximately 100 hours, with a visible completion state rather than endless obligation
Connectivity	Core campaign fully offline; optional platform services may never gate play or save access
Formal development	Frozen until complete design, independent review, and explicit Owner approval

Future paid expansions may add authored chapters after release, but may not sell power, random rewards, timers, or relief from deliberately created friction. Such an expansion is outside this design authority.

3. Player Fantasy And Emotional Arc

The player is the guild's strategist, not a distant spectator and not a puppeteer issuing every attack. Adventurers have stable identities and execute the rules the player prepared. The fantasy progresses through four scales:

Scale	Player fantasy	Required emotion
Seconds	Read a clean magical skirmish and see a prepared rule fire	Comprehension, then confirmation
Expedition	Guide a company through a risky branch of the ruptured network	Anticipation, tension, adaptation
Chapter	Restore a regional anchor and make the guild capable of a new kind of expedition	Competence and transformation
Campaign/postgame	Reconnect the world, then deliberately reweave it under harder laws	Ownership, mastery, curiosity

The expected emotional sequence around failure is: surprise no longer than three seconds, a legible cause, a credible countermeasure, and an immediate safe place to try that countermeasure. Failure may cost route opportunity but must not erase understanding or named-character attachment.

4. Experience Pillars

4.1 The Battle Honors Preparation

Targeting, timing, formation protection, status resolution, and directive execution are deterministic from visible inputs and a stored seed. A unit may fail to follow an order only for a named, inspectable reason. The battle report must identify that reason.

4.2 Every Threat Changes The Best Answer

Encounter previews expose mechanics, lanes, timing, defenses, and reward risk. At least two rational responses must exist for every required campaign threat. Their value must vary with current health, roster, supplies, equipment, unsecured rewards, and route position.

4.3 Named Adventurers Become A Guild History

All 30 recruits are authored characters rather than disposable random units. Their profession mastery, signature interactions, injuries, and chapter participation persist. No standard campaign rule permanently deletes one.

4.4 Randomness Presents Problems, Not Verdicts

Route generation, reward drafts, and seeded combat details can vary, but the player sees bounded choices, tag-directed acquisition, and bad-luck protection. Required build pieces always have a deterministic acquisition route.

4.5 Completion Changes The Next Cycle

Restoring an anchor changes available routes, guild services, profession branches, and world rules. Solved routine encounters may gain conditional automation, but new mechanics remove that automation's certainty. The next cycle begins with inherited consequences and a different planning question.

5. Anti-Pillars And Design Vetoes

Reject a feature or content row if it depends on any of the following:

• watching numbers rise without a new state-dependent decision;
• an auto-battle rule that can silently disregard formation or targeting;
• a higher rarity or power rating that is always the correct item choice;
• random acquisition without a visible deterministic fallback;
• permanent-stat grinding required to make baseline difficulty fair;
• manual repetition after the player has already demonstrated mastery;
• automation that removes the strategic decision along with routine labor;
• hidden recipes, hidden immunity, or surprise targeting exceptions;
• a battle longer than three minutes with no new decision opportunity;
• deleting a named character, save, item, or irreversible choice without a clear confirmation and recovery boundary;
• daily/weekly obligations, real-time construction waits, or offline income;
• monetization, social comparison, or collection volume used to conceal a weak core loop;
• copied names, formulas, layouts, prose, progression topology, or expression from the authorized comparison material.

6. Canonical Terms And Content Envelope

These terms are shared keys. Other design documents must not introduce a synonym for the same state.

Term	Definition
Guild	Persistent player organization, roster, facilities, inventory, and campaign record
Adventurer	One of exactly 30 named recruitable characters
Company	Up to six deployed adventurers plus up to two expedition reserves
Profession	One active combat discipline; exactly 12 base professions and 24 advanced professions
Loadout	Profession skills, equipment, tactical directives, and formation position assigned before battle
Weave Grid	Three lanes by two ranks; the six legal deployment slots
Directive	A prepared, player-triggered tactical intervention that spends one Command charge
Encounter	One battle or noncombat decision node with a committed outcome
Expedition	One 8-20 minute route segment of four to seven nodes ending at an anchor or withdrawal
Chapter	A regional arc of multiple expeditions culminating in a persistent anchor restoration
Anchor	A safe route checkpoint that banks unsecured rewards and persists chapter progress
Unsecured Cache	Rewards earned since the last anchor and still exposed to defeat consequences
Supplies	Bounded expedition capacity spent on recovery, securing, scouting, or rerouting
Strain	Temporary adventurer injury, from zero to three stacks, cleared at the Guild
Mastery	Non-spend progress proving use of a profession or encounter solution
Reweave	Post-campaign cycle that preserves collection while changing route laws and build constraints

The fixed authored content envelope is:

• exactly 30 named recruitable adventurers;
• exactly 12 base professions, each with exactly two advanced branches, for 24 advanced and 36 total profession identities;
• exactly 100 enemy combat identities across exactly eight chapters;
• exactly 320 equipment/item entries;
• at least 120 item entries whose behavior-change declaration passes the test in the economy authority.

Content owns names and instances. Product systems own schemas, counts, validations, and the purpose of every row.

7. Readability And Input Cadence

7.1 Three-Second Read

Within three seconds of entering an encounter preview or returning attention to battle at 1x, the player must be able to identify:

1. which three lanes are contested;
2. which allied front slot protects each rear slot;
3. the enemy's next major telegraphed action and countdown;
4. the allied unit at greatest immediate risk;
5. current Command charges and whether a directive is legal;
6. whether rewards are secured or currently at risk.

This is a presentation and usability gate, not a claim that the current design already passes human comprehension.

7.2 One-To-Ten-Second Actions

The common action set must resolve with immediate authoritative feedback:

Action	Target completion	Immediate result
Select a route node	1-3 s	Threat/reward comparison and projected cache risk update
Inspect a telegraph or status	1-3 s	Plain-language cause, timing, targets, and counter tags
Move a unit between legal slots	2-5 s	Protection lines, reach, and predicted first target update
Equip or compare an item	2-8 s	Stat delta plus behavior/skill timing delta
Change one skill or standing order	2-8 s	Validity check and affected battle events preview
Fire a directive	1-4 s	Simulation pauses for targeting if needed, then confirms cost and effect
Secure, recover, scout, or reroute	2-10 s	Supplies and exposed-reward state update atomically

No accepted tap, click, key, or controller action may wait for a decorative animation before committing. Animation follows state and is skippable.

7.3 Thirty-To-180-Second Choices

Every 30-180 seconds during active expedition play, the state must ask a real question such as:

• counter a visible cast or preserve Command for a later phase;
• keep a fragile damage plan or trade output for lane protection;
• spend Supplies to heal, expose the cache and press on, or bank it early;
• take a targetable equipment reward or a higher-value unknown reward;
• rotate in a reserve and accept a weaker profession link;
• use a mastered standing order or manually hold it for an exception;
• pursue the chapter objective or detour for a recruit/mastery objective.

Two consecutive nodes may never have the same optimal answer for all valid company states. A sequence with no meaningful player decision for more than 180 seconds fails the design, even if effects and rewards occur during it.

8. Complete Player Loop

8.1 Guild Preparation

read chapter pressure and next anchor objective
-> inspect roster health, mastery, and missing counter tags
-> select six deployed and up to two reserves
-> choose professions, skill loadouts, equipment, grid slots, and directives
-> choose one route entrance with explicit threat/reward information

The Guild is safe. Equipment and learned skill respec are free here. The scarce decision is what the limited company and inventory can cover, not a respec tax.

8.2 Expedition

preview two or three reachable nodes
-> choose route
-> prepare against the committed preview
-> resolve encounter
-> diagnose result
-> draft or decline reward
-> update unsecured cache, Strain, Supplies, and route stability
-> press, secure, recover, scout, reroute, or withdraw
-> reach anchor and bank progress

Route nodes are face-up once scouted. A selected encounter is not silently rerolled by leaving its screen. All costs and failure exposure are shown before commit.

8.3 Chapter Transformation

Each chapter follows this required progression:

1. A new rupture rule makes a previously reliable plan incomplete.
2. A safe encounter teaches the rule through visible consequence.
3. A guided route offers two credible counters.
4. Repeated routine handling can be encoded in one standing order.
5. An elite combines the rule with an older pressure and breaks naive automation.
6. Restoring the regional anchor permanently adds a route, guild service, profession branch, acquisition method, or formation rule.
7. The next chapter inherits that change and presents a different bottleneck.

A chapter cannot be approved if its only transformation is larger numbers, another currency, cosmetic scenery, or an enemy rename.

8.4 Campaign Completion And Reweave

The first campaign ends after all eight regional anchors are restored and a final authored confrontation resolves the world's immediate rupture. Credits, epilogues, collection state, and campaign statistics are visible before any postgame prompt.

Postgame offers three finite paths:

• Build Mastery: unlock and validate both advanced branches of every base profession through authored trials.
• Collection Completion: discover the 320-item catalog and the mechanical interaction attached to each behavior-changing entry.
• Reweave: begin a remixed eight-chapter cycle with persistent roster, knowledge, and collection, but choose two world laws that alter route and combat value. Item levels normalize to the cycle band so inherited breadth, not raw overleveling, drives the new plan.

Reweave is not an infinite content promise. The package defines a final high- difficulty completion badge and statistics screen around the 100-hour target.

9. Portfolio Incremental Chain

The game must prove the complete incremental contract through play:

Chain step	Aetherbound implementation	Proof required later
Manual action	Player manually targets a Focus directive and moves a front/rear pairing	Real input causes visible targeting/protection change
Immediate result	Target line, cast countdown, damage source, and cache state update in the same interaction	Runtime frame/audio feedback and authoritative state agree
Automation	Adventurers execute loadouts and formation rules without attack spam from the player	Deterministic replay matches declared rules
Readable bottleneck	Preview/report identifies lane collapse, cast pressure, Strain, Supplies, or missing counter tag	Fresh player can name the bottleneck
State-dependent choice	At least two of formation, loadout, directive timing, recovery, securing, and route choice are rational in different states	Counterfactual simulation changes best answer
Automate solved labor	A mastered standing order can trigger one routine directive condition	Automation executes only declared condition and reports exceptions
Persistent transformation	Anchor restoration changes route/guild/profession/equipment possibility	Save persists transformation and migration preserves it
Different next cycle	New rupture or Reweave law invalidates a previously universal routine	Next plan differs for a mechanical reason, not only higher values

10. Onboarding Contract

Tutorial content must follow safe action -> guided decision -> independent test. Tooltips alone do not satisfy a teaching step.

10.1 First 20 Minutes

Target time	Stage	Player action	Failure safety	Understanding check
0:00-0:30	Safe action	Tap/click an unstable lane and place the provided frontliner	No cost; invalid slot snaps back with reason	Player can point to front and protected rear
0:30-2:00	Immediate battle	Start a 25-45 s deterministic training fight	Cannot lose; speed fixed to 1x for first telegraph	Player sees planned protection intercept damage
2:00-4:00	Guided decision	Choose either a guard item or an interrupt skill against a shown cast	Both win; report explains different cost	Player predicts which event changes
4:00-7:00	Independent test	Repeat variant without highlighted answer	Free reset; no reward farming	Chosen counter changes first failure point
7:00-10:00	Route risk	Choose safe anchor or exposed reward detour	Consequence preview remains on commit	Player states what is unsecured
10:00-14:00	Intervention	Time one prepared directive against a telegraph	Pause-and-target; missed window can be replayed	Player explains why it was or was not legal
14:00-18:00	Recovery	Spend one Supply on recovery or preserve it and rotate reserve	Either route remains completable	Player identifies opportunity cost
18:00-20:00	Independent expedition	Select, prepare, and resolve a complete node without prompts	One free training rewind	Player names next objective and one weakness

10.2 Teaching Rules

• Teach no more than one new icon family and one new decision axis per node.
• Suppress a system until it can alter the next decision; never unlock five menus as a reward dump.
• A tutorial prompt may point at a legal action, but the next encounter must require recognition without the pointer.
• If the player fails the independent test twice, show the cause chain and let them enter a no-reward training replay. Do not automatically equip the answer.
• Experienced players may skip dialogue and guided highlights, but must still pass the independent mechanics test or explicitly open its rule summary.
• Returning players receive a state recap and optional one-node refresher, never a forced replay of the opening tutorial.

11. Session And Campaign Shape

Scope	Target	End state
Battle	35-120 s; hard systemic cap at 180 s	Cause/result report and immediate next choice
Expedition	8-20 min, four to seven nodes	Anchor bank, voluntary withdrawal, or defeat recovery
Typical play session	20-45 min, one to three expeditions	Safe Guild or anchor save point, explicit next objective
Chapter	2.5-4.25 h, six to nine expeditions plus confrontation	Persistent regional transformation
First campaign	25-35 h across eight chapters	Finite ending and postgame choice
Build completion	60-80 h	All profession branches understood and viable
Collection/high difficulty	About 100 h	Catalog and final challenge completion state

The game may be suspended at any time. A session-ending prompt is never needed to preserve progress. Short sessions must still end on a meaningful committed choice, not only an arbitrary stamina or timer boundary.

11.1 Pacing Profiles And Decision-Density Contract

These are five observed player-behavior profiles, not difficulty settings. The same encounter seed, item band, and route rules must support all five without requiring a different product mode. A profile assertion is measured in simulation seconds; menu navigation and a confirmation tap do not count as a decision.

Profile	Typical behavior	Decisions per 20 min	First meaningful decision	Longest no-decision gap	Completion/session target
Normal	Reads previews, changes one or two loadout rules, uses 1x/2x	6-9	<= 180 s	<= 150 s	25-35 h
Active	Pauses for telegraphs, spends both Command charges, tests counterfactuals	10-14	<= 120 s	<= 120 s	25-32 h
Efficient	Uses mastered standing orders and batch crafting, intervenes on exceptions	4-7	<= 180 s at Guild, <= 150 s in an expedition	<= 165 s	28-35 h
Adversarial	Selects elites, presses unsecured Caches, accepts route modifiers	8-12	<= 150 s	<= 135 s	30-35 h including recovery
Returning	Reads the recap, makes one deliberate change, then resumes a known route	3-6 per 12 min	<= 90 s after recap	<= 150 s	25-35 h in 20-30 min sessions

The first expedition has a fixed teaching timeline. The timestamps are target windows, not scripted cutscenes:

Elapsed time	Required player-facing question	Evidence shown before commit
0:00-0:30	Which slot protects the exposed rear?	Weave Grid relation and first target line
1:30-3:00	Which of two counters changes the first major event?	Cast tag, counter tags, predicted event
4:00-6:00	Is the detour worth unsecured risk?	Reward family, failure disposition, Cache value
7:00-10:00	Spend a Directive now or preserve it?	Command gain forecast and legal target list
10:00-14:00	Recover Strain, rotate a reserve, or press?	Supply cost, reserve penalty, next-node pressure
14:00-18:00	Which learned rule can be automated?	Mastery status and standing-order exception
18:00-20:00	What is the next bottleneck after the Anchor?	Transformation preview and route counter tags

During any one expedition, a meaningful choice must occur at least once before the first battle ends, once after each reward draft, and once before an Anchor commit. If no state-dependent choice is available before the active profile's maximum gap in the table above, the route generator inserts a visible fork, telegraph, recovery trade, or cache decision; it never inserts a cosmetic prompt. The economy authority Section 9 owns the exact timestamp traces and independently calculated gaps for all five profiles. A battle may resolve automatically, but the result report and next-node preview must expose the next decision within 15 seconds of resolution.

The campaign-hour target is calculated from authored chapter budgets rather than from forced waiting:

campaign_minutes = sum(chapter_expedition_minutes) +
                   sum(chapter_confrontation_minutes)
first_campaign_target = 1,500-2,100 minutes (25-35 hours)

The economy authority supplies the chapter budgets and reward rates. A balance run fails if any profile exceeds the 180-second maximum gap, if the first counter decision occurs after eight minutes, or if a chapter reaches its time budget only by increasing enemy health or adding unskippable animation.

12. Accessibility, Localization, And Input

12.1 Accessibility Baseline

Required from the first prototype specification:

• UI scale presets at 100%, 115%, and 130% without clipped functional text;
• safe-area layouts for reference small, standard, and large 16:9 viewports;
• reduced motion, reduced flashes, camera-shake intensity, and hit-stop toggle;
• independent music, ambience, voice, and effects volume plus master mute;
• subtitles/captions for all information-bearing audio with speaker/event tags;
• color-independent lane, rarity, relation, damage, and status encoding;
• high-contrast target and focus outlines;
• hold/toggle alternatives and adjustable long-press timing;
• battle pause and speed controls that never remove event information;
• remappable keyboard/controller actions and a complete touch path;
• screen-reader labels and deterministic focus order for menus; battle events have a text event log and pauseable inspection path;
• no required rapid taps, simultaneous multi-touch, precision drag, or audio- only timing cue;
• low-power mode limiting particles and animation sampling without changing authoritative simulation or decision windows.

12.2 Input Semantics

Every platform maps to the same verbs: focus, inspect, compare, move, equip, confirm, cancel, pause, change speed, select directive, target directive, and open event log. Dragging is optional convenience; tap-select/tap-destination must perform every drag action. Destructive or resource-spending actions use a review state and explicit confirm. Repeating the confirm cannot apply twice.

Touch targets are at least 48x48 logical pixels with 8 logical pixels between unrelated destructive actions. Hover information has tap/focus equivalents. Controller focus never enters the battle scene as an invisible cursor.

12.3 Localization Rules

• English and Simplified Chinese share semantic message IDs and state tokens.
• No sentence is assembled by concatenating translated fragments.
• Variables use typed placeholders with localized number and plural rules.
• System nouns have one glossary entry; content may not create synonyms for Strain, Supplies, Anchor, Directive, or Unsecured Cache casually.
• Layout validation covers English and pseudolocalization at 130% expansion, and real Simplified Chinese at 130% UI scale.
• Combat abbreviations require expanded accessible names and cannot be the only way a rule is taught.
• Player-entered names are Unicode-safe, profanity handling is local, and no generated name is required because all recruits are authored.

13. Content Interface And No-Filler Rule

Every content row consumed by this product must declare:

stable_id
localized_name_id
content_type and progression placement
mechanical purpose
state inputs read
authoritative outputs changed
at least two interactions
counter or opportunity cost
presentation silhouette/event requirements
asset, animation, VFX, SFX, and text needs
accessibility communication
validation scenario and expected observable result

An item is behavior-changing only if it alters at least one of: legal action, target selection, timing, formation relationship, resource conversion, status rule, skill execution, route option, risk exposure, or profession identity. A conditional percent bonus with no changed decision does not qualify.

An enemy identity must create a distinct preview-to-counter question. A profession identity must have a distinct target/timing/resource/formation job. A chapter must combine mechanics in a new way and leave a persistent change. Rows that differ only by name, art, element color, or scalar fail the package.

14. Product Validation Gates

14.1 Prototype Comprehension

With at least five uncoached target players:

• at least four state the next objective within three minutes;
• at least four correctly identify a front/rear protection relation;
• at least four explain why one visible threat changes their preparation;
• at least four can state what is lost or retained before committing risk;
• at least three voluntarily begin another expedition or can name a specific build they want to test.

14.2 Decision Quality

• The first meaningful preparation change occurs within three minutes.
• The first visible build interaction occurs within eight minutes.
• The first secure-versus-press decision occurs within twelve minutes.
• A representative 20-minute session contains at least six state-dependent decisions, excluding confirmations and menu navigation.
• At least two builds clear the same fixed encounter, and each is superior against a different follow-up threat.
• A single equipment or slot counterfactual changes an observable event in at least two fixed encounters.
• No profile experiences more than 180 seconds without a meaningful decision.

14.3 Battle Trust

• Players can name the earliest lane collapse and its cause after the report.
• Every unexecuted command and invalid directive has one specific logged reason.
• 1x shows every major cast, control, downing, rescue, and directive clearly.
• 4x preserves turning points in the event log and never shortens input windows in simulation time.
• Replaying from the same state, seed, and command timestamps produces the same authoritative outcome.

14.4 Open Human Gates

All comprehension targets above are requirements for later tests, not machine- granted acceptance. Human fun, visual quality, listening quality, tactile quality, willingness to continue, physical-device behavior, packaging, and release remain open until the appropriate Owner or device evidence exists.

15. Design Questions Deliberately Closed

Question	Decision
Is combat fully manual?	No. Loadouts and formation automate actions; at most two directives add timed agency.
Can characters permanently die in the first campaign?	No. Defeat causes route loss and temporary Strain, not deletion.
Is profession determined by weapon?	No. Profession is learned progression; equipment modifies execution.
Can a player buy or grind around a threat?	They can broaden options, but baseline balance assumes no mandatory grind and difficulty never sells power.
Does closing the game generate progress?	No. Offline gameplay progression is exactly zero.
Is postgame only endless scaling?	No. It has finite mastery, collection, and high-difficulty completion states.
Are routine fights always manual?	No. Mastered standing orders may automate declared labor, while new rules retain strategic decisions.
Does a stronger item automatically replace a weaker one?	No. Behavior, timing, tags, and formation can make a lower-tier item correct.
Can presentation hide exact mechanics for drama?	Never when the mechanic affects a decision or failure.

16. Acceptance Checklist

• Product fantasy is recognizable without reference-game context.
• Every system contributes to preparation, diagnosis, risk, transformation, or a different next cycle.
• The fixed 30/12/24/100/8/320 envelope remains unchanged.
• Manual, automated, bottleneck, choice, mastery, and transformation stages are all represented.
• First campaign, build completion, and collection targets are simulated.
• Premium, offline, accessibility, localization, and input boundaries are represented in screen/prototype specifications.
• Content rows conform to the no-filler schema.
• Human and release gates remain explicitly open.