Backyard-CTF/soul.md

BLUF: Below is a structured “Soul Doc” for your 1v1 real-time capture-the-flag game. It captures the aspiration, player promise, fantasy, pillars, core loops, the specific system beats you described (fog of war, jail/escort, pre-phase setup, motion lights, classes), plus the two unresolved design tensions: anti-turtling and fun flag recapture. I’ve kept it in “what” space (ideation). Any build/platform details are quarantined to an appendix.

---

Soul Doc: Neighborhood Quarterback (working title)

1) One-sentence identity

A fast, real-time 1v1 capture-the-flag game where you play the older kid quarterbacking a neighborhood crew, winning by commanding and anticipating under fog of war.

2) Player promise

You are the big kid who sees the whole field. You out-think and out-maneuver a rival captain by reading their setup, shaping the chaos, and calling the play that wins.

3) Fantasy and emotional target

• Fantasy: “I’m the captain who controls the tempo and makes the smart call.”

• Emotions to hit:

  • Cleverness from being the older kid (pattern recognition, traps, misdirection)
  • Tension of “kids out of bed” at night (risk, stealth, sudden exposure)
  • Glee when a plan collapses into improv and you still pull it off

4) The hook

“StarCraft-style squad command at Rocket League pace, but it’s capture the flag in a suburban neighborhood at night, with a jail mechanic and motion lights.”

5) Design pillars (non-negotiables)

1. Anticipation beats reaction

   • Great players win by setting conditions, not by micromanaging panic.

2. Information is the real resource

   • Fog of war plus scouting creates mind games, not just execution checks.

3. Misdirection is always viable

   • Diversions, sacrifices, and feints are legitimate paths to advantage.

4. Every match tells a story in 5 minutes

   • Quick pre-phase, real-time game phase, immediate “what just happened” highlights.

6) Core verbs

• Command: assign routes, patrols, and intentions to five distinct kids.
• Anticipate: infer opponent roles, predict rotations, exploit timing windows.

7) Core loops

Loop for great players (the aspiration)

Plan → Perturb → Observe → Identify → Seize

• Plan: form a hypothesis about their defense/flag/jail placement and likely rotations.
• Perturb: poke or stage a feint to force information-revealing reactions.
• Observe: read movement, patrol patterns, light triggers, missing units.
• Identify: locate the weakness (gap, slow responder, overcommit, exposed jail path).
• Seize: commit to the play that wins (flag run, mass capture, or decisive diversion).

Loop for average players (still fun)

Poke → React → Scramble

• Poke creates action and chaos; scramble produces highlight moments.
• The game should reward graduating from scramble into intentional perturbation.

8) Match structure

Two phases, one match

1. Pre-phase (fast):

   • Choose team composition (roles/classes).
   • Place your flag and jail.
   • Optionally place limited defensive “reveals” (motion light concept).

2. Game phase (real-time):

   • Command five units to capture opponent flag while defending your own.
   • Capture/jail mechanics create temporary numerical advantage and narrative momentum.

9) The play space

• Setting: a neighborhood block at night.
• Topology: streets and backyards, not a grid; shortcuts through some yards.
• Sides: two territories separated by a neutral zone.
• Readability: clearly legible lanes, chokepoints, and “exposure zones” (lit, open streets) vs “shadow zones” (backyard paths, cover).

10) Unit identity and roles

You control 5 kids, each with a clear job and counterplay.

Class archetypes (working)

• Sneak: excels at infiltration and flag running; fragile if caught.
• Patrol: excels at holding space and denying routes; strongest at defense and capture control.
• Speed: excels at rapid response, chasing, and quick pivots; enables aggressive tempo.

Team composition decision: You’re drafting a plan, not just picking stats.

11) Information and fog of war

Fog of war is the constraint that creates the mind game.

• You should never have perfect certainty.

• The player is rewarded for:

  • inferring unseen rotations from partial signals
  • forcing reveals through perturbations
  • managing risk when committing to a run

Motion light concept (as an information tool)

A limited, placeable “reveal trigger” that:

• turns movement into a signal
• invites mind games (“trigger it on purpose” vs “avoid it entirely”)
• creates moments of panic and opportunity when it fires

12) Capture and jail: the match’s momentum engine

Captures are how you tilt the field before going for the flag.

Core concept

• Units can be captured and escorted to jail.

• Escorting creates tempo tradeoffs: you gain numerical advantage but spend time and attention.

• Abandonment en route is allowed, which creates:

  • rescue plays
  • bait plays
  • risky overextensions

Desired emergent outcomes

• “I captured your fast kid, now you can’t respond to my flag run.”
• “I baited your patrol into an escort, then slipped my sneak through the yard gap.”
• “We fought over an escort path like it was its own objective.”

13) Flag play: make scoring common, make winning earned

Your stated preference is important: flags should be captured in most games.

• That implies:

  • defense should be strong enough to create tension but not so strong it prevents scores
  • matches should swing, not stalemate

The fun part is not “touch flag,” it’s what happens after

• escapes, chases, sacrifices, rescue missions, last-second interceptions
• “quarterback moments” where you win via anticipation and timing, not raw APM

14) Anti-turtling: forcing action without feeling artificial

You want a mechanic that prevents two players from playing too defensively.

Design intent (what it should feel like):

• Defensive play is valid, but pure turtling is strategically losing.
• The game gently but inevitably creates windows where someone must move.

Aspirational outcomes:

• Early probing is safe-ish and useful.
• Midgame pressure escalates.
• Endgame has a clear “someone’s about to break.”

(Implementation options are intentionally omitted here; see “Open Questions” for what you need it to accomplish.)

15) Recapture: making “the return trip” exciting

Recapturing a taken flag should be fun, not a reset-to-neutral chore.

Design intent:

• The moment the flag is taken, the game should enter a heightened state:

  • clearer incentives
  • sharper information plays
  • dramatic chase and interception opportunities

Desired outcomes:

• “Turning the tables” stories: bait a greedy runner, spring a trap, flip momentum.
• A reason to keep playing aggressively even after conceding a grab.

16) Aesthetic and tone

• Visual identity: “backyard baseball meets satellite-map clarity,” with a tongue-in-cheek vibe.
• Tone: kids out of bed at night; playful rule-breaking, not grim violence.
• Silhouette readability: units and their roles must be immediately legible.
• Signature moments: motion light pops on, silhouettes scatter, a patrol cuts someone off at the curb.

17) Progression fantasy (non-monetized framing)

• Accolades and recognition: you become “the neighborhood legend.”
• Cosmetic identity: personalization and bragging rights (skins later).
• The progression should reinforce the fantasy of being the captain, not become a grind.

18) What the game is not (scope guardrails)

• Not a slow, methodical tactics sim.
• Not a deep narrative campaign.
• Not a base builder.
• Not a pure stealth game where contact is failure.
• Not a micro-heavy RTS where 200 APM is required.

19) Success criteria

When you watch a good match, you should be able to point to:

• a deliberate perturbation
• a clean read
• a decisive pivot
• a “quarterback call” that looks obvious in hindsight

When you watch an average match, you should still see:

• chaos that resolves into a story
• at least one flag touch
• at least one capture that mattered

20) Open questions (ideation-grade, not implementation)

These are the few decisions that most affect the soul:

1. What is the anti-turtling pressure supposed to reward?

   • scouting, tempo, map control, capture economy, or flag attempts?

2. What is the “recapture fantasy”?

   • dramatic chase, clever interception, coordinated ambush, or jail-break pivot?

3. How swingy should matches be?

   • If flags are often captured, what prevents the game from feeling coin-flippy?

4. How many “signals” exist in the information game?

   • If fog of war is core, what are the deliberate, learnable tells?

5. What is the identity of each class in one sentence?

   • The sharper these are, the more the “quarterback” fantasy lands.

---

Appendix: details you mentioned that are “how/build,” not “soul”

(Keeping them so they don’t get lost, but they’re not part of the ideation core.)

• View/camera specifics (2D isometric, zoom-to-unit)
• Input specifics (select then drag routes, patrol mode variants)
• Tooling/config emphasis for iteration and testing knobs
• Engine/platform targeting (Unity, iOS/Android/desktop)

---

If you want the next step: I’d compress this into a one-page internal pitch (still “what”), plus a 3–5 bullet marketing spine derived from the same pillars, without drifting into monetization or implementation.