---
title: "Roadmap"
summary: "The plan and the decisions behind it, where each step stands, and what the build can and can't do today, with real renders."
status: decided  # Decided in the design notes, not built yet
section: "Development"
html: roadmap.html
source: www/content/dev/roadmap.md
---

# Roadmap

*The plan and the decisions behind it, where each step stands, and what the build can and can't do today, with real renders.*

The plan and the decisions behind it are recorded in the repository's `CLAUDE.md`, the page every working session starts from, and shown here as they are written there.

From `CLAUDE.md`, Roadmap (decided 2026-10-23)

1. ~Co-op multiplayer foundation~ (done 2026-10-24).
2. Loot and crafting: sim, wire and inventory UI done 2026-10-24 (`docs/loot.md`).
3. Passive tree and character progression; persistence of characters. Decided 2026-10-26: PoE-style attributes (Str/Dex/Int, with requirements), skill gems in skill slots with their own support slots (PoE2-style), a first Rose of ~120 nodes with one start per archetype; the rules land in the sim and the website's build planner first, the game's screens after. Later that day: attributes from 5 points a level (none on the Rose), a passive point every two levels; the Rose's new shape is a proposal (`docs/progression.md`).
4. Art, VFX and audio (real models and animation, GPU particles).

Any new system must answer up front: who owns this state (server), what replicates, what the client predicts.

From `CLAUDE.md`, Vision

- PoE-style depth: loot with random affixes, crafting currency, builds, hordes of monsters.
- Solo or co-op: every part works alone; with friends, 2-4 players over the internet, server-authoritative (solo is a local server with one client).
- Players are fallen angels who lost their memory (the Fallen; their passive tree is the Rose, 2026-10-26): they wake at the bottom of the world, climb back to their seat in heaven and find heaven corrupted (2026-10-25). The climb reveals the wider background of the fall, never its exact cause.
- A campaign of 3 acts of ~30 minutes climbing from the deep to heaven, where you choose a faction for good; then you fall **once more**, keeping your memories, and climb the same acts again a hundred years later, harder (this replaces Nightmare; ~3 hours in all). Each act boss gives back a memory (a lasting strength and a piece of the story). Then an endgame of maps opened from your hideout, which friends join. Campaign decided 2026-10-24, the second climb 2026-10-25 (a repeating rebirth was decided and cut that day); not yet on the roadmap.
- **Performance is a feature**: dense hordes and heavy effects without hitches. Every system is designed, measured and kept within a budget.

The campaign sits outside the four steps: three acts climbing from the deep to a corrupted heaven, a faction chosen at the top, then one more fall and a [second climb](../game/second-climb.md) a hundred years later (decided by Alex on 24 and 25 October 2026). How these play out is on [How it plays](../game/index.md): the [campaign](../game/campaign.md), [maps and the hideout](../game/maps-and-hideout.md), and [playing together](../game/together.md).

## Where it stands today

These are real renders from the current build, captured by `www/shots.sh`. The models are stand-ins, so the game can be built and measured before the art exists. [Target shot 1](../art/target-shots.md) is how far the renderer has been pushed toward the key art.

![One player fighting a pack of brutes and archers in a cave, with damage numbers over the monsters.](../shots/solo.jpg)

Solo, depth 1: Frost Nova, Arc and Fireball against a pack. The numbers are damage dealt.

![A dense crowd of placeholder monsters filling a cave around one player, with a red slam telegraph on the ground.](../shots/horde.jpg)

A 2,000-monster horde. The red circle is a telegraphed slam about to land.

![Three players in a cave surrounded by monsters, with a party list on the left.](../shots/coop.jpg)

Co-op: a listen server, a second client joining it, and a bot that called in the horde.

### What works

- Combat with two attacks, three spells and a dash, four damage types, armour, resistances, crits and three ailments.
- Six monster families with magic and rare packs, six modifiers, and a guardian at each portal.
- Endless generated depths, levelling to 100, life and mana flasks.
- Loot: 45 item bases, 34 affixes, 7 uniques and 8 currencies, with drops per player, an inventory, equipment and crafting.
- Co-op for two to four players: host from the game, run a dedicated server, or join by address.

### What is placeholder or missing

- Most art: models are simple stand-ins, effects are basic, and there is no animation or audio.
- No passive tree, and characters are not saved between sessions.
- No campaign, hideout or maps yet: today the game is one endless run of generated cave depths, with a portal on to the next at the end of each. That is the deep where the climb begins, without the acts above it.
- Joining over the internet needs the host to forward a UDP port; there is no matchmaking or relay.