Game Design
Document.
The Legend of Pig Man — browser-first mystery, investigation and resource progression. A public, browsable snapshot that separates shipped 3.4.0 systems from proposed v4 narrative and level content.
Edition prepared October 26, 2026. This public HTML reference is not the approved internal source-of-truth design file.
Project overview
Genre
Original fictional mystery and exploration with driving, on-foot map navigation, resource management and investigation.
Platform
Browser first; evaluate itch.io packaging and later Steam separately when content, rights and scope justify it.
Present game
Build 3.4.0, save format 14. Version evidence comes from the game manifest, not from a manually assumed version label.
Historical tragedy, folklore and creative fiction must be labeled separately. Original artistic expression and permissions require review. This document does not approve a fictional-canon proposition.
Design pillars
Detective agency
Name your independent detective, follow contradictory testimony and reconstruct an original fictional crime.
A lived-in county
Homes, jobs, factions, places and meaningful neighbors influence what the player can do and how they are treated.
Earned progression
Resources, car stats, headquarters modules and trust create mechanical tradeoffs rather than decorative upgrades.
Unsettling uncertainty
Use atmosphere and evidence to maintain mystery while respecting real historical people and tragedies.
What the player does.
In the existing campaign engine, results produce new JSON-safe campaign states, and seeded Auto-resolution makes mission outcomes reproducible across save reloads.
Modern county, historical layers.
Shipped geography: a navigable 160×120-tile map with zones, the fork, jobs, neighbors, shops, limited resources and headquarters plots. Chapter One has three road routes: The Railroad Bridge, The Landfill Gate and The Black Ford.
Planned geography: Holland Road with two drivable tunnels passing under railroad tracks; additional sites include jail, butcher shop, water tower, train depot, bank, saloon, farm, creek, railroad tracks, Sturgeon Point Harbor, hotel and doctor/hospital. Existing placeholder locations are not complete gameplay facilities.
Historical storytelling: the present-day protagonist investigates archives and clues reaching back to 1867 and 1901. An opening prologue currently uses fictional period investigator Elias Hart as a placeholder, then hands off to the modern detective; this is not an approved chronology or final narrative.
The independent detective.
The player selects the detective's name. The character has no employment relationship with the fictional Sturgeon County Sheriff's office or railroad ownership. Name validation permits 2–20 characters, starting with a letter, and accepts letters, spaces, apostrophes and hyphens.
Starting land decisions / implemented
| Plot | Price | Advantage | Cost / vulnerability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butcher Shop area | $600 | + $1 stand sales | $10 weekly upkeep |
| Jail area | $900 | Night-raids half as likely | Police heat cools half as fast |
| Farm area | $750 | +1 forage; $2 cheaper fuel cans | Mission fuel consumption +20% |
Implemented mechanics / 3.4.0
Inventory
Scrap, electronics and fuel; trunks and base storage impose weighted capacity. The current packing algorithm prioritizes high sale value per weight.
Cars and parts
Speed, handling, armour, scanner and stealth; engine, tires, body, radio and lights improve stats. Suspension reduces wear.
HQ
Shell → Workshop → Stronghold. Workbench, storage, fuel tank, lights and watch post modules plus garage expansion.
Police
Heat, stops, bribes, wanted/manhunt states and repair consequences. The deputy organization is fictional.
Neighbors
Jobs raise trust from 0 to 3. Reaching 3 unlocks a specific neighbor alliance perk.
Time and saves
Game days, seasons, full moons, save slots and New Game+. v4 calendar behavior is proposed to remain stable until v5 review.
Two historical trails, one modern investigation.
The identity of the crime, Pig Man's relationship to the mob, the technology's rules and the catastrophic-loss restart design are not decided. McKinley's documented assassin must not be falsely reassigned in purported history.
Mission gates and evidence.
Gameplay flows through availability and prerequisite checks, resource affordability, player driving or Auto-resolution, result evaluation and persistent state updates. Chapter One roads contain route-specific mission prerequisites; search and evidence tasks may reveal locations and unlock later story beats.
New story decisions should be authored as explicit nodes with stable IDs, conditions, effects, fallback text and save compatibility before integration. The editable graph on the narrative page is an authoring aid, not a live rule engine.
Road to v4.0.
| Version | Milestone | Evidence state |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1–3.4 | Developer tools, detective identity, Angola opening, HQ | Latest live build 3.4.0; earlier individual gate evidence varies |
| 3.5 | Inventory and NPC expansion | Proposed |
| 3.6 | Holland Road tunnels and audio | Proposed |
| 3.7 | Chapter polish and playtest | Proposed |
| 3.8 | Approved official narrative integration | Proposed; separate canon and merge approval |
| 3.9 | V4 release candidate | Proposed |
| 4.0 | Major release | Not adopted or authorized |
What must be proven.
- Automated mission, save, data and browser regressions match the exact release commit.
- Desktop, actual iPhone, Android and VoiceOver checks are documented; untested areas remain explicitly marked.
- Three-road chapter flow and campaign saves preserve playability through updates.
- Historic/factual labels and all original story, art and sound permissions are reviewed.
- Security boundary between public website, game and private operating systems is maintained.
- Chairman approves any canon change, production merge, external publication and release separately.
Control boundary: Claude owns gameplay engine implementation under /game/play/; website and public documentation are maintained separately. This GDD is a published summary, not permission to edit or deploy the game engine.