VOIDFORGED

01Overview

VOIDFORGED is a direct genre translation of Hellforged (Moonpyre / Grindstone) into a sci-fi setting. Where Hellforged fuses Vampire Survivors-style horde combat with the risk-reward tension of extraction shooters and the loot depth of Diablo, VOIDFORGED applies that exact loop to a derelict-space-station fantasy: breach the Cradle, harvest lost tech, and escape before the Swarm destroys you.

02Design Pillars

Five principles every design decision must serve. If a feature doesn't reinforce at least one, it's cut.

03Core Loop

The loop is a three-beat rhythm repeated endlessly, wrapped by two layers of permanent progression.

Inner loop (per run, 10–20 min)

1. Prep — in the Anchor, build your Blueprint Deck, pick a class, check active Contract.
2. Breach — drop into the Cradle. Fight swarms, capture nodes, open vaults, complete objectives.
3. Decide — extract at the docking point to bank everything, or push to another point of interest at risk of total loss.

Outer loop (between runs)

• Spend salvage to rebuild/upgrade the Anchor.
• Spend neural XP in the Neural Lattice (permanent talent tree).
• Chase achievements that unlock new abilities, relics, and powers.
• Attempt the monthly Faction Contract for leaderboard titles.

04Combat & Player

Bullet-heaven combat: the player moves; weapons/abilities fire (mostly) automatically. The skill expression is in positioning, target prioritization, and build construction — not aim.

Player verbs

Weapons & abilities come from the deck

Unlike fixed loadouts, your weapons are themselves cards. During a run, upgrades drop from the pool you curated. A build "comes online" when the right combination of weapon + modifier + energy type resolves into a screen-clearing synergy (see §7).

Health & death

• Hull Integrity (HP) — dropping to zero ends the run and loses carried gear.
• Shield — regenerates out of combat; absorbs hits first.
• Death = lose everything not already extracted. The Anchor persists.

05Extraction System

The heart of the game. The Cradle is a hostile map you choose to leave. There is no forced exit timer — only escalating pressure you invite onto yourself.

How it works

• Each map has one or more docking points. Reaching one and channeling for ~5s extracts you safely.
• Extracted gear, salvage, and intel are banked permanently to the Anchor.
• Everything on your character at death is lost.
• Swarm pressure ramps the longer you stay and the more nodes you capture — the map gets objectively more dangerous the richer you get.

The decision model

06Arsenal — the Blueprint Deck

The signature system, translated from Hellforged's Arsenal. Before each run, you assemble a Blueprint Deck that defines exactly which upgrades, weapons, and abilities can drop during the expedition.

Rules

• Deck has a size cap (e.g. 12 cards) plus class-defining cards.
• Include cards that fit your build; exclude everything else. Your deck is your drop pool.
• Cards belong to energy types (plasma, cryo, ion, graviton, hard-light, null) and roles (weapon, modifier, passive, relic).
• New cards are earned via achievements, node captures, and Contracts.

Why it works

It removes the frustrating randomness of the genre and turns it into strategy. A well-built deck means a run is a build coming online, not a scramble for scraps. This is the single most important differentiator and the first system to prototype after the loop.

07Energy Synergies

Combat rewards combinations. Apply one energy state, then hit with a second to trigger a reaction that clears screens and scales your build. Learning these is the mastery curve.

Talismans/relics (deck cards) amplify specific reactions — the classic "fire + lightning + the relic that boosts explosions" power spike from Hellforged, re-skinned to energy physics.

08Map & Points of Interest

The Cradle is a hand-authored megastructure composed of modular station segments (see §15 Art). Scattered across each run are points of interest that create the extraction decisions:

Breach Sites = "Rifts"

The riskiest captures. Only push a Breach when your build is online and you have an escape route. Optimal timing is right before you planned to extract anyway — don't carry Breach risk for a whole run.

09Loot & Progression

Diablo-style loot with rarity tiers, affixes, and the ever-present extraction tension: gear is only yours once it's extracted.

Rarity tiers

• Common Uncommon Rare Epic Legendary — plus Void-Forged (Breach-only, unique affixes).

Gear slots

Primary weapon, secondary weapon, armor/exo-frame, two relics (synergy amplifiers), and a deck of modifiers. Gear carries affixes that interact with energy states and reactions.

Resources

10Meta-Progression

The Anchor (your ship — "the camp")

Your docked vessel is the meta hub. Every run returns salvage to rebuild and upgrade it: new dock modules unlock crafting, gear enhancement, and deck expansion. A built-up Anchor makes every future run easier — the "extract early, scale later" loop from Hellforged.

The Neural Lattice (the "Eternal Tree")

A large permanent talent tree. Intel from runs buys nodes that unlock synergies tailored to your combat style. The tree rewards commitment — specialize along paths that complement your class rather than spreading thin.

Achievements as progression

Hundreds of achievements, and they are not cosmetic — they unlock new abilities, relics, cards, and powers (plus secret ones). They form a progression loop: chase achievement → unlock power → use power to chase harder achievements.

11Breach Events (Bosses)

Channel the Chaos gathered during a run to tear open a Breach and summon a devastating boss — the game's ultimate stress test. Defeating one yields the strongest gear (Void-Forged tier).

• Boss types are thematically tied to the Swarm's corrupted intelligence: a Hive Queen, a Corrupted Station Core, a Carrier Dreadnought fragment, etc.
• Summon gambit: only when your build is at peak power, the arena is clear, and you're ready for a long fight. It's an investment of Chaos — better builds yield better returns.
• Bosses are optional; a player can extract and never fight one. Their existence raises the ceiling, not the floor.

12Faction Contracts (Monthly Trials)

Each month, a themed gauntlet — a "Faction Contract" — tests a specific build type (a cryo gauntlet, a plasma gauntlet, a "no-extraction" endurance run, etc.).

• Climb the live online leaderboard.
• Top placements earn exclusive in-game titles and rewards.
• Contracts signal a build theme, so players build a character for the Contract — driving deck experimentation and extending meta depth.

13Class Roster (initial)

Distinct classes, each with a signature mechanic and unique powers. Every class is viable; specialization into its identity beats generic play.

Full list TBD; the roster mirrors the energy types so each class has a natural synergy home.

14UI / UX

VOIDFORGED is UI-heavy: the Blueprint Deck, the Anchor, the Neural Lattice, leaderboards, and run HUD. A cohesive holographic design language is essential.

• HUD (in-run) — hull/shield, active weapon cards, Chaos meter, extraction timer, minimap.
• Anchor screens — deck builder, gear, crafting, Contracts.
• Neural Lattice — zoomable talent tree with path previews.
• Art language — holographic cyan/violet accents on dark panels (see §15).

15Art Direction

Derelict-space-station aesthetic: modular metallic corridors, flickering emergency lighting, volumetric fog, holographic interfaces, and bio-mechanical Swarm horrors. The mood is "a dead machine that is not quite dead."

Environment

• Modular station kits (corridors, hangars, power rooms) assembled into hand-authored maps.
• Volumetric fog + atmospheric lighting for that claustrophobic "derelict" mood.
• Space backdrops (nebulas, starfields) visible through breaches in the hull.

Characters & enemies

• Player salvager in an exo-suit; Swarm enemies as drones, cyborgs, and bio-mechanical bosses.
• Top-down/low-poly reads clearly amid horde chaos — silhouette clarity over detail.

VFX

• Energy-type VFX must be instantly distinguishable (plasma=orange, cryo=cyan, ion=blue-white, graviton=violet, null=black/void).
• Reactions are the money shot — screen-filling explosions must read even at horde density.

16Audio

• Soundtrack — tense synthwave / industrial action that rises with Swarm pressure and drops on extraction.
• SFX — each energy type gets a distinct voice; reactions get layered "kaboom" stings.
• Ambience — station hum, distant metal groans, Swarm chitter — the Cradle should sound alive and hostile.
• Feedback — clear extraction countdown cue and a distinct "breach" horn for boss summons.

17Scope & Milestones

A disciplined vertical-slice-first plan. Prove the loop before building the meta layers.

Milestone 1 — Core Loop Prototype (vertical slice)

• Top-down player + auto-attack + one weapon.
• One modular station map with a single docking point.
• Swarm spawner with escalating pressure.
• Extraction channel + death-loss.
• Goal: answer "is the extraction tension fun?"

Milestone 2 — Blueprint Deck

• Deck builder UI + drop-pool curation + card drops in-run.
• Two energy types + one reaction.
• Goal: answer "does curating drops feel strategic?"

Milestone 3 — Synergy & VFX

• All five energy states + full reaction table.
• Reaction VFX pass (the "wow" moment).
• Relics that amplify reactions.

Milestone 4 — Meta Layers

• Anchor upgrades + Neural Lattice.
• Achievement-driven unlocks.
• Breach bosses.

Milestone 5 — Contracts & Polish

• Monthly Contracts + leaderboards.
• Full class roster, audio, final art pass.

18Asset Mapping (owned)

The project is unusually well-provisioned: the visual and scaffolding layers are already owned. This maps each game system to existing Unity Asset Store purchases.

Custom work (cannot be bought)

§Genre References

• Hellforged (Moonpyre / Grindstone) — the direct structural reference: extraction bullet-heaven.
• Vampire Survivors — horde combat & auto-attack baseline.
• Escape from Tarkov / Hunt: Showdown — extraction risk-reward tension.
• Diablo / Path of Exile — loot rarity, affixes, build synergies.
• Slay the Spire — deck-curation mindset (the Blueprint Deck).