MILYSON WOLF STUDIOS — GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT — v2.0
INVASION: THE MMORPG
Crash landed but not alone. Extraterrestrials navigate a mass crash-landing on 1972 Earth — gathering, building, and surviving in a world with no currency, only what you can trade, craft, and defend. Every sound you make can be your undoing.
01 — AT A GLANCE
What is Invasion: The MMORPG?
A survival MMORPG told from the alien’s point of view. Players are crash-landed extraterrestrials navigating the aftermath of a mass systems disruption — establishing alliances, contending with rival alien factions and the humans who populate the planet, and building a life in a world that runs on what you can gather, craft, and trade.
| Genre | Survival MMORPG |
| Setting | Earth, 1972 — cities modeled after real-world locations of the era |
| Player role | A crash-landed extraterrestrial of one of five races and four classes |
| Economy | No traditional currency — a true, player-assigned barter system |
| Core tension | Every action — gathering, building, fighting, fleeing — can expose your location |
| Main focus | Survival, exploration, and community building |
02 — CORE LOOP
Gather. Build. Stay hidden.
PHASE 01
Gather
Collect raw materials from the world — wood, stone, and everything in between. Every action carries weight: the louder and more efficient the gather, the longer the trail you leave behind.
PHASE 02
Trade & Build
Craft tools, weapons, and structures. Trade with other players and NPCs at your own risk — there is no fixed price, only what the world can currently supply and what someone else is willing to give up.
PHASE 03
Survive & Defend
Rival factions, humans, and wildlife are all searching. Cover matters — and cover is finite. What you clear to build, you also lose to hide in.
Progression unfolds through the Diary — an in-game logbook tracking quests, discoveries, and the story of those who crashed before you.
03 — RACES & CLASSES
Five origins. Four disciplines.
Every character begins as one of five alien races, each drawn from a different strand of cultural folklore, paired with one of four classes that shapes how they survive.
Yurei
FOLKLORE ORIGIN
Banshee
FOLKLORE ORIGIN
Aswang
FOLKLORE ORIGIN
Anansi
FOLKLORE ORIGIN
Jiangshi
FOLKLORE ORIGIN
| LV 1–5 | Arrival and Tutorial |
| LV 6–10 | Area Exploration — dependent on where you crashed |
| LV 11–15 | Discovery and Exploration of Human Civilizations |
| LV 16–20 | Discovery of Those That Came Before |
| LV 21–30 | Discovery of New Territories and Large Cities |
| LV 31+ | Research, Domination, Diplomacy, and Discovering the Mystery That Brought Us Here |
04 — ENEMIES & FRIENDS
Nowhere is entirely safe.
THREAT — RIVAL
Hostile Alien Factions
Rival extraterrestrials with conflicting goals and ideologies. Engaged in wars for land, resources, and superiority — the primary adversary in community conflict.
THREAT — VARIABLE
Humans
Bipedal, soft-exteriored, complex-interiored. Some present as friendly, others as hostile. It is up to the player to decide which is which — and to live with the choice.
THREAT — ENVIRONMENTAL
Wildlife
A vast array of resources and animal life supports crafting and survival — but claws and teeth made for ripping flesh mean it’s rarely as easy as it looks.
05 — ECONOMY SYSTEM
No currency. Only supply, demand, and nerve.
The economy is entirely player-run. There is no traditional currency — value is assigned by the world’s actual supply and negotiated directly between players, at their own risk.
| Trading Posts | Scattered throughout the world and inside safe zones. A 5-minute post-trade grace period follows every exchange; players cannot trade within 2 minutes of combat involvement. |
| Auction Houses | The auctioneer sets the “currency” for their own listing — wood, stone, whatever they choose. Winning bids resolve immediately and are logged server-side, even through disconnects. |
| Supply-Based Valuation v2 | The system continuously analyzes total material quantity across both the world’s market and player inventories, assigning fair, supply-anchored value — far harder to manipulate than trade-volume pricing, since wash trading and self-dealing barely move the needle. |
| Crafted Value v2 | Crafted items derive base value from their materials, plus additional value scaled to effort and skill — crafting is a real profession, not a shortcut around raw material trading. |
| Resource Regrowth v2 | Depleted resources recover at a flat rate regardless of severity. Regrowth speed varies by type — fast for small fauna and fungi, slow for timber, slowest for minerals and ore. |
| Microtransactions | Cosmetic only — skins, emotes, and customization. Purchasable with real money or in-game bartering. Zero gameplay advantage. |
06 — NOISE, TRAIL & DETECTION NEW IN v2
Every action leaves a trace.
Gathering, movement, and combat all generate detectable evidence — noise, footprints, blood — that other players and NPCs can perceive and follow. This is the system that ties economy, stealth, and combat into one set of rules.
- ACTIVITY TRAILS Loud, high-yield gathering (felling a whole tree) leaves a trail lasting hours to days. Quiet, low-impact gathering (picking mushrooms) leaves almost nothing. Efficiency has a cost.
- MOVEMENT TRAILS Running or carrying heavy loads leaves footprints for a short window. Fleeing is never a clean escape — it trades direct confrontation for exposure.
- BLOOD TRAILS Taking damage leaves a trail regardless of who wins the fight. An injured victor can still be found — by the original aggressor, a third party, or wildlife drawn to blood specifically.
- NPC PERCEPTION Human and government NPCs reason about disturbances rather than pathing to a trigger. A thrown distraction draws attention to the act itself, not a guaranteed walk to its landing spot.
07 — PVP SYSTEM
Open world. Earned consequences.
| Safe zones | Respite and diplomatic resolution space — but carelessness near the edges can still draw pursuit inward. |
| Battle zones | No safe mode. Players sharpen skills against each other and select NPCs with no resource, item, or experience loss on death. |
| Community wars | Warring communities can attack only each other. Wars are fought over land, resources, and control — and can end in a merge. |
| Griefing safeguards | Three deaths unlock a 15-minute safe mode. Reported exploiters face a 1-week ban, escalating to permanent for repeat offenses, resolved through arbitration. |
08 — BUSINESS MODEL
Hybrid. Free to start, fair to stay.
| Free-to-play | Full access to the first 15 levels at no cost. |
| One-time fee | $59.99 unlocks all levels and content beyond 15, with no leveling restrictions. Switchable to subscription anytime, with a free first month. |
| Subscription | $15/month — every level and map area, early DLC beta access, all DLCs, one free monthly loot box, 50% off cosmetics, and live event access. |
| Microtransactions | Cosmetic-only purchases, real money or in-game bartering. No gameplay advantage, ever. |
10 — STRATEGIC PURPOSE
The MMORPG is the long game.
- Invasion (2025, Steam) — the top-down stealth roguelite prequel — establishes the tone, setting, and the alien’s perspective at a scope that ships solo.
- A successful roguelite proves the world and the character resonate before committing to full MMORPG development.
- Revenue and audience from the roguelite fund and de-risk early MMORPG production.
- The MMORPG’s systems — barter economy, detection, ecological consequence — are designed to reward the same instincts the roguelite teaches: move quiet, plan ahead, and never assume you’re unseen.