MILYSON WOLF STUDIOS — GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT — v1.0
INVASION
A crash-landed alien must secretly repair its ship and escape rural America in 1972 — evading hunters, befriending UFO believers, and never letting anyone discover what it truly is.
01 — AT A GLANCE
What is Invasion?
| Genre | Top-down stealth roguelite |
| Setting | Rural America, 1972 — suburbs, fields, back roads at night |
| Perspective | Top-down, 16×16 pixel art |
| Win condition | Repair the crashed ship and launch |
| Lose condition | Captured by hunters or government agents |
| Tone | Gritty, grounded, paranoid — quietly wrong |
02 — CORE LOOP
Three phases. Every run.
PHASE 01
Scavenge
Move through the environment at night. Locate ship parts, tools, and materials. Avoid detection by staying in shadow, using distractions, and hiding in foliage.
PHASE 02
Evade
Hunters, militia, government agents, and hostile locals are actively searching. Each faction has distinct behavior — agents are methodical, militia are fast, locals are unpredictable.
PHASE 03
Befriend
UFO believers can be found and convinced to help. They provide shelter, supplies, and cover. Trust is built over multiple encounters across runs.
Run ends when: the alien is captured (loss), reaches a safe house (progress saved), or successfully launches (win).
03 — THE ALIEN PROTAGONIST
No magic. Only biology and intelligence.
- TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE Identifies, disassembles, and repurposes human technology to repair ship components. The alien understands machines intuitively.
- DISGUISE Adopts clothing and posture to pass as human at a distance. Up close, the Bog skin tone is an unmistakable tell — for players paying attention.
- DISTRACTION Throws objects, manipulates electronics, and creates diversions to redirect hunter attention. The alien is a problem solver, not a fighter.
- SURPRISING STRENGTH Physically stronger than a human. Can move heavy objects silently or break through soft barriers — but only when no one is watching.
- ENVIRONMENTAL BLENDING Crouching in foliage renders the alien nearly invisible. Bog skin (#182410) blends with Foliage (#3D5225) by design — bushes are hiding spots.
04 — THE HUNTERS
Four factions. One objective.
THREAT — CRITICAL
Government Agents
Men in Black types. Methodical, coordinated, well-equipped. Search in grids. Never panic. Appear in later runs when the alien has been active too long.
THREAT — HIGH
Local Hunters & Militia
Fast, aggressive, and they know this land. Unpredictable patrol routes. Some use dogs. Mid-tier threat that scales with how many runs have passed.
THREAT — ESCALATING
Skeptical Locals
Low-level threat that compounds. A suspicious farmer who spots something unusual will call others. A threat multiplier, not a direct combatant.
THREAT — VARIABLE
All Four Active
High difficulty runs feature all factions simultaneously. Each has a distinct sprite silhouette and behavioral signature so the player can identify threats at a glance.
05 — THE UFO BELIEVERS
They have been waiting their whole lives for this.
06 — ROGUELITE STRUCTURE
Knowledge is the currency.
| Run structure | Each run is one night. The alien starts near the crash site and must make progress before dawn. |
| Permadeath | Hunters discovered in the same run carry over. Believers discovered carry over as allies. Ship repair progress is permanent. |
| Meta-progression | Each run teaches the alien more about the environment — patrol patterns, believer locations, tool caches. You get smarter, not stronger. |
| Procedural elements | Hunter patrol routes, item spawns, and believer placement vary each run. Level layouts are semi-randomized via room assembly. |
| Difficulty curve | Early runs: sparse hunters, ship parts nearby. Late runs: coordinated agents, critical parts deep in hostile territory. |
07 — VISUAL STYLE
Gritty. Grounded. Quietly wrong.
| Pixel size | 16×16 px tiles — nearest-neighbor scaling only. Pixels stay hard-edged at all zoom levels. |
| Title font | Special Elite — typewriter classified document energy |
| UI font | Share Tech Mono — radar readout, old equipment, HUD elements |
| Avoid | Bright colors, neon, clean fantasy palettes, cel-shading, anything that looks crisp and modern |
ENVIRONMENT
NATURE
STRUCTURES
LIGHTING
CHARACTERS
ALIEN TELL — ONE COLOR. PROTAGONIST ONLY.
Blends into Foliage (#3D5225) by design — the alien hiding in bushes is a core stealth mechanic.
08 — STRATEGIC PURPOSE
Invasion is not the end goal.
- Shipping Invasion to Steam builds an audience before the larger Invasion MMORPG concept begins development.
- A successful roguelite proves the setting, the tone, and the character resonate with real players.
- The 1972 stealth game is small enough to ship solo and large enough to be taken seriously.
- Revenue from Invasion funds early MMORPG development.