208 lines
28 KiB
Markdown
208 lines
28 KiB
Markdown
# Project Record: "Nine Hazes" (working title) — Celtic Idle RPG for Pebble Time 2
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> v2.0 — post-architecture-revamp. The design was rebuilt on verified PebbleOS
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> platform constraints (see §4.4). Game mechanics (§§6–9) carry over unchanged.
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## 1. Concept
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A Celtic-themed idle RPG ecosystem for Pebble Time 2 (emery), built as:
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1. **A fully customizable watchface** — the flagship and first artifact. Ten
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toggleable, movable, stylable widgets incl. a Current Task strip. Complete
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and useful standalone, before any game exists.
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2. **A companion game watchapp** — the idle RPG itself. Canonical save lives
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on the watch. Entry via Quick Launch.
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3. **A self-hostable bridge server** — lightweight mirror of game state so the
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watchface can display the hero's current task. The developer's instance is
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default; players may self-host. Later doubles as multiplayer backend.
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The game is played by queuing 15-minute-chunk tasks and returning to collect
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rewards. Battery impact of the watchface must be indistinguishable from a
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normal watchface.
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## 2. Reference Projects (inspiration only — clean-room rules)
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| Reference | What we take | Boundary |
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|---|---|---|
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| IdleFantasy (tristinbaker) | Task/expedition loop, chunk queue | No code; repo is Android/Kotlin |
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| Doors of Doom (msx80) | Combat structure, Range pattern, weighted loot, Entity/Run serialization, instance-vs-definition | Clean-room |
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| Pixel8 watchface | AppMessage patterns, persist-key discipline | No code reuse; license unknown |
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| My Vampire System | Leveling *system shape* only | No names/lore (IP risk) |
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| **Muninn (C-D-Lewis)** | Mechanic of on-watch battery-days estimation: slow sampling, moving-average drain rate, charge-event recalibration, 3-sample cold-start ramp. Also: Wakeup-not-Worker, rolling-single-wakeup scheduling, wakeup-collision retry | Study only; no code copied (repo has no LICENSE file) |
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| **freakified/pebble-calculator** | Existence proof that TouchService works on emery in the current SDK | API reference only |
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## 3. Platform & Environment
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- **Target: emery only** (Pebble Time 2, 200×228 color). `"targetPlatforms": ["emery"]`
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- **Toolchain: Core Devices PebbleOS SDK (Apache-2.0)**, local builds: `pebble build --emery`
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- **Docs live at developer.repebble.com** — the project verified against these
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- Custom fonts: bundled OFL TTFs at compile time (system fonts proprietary)
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- **License for our code: Apache-2.0**
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- **Server: TypeScript, zero dependencies**, pure `node:http` + stdlib. TLS
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terminates at a reverse proxy (documented deployment pattern). State is
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inspectable JSON files, atomic write-temp-rename. No database.
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- Repo topology, donations: unchanged from v1 (Gitea master, GitHub mirror at
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v0.1.0; Liberapay/Ko-fi + FUNDING.yml)
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## 4. Architecture — three artifacts, one protocol
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### 4.1 Topology
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```
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┌──────────────┐ PUT state ┌─────────────┐ GET packet ┌──────────────┐
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│ GAME WATCHAPP │ ───────────▶ │ SERVER │ ◀──────────── │ WATCHFACE │
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│ (truth) │ (JS, when │ (mirror, │ (JS, throttled│ (display only)│
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│ │ running) │ never │ poll) │ │
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└──────────────┘ │ authority) │ └──────────────┘
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└─────────────┘
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```
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- **Game watchapp** owns ALL game truth in its per-app persist storage.
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Full buttons + TouchService. Entered via Quick Launch (can be a single
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tap on current hardware). Presence via App Glance line and timeline pins.
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- **Watchface** is pure display: no game logic, no input handling for game
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purposes, fed by a cached server packet. End-timestamps are fixed at
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scheduling, so the countdown is computed locally each minute from the
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cached packet — zero radio needed to stay fresh.
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- **Server** mirrors the small "face packet" (task name, end timestamp,
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queue fill, sync_version). Game watch = source of truth, so last-write-
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wins is correct, not a bug. Token in auth header, never query string.
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### 4.2 Server (self-hostable by design)
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- Endpoints: `GET /v1/state/:player_id`, `PUT /v1/state/:player_id`.
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Token auth, body-size cap (~2 KB), 401 on bad token, silent throttle.
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- `sync_version` in every packet, forward/backward tolerant — strangers run
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servers, coordinated upgrades are impossible.
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- Contract lives in-repo as `/docs/PROTOCOL.md` (public spec for self-hosters).
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- Server-down semantics: watchface renders cached data or hides the strip;
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game is fully playable. **Fail-dead-silent, always.**
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- Self-hosting = the privacy pitch for this audience. Developer instance is
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default; donor-funded upkeep.
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### 4.3 Wake cycle (game app only)
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- **No worker, no background process — ever.** Game logic is dormant until
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invited (user opens app) or a user-enabled semantic wakeup fires.
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- Wakeups launch the app to the FOREGROUND (visible blip ~1–2 s), it computes,
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updates App Glance + pushes packet/pins via its JS, and exits cleanly
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(AppExitReason). No invisible execution exists on PebbleOS.
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- **Semantic events only** — whole-task completion, milestones worth pinning;
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typically a handful per day. Never per-chunk. Never per-minute. The
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API *permits* waking every minute via rebooking; the design forbids it
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(violates Laws 1 and 3).
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- **Rolling single wakeup**: exactly one pending event (next semantic event),
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rebooked each cycle. Handle `E_OUT_OF_RESOURCES` and collision retry
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gracefully (Muninn pattern). Max 8 pending / 1-minute spacing per docs.
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- Wakeups are an *optimization over* lazy check-in, never a dependency.
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Must tolerate "no wakeups ever fired."
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- Default OFF or "pins only"; user opt-in. Missed-sample tolerance required.
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### 4.4 Platform constraint ledger (verified — do not re-litigate)
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1. Watchfaces receive NO button or touch input. UP/DOWN/BACK/SELECT are
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OS-owned on the face (timeline/health/menu); watchfaces cannot push
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interactive secondary screens into usability. Double-tap-accel entry was
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considered and rejected as a user nightmare.
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2. Persist storage is per-app sandboxed. No app↔app sharing on watch, in the
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Pebble phone app, or anywhere else. The only sanctioned cross-binary
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bridges: timeline pins (with openWatchApp launch args), AppMessage
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(phone↔own binary only).
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3. Timeline is write-only/push-only to apps; watchfaces cannot read pins.
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4. Quick Launch assigns apps (and OS functions) only — not watchfaces.
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5. PebbleKit JS lifecycle is tied to its watch binary: spawns at launch,
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killed at exit. No persistent phone-side service via the Pebble app.
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6. Wakeup ≠ Worker. (Muninn demonstrates both coexisting; we use neither
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worker nor any background process.)
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7. AppExitReason (SDK 4.0+) lets a wakeup-launched app exit back to the
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watchface cleanly.
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### 4.5 Input model (final)
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- **Watchface**: no input. All interaction is customization via the phone
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settings editor (drag-drop on a virtual 200×228 screen, inspector,
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restore-defaults). Touch-to-wake backlight is a user system setting we
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never fight.
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- **Game app**: standard buttons; TouchService edge zones (upper-right/mid/
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lower-right = UP/SELECT/DOWN analogues) plus the system gesture bridge on
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MenuLayer/ScrollLayer where suitable; swipe-dismiss = BACK. Central input
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dispatch; every screen declares its actions once.
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- **Launch**: Quick Launch binds a button to the game app (single tap on
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current hardware). `launch_reason()` detects QUICK_LAUNCH; timeline pin
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taps deep-link via `launch_get_args()`.
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## 5. Watchface Widgets (all toggleable, movable, font/color stylable)
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Ten widgets: Time, Date, Watch Battery, Phone Battery, Steps, Distance,
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Weather composite (temp + hi/lo, sub-elements hideable), Weather Advisory
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(omens), Sleep Time, Current Task strip (game).
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- Update frequencies user-configurable (health 1/5/15/30/60 min; weather
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15/30/60 min) — battery lever. Clock ticks per-minute only. Redraw on
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change only (e-paper).
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- Metric/imperial toggle; conversion at render time only.
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- **Current Task strip**: renders from cached server packet; countdown
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computed locally from end timestamp per-minute; staleness is detectable
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and shown honestly ("Return for your reward"). With no packet: hidden or
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"No hero yet".
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- **Watch Battery**: modes `percent | days | both` (default `both`).
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Days-remaining computed ON-WATCH (Muninn-inspired mechanics, own code):
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battery samples piggyback on wake-ups the face already performs;
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moving-average drain rate; charge events recalibrate; honest 3-sample
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cold start (percentage-only until trend exists). Gradient moss→brass→
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oxblood applies to both display modes. **Muninn web ingestion rejected**
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(unstable third-party surface; more code + radio than the math).
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- Weather/phone-battery arrive via face's own pkjs; JS lifecycle = face
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foreground (poll on JS wake, not fixed timers). Cache last-good in persist.
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## 6.–9. Game Mechanics, Settlement, Theme
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**Carried over verbatim from v1 — FINAL, locked.** Idle pillar (15-min
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chunks, 36-chunk budget, lazy resolution, deterministic seeds, items-as-XP,
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skills-only), combat pillar (barrows, gear-defined builds, agility-as-armor,
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blackout/permadeath), settlement chain, Celtic theme. Unchanged.
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## 10. Multiplayer & Server Evolution (deferred)
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Solo-first. The bridge server's `player_id`+token becomes the account seed.
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Phased: trade codes → shared-storage rivals → async competition /
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leaderboards — all served by the same self-hostable TS server, which is
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also the donation-sustainability story. No P2P on Pebble (established).
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## 11. Design Laws (north stars)
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1. **Casual glance game — benefit, not chore.** Nothing demands a session;
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no interruptions; the watchface never buzzes for game reasons.
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2. **Game logic is dormant until invited.** Math only at check-in / enqueue /
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cancel / collect / opt-in semantic wakeups. **No background process.**
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3. Fully freeform face; "restore default" escape hatch.
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4. **Never load-bearing externals.** Server down, Muninn gone, phone away —
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the game plays, the face degrades gracefully and silently.
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5. Verified-platform-only features: if the docs don't permit it, we don't
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ship it (see §4.4 ledger).
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## 12. Status & Next Steps
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**Done:** full design spec; architecture verified against current SDK docs;
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server language (zero-dep TS) and self-hosting model locked; battery-days
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decision (self-compute) locked.
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**Build order:**
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1. **Watchface skeleton** — `main.c`: widget table (10 types), renderer,
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layout persist (own key, own version byte), placeholder task strip,
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clock/date/battery(percent) live, stubs for the rest
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2. **`/docs/PROTOCOL.md`** — packet/API contract (face-packet schema,
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sync_version semantics, failure ladder)
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3. **`server.ts`** — zero-dep TS mirror; curl-testable before any client
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4. **`widgets.c` + font table** — health/weather wiring; battery days-
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remaining estimator
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5. **Settings editor** (phase 2, drag-drop virtual face)
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6. **Game watchapp** — `game.c` in full (chunk resolver, enqueue validator,
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XP routing, prorating, persist version byte); Play Mode menus; wake
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cycle; App Glance + pins
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7. **Content tables** — TASKS/RECIPES/ITEMS (xp_value), founding chain,
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MONSTERS[]
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8. PDC sprites, theme skinning, polish
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**First build verification checklist:** `pebble build --emery` + emulator;
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TouchService delivery + subscription lifecycle; AppMessage plumbing against
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stub server endpoint. |