🎮 Project Design Document: Euphoric (Ultima IV-Style Game in Godot)

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🎯 Project Goals

• Faithful to Ultima IV style
• Modular map system: Overworld, Village, Dungeon, Combat
• Tile-based movement and maps
• Turn-based combat system
• Dialogue trees from NPCs
• Menu screen with options and save/load
• Data-driven design (JSON or CSV for items, maps, NPCs)

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🧱 Architecture Overview

1. Godot Scene Structure (High-Level)

Main (root)
├── MenuScreen (Scene)
├── GameManager (Singleton)
├── World (Node)
│   ├── Overworld (TileMap)
│   ├── Village (TileMap)
│   ├── Dungeon (TileMap)
│   └── Combat (Turn-based scene)
├── Player (KinematicBody2D)
├── UI (CanvasLayer)
│   ├── DialogBox
│   ├── Inventory
│   └── StatusBar

2. Modes

Mode	Scene/State	Notes
Menu	MenuScreen	Title, start/load game
Overworld	TileMapScene	Shows large world
Village	TileMapScene	Houses NPCs, shops
Dungeon	TileMapScene	Combat encounters, puzzles
Combat	TurnBasedCombatScene	Party vs enemies
Menu/Inventory	UI Popup	See items, stats, virtues

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🔄 State Management

• Controlled via a GameManager singleton.
• States: "MENU", "OVERWORLD", "VILLAGE", "DUNGEON", "COMBAT", "DIALOG".
• Switching scenes does not delete player/inventory data; it's preserved in the GameManager.

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🎨 Visual Style

• Pixel art, 16x16 or 32x32 tiles.
• Retro CRT-style optional shader.
• Tilemaps for world/dungeon/village.

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🎮 Controls

Key	Action
Arrows / WASD	Move
Enter / Space	Interact
I	Open Inventory
Esc	Pause/Menu
Typing	Dialog responses

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🧩 Modular Content

🔸 Maps

• TileMaps loaded via .tscn or .json.
• Easy to add new maps by dropping them into a folder and registering in a config file:

{
  "maps": [
	{ "id": "overworld", "scene": "res://maps/overworld.tscn" },
	{ "id": "village_1", "scene": "res://maps/village_1.tscn" }
  ]
}

🔸 Items

Stored in a JSON file (items.json):

{
  "healing_potion": {
	"name": "Healing Potion",
	"effect": "heal",
	"value": 20,
	"icon": "res://icons/potion.png"
  }
}

🔸 NPC Dialogs

Stored in an NPC file (npc.json):

  "valewind": [
	{
	  "NAME": "I am a guard.",
	  "JOB": "I am a guard.",
	  "HEALTH": "Strong.",
	  "GOLD": "Bribery is illegal.",
	  "DESCRIPTION": "You see a strong guard.",
	  "GENDER": "Male",
	  "AGE": 33,
	  "location": {
		"x": 17,
		"y": 16
	  },
	  "CLEAN_NAME": "Guard",
	  "SPRITE": "guard"
	},...

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⚔️ Combat Design

• Turn-based, player party vs enemy group.
• Initiative queue (AGI or random roll).
• Tactical, movement on a tile map as well as selection of combat action
• Implement as a self-contained scene to load when combat is triggered.
• Data for enemies loaded from enemies.json.

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🧠 Virtue System (Optional, Ultima-Style)

• Player earns virtue points based on actions (e.g., Honesty, Compassion).
• Quests and endings influenced by virtues.

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📁 Folder Structure

res://
├── scenes/
│   ├── overworld/
│   ├── settlement/
│   ├── dungeon/
│   └── combat/
├── data/
│   ├── items.json
│   ├── dialogs/
│   └── maps.json
├── res /
│   ├── sprites/
│   ├── u4graphics-master/ <-- Tiles for the world
│   └── sounds (other name)/
├── scripts/
│   ├── game_manager.gd
│   ├── ...
│   └── combat.gd

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✅ Milestone Plan

✅ Phase 1: Core Framework

• Basic TileMap + Player movement
• GameManager singleton
• Menu screen
• Map loading system

✅ Phase 2: NPC & Dialog

• Dialog system from JSON
• NPC interaction
• Dialog triggers external events
• Persist NPCs from every scene change

✅ Phase 3: Inventory & Items

• Item system with JSON
• Simple inventory UI
• Basic item effects (e.g., healing)
• Set up Party system

✅ Phase 4: Combat

• Turn-based combat framework
• Basic AI
• Load enemies from JSON

✅ Phase 5: Expansion

• Add new maps (village, dungeon)
• Add quests and virtue system
• Polish with sound, UI and effects
• IP Cleanup

✅ Phase 6: Extension (in parallel)

• Add a unique storyline
• Add unique artwork
• Make a plot spanning multiple area
• End the game