Concept Summary
Cinder Vale is a small exploration-survival game about restoring a dying volcanic valley by guiding heat, ash, and rare seeds through a shifting landscape. Players trek between fragile settlements, harvest geothermal energy, and rebuild biomes tile by tile while balancing risk from eruptions, toxic ashfall, and dwindling supplies. The tone is solitary but hopeful: every route cleared and garden rekindled makes the valley feel more alive.
Core Gameplay Loop
- Leave a settlement hub with limited tools, seeds, and supplies.
- Explore nearby zones to gather minerals, ash nutrients, water, and heat cores.
- Redirect geothermal vents and clear hazards to make land cultivable again.
- Plant and nurture biome-specific growth that unlocks traversal and resources.
- Return to town to upgrade gear, expand facilities, and take on new restoration contracts.
- Push deeper into the valley as restored regions create safer and richer routes.
Target Platform
- PC (Steam)
- Secondary scope-friendly option: itch.io demo build
Art / Style Direction
Painterly low-poly environments with soft lighting, glowing magma seams, drifting ash, and vivid plant life that contrasts against charred terrain. Character and structure silhouettes stay simple and readable, with color doing most of the emotional work: muted greys and ember-orange early on, gradually shifting toward moss-green, teal, and gold as the valley revives. UI feels field-journal-like, with clean overlays and tactile map annotations.
Minimum Viable Feature Set
- One settlement hub with upgradeable stations
- Three explorable valley zones
- Basic resource gathering and inventory management
- Hazard system: heat, ashfall, and unstable ground
- Geothermal routing/puzzle interaction
- Simple planting and restoration mechanics
- 2-3 unlockable tools for traversal or harvesting
- Contract/objective system tied to restoration goals
- Day-based expedition structure with return-to-hub loop
- Win state tied to restoring a key landmark region
Milestone Plan & Ownership
| Milestone |
Codename |
Owner |
| M1 Prototype |
Ash Cartograph |
Fenster (Compiler & Workflow Engine Engineer, core engineering) |
| M2 Vertical Slice |
Ember Orchard |
Keaton (Lead/Architect) |
| M3 Art & Content Pass |
Verdant Cinder |
Verbal (DevRel/Docs, narrative/content) |
| M4 Playable Demo |
Hearth Signal |
McManus (CI/CD & Actions Platform Engineer, build/release) |
| QA & Test Planning |
Quiet Fault |
Hockney (Test Engineer) |
| Security & Data Privacy Review |
Kindled Veil |
Kujan (Security Engineer) |
Sub-issues for each workstream are linked below. Planned by the Squad team via .squad/team.md.
Note: this tracking issue and its sub-issues auto-close after 1 day; the next scheduled run generates a fresh concept.
Generated by 🎮 Squad Game Planner · copilot · auto · 44.9 AIC · ⌖ 6.48 AIC · ⊞ 10.1K · ◷
Concept Summary
Cinder Vale is a small exploration-survival game about restoring a dying volcanic valley by guiding heat, ash, and rare seeds through a shifting landscape. Players trek between fragile settlements, harvest geothermal energy, and rebuild biomes tile by tile while balancing risk from eruptions, toxic ashfall, and dwindling supplies. The tone is solitary but hopeful: every route cleared and garden rekindled makes the valley feel more alive.
Core Gameplay Loop
Target Platform
Art / Style Direction
Painterly low-poly environments with soft lighting, glowing magma seams, drifting ash, and vivid plant life that contrasts against charred terrain. Character and structure silhouettes stay simple and readable, with color doing most of the emotional work: muted greys and ember-orange early on, gradually shifting toward moss-green, teal, and gold as the valley revives. UI feels field-journal-like, with clean overlays and tactile map annotations.
Minimum Viable Feature Set
Milestone Plan & Ownership
Sub-issues for each workstream are linked below. Planned by the Squad team via
.squad/team.md.Note: this tracking issue and its sub-issues auto-close after 1 day; the next scheduled run generates a fresh concept.