Design wiki

Rephrased is a 3D isometric exploration game about the rune language of a lost civilization. The GDD summary is the design source of truth; the pages below expand pillars, mechanics, narrative, and authoring guidance from that doc.

Home for approved gameplay design knowledge: what the game is, how the player learns it, and how designers author new content. Brainstorm files stay outside the published wiki until a lead promotes them into an approved spec.

New today? First day (design) — setup, weekly workflow, then design pages only if you need them.

Design spine

• GDD summary — high-level game definition, audience, pillars, and gameplay.
• Pillars and loop — the short rules designers should use to judge decisions.
• 20-minute experience flow — intended vertical-slice pacing.
• Tutorialization and hints — how the game teaches with low UI.
• Level design template — practical structure for new puzzle spaces.

Mechanics

• Rune language — the rune base, verb and noun construction, and the two-word command grammar.
• Systems overview — design-facing list of required systems.

Rune reference

• Current rune type — the behaviour authority for each Verb × Noun × Status row.
• Current rune list — the rune roster.
• Game Macro — the order vocabulary enters the game.

Narrative

• Story beats — act-level narrative arc and major revelations.

Cross-discipline links

Engineering authoring that designers use day to day stays under Engineering:

• Making runes
• Rune authoring
• Camera authoring
• Rune system core
• Memory Palace

Shared first-day install: Today is your first day (Start here tab).

Original design documents: Design source documents (Google Drive).

Editing rules

• Keep pages short enough for designers to edit directly.
• Promote only approved design into this section; keep raw brainstorm notes in source folders.
• If a page is speculative, mark status: draft and add an Open questions section.

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Back to Start here.

Change history

• 2026-09-17 — Gabriel Li — Updated the landing links to current pages, added the rune reference group and the Drive source documents entry.

• 2026-08-14 — Gabriel Li — First day pointer is setup + weekly workflow, not a design reading dump.

• 2026-05-23 — Gabriel Li — GDD as design source of truth callout at top; First day (design) linked from Design home.
• 2026-05-08 — Gabriel Li — Added baseline change history section for weekly wiki maintenance.