devlog
Why Command Instead of Combat?
The design intention behind the commander's perspective: preparation, delegated expeditions and decisions made with incomplete information.
Project Gotthard begins with a question: what does exploration feel like when you are responsible for the programme, but you are not the person standing on the other side? The people who are sent out by you trust your judgment, just as you must trust their skills.
Preparation is a decision
The intended experience places weight on the work before an expedition. A team, its preparation and its orders express what the commander considers important. Those choices should matter after departure.
This is a design direction, not a checklist of completed features. Future reports will examine specific systems and say what is implemented, what is being tested and what remains a plan.
Reports change the picture
A command perspective creates distance. You receive a report of an event, then choose how to respond. The information may be partial. You may need to act before the whole situation is clear.
That distance is central to the game’s identity. The goal is to make judgement and responsibility interesting in their own right.
Beyond a single expedition
The programme continues after a team comes home. Personnel, research and security are part of the intended management layer, connecting one expedition to the next.
The work ahead is to communicate how those ideas become understandable decisions for a player. When there is reviewed work to show, these files will follow the details.
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