Hollow Spiral — Build the Complete Endless Survival Dungeon

Build philosophy

This track is not a miniature demo. Follow the milestones in order and keep the build playable after every milestone. Do not proceed when the current test gate fails.

Suggested working tree

Keep responsibilities separated from the beginning. This mirrors the real project namespace closely enough that later features do not collapse into one giant tick file.

data/hollow_spire/
├─ dai_experiences/
├─ dai_worldgen/
├─ dai_title_screens/
├─ room_types/
├─ function/bootstrap/
├─ function/worldgen/
├─ function/dungeon/
├─ function/player/
└─ logics/definitions/

Full build walkthrough

1. Milestone 0 — MAIN experience shellCreate owned save/worldgen/title flow and one safe starting chamber.
2. Milestone 1 — Room coordinate modelEvery room has a grid coordinate, room type, bounds, anchor and six possible directional sockets.
3. Milestone 2 — One-direction expansionMake +X generation flawless first: validate target cell, place room, carve both connector faces, register state.
4. Milestone 3 — Six-direction expansionAdd −X/+Z/−Z/+Y/−Y with rotation/vertical connector rules. Up/down rooms require explicit stair/shaft aperture contracts.
5. Milestone 4 — Permanent room registryOnce generated, rooms persist. Re-entering must recognize existing state rather than rebuild randomly.
6. Milestone 5 — Integrity repairWhen a player approaches a connector, validate both receiving room and passage. If an older save has a missing aperture/wall seam, run a local versioned repair.
7. Milestone 6 — Encounter ownershipSpawn room-owned mobs/objectives and unlock exits/rewards from actual encounter completion.
8. Milestone 7 — Resource/survival loopMake exploration pay for food, gear, upgrades or deeper access; avoid rooms that exist only as scenery.
9. Milestone 8 — Environmental hazardsOcean/pressure/water/lava/vertical rooms need traversal rules that cannot strand the player.
10. Milestone 9 — Difficulty/progressionDepth/room count/biome/theme changes enemy pools, hazards and rewards.
11. Milestone 10 — Death/rejoin recoveryReturn to a known generated checkpoint and preserve the permanent dungeon graph.
12. Milestone 11 — MultiplayerTwo players exploring different frontier directions cannot allocate the same grid cell inconsistently.
13. Milestone 12 — PerformanceGenerate only frontier rooms, throttle scans and clean room-owned transient entities.
14. Milestone 13 — Branded polishTitle/loading visuals, room-entry language, encounter feedback, resource-pack environment and consistent audio make the procedural system feel authored.
15. Ship itExplore every direction, generate vertical chains, reload old rooms, die mid-encounter, split two players and migrate an older save.

Release gate